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This study intends to discuss significant possibilities to cope with the circumstances within the organizational context

Home, - EVALUATING THE USE AND APPLICATION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT THEORY AND METHODOLOGIES

Introduction 

In the era of technology, project management has become an integral part of business operations as it allows operating business propositions steadily within specific demographic characteristics to ensure productivity and profitability within organizational context. In this given scenario, it is found that there is intense competition on the marketplace within numerous industries at different levels (local, national and international). Modern businesses seek to implement effective management strategies to meet their collective goals and objectives within a specific time frame. In order to achieve business prosperity, each company implicates innovative project management methodology and strategies to incorporate business initiatives within specific marketplace. In the current study, the research work has considered the case of Debenhams store closure project that has plans on shutting down 22 companies. 

Discussing the mentioned case of Debenhams store closure project, the organization has decided on implementing the ‘Agile’ project management methodology, which has been gained popularity in recent times among different modern business organization across the world (OGL, 2019). In the year 1958, Koontz described that “no effective manager makes a plan and then proceeds to put it into effect regardless of what events occur”. The components of Agile project management is based on the similar statement as Koontz, believing in the fact that “less initial planning is better and an evolutionary process is more efficient”. Agile methodology confines a high contrast with the traditional process to incorporate flexible scope, continuous design emphasizing, freezing of the design features making delays, embracing uncertainty and failure to reach customer satisfaction (Girard and Girard, 2015).

Demonstration of a project management theory and methodologies critical appreciation with the deep knowledge required about project management techniques and tools in defining, planning and delivering successful projects in industries/businesses  

Project Management Process

Project management mainly consists of four stages which are followed by every organization while developing the commencement of a project. These significant four stages are the phase of project initiation, phase of project planning, phase of project execution stage, and closing the project to ensure success (Axinte et al, 2017).

Project Initiation Stage:

? Since the beginning of project management implementation, a team is required to be arranged in order to perform the basic project activities.

? Developing a potentially effective relationship with the customer can help the organization to achieve growth and higher revenue.

? An innovative project initiation plan needs to be concentrated with basic goals, objectives and opportunities, which can be helpful to develop the project team to carry out several segments.

? Specific management procedures are needed to be ensured while maintaining various important aspects such as team communication, roles, duties and team management responsibilities, project budgeting, analysis of bills.

? In order to achieve better workflow an organization must required developing a project management environment by securing the availability of different tools which are essential to demonstrate various associated issues and also maintaining a business follow ups (Conforto and Amaral, 2016).

 

Project Planning Stage:

? Within the fundamental project planning stage it is necessary to add dynamic proportions such as project scope, available alternatives and feasibility must be enclosed to demonstrate the team to build understanding the complexity and insights of the project.

? A work breakdown structure is aimed to be prepared which includes functional assistance to the team in order to accomplish collective goals and objectives within a specific time schedule.

? Resources estimation and creation of a resource plan is required to develop. Measurably it will help the team to commence their work without facing any problematic outcomes.

? Creation of a primary schedule is essential to make which can be a driving force to accomplish success in setting targets as well as fixing a target time period to start the project and finishing delicately.

? An effective communication plan is necessary to develop to establish proper communication between various sectoral developments within an organization along with the customers, which will ensure a progressive workflow and achieving fundamental assessment.

? Project quality and procedures must be enclosed by the team to demonstrate the team to test various deliverables produced by respective designation. 

? Successful identification and risk assessment are needed to be conducted by the project team in order to  set priorities to handle upcoming issues that may arise during the project, as well as analyzing the consequences due to the  risks magnitudes.

? Preliminary budget is needed to develop by the project team to perform as per the plans undertaken by the authority to measure expense as well as estimate the revenues that are needed to be paid.

? A proper guideline of work needs to prepare by the authority to provide direction of the upcoming work and to increase productivity within organizational context of Debenhams.

? Creating a baseline project plan is necessary as it is designed to provide estimation for the available resource requirements and project tasks (Cooke, 2016).

