Introduction
A project is a temporary activity that has a definite beginning and specific end in time and thus defined resources and scope. It is a temporary activity that is undertaken to come up with a unique result, product, or service. A project should be unique and should not be a routine operation. It should involve specific types of operation that are created to achieve a particular goal ( Kerzner, 2013) . Therefore, a project team may comprise of people who rarely or do not work together and may be spread across multiple geographies or from different organizations. Then, project management is the application of techniques, knowledge, and skills to ensure project activities achieve the projects’ requirements.
Project management processes have five main groups: initiation, planning, execution, controlling, and closing. Its knowledge is spread across various areas such as stakeholder management, integration, risk management, scope, communications, time, human resources, cost, procurement, and quality. All management is always concerned with the issues raised previously. However, project management provides a unique focus that is determined by the schedule, goals, and resources of each project ( Leach, 2014) . The importance of the focus is proved by the worldwide and rapid growth of project management as a career path, a strategic and recognized competence, and as a tool for education and training. Therefore, project management is essential in every organization including Roto Air. The objective of the essay is to convince the new executive and management team of the significance of project management.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Benefits of Project Management Methodology
A structured approach to any project is proven with time and assists every organization to deliver projects on time and successfully. Some of the benefits of project management methodology include effective decision making. It gives clarity to the expected behaviors and roles of different people in the project team and enhances decision making ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014) . Also, reusing saves time and money. A clear roadmap ensures similar resources are used over and over again within different projects. It ensures that the project can be delivered quickly and more money can be saved.
It ensures that the project scope is controlled which is a common cause of time overruns and cost. The project management methodology ensures that the client and project team agree on the final project. Furthermore, the clients have an idea of what to expect after project completion. Also, it offers a better problem resolution technique because it ensures that the risks can be anticipated, avoided, or mitigated ( Kerzner, 2013) . It ensures adequate control of costs because the methodology gives a defined project with good cost estimates and time. Moreover, it allows the project team to be more motivated and happier because they know what to expect. A happier team is more likely to give favorable outcomes.
Role and Benefits of a Project Sponsor
A project sponsor is a person, often an executive or manager, who has been tasked with the overall accountability of the project. They are primarily concerned with making sure that the project delivers the expected business benefits. They often act as the chairperson of steering committees and marketing the project ( Schwalbe, 2015) . They also act as arbitrators and are supposed to make decisions that may be beyond the power or authority of project managers. They also provide guidance and expertise to the project manager. They may also act as a link between the management decision making groups, the project, and the business community.
An effective sponsor influences a good project management and success. They ensure that the benefit, overall quality, and value of the project is implemented from the beginning to the completion of the project. They also ensure that changes and risks are managed sufficiently and properly while making associated decisions ( Leach, 2014) . They evaluate the status and progress while ensuring that the reviews and control mechanisms are in place. The ultimate benefit of the project sponsor is ensuring that the project provides its intended value. Circumstances and business conditions may vary within the project cycle, but the project should always remain viable.
Project Teams and Team Communications
A project team is a group of individuals or professionals tasked with the implementation of a project. Efficient communications are the foundation for product teams and successful projects. Projects test the ability to coordinate the responsibilities of different people to accomplish a particular goal. Project managers spend about 90% of their time in the project cycle communicating ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014) . Highly productive teams often demonstrate efficient communication behaviors. They often have respectful and open discussions while enjoying the company of their team members. The effect of poor communications is both measurable and palpable. About a third of all project failures cite poor communication as the main cause of the failure.
A project team should establish team norms regarding performance, formation, and brainstorming. There should be informal and formal rules. They should prioritize face to face communication because it is the most effective because people can interpret facial expressions, body language, and intonations. Building a good team culture around effective communications leads to a happier team and better outcomes. Furthermore, they should have a productive meeting involving stated purpose and objectives ( Schwalbe, 2015) . The meetings should have agendas that should be distributed before the productive meeting. Improving the quality of communications in project teams will yield many benefits. The project teams will be higher performing and more cohesive, issues and problems will be solved faster, people will be happier, and less time will be wasted.
