The success of a project depends not only on the skills of the project manager, but also on organisational environment and attitudes (Graham & Englund, 2004). In order for any project to be successful must there be a strong alignment between the project and business outcomes (Graham et al., 2004).
Everyday management rest on repetition of various standard processes, where project management is the creation of something new (Graham et al., 2004).
The behaviour of senior and middle management is a very important contributor to the successful completion of a project. The lack of integrity and authenticity of upper management’s interaction with project managers can have a serious impact on the achievement of project goals (Graham et al., 2004).
Reasons why FNB’s project failed:
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Our analysis revealed that there was no alignment between the project and business outcomes at FNB. The majority of FNB’s profits were from corporate customers, but most of FNB’s information systems effort was directed at speeding up transaction handlings for small unprofitable accounts
As per Graham and Englund (2004) will changes of project success increase if upper management supports the project management process and behave in ways that increase project success. Our analysis of the FNB case study shows that John Hart (Strategic vice president) didn’t supported the project management process. Mr Hart responded with remarks “This is a waste of time...let’s get moving” when Jim Dunn (project manager) tried to gain more knowledge concerning the scope of the project and the interrelationship between the Corporate Marketing Division and the other users of corporate marketing
The initiation phase of a project is not complete without a clearly defined goal and realistic, measurable objectives that describe the business benefits which are expected to be delivered upon completion of a project (Laureate Educatio...
Crawford (2000) suggests that project leadership is the highest ranking category among project management competence factors. Project management leadership style affects overall project performance. Recent research supports the idea that successful projects are led by individuals who possess not only a blend of technical and management knowledge, but also leadership skills that are internally compatible with the motivation of the project team (Slevin and Pinto, 1988; Turner et al., 1998). Zimmerer and Yasin (1998) found that positive leadership contributed almost 76% to the success of projects. Negative or poor leadership contributed 67% to the failure of projects. Project leaders need both, relationships and task oriented leadership styles, to cope with the challenges within different phases of project (Slevin and Pinto, 1991). In projects, project leaders must lead their teams towards completing defined goals with in a fixed time scale. Verma (1997) states “Achieving the goal or final aim is the ultimate test of leadership”. Goals and tasks are achieved through people thus making people an important resource for
Action #1: Training in project management. As stated in the case, these organizations were at different levels of project management maturity, including two of them that were “clueless” about project management. As their goal was to implement an enterprise project management methodology, training in project management represent the first step in this endeavor. It will also help them to create a general and common understanding of what project management is and how it should be implemented, as the other tow companies that knew and implemented project management, exert their implementation in a different way.
Söderlund, J. 2004. Building theories of project management: past research, questions for the future.International Journal of Project Management, 22 (3), pp. 183-191.
Frame, J.D., Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make the Best use of Time, Techniques and People, third ed., San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,112-117, 2003.
Jugdev, K. (2012). Learning from Lessons Learned: Project Management Research Program. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration , 4(1), 13-22.
Gray, C., Larson, E. (2008). Project Management: The managerial Process. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service. They are goal oriented, have a definite start and finish time, must be done within cost, schedule and quality parameters. Projects involve the coordinated undertaking of interrelated activities (Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage). According to Tom Peters, “Projects, rather than repetitive tasks, are now the basis for most value-added in business”. Based on this, it is clear that projects are of utmost importance to businesses in both the service and the manufacturing industries.
Continental Computer Corporation (CCC) is a $9 billion a year organization that for years has allow their three division to implement different sets policies. According to Ed White, vice president for engineering, “This poses a problem for us at corporate headquarters because career opportunities and administrative policies are different in each division” (Harold Kerzner, 2004, p. 655). Each division has implemented different organizational structures, administrative policies and their own career opportunities. The three divisions are the Eton Division, the Lampco Division and the Ridge Division. Continental is now trying to implementation of a project management as a profession in hope that it would help them to work together and to use the
Turner, J. R., & Müller, R. (2005). The project manager's leadership style as a success factor on projects: a literature review.
Over the course of my professional life, I have become increasingly involved in project management roles. Doing so has made me aware of the many varied challenges that can face projects and the project managers who are charged with bringing them through to completion. The success or failure of projects, in whatever economic, political or social field, rests not just on the quality of the project’s goals, but also on the abilities of those involved in the project – and above all those who are managing it – to bring it to successful completion. To do this, project managers need to be equipped with a very wide range of skills, many of which are unrelated to the type of project itself. So, for example, a project manager of an engineering project must not only have engineering
Throughout the article, the authors’ focus has been on changes in automotive organizations in terms of their hierarchy, individual responsibilities, inter-organizational communication and product strategies. The details of project management aspects novel to each phase have been presented with an extensive research and illustrations. Examples of leading car manufacturers such as Chrysler, Renault and Toyota help relate the authors’ theories with real world situations. It is interesting to note how the vertical corporate structure from the first phase was gradually complemented by a horizontal line of authority as organizations embraced project functions to cope with the ever-increasing number of products and their decreasing life cycles. A clear trend of differentiation of projects...
People in top management positions, is a key stakeholders in projects success. Top management can help project managers secure adequate resources, get approval for unique project needs in a timely manner, receive cooperation from people throughout the organization, and learn how to be better leaders. The reason why project success come from the project managers, but there are other important factor that make the project success such as takes careful planning, attention to detail and effective communication.
The project success can be considered as the accomplishment of a specific mix of desired goals and subjective measures listed out in the success criteria and evaluated at the end of the project. Achieving the company’s objectives has led to the quest for the success in projects that in turn prompted to formulate the factors that can lead to the success of the project. (Terry Cooke-Davies, 2002) ascertained that the factors are the inputs of a system that can lead to the success and the criteria as a measure of the tasks that must be carried out to determine the project success or failure, which in turn make the project acceptable to the client. In other words, the criterion sets the standards to test the project while the factors lead to the
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.