Project Execution Stage:

? The project manager and supervisors hold a responsible duty and plans for the execution of the baseline project plan which fundamentally consist of segmenting and training new employees within the team, acquiring resources, meeting the project requirements within time schedule and also maintaining a strict quality check of the project deliverables as per the selected planning (Hinde, 2018).

? Monitoring the project progress is necessary to set limitations against the time period of the project plan while implementing Gantt chart to assist the project team while completing a potential project.

? Several changes can be considered to manage by the authority to finish given task within specific time frame according to the baseline project plan.

? Project assessment systematic paperwork confines different important data and reports related to the project, which assists the project manager to follow up the progress of the project as well as can be used by them in terms of evidence at times of need.

? Communication plays a potential role to enhance accomplishments of a project within a reasonable time period. The project team needs to engage with  proper communication between sectoral process and every team member must need to share attainable t information of occurring changes that are to be brought in the project from the project manager to control execution process within the track (Hoda and Murugesan, 2016).

Closing the Project:

? Within this final stage, the project is finally completed and all interested parties are being notified as well as all the paperwork and documentation are done to terminate various contractors related to the project.

? A conduction of post project reviews is done in order to measure the strength and weakness along with the project management process and identify rest the functional issues related to the growth of the project.

? Finally, all the contractual terms are being checked and delivered along with proper framework of project management (Kerzner, 2017).

Techniques

The techniques which have been implemented demonstrate functionality within the project management in order to complete the purposes of the project is mentioned below:

? Linking the collective objectives and goals of the project with the requirements of stakeholders and the organization.

? Focusing on the needs of customers along with developing potential opportunities to cope with customer satisfaction.

? Appointing efficient team members to generate high performance teamwork based on the project schedule.

? Developing a work breakdown structure to simplify tasks.

? Designing a Gantt chart to monitor work progressions

? Calculating risk magnitudes and estimating its consequences within project management

? Estimation of the total budget to complete the project efficiently (Marier-Bienvenue et al, 2017).

 

Agile Project Management Methodology

Agile project management confines a set of iterative approaches to develop planning and guidance for different project process. Agile project management methodology is highly appreciated by the business world due to its ability to respond to uncertain issues during the course of the project management within a single development cycle. In order to achieve specific business objectives, it is proven that the implementation of a project management tools is necessary to accomplish the goal of this research study. This study confines Agile project management approach to ensure productivity and to achieve the goals within the given time frame while ensuring the task execution in a responsible manner. Agile project management methodology elaborates sprint approach, which helps to break down a project into small cycles or sprints and able to   adapt the relevant uncertain changes that are to be made in order to accomplish the project. Scrum is an essential framework of Agile that allows implicating numerous techniques and process to complete various associated responsibilities.  Scrum is designed to develop and improve teamwork, speed of development and communication in a project that will help to deliver the best possible results within given scenario and timeframe (Serrador and Pinto, 2015).

A survey was conducted by the authority of Debenhams to collect efficient data and knowledge as a part of the planning and execution phases of the Agile project management. Agile project management has been implemented as standard methodology to amplify operational performance and to reduce risk magnitude within the systematic framework of the project. However, In order to analyze the differences between the normal planning index and agile planning index, two methods have been created by researchers to gain the potential outcomes in the form of percentage between the two methodologies (Conforto, E.C. and Amaral, 2016).

Planning Effort Index = (Total effort expended on the planning phase in person days) / (Total project Effort in person days)

Agile Planning Effort Index = (Total effort expended on planning after the planning phase) /

(The total project effort in person days)

Several associated data was collected after monitoring performative progress of the given task. Meanwhile, these two methodologies provide the differences between the effort indexes.  