Project Life Cycle
The project team and project manager have a common goal of implementing the project. A project life cycle has four major phases: initiating, planning, implementing, and closure. The phases describe the project path from its conception to its end, and it is typically described as the project life cycle. In the initiation phase, a project manager is selected and who in turn according to their skills and experience, chooses a project team ( Schwalbe, 2015) . Planning should include a detailed and proper breakdown and assignment of each responsibility of the project from conception to end. It also involves risk assessment.
Implementation or execution phase is where the project plan is placed in motion. It is significant to communicate and maintain control during the process. The progress should constantly be monitored, and the necessary adjustments are recorded. Tasks are carried out, and progress reports are given during the regular team meetings. The project manager utilizes the information to implement and maintain control in the project. The closure is the completion or final phase, and it involves communicating closure of the project, releasing final deliverables, releasing project resources, handing over project documentation, and terminating supplier contracts ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014) . It should also involve examining of the tasks that went well and those that did not.
Project Charter Helps Prevent Scope Creep
A project charter describes a document that is often issued by the authority, creates the project, and defines its privileges, rights, rules, principles, and purposes. The project charter announces that the entity or project has begun and ensures that it makes the right start, has adequate management support, and is aligned with the Roto Air objectives. Furthermore, it defines the project budget, deliverables, and schedules. It set out the management expectations for its outcomes. Furthermore, it spells out the nature and scope of the project ( Leach, 2014) . Without a well-crafted project charter, there are various things that could go wrong.
Scope creep describes the additional functions or features of work, a new product, or requirements that are beyond the agreed scope or is unauthorized. Changing projects is inevitable, and therefore, scope creep should be tamed. When working on authorized features, the team will devote time and resources to unauthorized features. The unauthorized features should be carried out within the original budget estimates and original time and leaving inadequate time for the authorized sections of the scope ( Kerzner, 2013) . Therefore, a project charter is essential in controlling changes and ensuring that the authorized sections of the project receive adequate time and resources. The project charter will ensure the project objectives are attained while avoiding cumbersome or inflexible change control processes.
Work Breakdown Structure
The work breakdown structure (WBS) explains the work that is necessary to produce deliverables or products. It is often defined as a hierarchical subdivision of the project. It visually breaks down the scope into manageable chunks that can be easily understood by the project team. Each level of breakdown offers further detail and definition. The project team comes up with the WBS by evaluating the major functional deliverables and later subdivides the scope into smaller sub-deliverables and systems. The smaller systems are later decomposed until each task is assigned to a single person ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014) . The tasks should be completed with a specific level of effort and specific time.
The WBS offers the foundation of project management work including effort estimation, planning, cost estimation, scheduling, and resource allocation. It also defines and evaluates cost, work, and organization. It allows the definition and analysis of the total scope of the project. It reports, defines, and collects information at the required levels. It offers the ability to assign responsibilities to professionals who will conduct the work. It comes up with a control baseline while measuring accomplishments as the work is done objectively ( Burke, 2013) . Moreover, it is useful in identifying potential risks to the project. When the project may be at risk of falling behind schedule, the WBS can be used to reassign tasks to ensure the project is completed early.
Importance of Project Kickoff Meeting
A well-planned kickoff meeting is a prerequisite for a successful project. The initial impression might set the tone for failure or success. The first project meeting provides an opportunity to share the plan for driving the company’s project to successful completion. The project manager should take advantage of this chance to establish guidelines, energize the group, and set proper expectations that will assist the project team to complete the project within budget and on time ( Mir & Pinnington, 2014) . If the project manager fails to have a proper kickoff meeting, it may place the project at risk from the beginning.
Some of the critical issues to discuss in the kickoff meeting include communicating the business drivers. The project managers should properly communicate the business goals and scope, and it should be evaluated to avoid missing key functionalities. It allows the project team and stakeholders to understand the project delivery methodology. It establishes the goals and the tasks to be completed within each task. The kickoff meeting is essential in deciding contract provisions such as site-specific safety requirements, invoicing, warranties, and warranties ( Kerzner, 2013) . Moreover, it assists in identifying risks such as technological risks, budget risks, and schedule risks. Proactive decision making is essential in mitigating the potential risks.
