Project Management in the Library, Article Review Example

The authors of the article underscore the importance of defining the project and project management. Upon understanding the distinction between project and project management, then it will be easy to outline the factors that impact the success, the persons handling the project and the respective orientations, as well as the relationship between the diverse elements. It is clear from the article that project management entails the planning and controlling while project involves defining and selecting the needed task that will benefit the specific firm. This will enhance the attainment of project objectives. The authors’ objectives of writing the article were to promote effective project management towards. Project management techniques play a leading role towards attaining the set objectives, which is the main purpose of the article. The article ignores the earlier version that the best measure of the success of a project is based on time, cost, as well as quality. This has been effectively tackled in the article through the use project management literature. For instance, according to Kerzner emphasizes the importance of techniques for attaining objectives, which is achieved through implementation of techniques. The authors indicate that there are numerous projects that have succeeded in spite of not completed on time, budget.

From this review, it is evident that my previous understanding of the role of management towards achieving success has been reinforced. The article has addressed the role that the management, which entails planning with a commitment to accomplish the different projects. Managers have the role of collecting adequate information and being aware of different considerations and constraints to succeed in the project. This implies that failure to collect sufficient information regarding the project will result in failure of the project. The authors also argued that the techniques will assist the manager to ensure effective project implementation; however, if there are some flaws from the start of the project, then it means that the techniques will not assist in the implementation of the project.  This is the same premise that I base my argument that techniques alone will not result in the success of the project. Also, it is important to mention as argued by the authors that techniques can help in identifying the unforeseen nature of the project, and indicate whether the project should be changed or abandoned. Also, the authors reinforced my position that provided there is the need for a clear distinction between project and project management; there is a matching need to define the individual responsibilities towards the success. There is the need for integrative responsibility between the manager and the team members.

The article is related to my studies because it emphasizes the role of management in the distinction of project and project management.  In my studies, project management is a combination of planning and the management of change to attain success. This is a specialized management technique, to plan and control projects under a powerful single point of responsibility that allows the project managers and team members to work together. Also, project management should be seen as the technique to resolve complex problems. Thus, the rate of success across the three areas, which are present indices, performance, and financial returns, increases by using project management practices. The project success does not depend on quality, cost and budget are because there are several projects that have succeeded or failed, which implies that these factors do not hold. For instance, the KL International Airport that was constructed in 1993 and completed in 1997 had been recorded as a success in Malaysia; however, it was many months delayed with millions of contractual claims pending. Therefore, determining whether a project is a failure or success is a complex issue. There might be vagueness in measuring and determining the failure or success of a given project.

I have some personal experiences regarding the role of management in the success of the project. Through experience, I believe that the growth in new knowledge has augmented the complexity of projects since projects take in the most recent advances.  Nowadays, many firms focus on project management, as it focuses on achieving project objectives.  This is a vital because it applies managerial process and has its techniques, which offer project managers a good opportunity to succeed in achieving objectives.  The manager has a role in influencing and reforming everything to the right direction from the management point of view; however, the project may still fail founded on the success criteria used to promote the success of the project. Hence, project managers have the role of influencing the team members to assume active roles while accomplishing the assigned tasks within the project. They may use methods and tools, which are vital to managing the projects bearing in mind the final client. The tools comprise bar charts, activity network diagram, and micro and macro estimation techniques along with resource scheduling methods. From experience, the project team is important people towards attaining a project’s success. The project will influence the implementation of the project. It is crucial for the team to apply the correct management methods to ensure planning, controlling, and communication systems should be in place.

According to Hong et al. (2004) study, a project must be implemented in a cross-functional integration in which team members or specialist from different backgrounds work closely together. Research and development efforts, marketing studies, manufacturing, and engineering functions have various sets of skills, priorities, and goals. In these ways, a common goal and staff responsibility are shared by the team member. Consequently, this will encourage the culture to communicate whereby information sharing should take place throughout the project.  Information is an important resource for project managers towards attaining the specific objectives of the project. The study showed that there is the need for the team to work together where the project manager should. Information sharing will be regularly performed, such as a project’s status update or any specific technical knowledge sharing. The risk could be reduced due to knowledge sharing. In the product development objective, the effect is invested in the cross-functional teams and knowledge sharing. A variety of functional team members is anticipated to be able to perform more and to know more than their field of specialty. According to Massie (2010), aligning the project management toward the firm’s objective, this will assist the firm could have to assess its present position along with the direction advancing. The study emphasized that project management is a methodology that utilizes a set of milestones, which will assist the stakeholders develop the agreed-on, ascribe to stopping points to review, assess and discuss and measure the project progress so that any changes will be addressed when the need arises. With a clearly defined objective and process that will encourage a better focus on the final goal and not succumbs to what is usually referred to as “scope creep”. The scope of the project can be diverted by one or more unanticipated developments that will eventually negatively affecting the result.

While reading the article, I learned that project management is a crucial as tough budgets, limiting resources; restricted time constraints and competition to enhance the techniques people do business in a competitive environment. The higher ability of project management makes it possible to focus on priorities, track, as well as measure performance, overpower challenges and issues, become flexible enough to adjust to any change and attain high performance and a greater likelihood of success of the project. The challenges of project management most, particularly the greater hopes of top management integrated with little or no hierarchal permission are powerful; nonetheless, project managers have the power to influence the whole project working together with project team members. Effectual and well-organized project management will assist businesses to triumph over these constraints and makes it possible to be met or exceed customer anticipations, optimize the use of business resources like time, people, money, space among others, bring the project to attain the greater performance and a higher likelihood of success.

The article has been instrumental in helping me understand project management has a role to play in the success of the project. Through, the article I came to understand that project management should not be founded on time, cost and quality, but defining project and project management and use of techniques that will allow measurement and assessment of the project. It was also evident that I learned that project managers have a role to play when it comes to project management. Project managers have the role of recruiting a competent team to fulfill the responsibilities because they control and plan matters related to the project. The project managers must be concerned about certain steps when they have been assigned the project to implement. Furthermore, I came to understand that it is important that the company that owns the project to offer adequate resources that will be used to implement the project. The succes of the project largely depends on some resources offered. Also, the level of motivation of the project members plays a big in the success of the project. I understood that the organization or the project managers should regularly provide rewards to the team members to boost their morale.

By comparing the study by Pinto and Slevin (1998) with that of the authors, it is clear that both have the same thoughts regarding the role of project management in the success of a project. They agree that project management is an important instrument that is used to solve complex problems in a given organization. It is essential to say that the two studies concur that project management practices should be adopted by the organization because they have a positive impact on the success of the project. Finally, examining the conclusion of the article, the authors made a powerful conclusion because the main points have been highlighted in detail.

References

Hong, P., Nahm, A.Y., & Doll, W. J., (2004) The role of project target clarity in an uncertain project environment. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.

Massis, B. E., (2010). Project management in the library. New Library World.

Munns, A.K. & Bjeirmi, B.F., (1996). The role of project management in achieving project success. International Journal of Project Management.

Pinto J.K and Slevin D.P. (1998). Project Success: Definitions and Measurement Techniques.Project Management Journal.Vol 19, Iss 1, p67-72.