Project management methods

Goals for either the person or the collective are pursued through projects. Project management methods must be active and effective for both individual and team initiatives. It is crucial to evaluate risks and obstacles that could prevent a project from achieving its goals. A successful project’s determinants have both positive and negative effects on its progress. Competent managers concentrate on minimizing the negative influences that impede performance and maximizing those that positively contribute to it. This essay investigates the dangers of creating a website for marines to disseminate information on promotions and modernizing office equipment. It further goes into detail how risks impact the project, elements of the project and monitoring methods and tools for the elements.

Types of Risks in Project Management

During the life cycle of any project, it might be vulnerable to the effects of several types of risks. Technological risks with the underlying software and hardware that are available or the risks that come with newly adopted hardware. Estimation risks which include the ability of the project to be within the stipulated time frame (Alhawari et al., 2012). An occurrence also associated with the estimation factor is the possibility of underestimation of a risk. The organizational risk that refers to how responsibility for the project is structured. The people also who make up a project team also could because of incompletion for instance lack of skilled staff, taking sick leaves at critical project times and lack of facilities to train staff.

Risks in the Marine Project

For the marine project of updating the office hardware and creation of a website the main risk identified is technology. The projects focus is on hardware updates in the office only, but the software updates are not a major concern. The software that is in place might not be compatible with the hardware requirements that come with the new hardware. It is expected that any recent hardware is characterized by superior features that make them better than the previous one. It may mean that downtime will be expected during the upgrade or sometimes a total failure due to incompatibility. In the case that the previous hardware was slowing the workability of the office place, new hardware might positively contribute to efficacy.

The website needs a good software infrastructure to support the information posted. Easy navigation through the website for the interested individuals is of key concern. It could be time-consuming to use old software that exists as it may not be processing the many transactions happening considering that the website will have many users. Reusing some software components meant to perform other tasks may cause limitations due to defects that exist and reduce functionality. The team needs to have members who are experts in the web design and handling of software. It allows for easy upload of the information files that need to reflect on the website. Lack of such a competent working team slows the pace that the project takes towards completion.

Important Elements of a Project

Projects are completed successfully and on time through checking and balancing of all the important elements of the project. Of particular significance elements include resources, time and finances. The resources are inclusive of the team members, materials, and equipment. For the time element, the path through which the project is undertaken is considered, dependencies and tasks (Kerzner, 2013). For the financial component, contingencies, costs, profits, and alternatives constitute the monetary aspect.

Monitoring Methods for Project Elements

The elements always require close monitoring to stay on the right and precise track. Schedule analysis enables variations to be forecast with remaining activities, critical path, and the baseline mainly for resources required and already utilized. Budget analysis is used to keep the money element in check by forecasting finances concerning a set baseline. The use of trend charts for every milestone undertaken by the project that shows the speculated and actual dates of the key activities with time. The buffer management technique combines to monitor resources, time and money through consumption of budget and schedule contingencies over time.

The Importance of Project Scope

A fourth element of the project is the scope. The scope in itself includes the size of the project, its goals and objectives, and its requirements. The project size becomes a growing concern from the initial projection. The goals of the team members went on diversifying and rather than converging for the common objective of creating a website, and the objective became divergent. With the resources availed to complete the project, most time members out of curiosity went ahead to explore more with some creating additional websites on their own using the project resources.

The team must frequently be reminded the goals of the project. Members should be motivated to be only creative towards contributing to the success of the project. As a manager, those specific staff that proves to be stubborn and are responsible for the departure from the objectives should be assigned other roles. In the case of total disobedience, such characters should be removed from the team.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the identification of the possible risks and their potential effects on a project is the primary determiner of how the project will go forward. Minimizing the risks and making a constructive contribution out of them helps a great deal. As a manager being conversant with all the elements of the project allows them to stay on course and easy mitigation in the case they go off the path.

References

Alhawari, S., Karadsheh, L., Talet, A. N., & Mansour, E. (2012). A knowledge-based risk management framework for information technology project. International Journal of Information Management, 32(1), 50-65.

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.