Project Management Assignment: Recommendations For Shaka Employment

Question

Task: You are hired as a consultant to help Naledi build her case on Shakha Employment. Write a 1500 words report meeting the following brief:
1. Naledi is not well acquainted with project management and has asked you to recommend a project management approach out of the four she’s researched: Traditional, Agile, Lean, Iterative and Incremental. Evaluate and reason which project management strategy you would suggest for this project to Naledi.
2. Justify your recommendation and outline any disadvantages or risks she would be aware of in choosing the recommended approach.
3. Naledi also needs to explain to her team, and stakeholders the characteristics of projects and how running a project differs from business as usual.
4. As part of her report Naledi needs to justify hiring a project manager. Outline the benefits of having one, and the critical skills they could bring to the project, and how they might need to adapt their style to the recommended project management approach.
5. Finally, if Naledi hires you as a project manager, please outline how the risks identified in question 2 will affect the time-quality-cost triangle. If you have to compromise on one, which one would it be. Please justify your answer.

Answer

Introduction
Theproject management assignmentis based on ShakaEmployment which is a start-up business and they have 20 employees who work for gaining maximum profits. Most of the staff members are specialists in their field and they can perform great work together. The main purpose of Naledi in this report is to convince the company board of directors to invest money in delivering products or services instead of starting to gainprofits. The company focus on providing quality based goods to their customers to satisfying their needs and wants.

1. Project management is a type of process which works according to the methods, skills, experiences, and knowledge to achieve a target of project objectives based on given criteria of parameters. There are various kinds of project management approach that can be used for the fast delivery of the specified objectives such as traditional, agile, lean, iterative, and incremental. The traditional approach follows the steps of initiation, planning, execution, control and monitor, and closure in a linear way(Hornstein, 2015). The agile approach follows iteration, the lean approach follows core principles, iterative approach repeats in loops, and the incremental approach repeats steps in the cycle.

Considering the case readings while developing this project management assignment, it can be stated that Naledi can use the traditional approach for project management in which the work for meeting the needs and requirements of the clients are done is a linear way. The traditional approach is based on the following steps – initiation, planning, execution, control and monitor, and closure. This is a kind of project management approach that can help meet the goals and targets of shaka employment. The project needs to be initiated by gathering all the required information about the desires of the clients(Joslin and Müller,2015). This will be followed by the planning for the management and work distribution among the workers of the project. Then the execution will be done for the project needs and requirements. This is followed by the controlling and monitoring of the fulfilment of project needs and desires of clients from the project. The last step will be the closure of the project which will ensure the meeting of all the needs and wants of the clients from the project and to attain the targeted goals and objectives of the project(Kivilä, et. al., 2017).

2. Naledi can use the traditional approach for the project management which will help in the better completion of the targeted objectives identified by the clients and their desires from the expected project outcomes(Conforto, et. al., 2016). The outcomes will be more beneficial if the project team will be enthusiastic about the traditional approach which is being used for project management. It is stated in the project management assignmentthat the employees need to focus on every stage of the project management to fulfill the demands of the clients and successfully completing the project and obtain the expected outcomes or results. Teamwork is a very important part of attaining the targeted results from the project which should be effective and efficient and should also meet up with the requirements of the clients.

The traditional approach also has some disadvantages or risks in the following the project management completion path which can abrupt the way of successful completion of the project. The traditional approach has a disadvantage due to its rigid structure which is less flexible when working on the project(de Carvalho, et. al., 2015). The rigid structure creates issues related to the timeline for completion of the project and budget problems during the execution of a project. The traditional approach for project management is not very effective on the complex or large projects and has various kinds of risks based on time, cost, and quality of the project. These are the risks and disadvantages when following the traditional approach of project management to identify and meeting the needs of the clients from the outcomes of the project.

3. A project is a single purpose which defines as an end item or result task. The projects are unique from every task in the business as they are the temporary activities that are focused on a pre-defined goal. The running of projects and business in usual are very different from each other as projects are the temporary tasks which are pointed towards the delivery of the targeted goals in a fixed period whereas the business is the activity in which the tasks are done in a repeated manner day today to meet the existing products and services for the audiences of the business(Badewi, 2016). The business in usual includes the regular work done for the desires and requirements of the clients of the business which provides benefits and profits for the business. But the running of projects is done for a limited period in which a specific target is set. The project team is created which will focus on the completion of the project based on the requirements of the clients and should be completed in the specified time, cost and quality to have full benefits in the form of profits for the business. In other words, it can be said that running of projects is a part of the day to day business activities which focus on fulfilling of the demands and requirements of clients of business and share growth and development in the business with the combined support from the clients of the business by providing them with the products and services of the project.

4. As per the case study, Naledibelieves that ShakaEmployment has the skilled and experienced staff and they are professionals in their respective fields or roles. They are performing great work in deliveringgood services to the clients. But they are specialist and expert in project management work(Ramazani and Jergeas,2015). This is the main reason that Naledi hiresa project manager who can lead the team or group of members and also describe them the role of each member’s related to how to manage project tasks and other activities. The company can gain benefits to hiring a project manager as an individual has responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, designing, executing, monitoring, evaluating, and closing of the project in a better manner. Project Manageris accountable for developing effective decision which helps in increasing growth of the company in the large market. The project manager should have some critical skills and ability which help them in functioning and operating required project operation in a better way(Todorovi, et. al., 2015). PM must have effective communication and interpersonal skill through which they can easily interact with their team members and understand their views and suggestion that are given by them for developing a project. Conflict management skill is also requiring among project manager which is used when there is a problem arise among team members. Leadership qualities arean important skill that helps PM to lead and provide accurate direction to the team.

The recommended Project Management approach discussed in this context of project management assignment is traditional which needs to adopted by a project manager while operating different functions of a project. This can help them in properly manage and maintain the projectof a start-up business.

5. For the ShakaEmployment, the Traditional approach can be used by the project manager as it helps develop project work very smoothly. On the other hand, there are some risks identified in this traditional approach as it is a rigid approach and it does not function in flexibility manner. This will make project work complex and difficult to complete whole activities within a limited time(Marcelino-Sádaba, et. al., 2015). As per the investigation on project management assignment, the risk of rigidity will affect the time and cost of project and make it complex for a project manager to complete entire work on time. In the traditional approach, there is not a fixed structure of budget and time so it is not clear for PM when the project is completed. Also, when a project manager follows this approach then they do not work ona large project because this is not suitable for the big projects. It is required for PM is to perform such actions that are appropriate for this method properly. The risk of unskilled labor also affects the quality of project activities that can negatively impact on its operations.

Project manager comprises on cost as it is important for ShakaEmployment is to deliver quality and on-time delivery of products and services whether they have to invest and spend more cost on it(Niazi, et. al., 2016). If they are compromising on their cost value so they can easily gain goodwill in the market place. For this, they are offer products to the final users on time along with the best quality.

Conclusion According to the above-described report on project management assignment, it can be concluded that ShakaEmploymentmaintains and manage their business operations properly but they could reach with their set targets and goals in a proper manner. For this, Naledi givesadvice is to the company regarding the investment of money in delivering of theirproducts or services and later think about generating profit. The company also adoptsa specific project management approach that can help them in attaining goals and objectives. They have skilled and hardworking staff members but they are not specialized in project management work so they want to hire some new employees. But they do not have money to hire a new candidate for the company, for this they develop strategies as well.

References
Badewi, A., 2016. The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM) practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.761-778.

Conforto, E.C., Amaral, D.C., da Silva, S.L., Di Felippo, A. and Kamikawachi, D.S.L., 2016. The agility construct on project management theory. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.660-674.

deCarvalho, M.M., Patah, L.A. and de Souza Bido, D., 2015. Project management and its effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry comparisons. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), pp.1509-1522.

Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity.Project management assignment International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.

Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International journal of project management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.

Kivilä, J., Martinsuo, M. and Vuorinen, L., 2017.Sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), pp.1167-1183.

Marcelino-Sádaba, S., González-Jaen, L.F. and Pérez-Ezcurdia, A., 2015.Using project management as a way to sustainability.From a comprehensive review to a framework definition. Journal of cleaner production, 99, pp.1-16.

Niazi, M., Mahmood, S., Alshayeb, M., Riaz, M.R., Faisal, K., Cerpa, N., Khan, S.U. and Richardson, I., 2016. Challenges of project management in global software development: A client-vendor analysis. Information and Software Technology, 80, pp.1-19.

Ramazani, J. and Jergeas, G., 2015. Project managers and the journey from good to great: The benefits of investment in project management training and education. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), pp.41-52.

Todorovi, M.L., Petrovi, D.., Mihi, M.M., Obradovi, V.L. and Bushuyev, S.D., 2015. Project success analysis framework: A knowledge-based approach in project management. International journal of project management, 33(4), pp.772-783.