Project Planning and Rationale

Project Planning and Rationale

The project business is a field addressing how firms based on projects organize their external and internal activities in support of their business objectives for the firm and its network. Project management offices (PMOs), is an organizational unit supporting management and firms based on projects. The Project Management Institute (PMI) describes PMO as an entity responsible for various responsibilities concerning the coordinated and centralized management of projects under its jurisdiction (Letavec & Bolles, 2011). PMOs are uniquely designed to fulfill an organization’s purpose. Its duties range from providing being directly involved in managing a specific project or providing the necessary project management support. A project, whether designing an automobile or having a department move to a new facility, one will have to go through the same four phases, including project planning, building-up, implementation, and closing out. In this context, the discussion will be based more on the first phase, that is, project planning and its fundamentals. Failing to put up a plan is a plan to fail. This phase is important in determining the resource, scope, and major tasks of a successful project.

Project Planning and Rationale

After a project team has been identified and a project defined, one is ready to go into the project planning stage. Project planning lies at the center of the project planning cycle as it tells each participant where to go and how they are going to get there. This is the phase where project documentation occurs, there is defining the project requirements, and a project schedule is made. A plan is set up to help guide both the PMO and the team through the implementation phase of the project to its final stride (Barron et al., 2013). The plans created are important as they will help in managing quality, time, costs, changes, and issues related to risk. The PMO will also be able to control external suppliers and the staff to ensure the project is delivered on time, within schedule and budget.

Project planning is often the most challenging stage for the PMO as an educated guess is made about the resources, equipment, and staff required to ensure the completion of that project. It is also noteworthy to plan procurement and communication activities plus contract any needed third-party players (suppliers). The basic processes include mapping for the scope, resources, budget, procurement, communication, and quality planning (Barron et al., 2013). It also includes anticipating potential risk factors and the possible strategies of mitigation.

With project planning, the objectives stipulated are refined. The necessary steps are planned to ensure the objectives are met by identifying the particular activities and resources that will facilitate project completion. There is a need for precise articulation and individual scrutiny of each recognized objective. With an in-depth examination, the comprehension of the objective may change (Barron et al., 2013). Better articulation is the basis in which requirements will be developed, a description given in measurable terms. A poor coupling often leads to misdirection, and the project will not have served the true project need.

Supportive and Controlling PMO Types

There are different types of PMO organizations whose differences are based on the varying influence and control degrees they have on an organization’s project. There are three types, but the focus will be on two; supportive and controlling PMO types.

Supportive PMOs can be likened to a warehouse for the organization’s projects. Some of its suppliers include training, templates, tracking for learned lessons, and best practices. The degree of control is low compared to controlling PMOs that act as company auditors. Controlling PMOs check if organizational processes, standards, and tools are applied in the projects. Therefore for an organization with a weak or functional type of matrix, the supportive PMO would be the best type. On the other hand, controlling PMOs are best suited for organizations with models that have a well-balanced matrix (Pemsel & Wiewiora, 2013).

With Weak or functional matrix cooperation, project managers have minimal control. They are responsible for vitally managing all activities with the budget maintenance being their sole duty. The roles these functional managers are given are in expedition and coordination. They are the project activities, collectors, they document them and later store them in the organization’s library of assets. Contrary to supportive PMOs, in controlling PMOs, control of the project is distributed and shared between the project manager and the functional manager. They manage the project budget and activities together. It is the duty of controlling PMOs to check if standards, procedures, and tools are applied to the projects (Pemsel & Wiewiora, 2013). In case of an issue, either in the efficiency or application of the tools, processes, or standards, corrective measures are applied.

Application of Project Standards and Metrics

It is essential to assess the performance of a project which is done through project metrics. But first, the best or correct project management practices must be identified. This answer to this is relative and subjective to give a general and original solution. Therefore the focus is on PMO standards, which can be defined as expertise investment, consensus on a broad base, and widespread acceptance of the best project management practices. There are various project management methods and standards, including Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), ISO9000, IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB), and Prince 2 (Antonio & Thomas, 2012).

In the PMBOK standard, nine knowledge areas are of focus, including cost, quality, time, human resources, risk, integration, procurement, and communication, all of which are constituted in PMO project planning. It is also inclusive of five processes, which are planning, executing, initiating, controlling, monitoring, and closing (Antonio & Thomas, 2012). Each of the methods in the stated knowledge areas is described in terms of their techniques, tools, outputs, and inputs. The PMO utilizes project integration as a critical knowledge area as it includes the coordination of all activities in management.

