Question

Explain what you think the role of the Project Manager is in each of the four phase categories, Initiating, Planning, Performing, and Closing Steps that the project is going through. Starting with the most difficult and challenging, rank the relative difficulty and challenge each step of the process to the project manager. Must contain a reason for each ranking.

Describe the possible benefits that the project manager might gain from gathering and reviewing information to better organize and prepare future projects. Explain the largest project you have completed / worked on as project manager / project team member. Include the number of people involved and identify the degree of success of the project.

Answer 1

Role of project manager in different phases

Initiating

The project manager is responsible to develop a project charter that should include goals, objectives and mission of project. In this stage, the project manager needs to define outcomes of project clearly to approve the project. The project manager is also responsible to identify and manage the stakeholders

Planning phase

Project manager is responsible to develop plan for project management, to define the scope of project, and to create a structure of WBS. He or she is responsible to plan and define schedule of project, and activities to complete project. He or she is also required to estimate needed resources. In this phase, the project manager is required to create a budget and manage quality. Requirements of project members are also required. A better communication is also desired from the project manager. Risk management planning as well as planning for procurement of materials is also required from project manager

Performing

In this phase, the project manager is responsible to direct and manage project related activities. He needs to ensure quality level in the project and to select required human resource. He or she also needs to communicate progress of projects to team members and stakeholders. Stakeholder management as well as procurement management is also required.

Controlling phase

Project manager is required to monitor the project work and take proactive approach to introduce necessary changes. Scope management activities are also required as project manager needs to ascertain project scope must be clearly defined. Costs and time management activities are also responsibilities of project manager during controlling phase. Quality maintenance of project, good communication and procurement management activities need to be implemented by project manager. Stakeholder management in this phase is also required.

Ranking of challenging phases of project

Planning

It is the most difficult phase of the project. During planning phase, challenges such as poorly defined scope of project, and schedule to complete the project often creates project failure, therefore, a detailed planning is required by the project managers. If the risk management, and work break down structure are not well planned, they also lead to project failure. Therefore, this phase is most challenging.

Executing phase

The second most difficult phase is execution phase where project manager faces problems such as scope creep, and lack of skills of project team workers. Lack of teamwork can also cause a great challenge for project manager during implementation of project.

Poor quality, and overrun costs due to poor scope definition in planning phase are other significant challenges faced by project manager in this phase.

Initiating phase

In this phase the challenges such as no support initially by stakeholder, lack of consensus regarding outcomes of project, unavailability of resources and lack of a clear business strategy make project manager task more challenging.

Controlling

There are certain issues such as lack of change control initiatives, issues in implementing control procedures, inability of project manager and staff to measure progress, posing challenges for a project. These challenges need to be addressed by project manager with proper skills and as these challenges are controllable by skill improvement, this phase is ranked four in risk category.

Possible benefits by gathering and reviewing information

Information availability assists to complete a project within time and budget. Information availability ensures that the project manager can deploy proactive strategies to ward off project challenges. Availability of information ensures that scope management of project is done correctly. Correct and timely information and its review assist project manager and team to understand roles and responsibilities clearly. Review of project charter and status report assists the project manager to make justified scope of project and budget. Information availability and review can help project manager to manage costs, and time to complete a project. Therefore, in the future projects, a project manager having access to relevant information can mitigate several challenges of projects.

Project completed

The project is solar project that installed PV system in homes. A local area was chosen to install the project. Solar technicians installing the solar projects inside homes were part of the team. There were 10 people working in the team. The outcome of the project is a moderate success because initial upfront cost and lack of staffs to review the installed system in homes resulted in less solar system installation in homes during given time. The project duration was six months and target was to install 100 solar systems but the project installed 75 solar systems.