Improving Project Management Performance At Mawson Zoo Essay.

In consideration of your reputation for assisting organisations to improve their project management performance, we would like to engage your consultancy to help us improve the way we manage projects too.

As you may know, in recent years the Mawson Zoo has undertaken a larger number of projects of increasingly higher value than ever before. Yet despite our internal technical expertise and significant management capability, the number of projects delivered on time and within budget has declined.

For this engagement, we would like your consultancy to present a professional ‘consultant’s proposal’ with recommendations for the implementation of modern project management principles and processes to improve project schedule and budget performance throughout the organisation.

Your proposal will need to take into account current project management theory and make recommendations
for implementation of concepts such as:
1) Alignment of projects with corporate strategy;
2) Accountability and responsibility in project management;
3) Project-supporting organisational structure;
4) Standardisation of project methodologies across the organisation;
5) Integration of recognised project processes across the project lifecycle;
6) Project performance and success measurement; and/or
7) Continuous improvement of project practices.

The Mawson Zoo is the organization which is looking forward to implement new project management technologies for the successful completion of the project. The organization is facing problems in accomplishing their project within time and cost so the CEO of the  company decided to implement newer project management methodologies to overcome the problem of project delay and overrunning of the cost. The purpose of this paper is to design an improvement strategy for the proposed projects.

The alignment of the project with corporate strategy is the important step for achieving the project success. The focus should be given on the current working strategy of the enterprise so that the systematic arrangement of the project activities can be planned to achieve strategic goal of the firm. The business strategy should be reviewed for managing the priority of the proposed project. The framework which should be followed for aligning the business processes with the corporate strategy are comprised of following:

Accountability and responsibility are similar to the two side of the coin. Responsibility is the authorisation control provided to the stakeholders for completing the task effectively whereas accountability is measured with the fulfilment of the committed task within the given timeline and budgeted cost. The division of roles and responsibilities among the stakeholders helps in measuring the performance of the stakeholder with their accountability associated with the given task. The RACI matrix is prepared for managing the balance in the delivery of the project services and productivity. The initialization of the responsibilities with the associated controls and authority result in completing the project within the specified time.

The organization structure is developed for managing the authority and the control policies for accomplishing the task within the approved cost and time. The flow of information is systemized into three manners which are categorised as functional organization structure, matrix structure, and project synchronisation activities structure. The development of the organization structure helps in managing the distribution of the resources, cost and information among the members participants effectively. The skills and expertise of the employees should be given privilege for managing the coordination by evaluating the work breakdown structure.

The initialization and the implementation of the PMBOK project management methodologies helps in managing the systematic flow of information between the participating stakeholders to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the work. The following table shows the benefit of using the standardization of the project methodologies across the organization.

Alignment of project with corporate strategy

The integration of the project activities with the project management methodologies helps in improving the articulation of the business plan. The result of the sub-processes and processes are accumulated for achieving the strategic goal of the enterprise (Halls, 2012). The implementation of the project management methodologies helps in identifying the requirement and need of the project, achieves the objective of the project, development of the in-scope and out-of-scope project activities, sharing of the cost control information, managing project schedule and activities, analysis of risks identification and management plan, drawing of the success criteria and quality standard of the project, and managing monitoring and control policies (Jyothi, and Parkavi, 2016). The change management plan should be involved to indulge new technique and trends in the existing policies of the project to enhance the project and operational capabilities of the project. The processes which are integrated with the project management methodologies are development of the project charter, scheduling of the project activities with the management of duration of time and cost, execution and direction of the project work, monitoring and control policies for the effective utilization of the resources, and last closing of the project.

The performance of the project can be measured by analysing the success indicators of the project.  The success and the failure of the project depends upon the accumulation of knowledge, protocols, rules, and regulations (Mansfield community, 2013). The development of the budget and time schedule helps in setting the date of project completion according to the timeline and cost provided by the customers during the project specification plan. The use of ICT technology helps in increasing the efficiency and effective of the information flow among the member participants. The communication tools and technologies are used for deploying the informal and formal communication between the stakeholders (Crawford, 2013). The on-time delivery of the information to the project stakeholders results in increasing the work performance to achieve the goal effectively. The quality of the project should be evaluated from the requirement specification plan to prepare the checklist for the proposed system. The success of the project depends upon the following factors:

The continuous improvement plan helps in achieving the long term sustainability of the proposed project. The continuous improvement plan helps in determining the problems and issues of the project, establishing management of the organization structure and control, enhancing creative and critical thinking of the manager, helps in resolving the complexities of the project, facilitating training and development program for the project, managing consistency of the information flow, measuring performance by analysing the success criteria, and determining the systematic review of the project methodologies. The operational excellence of the proposed project can be achieved by managing the systematic synchronization of the project plan. The initialization of the continuous improvement plan helps in managing the changes and issues in the project management methodologies. The factors which are responsible for the continuous improvement of project practice are as follows:

Accountability and responsibility in project management

3. Conclusion

It can be concluded that the deployment of the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) helps in improving the business management plan of the Mansow zoo which helps in completing the project within approved cost and time so that the project can be successfully accepted by the customers which results in increasing the reputation of the company. The integration of the project activities with the project management methodologies helps in improving the articulation of the business plan. The quality of the project should be evaluated from the requirement specification plan to prepare the checklist for the proposed system. The result of the sub-processes and processes are accumulated for achieving the strategic goal of the enterprise. The organization structure is developed for managing the authority and the control policies for accomplishing the task within the approved cost and time. The processes and operational plan can be effectively implemented for managing the resources among the stakeholders for completing their work. The development of the organization structure helps in managing the distribution of the resources, cost and information among the members participants effectively.

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