Project Management Essay examples

Question 1
Introduction
A project is an activity that is temporary and undertaken by a team to create a product or a service that is unique. As it is temporary, it has a beginning and an end. And within the initial kick off and close out of the project there are different processes (or phases) involved. These different phases each represent a grouping of similar activities that has a very loosely defined beginning and end to it. These processes are also sequential where the prior process has to be essentially completed before the beginning of the next process. The five different processes are Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Control, and Closeout. As a project involves a team consisting of people with different skills and abilities, there are many challenges that would be faced when going through the five process groups. In 2008 British Airways & British Airports Authority in the UK had a project to move operations into the Heathrow Airport Terminal 5. However, this was a project failure due to a lack of successfully implementing each process group, as it encountered serious problems when the terminal was opened and the failure is discussed in this essay while pointing out how each process wasn’t fulfilled effectively leading to the collapse of the project.

Initiation
The initiation process compromises of the activities associated with the start of the project. Many challenges are faced in this process by the project team, with these challenges starting from the pre-initiation stage, one of which includes the selection of a project manager. This is a major challenge because the success and failure of the project could be dependent on how effective the project manager was in the management of the project and the team. The project manager has to be capable enough to lead the team while also interpreting the needs of the client to the team. The project manager would be responsible for the development of the project through the different processes while being in control and delegating most of the tasks, so selecting a qualified project manager is crucial in order to have a successful project. Other challenges that the project team might face in the initiation stage is determining the scope (project plan, proposal and deliverables), estimating the time (how long it would take to fully complete the project) and determining if there are any cost constraints. Among the team members, challenges faced are the distribution of activities and determining what each team member would be responsible for the duration of the project. This is a challenge as it is crucial to match each member’s skills and qualities to the activities available in order to ensure that they perform their absolute best and contribute efficiently to the success of the project.

Planning
The planning process follows directly after the initiation process and it is during this stage that the development of detailed schedules and budgets are processed. Throughout this process the tasks are organized and prepared, and it is important to develop an understanding of how the project will be executed while also acquiring a plan of the resources needed to execute it; by developing detailed staffing, procurement and project control plans. Also, each activity needs to be organised, which is done with the development of a Gantt chart stating what would be done, the time duration and the person responsible for getting the job completed. A major challenge faced by the team is the organization of the team contract which must highlight the code of conduct, participation and meeting guidelines. This is a challenge as it requires all team members to be in agreement with the contract without resulting to conflict. Other challenges that would be faced by the project team during this stage is documenting all the work that needs to be done. This involves processing documents that define the work required to complete the project successfully. Other challenges include the

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