Projects And Project Management: Characteristics, Examples, And Skills
Characteristics of Projects
One of the projects that are currently going on is the Dublin’s Smart City Project. The activity has been considered as a project as it involves a set of resources that are working together to achieve a common goal. There are numerous start-ups and companies that are involved in the project and the latest addition in the list is a Japanese firm called SoftBank. The set of these activities have been termed as a project as they come with a measurable, realistic, and a time-bound set of goals. The primary aim of the project is to make the lives of the individuals and groups of Dublin easier by the implementation of a smart solution using the technology as the Internet of Things (IoT). The end-users that are targeted upon in this case are the citizens and organizations of Dublin (Irishtimes 2018).
A set of activities qualify to be stated as a project only when they have a start and a finish date and are temporary in nature. These activities shall serve a purpose and must be able to justify their execution. In this case, the Smart City Project of Dublin has a start and an end date. Also, there are a lot many activities that are involved in this project. These activities serve the purpose of making the lives of people easier and more productive. The technology and approach that is involved in the project is Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a technology that provides an inter-connected network of devices, technologies, methods, databases, servers, and processes to achieve a common goal. In this project, the components involved in the IoT network will be mobile phones, computer systems, home appliances, electrical appliances, databases, network servers, sensors, and many more. These will be integrated using the IoT networks to give share to a smart city system for Dublin. A project is an activity that is usually a one-time effort that is not repetitive in nature. For Smart City Project of Dublin, the set of activities are being carried out for the first time. Once the implementation of these activities will be successful, there will be no repetition of these processes (O’Brien 2018). The only set of activities that will be done after the implementation will be the support and maintenance activities to install the updates and make sure that there is no performance, operational, or technical issue involved in any of the components of the system.
Examples of Ongoing Projects
The organization and the website selected for explaining one of the ongoing projects is IBM. The website is developed for an American multi-national technological company called IBM that has its headquarters in New York. One of the ongoing projects in IBM is Cloudbench (CBTOOL). It is an automated code that can be used to test the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud stress and scalability through a series of controlled tests and experiments. It was first started in the year 2009 to measure the performance of cloud in a variety of domains. The tool is being used, updated, and expanded since then. There are further updates that are being done to enhance the performance
The deliverable involved in this project is the working source code of the tool that will be executed to test and carry out the controlled experiments for varied cloud infrastructures. The tool can provide a number of benefits to the end-users and the organizations. The use of cloud computing and the cloud models has become a necessity for the users of the current generation. It has become required to make use of these models for carrying out the business operations, such as data storage, data management, data analysis, information exchange, communication, and a lot more. The tool provides the ability to test the cloud models and environments to ensure that there are no issues involved in terms of performance, usability, or security (Ibm 2018). Also, stress test is carried out by this tool to understand the load balancing capabilities of the cloud infrastructure. As a result, it will assist in better performance of the cloud model for the users.
The goal of IBM is to provide the users and its clients with technologically advanced systems and solutions to make their lives easier. It aims to introduce automation in simple to complex set of activities so that the manual set of operations is replaced by their automated counterparts. Cloudbench aka CBTOOL is an automated code that can be used to test the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud stress and scalability through a series of controlled tests and experiments. The tool is aligned with the goals of the company as it also assists in the automation of the stress test and scalability test processes for the cloud. It also makes sure that the end-user experience is not impacted in any manner and therefore, the controlled set of experiments is carried out to validate and verify the cloud environments. The project also supports the idea of using advanced technology with every update that is released for the same.
Essential Skills for Effective Project Management
A Project Manager is responsible and accountable for carrying out and managing a lot of different areas of the project. The different project areas are associated with their respective set of issues, risks, and problems that may come up at any stage of the project. A Project Manager can be considered as effective only when he/she is able to showcase problem-solving and decision-making skills at the required time. For instance, in a project timeline, there may be risks of schedule and budget overrun that may appear in the advanced project stages. The controlling and management of the situation can be done through the skills of a Project Manager to re-schedule the pending activities and tasks within the available budget to achieve the required set of goals and objectives. Similarly, there are various resources that are involved in the project along with the involvement of internal and external stakeholders. There are problems, conflicts, and disputes that may emerge during the project between the resources or the stakeholders. The Project Manager is a mediator between these groups of stakeholders and resources. The use and implementation of problem-solving and conflict resolution methodologies is essential to ensure that it does not impact the project progress in a negative manner (Esa, Alias and Samad 2014). The Project Manager also takes several decisions for the project in terms of project approach selection, project estimations, resource selection, and likewise. These decisions directly impact the project progress and must be taken after analysing all of the project needs and requirements. There are also quick decisions that the manager is required to take in the case of the occurrence of specific risk or issue. The problem-solving and decision-making skills of the manager are therefore, applied and implemented throughout the project life cycle. The effective Project Manager must be able to showcase these skills and shall always work towards the enhancement of the same.
