Under the guidance of Dr. J.S. Donald
Project.
A Project is series of related jobs usually directed toward some major output
and requiring a significant period of time to perform.1
Project Management.
Project Management can be defined as a planning, directing and controlling
resources to meet the technical, cost, and time constraints of the project.2
A project requires a different kind of managerial concept as compared to the
conventional systems. This is due to the fact that in a project a team consisting
of highly specialized individuals comes together for a short span of time to
achieve some "Common Objective".
"Common Objective" is the key phrase here, because individuals from
diverse technical backgrounds come together and have to work as a team. An integration
of this diverse intellectual pool along with a diverse technical skill requires
special managerial skill.
A few aspects of the managerial skills required for the purpose are listed
below.
Work Break Down Structure.
The work required to obtain the objective is broken down and divided into tasks
and subtasks. Various teams responsible for the completion of the project then
perform these tasks.
Organizational Structure.
The management can choose one of three organizational structures to follow
in their projects. These are the Pure, Functional and Matrix Structure.
Pure Project: This structure is the self-contained autonomous unit, the strengths
of which are speed and flexibility. Here the project manager enjoys full authority
over the project and team members have to report to one boss only. One main
disadvantage of this structure is that since the resources are not being shared
across the organization there will be duplication of resources and wastage.
The second type of structure is the Functional where one department services
the needs of the entire organization. For instance the Research and Development
department takes care of the R & D of the entire product range of the organization.
This structure gives the members to work on many projects simultaneously and
widens their horizon. However this creates the need of reporting to multiple
bosses and thus creates problems for the members.
Matrix structure is a mix between functional and pure projects. Here each project
utilizes people from different functional areas. The project manager decides
what task is to be done and at what time whereas the functional head determines
the people who will work on the project. One main disadvantage here is that
a person has two bosses and very often it creates a doubt in the mind of the
person as to whose orders have to be followed.
Scheduling.
Once the tasks have been identified a schedule is formed regarding what activity
is to be done at what point of time. This can be done with the use of a technique
known as the "Critical Path Method". CPM is a graphical technique
which shows the use of resources, time at which these are being used and the
cost involved.
The benefit of using CPM is that the manager knows what are the various activities
involved in the project and then he can plan accordingly. This is essential
as without such planning starting the project becomes impossible. However there
is a flip side to it. Generally projects are of complex nature and involve large
degree of uncertainty. CPM is based on the principle that activities follow
a flow. So break in one step ruins the entire path and then the entire activity
has to be performed again. A relevant example can be seen in the current Telecom
scenario in India. Cellular operators invested huge amount of money and paid
entry fee to the government. This fee was included in the cost structure and
pricing was done accordingly. With the entrance of the players with WLL, the
plans of the cellular operator went awry. The WLL players did not have to pay
any fee to the government and were able to provide the same services at a much
lower price. Due to this a large market of the cellular operators was taken
away from them and their plans went for a toss. CPM does not include provisions
for any such contingency and this is a draw back of this method.
1 Chase Aquilano and Jacobs 8th Edition
2 Chase Aquilano and Jacobs 8th Edition