Benefits and Uses of Project Management Software
Project management is one of the essential techniques of optimizing processes and success in every company. It offers the best efficiency when implementing projects in any company. Project management software tools are one of the necessary tools in assisting project managers in enhancing their productivity regardless of the industry. Both small and large corporates often juggle numerous projects, people, plans, and tasks. Project management software assists in running and planning projects in a manner that is profitable, accurate, and predictable ( Larson & Gray, 2013) . Within time, technology has evolved to meet business needs. Project management software programs are important for change management, project planning, resource allocation, and time management.
The tools provide communication tools that can help project teams in evaluating issues in real time. The team members can be informed of all issues as they arise. The software allows document sharing. In projects that need adequate documentation, the document sharing tools the project teams to create, update, and edit systems that will enhance communication and transparency. It is also essential in managing project cost by accounting for every activity while indicating the used and remaining funds. It can manage budgets, risks, and forecasting ( Leach, 2014) . It allows the project team to track budgets, understanding project risks, and creating forecasts. It has flexible report formats that ensure tasks are on schedule.
Benefits of Professional Certification and Role of Ethics
In the project management world, professional certification has a significant role in managing the day to day behaviors and interactions. It encourages professionals to act ethically. Ethics encourages taxpayers, stakeholders, vendors, and employees to rest at night being confident that the project management professionals are held to high and strict standards when they act on behalf or make decisions in executing projects ( Verzuh, 2015) . Ethics involves making appropriate decisions regarding the environment, people, and resources. Ethical choices build reputations, diminish risks, determine long-term success, advance positive outcomes, and advance positive results. Proper leadership is highly dependent on ethical decisions.
Professional ethics and ethics offers a greater chance of success in a project. It raises the future standards of the project while elevating the profession. It minimizes stress and anxiety. It boosts the trust and faith of the stakeholders in the project because of the professional and ethical standards involved in the process. It encourages fair decision making while reducing project risks. It enhances individual moral behaviors and mindsets. It builds business relationship on all organizational levels. Fairness, honesty, respect, and responsibility are the fundamental values that encourage ethical conduct in the profession ( Nicholas & Steyn, 2017) . It ensures that actions and decisions are quite honorable and are beneficial to the stakeholders.
Identifying and Mitigating Risks
All projects have potential risks. The potential risks should be identified early otherwise the expected quality and completion of the project may be compromised. Project risk management involves controlling, identifying, response planning, and risk management planning. The processes decrease the impact and likelihood of negative events in the project while increasing the likelihood of positive events in the project. Risk identification evaluates the risks that may affect the business or project, and its characteristics. The risks should be listed, and proper plans should be made quantitatively and qualitatively. Some of the techniques of identifying risks include expert judgment, documentation reviews, SWOT analysis, diagramming techniques, information gathering techniques, assumption analysis, and checklist analysis ( Larson & Gray, 2013) .
Risk identification in every project is essential in managing and completing the project successfully. The earlier the risk identification, the easier and earlier plans can be made to mitigate the impact of the potential risks. There are many techniques and tools of identifying project risks. Risk management planning is vital to the success of a project because of various issues such scope creep and many other problems ( Burke, 2013) . Risk identification is an iterative process, and the whole project team must be involved from the beginning of the project. Comprehensive risk identification and mitigation often produce good project results. Some of the common issues include requirement risks, schedule risks, product technology risk, project management risk, contractors’ risk, customer risk, and human resources risk.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Data-driven decision making is an approach in project management that appreciates decisions that are supported by verifiable data. The success of the approach is dependent on the quality of the information collected and the efficiency of the interpretation and analysis ( Verzuh, 2015) . In the early days of technology and computing, it required a professional with strong technical skills to search for information because they were supposed to know how various data warehouses and databases worked ( Larson & Gray, 2013) . When a manager required information about particular issues, they were supposed to approach the specialist. The IT specialist would then prepare a report that was forwarded to the manager. But the process was quite complex, and its use was inefficient.