The second set of skills and characteristics that an effective Project Manager is required to possess is communication and negotiation skills. There are various resources that are involved in the project along with the involvement of internal and external stakeholders. There are problems, conflicts, and disputes that may emerge during the project between the resources or the stakeholders. The Project Manager is a mediator between these groups of stakeholders and resources. The use and implementation of communication and negotiations skills is essential to ensure that it does not impact the project progress in a negative manner. There are also a lot many supplier groups and third-parties that are associated with a project. The project may require certain tools and equipment that may or may not be available with the organization. There may be a need of procurement of these tools during the project timeline. The Project Manager is responsible for the facilitation of the process. The Project Manager must have the skills to negotiate with the suppliers and the vendors on the terms of agreement and services along with the prices. The parties must be able to ensure and preserve each other’s interests and must gain the benefits out of the entire process. The Project Manager is the resource that has the prime set of responsibilities for making these processes successful (Zulch 2014). Also, in a project team, it is necessary to ensure that the members are informed about all of the project details and information in a timely manner. It is also required to maintain transparency with the stakeholders to maintain their engagement and interest in the project. The communication and negotiation skills of a Project Manager are applied to make sure that the resources, stakeholders, and customers are involved and are kept satisfied during the entire timeline of the project.
The primary asset of a project is the human resources that are associated with a project. These resources may lead to the success or failure of the project as per the level of contribution and interest maintained and showcased by them. In order to make sure that the resources perform as per the best of their abilities, it is necessary that they are provided with a friendly work environment and work culture. Also, there needs to be team collaboration and cohesion maintained through the execution of the team building activities. The ability to instigate the same is on the shoulders of the Project Manager. The Project Manager must be a team player and must be able to implement the team collaboration processes by utilizing the team building skills. There are initiatives that are required to be taken for every individual in the project and for the entire team so that the interests of all parties are fulfilled. Also, in a project team, it is necessary to ensure that the members are informed about all of the project details and information in a timely manner (Sunindijo 2015). It is also required to maintain transparency with the stakeholders to maintain their engagement and interest in the project. The Project Manager shall carry out individual and team discussions using formal and informal modes of communication to keep the team involved. There shall also be team recreational activities carried out for stronger team building and collaboration. The compliance and adherence to the ethical standards shall also be maintained so that the interests of customers, organization, and team are given higher preference than selfish benefits. The team building skills of the Project Manager will assist in the development of required team motivation and interest in the project.
The replacement of the manual effort with the automated set of processes will bring in a lot many changes for the project and the assembly line workers. There may be issues of resource dissatisfaction and disengagement from the project that may come up. Problem-solving and decision-making skills will be utilized in this case to manage such changes in the project. The Project Manager will have a change management plan available in advance to make sure that any of the changes and problems does not impact the project progress in any manner. There may also be issues and risks that may appear in the form of implementation and operational issues & risks that will be handled through the smart decisions and problem-solving abilities of the managers. There will be tools and equipment that will be required for the automation of the processes. There may be a need of procurement of these tools during the project timeline. The Project Manager will be responsible for the facilitation of the process. The Project Manager skills as communication and negotiation skills will be utilized to negotiate with the suppliers and the vendors on the terms of agreement and services along with the prices. The assembly line workers will also be required to be informed about all of these processes and the communication skills will be needed to avoid the situation of a chaos. The resource management along with the management of all the requirements, risks, and changes will be done by the Project Manager using these skills. There will also be additional resources allocated to the Project Manager to execute these tasks. The resources will be able to function as a team displaying team collaboration and cohesion skills with the aid of team buildings skills of the Project Manager. The goals and objectives will become easier to achieve as a result.
References
Esa, Muneera, Anuar Alias, and Zulkiflee Abdul Samad. 2014. “Project Managers’ Cognitive Style In Decision Making: A Perspective From Construction Industry”. https://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ijps.v6n2p65.
Ibm. 2018. “Cloudbench (CBTOOL) – IBM Code”. IBM Code. https://developer.ibm.com/code/open/projects/cloudbench-cbtool/.
Irishtimes. 2018. “Softbank To Participate In Dublin’S Smart Cities Test Bed”. The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/softbank-to-participate-in-dublin-s-smart-cities-test-bed-1.3580171.
O’Brien, Ciara. 2018. “Dublin City Council Looks To Japan To Help With Smart City Project”. The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/dublin-city-council-looks-to-japan-to-help-with-smart-city-project-1.3577285.
Sunindijo, Riza Yosia. 2015. “Project Manager Skills For Improving Project Performance”. International Journal Of Business Performance Management 16 (1): 67. doi:10.1504/ijbpm.2015.066041.
Zulch, Benita. 2014. “Leadership Communication In Project Management”. Procedia – Social And Behavioral Sciences 119: 172-181. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.021.