Fundamentals of Project Management, Essay Example

Project management is an essential and integral part of a project. Project management is usually dependent on the project team in-charge of executing a given project. The project management team is supposed to adapt with the changing needs and requirements of a project. The project management facet of a project is supposed to carry out by a team, guided by a leader, the project manager, who gives the team direction.

The roles of project management can be divided into three. Namely,

1. Technical roles
2. Transactional roles
3. Transformational roles(Lock, 2012, p. 5)

Technical Role

This dimension entails the hands-on aspect of the project. This is role entails getting all the technical parts of a project in order, including the technical information and considerations that have to be made to have a successful project (Lock, 2012, p. 7).

The project’s management has to identify all the required tasks for the project, how these tasks should be executed to ensure a successful project and who is expected to carry out these tasks. The technical facet involves developing and completing the definition of the project and project variables, develop an implementation plan which will be executed by the project team and controlling the given project variables so as to ensure timely completion and delivery of the project observing the required quality standards.

Transactional Role

This entails the management activities that take care of the project’s workflows and performance levels. The transactional role can mostly be seen in the implementation stage of a project where reporting and control activities are executed on a regular basis (Heagney, 2012, p. 12).

Transformational Role

This is the leadership role of the project manager. Here the project manager is expected to keep his team motivated while developing and maintaining the team as per the needs of the given project in question.

Project management has evolved over time, changing the dimension in which it operates. Modern-day Project management concentrates on performance of the project employees and reduction of costs.

The project charter is the document that defines a project, its objectives, scope and players or the participants involved within the project. It is vital to have a project charter before embarking on a project.

There are 14 main elements of a project charter. They include

1. Name of the project
2. TimeLine: the beginning and end date of the project
3. The Team that will take care of the project
4. The target process that the project is reviewing
5. The business case that justifies carrying out the project
6. Problem statement that describes the given problem or opportunity that the project addresses
7. Financial benefits that the involved parties will realize from the completion of the project.
8. Expected outcomes of the project
9. The Scope and boundaries of the work to be carried out
10. The milestones that will define the steps that should be achieved within a specified timeline
11. The roles and responsibilities of all the vital project players
12. The resource (manpower and budgetary) requirements
13. Potential barriers and risks that may hinder the project’s success
14. The communication plan the will ensure all stakeholders are informed on the project status(Heagney, 2012, p. 11).

An unsuccessful project charter usually leads to the failure of a project in numerous ways. These including the lack of a proper definition of a project, leaving numerous variables unaccounted for. This may also lead to the poor allocation and use of resources.

References

Heagney, J. (2012). Fundamentals of project management. New York: American Management Association.

Lock, D. (2012). Project Manager. Burlington: Gower.