6/9 Chapters 1 and 2

Chapter 1:  Project Management:  The Key to Thriving in the New Project-Driven World

In the twenty-first century, our global economy is powered by innovation.  Understanding the discipline of project management and knowing the project, we can apply the methods and techniques of project management when we meet obstacles. In our global workplace, it is very crucial to keep in mind the excellence of every performance of a project especially to an ongoing operation. Conversely, project management defines—a set of methods, theories, and techniques in managing complex projects. Many projects rely on the concepts of project management. Some of these concepts are:  communication among the members of the project; assessment of costs, “Is it measurable or timely?” consider the concept of SMART as discussed in the class on 6/2/12; who is involved, have the teams worked together before; coordination, be specific what the goals of the project; completion, how is it going, are we attaining the goals set; and management, be realistic, are we on track, both willing and able to work with the goals set. Again, some preceding information was based from the SMART concept in addition to what the chapter stated. Moreover, both business start-up and a nonprofit organization promote the use of project management as their starting point, and then make their adjustments later on to meet their needs. Using project management as a strategy in leading projects stands out. However, project managers alone can’t do everything without the:  executives, who select the projects; functional managers, who sponsor, lead, or oversee the projects; and team members, who understand project management, in order for the project to be capable to produce a strategic advantage. Without strong project management strategy, projects fail that can only hurt the organization.

Chapter 2:  Foundation Principles of Project Management

There are two groups in the range of activities in any workplace that require project management:  projects and ongoing operations. Projects are the work that’s done one time; and ongoing operations are the work that we perform as a routine. Every project has a beginning, an end, and it is unique. Whereas, ongoing operations have no end schedule to finish the project, it is identical with the project as far as producing the same product or project. For example, an insurance company the deals with thousands of claims every day; a bank teller that serves over 100 customers daily; and power companies that operate such energy day after day. Ongoing operations create the same products or projects and have no specific end. There are challenges when dealing with projects that require different management disciplines.  Some of these are:  personnel, which every project has different personnel needs; estimating, in costs and schedules in order to calculate any possible projects, etc; authority, organization charts that show authority within a firm; and controls, that show operational budgets of costs. These challenges can go on to show the different styles in managing projects. We present the difficulties of projects when we deal with them because managing projects have more set of challenges than ongoing operations. At times, projects and ongoing operations relate; project change ongoing operations and/or projects are present within an ongoing operation, etc., but both may be supported out of the same budget process and use the same members involved in the project. As we see, projects have unique problems that project managers must learn the different management disciplines to become effective leaders.