Department of Industrial Management
TTA-75036 Management of Project Business
individual assignment
Student name: Katavisto Katrin
Student number: 240872
E-mail address: katrin.katavisto@student.tut.fi
Date: October 6, 2013
Table on contents
1. Introduction 3
2. Managing project portfolios 6
3. Managing project procurement and partnerships 8
4. Managing risks in international projects 11
5. Managing complex change programs 14
6. Conclusion 16
References 19
Introduction
What is a project? All of us are continuously implementing projects in our daily lives. Here is a simple example: preparation for the day of birth, repairs in the apartment, writing books, conducting research. All of these activities have between them a number of common features that make them projects. Firstly, they are intended to achieve specific goals. Secondly, they include the coordinated execution of interrelated actions. Also, they have a limited time with defined start and end. Furthermore, all of them are, to a certain extent, unique and unrepeatable. In general, these four characteristics distinguish projects from other activities. Each of these characteristics has important internal meaning, and so we look at them more closely below.
According to Project Management Institution, definition of a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The process of the project life cycle consists of several stages: idea and selection, the design of the content, form a business plan, the development and the transition to it, testing and checking and the transition to it, launch and transition to work and after launch.
Although various official sources interpret the concept of project management in different ways, all definitions are viewed clearly features of the project. For instance, according to Miia Martinsuo, project management can be seen as the use of knowledge, skills, methods, tools and technologies for implementation of the project in order to achieve or exceeding the expectations of the participants. In my view, this definition covers the complexity of the tasks and activities, clear focus this complex on the achievement of certain objectives and constraints of time, budget, material and labor resources.
In the initial stages of acquaintance to project management, I reacted very responsibly to implementation of Case OleanTek and have made several important conclusions for myself that are shown below.
Any activity, including the one that no one is going to call the project, is carried out for a certain period of time and is linked with the costs of certain financial, material and human resources. Furthermore, any reasonable activity usually is suitable, i.e. aims to achieve a certain result. In other words, projects are designed to achieve certain goals. These objectives are the driving force of the project, and all efforts related to the planning and implementations are being taken into account in order to ensure that these objectives have been achieved. The project usually involves a set of interrelated goals. First of all, this fact implies that an important feature of project management is an exact identification and formulation of goals, ranging from the highest level, and then gradually coming down to the most detailed goals and objectives. In addition, it implies that the project can be considered as persecution carefully selected targets, and progress of the project forward is related to the achievement of a higher and higher level, until it finally reached the final goal.
Projects are complex in nature. They include the implementation of numerous linked activities. In some cases, these linkages are quite obvious (e.g., technological dependency), in other cases, they have a more subtle nature. Certain intermediate jobs cannot be realized until other tasks are not completed, some tasks can be carried out only simultaneously and so on. If the synchronization of the different tasks is disturbed, the whole project can be endangered. If we think a little bit on this feature of the project, it is clear that the project is a whole system that folds of interrelated parts, and moreover it is dynamic system, and therefore requires a special approach to management.
Projects are executed during a finite period of time. They are temporary. They have more or less clearly defined beginning and end. The project ends when its main objectives are achieved. Significant part of effort in working on a project aimed at the completion of the project in the scheduled time. For this purpose managers prepare graphs that show the start and end of tasks that are included in the project.
The difference between the projects from the production system is that the project is a single, not cyclical activity. Serial production of the same product does not have a predetermined end in time and depends only on the presence and cost of demand. When demand disappears, the production cycle ends. Production cycles in pure form are not projects. However, recently the project approach is increasingly being applied to processes, focused on continuous production. For example, projects are linked with increased production to a specified level for a certain period, on the basis of the given budget, or the performance of certain orders that have contractual date of delivery.
As a system of activity project exists only as long as it takes to obtain the final result. However the concept the project is not contrary to the concept of the company or enterprise and is fully compatible with it. Moreover, the project becomes often the main form of the firm.
Projects are to some extent unique and one-off. However, the degree of uniqueness may differ from one project to another. Whether you deal with the construction of cottages and erect the same type of cottage twentieth time, the degree of uniqueness of your project is small enough. Main sources of uniqueness, however, can be laid down in the specifics of the particular production situation, for example, in the location of the house and surrounding landscape, in the features of supplier of materials and completing, in new subcontractors. On the other hand, if you are developing a unique device or technology, you will definitely be dealing with unique task. You are doing something that has never been done before. Therefore, we conclude that if the project is unique, it is full of risk and uncertainty.
Thus, project management is viewed not only as operative vehicles, but a means for business, whether it is the business of a private company, public organization, a non-profit organization or an entire company network or industry (Miia Martinsuo (2011). Uncertainty and complexity in the management of project business, page 5). In other words, project management is as a means of achieving an organization’s strategic plan.