The ICB standard is grouped into contextual, technical, and behavioral competencies with eleven, twenty, and fifteen elements, respectively. The contextual competencies are applied in the program, portfolio, and project implementation with the strategy of the organization. The behavioral competencies include the attributes and personal skills (self-control, assertiveness, creativity, leadership, motivation, value appreciation, reliability, ethics, and engagement) that should be contributed by the project manager to ensure project success (Antonio & Thomas, 2012).

Technical competence is the PM process and is considered part of the management of human resources. They include team playing, problem resolution, project organization, and structures. The ISO9000 refers to quality assurance and management. With this, the PMO gains an understanding of the definitions and concepts within the certification processes and quality management (Antonio & Thomas, 2012). Successful implementation of the ISO9000 requires management responsibility, product realization, measurement analysis, improvement, and resource management.

Prince 2 is for projects initiated in controlled environments. It results from the accumulated bad and good projects. It emphasizes the importance of responsibilities and roles and a step by step management with defined tolerances in cost, quality, scope, benefits, and risks deviations. The themes in this standard are similar to those of the PMBOK knowledge areas and technical competence of the ICB, such as risk, plans, and quality (Antonio & Thomas, 2012). While these standards share common PM practices and concepts, there are some issues that others do not address. The strengths in all of them must be taken advantage of by the PMO to come with an integrated framework.

After exhaustively looking at the best-accepted practices, then one can proceed to the PMO metrics. A metric can simply be defined as something’s measurement (Sham, 2013). They are vital in implementing sustainable and practical PM processes and practices in an organization. One should choose what project metrics to use when managing the project to track progress. Metrics selection is based on the organization’s goals and critical success factors. Project metrics examples include earned value, project duration, open task numbers, time, and costs. It is important to note that key performance indicators (KPIs) are not the same as metrics. A KPI is a specific measurement metric connected to the business goals (Sham, 2013). KPI tracking enables one to understand the efforts put in towards a certain goal.

There are ways in which metrics can be reported. First is the metric tiles that can be likened to a customizable homepage; second is the metrics scorecard, which gives an efficient snapshot of the project’s health; from the past to the present (Sham, 2013). Take, for instance, Bon Ton Stores use the following metrics:

Time Project Metric- These measures spent time on forward-appearance projects versus maintaining the status quo. It also takes note of the expense hours versus capital hours.

Analysis for Reason Code Metric- here, the project delays are measured in days and /or hours and the incident numbers that caused the project delay. In this, it is essential to find the exact cause of the baseline change. The PMO and the management then review the change and an appropriate reason code assigned (Sham, 2013).

These are just examples of PMO application of PM metrics. Metrics need to be sensible and straightforward for the organization. They should not be ambiguous but clear, fair, and supported by real data.

Project Planning and Project Success

Cut once, but first, measure twice. In the project management world, the phrase takes on a critical denotation. Ignoring the planning phase is one absolute recipe for failure. An undertaking in one’s life has been thought of in terms of energy, time, and effort. If everything does not go as planned, there is aggravation and stress to deal with (Serrador, 2013). Project management works in the same way. Without activity planning, critical elements of a project (quality, time, and cost) can cause a lack of resources and stakeholder commitment because poor planning does not instill credibility, reliability, or confidence. Insufficient communication interferes with stakeholder and team members’ buy-in (Serrador, 2013). Poor preparation also increases risk. Planning enables potential risk identification, and developing strategies for risk management is key in successful project management.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations for International PMO

With globalization, the world has shrunk, and working overseas is the new normal. However, there are many challenges associated with managing a project internationally, including language. It is best to define the language of use from the beginning or have an interface in several languages. Time can also be a challenge, as different communities interpret time differently. The role of PMOs may be well understood in one’s country but not in another. Also, the management of PMO virtual teams is another challenge and requires a lot of commitment. These problems present a rich learning experience while working with international groups and other cultures (Lim, 2012).

Many overseas contracting positions pose a gauntlet of legal and ethical pitfalls and issues. Some may be related to schedule adherence or the success of the budget implementation. Many employers will always include the use of common sense, and employees told mostly on what no to do but less of what they should do. International PMO must do nothing that violates its country or the host’s country. When it comes to corruption and bribery, dealings must be undertaken in a forthright manner (Lim, 2012). PMOs are aware of the pressures, such as with the budget and schedule. The correct ethical reaction must be obtained in ethics management while contracting in a foreign country.

Conclusion

Planning a project with exactness can be an iterative procedure, bit one that is worth the two measurements and one cut as compared to the risks pooled with poor planning. PMOs are in different types compared to the influence they have on various projects. After planning for a project, one would also have to have the right practices implemented (standards) and the performance measured via selected metrics. With the shrinking global village, international PMO also experiences culture shock. It is important that PMO operations do not interfere with the host’s laws and culture. ..