Project Management

# Project selection – Project selection is the process of evaluating individual projects or groups of projects, and then choosing to implement some set of them so that the objectives of the parent organization will be achieved.

Different models are used to evaluate project/s. some of those are quantitative and some are non quantitative. But when a firm choose a project selection model the following criteria, based on Souder, are important:

# Criteria of project selection –

• Realism: The model should reflect the reality of the manager’s decision situation. The model should take into account the realities o the firm’s limitations on facilities, capital, personnel etc.

• Capability: The model should be sophisticated enough to deal with multiple time periods, simulate various situations both internal and external

• Flexibility: The model should have the ability to be easily modified, or to be self-adjusting in response to changes in the environment.

• Ease of use: The model should be reasonably convenient, not take along time to execute, and be easy to understand and use. It should not require special interpretation.

• Cost: Data gathering and modeling costs should be low relative to the project and must be less than the potential benefits of the project.

• Easy computerization: It must be easy and convenient to gather and store the information in a computer data base, and to manipulate data in the model through useof a widely available, standard computer packages.

# Types of project selection model –

Nonnumeric

• The Sacred Cow: In this case the project is suggested by a senior and powerful official in the organization. Often the project is initiated with a simple comment such as “If you have a chance why don’t you look into ….”

• The operating Necessity: If a flood is threatening the plant, a project to build a protective dike does not require much formal evaluation.

• The competitive necessity: Many business schools are restructuring their undergraduate and MBA programs to stay competitive with the more forward looking  schools.

• Comparative benefit model: Sometime when it is necessary to choose one project from among and difficult to make clear comparison, the committee may think that some projects will benefit the firm more than others, even if they have no precise way to define or measure benefit.

# Major Numeric Models - NPV (Net Present Value), IRR (Internal Rate of Return), BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio), DRC (Domestic Resource Cost), POP (Pay out Period), PI (Profitability Index) etc.

# Project

A single time activity undertaken to achieve a specific objective in a specific time period

PMI – “Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service”.

# Characteristics of project:

• Purpose: A one time activity with a well-defined set of desired end results

• Life cycle: Project has a life cycle. From a slow beginning it they progress to buildup of size, then peak, begin a decline, and finally must be terminated.

• Interdependencies: Projects often interact with other projects being carried out simultaneously by their parent organization; but projects always interact with the parent organization’s standard, on going operations.

• Uniqueness: Every project has some elements that are unique. No two construction or R&D projects precisely alike.

• Conflict: Most PM lives in a world characterized by conflict. The major four parties or stakeholders (client, parent organization, project team and public) in any project define success and failure in different ways.

# Project management:

Project Management can be defined as the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of resources (people, equipment, material and information) to meet the technical, cost and time constraints of the project. – Chase and Aquilano

Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet stakeholders’ needs and expectation from a project -  PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge)

# Role of project managers

The role of project manager should be outlined in the project charter along with the purpose of the project. Some desirable project managers attributes are:1) Ability to select and develop an operational team. 2) Ability to lead. 3) Ability to anticipate problems, solve problems and make decisions. 4) Ability to integrate the project stakeholders. 5) Ability to negotiate and persuade. 6) Understand the environment within which the project is being managed. 7) Operational. 8) flexibility. 9) Ability to manage within an environment of constant change. 10) Ability to keep the client happy.

# A society comprises of three institutional context:

• State: comprises the system of legislative, judicial and executive.

• Market : the economic system that regulates the production, exchange and distribution of goods and services through pricing

• Civil Society: comprises those human groups and their organized activities that operate outside the formal mechanism of the state and the market

**  Institutional identification of a project:

# Some specific approaches to management developed in the 20th century also have significant contribution to overall understanding of management. That are: Scientific management, Administrative theory, Behavioral approach, Quantitative approach, System approach, Contingency approach.

# Comparison by Mathew J. Klemen 20th century to 21st century: