Question

Investigate good and bad practices in project management.
WRITE comparing two opposing cases of management (one successful and one that has failed).

Answer 1

Project management to be successful requires careful analysis of various facts. There are various things that are need to be considered while doing a project. We have to adopt certain good practice and avoid using bad practices. If we are aware of what are the good practices and what are bad practices, then it will make the whole effort very simple.

Some of the good practices of project management are :-

1. Defined milestones and targets = first of all before initiating a project, it is very important for us to find out what we are up to achieve .We should define the target, set milestones of what we want to achieve within what time.

2. Requirements & score = after defining the milestones, we should look for the resources that will be required for achieving those milestones.

3 . Defined roles & responsibilities = roles & responsibilities of everyone involved should be properly defined in order to avoid any confusion and chaotic situation. Everyone should be aware of what is his roles and what is expected from them.

4 . Implementation = it is very important to execute what we have planned. We leave no Stone unturned while planning, if that sort of attitude is adopted in planning also, them what we will get will be a beauty.

5 . Variance analysis = as we start performing it may be possible that what we have planned is not achieved or that we are legging behind from what we have planned. For this purpose it is very important to carry out variance analysis.

6 . Corrective measures = after we have find out where we are legging behind and all the variances with the plan, now the next thing to find out is why we are legging behind and accordingly corrective measures should be implemented.

If we adopt these measures then it may be possible that we may finish up with a successful project in hand. All these are good practices of project management

Like a coin had two sides in the same manner there are also certain bad practices which can spoil the whole project and may turn project into a mess. Some of the bad practices in project management are :-

1 . Incorrect estimation = it may be possible that we may miscalculate various key points like efforts required to complete project, type of manpower required or days in which project will be complete. All these wrong estimations and miscalculation can spoil the whole project.

2. Bad distribution of roles & responsibilities = if we do not take care of qualification & competence of manpower then it will not only lead to wastage of resources but will also lead to demoralizing of employee. Thus we should properly distribute roles and responsibilities.

3. Doing various tasks at same time = multitasking is a good thing, but to much of it and without proper implementation strategy it will spoil the whole situation . Thus we should try to focus on expertise in a single area at a time.

4 . Lack of communication = lack of proper communication among team member will create unnecessary confusion and ambiguity. There should be proper channel, level and Mode of communication and team members.

6. Contradictory instructions = if roles are not properly defined and a single subordinate will be receiving instructions and order from two different supervisor then it will not only create problem for the subordinate but also in general for the project, there should be proper hierarchy of team.

A case showing adoption of good practices leading to success is :-

Once a very prestigious company find out that there are various key financial clauses in contact which it had entered into with many of it's supplier which are creating our may create problem for it in future like missing of data protection obligation will lead to unlimited liability. Accordingly company initiated a project immediately in order to find out all those clause with such provisions, for that first of all it developed two teams one consisting of financial professional and other consisting of legal professionals. Financial professionals founded all the financial clause with such provision among all those contracts and those key financial clauses were handed over to legal team to determine if any improvement is possible and negotiation with supplier is possible with regard to your clauses.

Here we can clearly see that first they identified what Target they have to achieve, then they distributed the work properly on the basis the skills and competence of it's manpower which lead to successful project management.

Example of failed project management is as follows :-

A IT service solution company initially started it's operation. It hired team of experienced professional. Those professional made a great IT solution plan for one of their client. But when it comes to implementing that plan they find out that their team consists only of these professional architects who can only design IT solutions and no one is there who can perform implemention work thus project failed.

This goes to show that we should pay equal attentions to each and every activity as everything is important at it's place.