In the current business intelligence, there are few tools and support from the IT department to make decisions. The project managers simply customize dashboards to show the required information. The changes in the access of data and how it is visualized has allowed different managers who have little technological experience or background to make data-driven decisions with the analytical tools ( Nicholas & Steyn, 2017) . Data-driven decision making often provides a competitive edge to an organization. Research indicates that organization that implements data-driven decision making often have about 4% higher productivity than their competitors who do not use data-driven decision making.
Project Management Office
A project management office (PMO) refers to a department or group within an organization that maintains or defines standards for project management. The ultimate goal of a PMO is to achieve objectives from standardization and complying with project management methods, processes and policies. For the PMO to be efficient, it should align itself with the organization's strategy and culture. The PMO has become quite popular because most companies that have PMOs have received good returns on investment. About 70% of multinationals have a PMO. The office is responsible for metrics, guidance, and documentation related to the management practices and project implementation within the company.
The PMO may also decide to follow up on project closure or any other project related tasks. It acts as a strategic tool in ensuring decision makers and implementers move towards consistent objectives and goals. The PMO principles are based on the accepted industry standard methodologies. There is no standard technique for developing a PMO. Nevertheless, the most successful PMOs are often aligned with organizational culture and strategy ( Nicholas & Steyn, 2017) . It should be staffed and designed for maximum efficiency according to various organizational factors such as cultural imperatives, targeted goals, and traditional strengths. PMO is vital to the long-term success of the company in focusing on value delivery and directing strategy.
Lessons Learned
In project management, there are four main issues that are learned. The first issue is leadership. Project leadership is essential due to the growing standards of professionalism and ethics. A leader ensures that the project team focuses on motivation, communication, and teamwork. They set all the concepts in the project according to their context. Command and control structure is inefficient due to globalization and better management techniques ( Larson & Gray, 2013) . The second factor is a risk. Modern companies are shifting to more mature techniques of risk management. Due to technological advancement and lower costs, most companies are investing in risk profiling tools and risk management simulations that will mitigate risks. All stakeholders should be involved in risk management.
The third issue is value. When project teams feel valued, they are more motivated to produce better results. The client should value the end product. Employees will feel valued if the project management closely works with them during the project. Ultimately, there should be value regardless of the funds invested in the project. The fourth issue is talent management ( Burke, 2013) . A project team is made up of various professionals. The project manager should be able to manage different personalities and skills within the project team to deliver a successful project. There should be teamwork, good communication, and accountability within the organization and project team.
Recommendation Summary
The objective of the paper was to convince the new executive and management team of the significance of project management. Roto Air should implement project management due to various reasons. The importance is proved by the worldwide and rapid growth of project management as a career path, a strategic and recognized competence, and as a tool for education and training. Therefore, project management is essential in every organization including Roto Air. Project management entails a work based structure. The project team comes up with the work based structure by evaluating the major functional deliverables and later subdivides the scope into smaller sub-deliverables and systems. The smaller systems are later decomposed until each task is assigned to a single person. Such tools enhance the accountability, minimize risks, and encourage success within the project ( Verzuh, 2015) . Furthermore, project management encourages data-driven decision making, and companies that use this methodology often have about 4% higher productivity than their competitors who do not use data-driven decision making. It may also provide the company with a competitive edge ( Burke, 2013) . Project management entails proper planning from the beginning to the end of every project, therefore, increasing the chances of success and minimizing the possibility of failure. All in all, the productivity of Roto Air will improve if they implement project management.
References
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA .
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling . John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. (2013). Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project . McGraw-Hill.
Leach, L. P. (2014). Critical chain project management . Artech House.
Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management , 32 (2), 202-217.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business, and technology . Taylor & Francis.
Schwalbe, K. (2015). Information technology project management . Cengage Learning.
Verzuh, E. (2015). The fast forward MBA in project management . John Wiley & Sons.
