Project management assignment essay on: Business model for the project manager

Introduction

To understand why modern project managers need to comprehend business models, the modern project management and the roles of the modern project manager will be discussed in this report.  A modern project manager is responsible for a project completely for making it a success. It doesn’t have to follow any hierarchical line of management (Wallace, 2007). Project management involves various stages and processes and is a complicated undertaking, and it requires following the complete business lifecycle from definition till end. The role of project manager is to deliver desired results, so he needs to comprehend with supporting processes and rules and also various business models. Today’s managers are interested in evolving a best practice around project management within their organizations. Some of this interest stems from the economy and the need to do more with less – reduced timelines to get a product/service to market to increase revenue, smaller budgets to get projects completed, and reduced project management staff due to layoffs and/or restructuring. However, exactly what a “best practice” means is different from organization to organization and in many situations, within the organization the definition of a “best practice” differs from department to department or business unit to business unit. Many organizations are unsure how to go about defining what a “best practice” means for their organization as a whole and how to effectively go about developing a best practice that works for their organization. This paper will focus on the importance of developing a project management mindset – and therefore a best practice – within an organization; including the steps necessary to take to reach the end goal and how to get buy-in from key players within the organization to ensure success(Abudi, 2009).

Who is the customer of a project? Generically, the customer is the entity to which the deliverables are actually delivered. In an externally contracted project, the customer is easily identified. In an in-house project, the customer is the executive authorizing both the initiation of the project and the money allocated to it. In either case, the customer is the one with the right to complain when the performance measures of scope, time, and budget are not met(Tucker, 2012).

A modern project manager needs to monitor the anticipated results and need to make arrangement for the delivery of required results (Wallace, 2007). The processes and stages followed in the current project management were not followed in the traditional projects. A project starts with planning and in between involves various stages such as quality management, risk management, scope and change control, issue management, configuration, documentation, team building, 3C (cooperation, coordination and collaboration) management, organizational change management etc till the delivery of the result. And a project manager is held responsible for all the processes of the projects and for the success of the project (Wallace, 2007).

Innovation, what is now required in the current scenario, be it a product, service or any project. And sustainability is also required along with innovation for any business. According to(Whang, 2008), the fundamental requirement for any business today is sustainability and development of competitive advantage. A business model is a “conceptual tool that contains a big set of elements and their relationships and allows expressing the business logic of a specific firm. It is a description of the value a company offers to one or several segments of customers and of the architecture of the firm and its network of partners for creating, marketing, and delivering this value and relationship capital, to generate profitable and sustainable revenue streams”.— Osterwalder , Pigneur and Tucci (2005) in (Whang, 2008).

Reason for the need of business models

Today’s managers are interested in evolving a best practice around project management within their organizations. Some of this interest stems from the economy and the need to do more with less – reduced timelines to get a product/service to market to increase revenue, smaller budgets to get projects completed, and reduced project management staff due to layoffs and/or restructuring. However, exactly what a “best practice” means is different from organization to organization and in many situations, within the organization the definition of a “best practice” differs from department to department or business unit to business unit. Many organizations are unsure how to go about defining what a “best practice” means for their organization as a whole and how to effectively go about developing a best practice that works for their organization. This paper will focus on the importance of developing a project management mindset – and therefore a best practice – within an organization; including the steps necessary to take to reach the end goal and how to get buy-in from key players within the organization to ensure success(Abudi, 2009). The organisations desire to develop best practices to fulfill following needs:

• Effective management
• The projects are required to be aligned with that of orgnisational goal
• Tracking of project reports and status
• Cost control

The success of any project depends on how the orgaisation is accomplishing the strategic goals of the firm facing the changing environment, market and competition.

In a survey it was investigated why does projects fail, and the response got was, when asked about the key challenges faced in a project, then 50% of the respondents said due to incomplete requirement definition supplied, 17% said risk management is inadequate, some viewed lack of proper communication, some said poor scope control (Egeland, 2009). As discussed above, a project manager is held responsible for the success or failures of the project, but when the survey results were comprehended, it was found it not only the project manager who is responsible but also the business analyst. In a project, the parties generally involved are a sponsor, a customer, an intermediary between customer and the project manager and a project manager. But the project manager is the incharge of any project, but it does not mean that he has to complete the project but has to coordinate, cooperate with his team to complete the job. This requires negotiating and persuasive skills in a project manager. And business models helps in creating a common learning about the business essentials of the project. A business model according to (Egeland, 2009), is required in a project for the following reasons:

• To elicit requirements: Business models are required in any project not for the execution purpose but for understanding the requirements, and bridging the gap between customers and the project manager.
• For documentation: Business requirement documentation is the duty of a business analyst and it is to be shared with the project manager.
• Structured analysis
• Object oriented analysis
• Testing
• End user support

According to (Whang, 2008),  “project management is the discipline of Business Operation and its critical value is: planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives,following to classic project constraints—usually scope, quality, time and budget, integrated with enterprise strategy and business model”.

A project manager is the core for the connection between other departments, both internally and externally. He is also responsible for maintaining cooperation, coordination and collaboration in the project.

Today’s managers are interested in evolving a best practice around project management within their organizations. Some of this interest stems from the economy and the need to do more with less – reduced timelines to get a product/service to market to increase revenue, smaller budgets to get projects completed, and reduced project management staff due to layoffs and/or restructuring. However, exactly what a “best practice” means is different from organization to organization and in many situations, within the organization the definition of a “best practice” differs from department to department or business unit to business unit. Many organizations are unsure how to go about defining what a “best practice” means for their organization as a whole and how to effectively go about developing a best practice that works for their organization. This paper will focus on the importance of developing a project management mindset – and therefore a best practice – within an organization; including the steps necessary to take to reach the end goal and how to get buy-in from key players within the organization to ensure success(Abudi, 2009).

It has been investigated that to manage changes in the environment and the business culture, a project manager is required to comprehend business models (Tucker, 2012):

Conclusion

Thus, it is vital to remember that it is highly likely that the organization has some consistent processes and best practices in place. Even if they are informal and not known widely throughout the organization you want to understand what processes exist, who “owns” them, do they truly represent a best practice and, if so, how they might be incorporated organization-wide(Abudi, 2009). A modern project manager needs to monitor the anticipated results and need to make arrangement for the delivery of required results (Wallace, 2007). The processes and stages followed in the current project management were not followed in the traditional projects. A project starts with planning and in between involves various stages such as quality management, risk management, scope and change control, issue management, configuration, documentation, team building, 3C (cooperation, coordination and collaboration) management, organizational change management etc till the delivery of the result. And a project manager is held responsible for all the processes of the projects and for the success of the project (Wallace, 2007).

A project manager is responsible for the accomplishment of the project.. This is not to say that the manager actually does the work, but rather that he/she is the coordinator of all relevant activities through delegation. In many cases, this manager may not possess expertise in the field, but rather possesses the skills to oversee a large number of diverse tasks and to identify the best-qualified employees to carry out the tasks. The manager should exercise judgment in assigning tasks; seasoned professionals will expect to accomplish the tasks according to their knowledge and experience, while others may require much definition and direction. In some cases, the project manager’s ability to accomplish the job depends on negotiating and persuasive skills.

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