Scope a project and use of appropriate project management techniques and tools that will help in planning and designing a project with the aim of its successful completion 

Communication plan

Communication plan confines a set of policy-driven approaches which are designed to provide necessary information to the shareholders of the organization. A communication plan includes a variety of important aspects of business propositions such as specific knowledge, delivery of information and communication channel within sectoral process. The communication plan given below intends to provide an effective understanding of the work and functional process of the project and how it helps a team to communicate with different employees in order to commence its tasks (Mousaei and Javdani, 2018).

 

Budget plan

Budget plan of project management confines systematic empirical and statistical values of financial fluidity which includes various important steps such as amount earned, revenues gained and the expenditures cost for organization business operations purpose (Rasnacis and Berzisa, 2017). Setting an effective budget plan to incorporate various associated expenses within project management process can help to ensure utmost performance of the plan. In the budget plan mentioned below shows an estimated proposition of required amount to demonstrate the plan for Debenhams store closure project. 

 

Activity List

An effective activity list encloses various important aspects of ongoing projects which are necessary to incorporate appropriate tasks to be done within a specific time frame. The different activities mentioned on the activity list are notified and mentioned to emphasize appropriate business practices. In the current project of Debenhams, the activity list given below has provided to demonstrate the different activities within the systematic framework of Agile project management (Kerzner, 2017).

 

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Work breakdown structure is an inevitable part of the project management system, as it allows segmenting a large project into smaller section that helps the associated members to achieve the project systematically. This systematic work breakdown methodology also influences to minimize occurring errors within the procedures to enhance project productivity. In addition, Work breakdown structure also helps to monitor teamwork and enhancing handful performance within sectoral members. This systematic research paperwork allows to breakdown work structure provided below has helped to attribute the idea of the functioning and its efficiency to finish project significantly.

Critical Path

Critical path method confines a set of sectoral working process within a project management which incorporates effective planning and scheduling different tasks to ensure quality progress within systematic management process. This paperwork describes critical path drawn of a project which is mentioned below to develop a brief outline of the different segments of the Agile project management within the scenario of Debenhams store closure project.

1. Project Initiation

2. Team Arrangement

3. Resources Gathering

4. Work Breakdown Structure

5. Budget Planning

6. Communication Plan

7. Developing Baseline for Project

8. Closing the Project

Gantt chart

Gantt chart is fundamental assessment of scheduling tasks in order which allows determining project time schedule and project planning (Varajão et al, 2017). It allows to measure working process within specific time frame in order to complete a project. Gantt chart also allows adding extra activities within its structural drawings to emphasize simplified versions of working process scheduling. A Gantt chart provides necessary information to review visual result based on the monitoring reports of different performative actions which have been planned and completed within project management. The Gantt chart provided below determined to show the completion of this research study as scheduled within the time period of 6 months, except for the fact that the closing of the project and its documentation may require more time. 

Risk Register

A risk register is an innovative assessment tool that helps to measure risk magnitudes within a project management as it works significantly to identify risk types and its impact on the project. A typical risk register contains various types of risk assessment process such as risk category, resources of the risks and breakdown number of risks (Tomanek and Juricek, 2015).  In this systematic research work, a risk register has been given below to display the possible risks that can have an enormous impact on the continuation of Debenhams store project which perfectly align with the level of threat and the possibility of its alternative appearance within future references. The green square describes less occurrence or damage. The yellow part displays medium chances of occurrence and damage and the red portion defines the utmost chances of damage with organizational context.

Conclusion 

Project management is immensely necessary to demonstrate various occuring business issues within an organizational context as it allows to measure risk, to prioritize functionalities and to emphasize company's business prosperity to ensure productivity and profitability within organizational context of Debenhams. Meanwhile, an analytical view of the above study states that the efficiency of agile project management is inevitable and it plays a fundamental role to incorporate in depth knowledge about various attributes, scopes, opportunities and plan execution within the organizational environment of Debenhams. This study discussed the importance of Agile project management methodology. As an outcome, it can be concluded that implementation of Agile project management methodology can be an effective way to cope with the current scenario of Debenhams to close 22 stores within 2020.

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