Managing projects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Managing projects - Essay Example It mainly depends upon three factors namely project goal, project milestone and project order and timeline. Now the basic principles of project management are stated below: - Be Clear: - The most essential aspect of a project is the clarity. It is the duty of the project manager, to ensure clarity in the project. The two basic elements of clarity are direction and focus. Direction is about making everyone to work towards the same objective and Focus is about ensuring every team member gets a clear idea about the scope of the project. Maintain a Positive Attitude: - It is important to maintain a positive attitude at the work place. In addition, there are several benefits for maintaining a positive attitude. For example, it improves the relationship with the stakeholders and also helps to deal with the project challenges. Communication: - Superior communication is probably the most important criteria towards the success of a project. It enhances the coordination among team members and also helps to inform the stakeholders about the happenings (project-management-skills, n.d.). Success Failure Criteria According to Standish CHAOS Report of 2004, there are some factors which are commonly found in a successful project. The factors are mainly user involvement, proper planning, clear statement of requirements, clear objectives and vision, smaller project milestones, and realistic expectations among others. Similarly there are some factors which force projects to fail. For example, errors pertaining to estimation and planning, implementation factor, and also human factor may lead to project failure. Hence, to let the team members know about the reasons behind the success and failure of a project, it is important to define success and failure criteria. In addition, it also helps to monitor a project. Benefits of Managing Projects There are several techniques by which a project can be managed (Lasa Information Systems Team, 2003). The benefits of some of the systems are presented below: - Project Management Technique Benefits PERT 1. This method is useful in controlling the cost (Mittal, 2006). 2. It uses graphical displays, which allow the team members to understand the project better. CPM 1. This method highlights the critical path and also emphasizes on the slack time. 2. It is mathematically simple (University of Illinois Springfield, n.d.). PRINCE 2 1. Greater control over the resources. 2. It helps to manage the risks associated with a project more effectively (Maserang, 2002). SECTION II Project Initiation Document A project initiation document is considered as the top level project planning document. Through the project initiation document, a company can gather all the information needed for a project to begin (Mindtools, n.d.). In order to portray the importance of project initiation document, a draft will be presented. To illustrate it with an example a health care project is considered. Project Goals – To examine Hepatitis  œ B of the entire population in a village. Scope – The project has the scope to reduce the number of