Concepts Of Project Management Essays Examples

1. Productivity refers to the relationship between the output generated by a production or service system and the input provided to create such output. Hence, productivity refers to the efficient use of resources, such as land, labor, capital and machinery in the efficient production of various goods . Higher productivity accomplishes more with the same amount of resources. Time is a good denominator of productivity as it is a universal measurement and beyond human control. The less time taken to achieve the desired result, the more is the productivity. Productivity enables to compare production at different levels of the economic system.
Productivity takes into account various factors, such as increase in the cost of energy and raw materials along with a concern for unemployment and the quality of working life. Productivity does not always go with profits since goods produced efficiently are not necessarily in demand. Productivity matters because it enables to evaluate economic performance and quality of output of an organization . It helps to analyze the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization. Productivity measurement refers to the average of labor and capital productivity weighted and adjusted to price fluctuations.
2 Technology impacts the global operations of a business on a large scale. A multinational firm likely has multinational customers who receive the same level of service through the integration of operations with the aid of websites and technology. Technological advances drive the organizations by rapidly changing the business environment, practices and relationships. Technology helps to decrease the cost of production by reducing the labor through the automation of the processes. Various software tools enable the businesses to reduce the complexity of the business operations on a global level. Locking in the customers and suppliers through information technology is a viable strategy of competitive advantage over other organizations. Technology impacts business in terms of high cost savings, economies of scale, high skilled labor at lower cost and helps to merge the internal and external information of the organizations worldwide . It reduces barriers in terms of costs related to communication and transportation through the use of remote software applications.
3. The various constraints of a project are time, cost, scope, human resource, quality and risk. Time decides the period of completion of the project. Cost constraint fixes a certain amount of budget for the project. While scope defines the specific functionality of the project, quality defines whether or not the project meets the quality standards. Risk refers to the possible risks that might result in a project failure, which are acceptable to the customer. Human resource constraint refers to the number of people required to complete the project successfully with the available time period and budget .
Change in a particular constraint would definitely impact the other constraints. For example, in a project, if there is a change in the human resource, it would obviously impact the time and cost constraints. While increasing the human resource would lead to an increase in the cost and decrease in the time, decreasing the human resource would increase the time and decrease the cost. Similarly, compromising on the quality constraint impacts the risk constraint. Thus, any change in a single constraint would impact the other constraints on a large scale.
4. Forecasting is a technique to plan the future activities of the project based on the past data. It is a qualitative technique based on which a project team can plan, execute and control its activities. Forecasting helps to project the future trends and helps the team to decide their targets and goals. It increases the operating efficiency and optimizes the costs by controlling the budget of the project. As forecasting specifies the future demands, it reduces the costs in terms of readjustment of operations. Forecasting plays an important role in strategic and operational planning and reduces the risks of decision making .
For example, if a forecast is necessary on the production of renewable energy, the Delphi method includes a panel of experts. The coordinator obtains responses from the experts until he gets an appropriate solution. Since the experts belong to diverse backgrounds, they view the issue in their individual perspective, which helps to avoid conflict of personality and dominance by a particular expert over the others. The Delphi method also helps to obtain the results in a quicker way and enables quicker decision making.
6. Quality refers to the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements. It is the outcome of well-planned and researched combination of the features of a product or service . Quality is a complex and key aspect of business management and success of an organization. Quality of a product refers to its fitness for use. A product which is usable and meets all the given specifications is a good quality product. Quality also aims at customer satisfaction. A quality product enchants and delights the customer. It is a quantifiable or measurable characteristic of a product in terms of its reliability and durability. The highest value product is not usually the best value.
There are different perspectives in referring to a product as a high quality. In the field of marketing, quality concerns about performance and features, and focuses on the concern of the customers. In terms of engineering, quality concerns about specifications and product-based concerns. Though there is nothing that states high quality, the term refers to the value of the product. For a business, a high quality product refers to a safe and reliable product.
8. Location plays an important role in impacting the factors, such as finance, employment and distribution patterns. If I were the project manager, I would focus on various factors that would influence the location of the university, which include availability of land for present and future needs, cost of the land, closeness to the central location of the city, availability of resources, such as labor and raw materials, availability of communication facilities and many others . The location should also offer transportation facilities in order to attract the students. It should offer a residential environment for the students and modes of recreation so that the students can relax during the weekends and holidays.
The location should be free from pollution and offer a decent academic life to the students. It should also have a dispensary nearby for emergencies. The location should have an ample amount of space for library, playground and sports. It should also have facilities nearby that offer raw materials for the construction of the university. It should offer all facilities that are essential for a student to spend a quality time at the university.
9. Layout decisions are important because they include greater flexibility and better utilization of resources. They enable the sharing of specialized and costly equipments. The layout decisions cause less vulnerability in terms of breakdown and involve a larger inventory build-up. The decisions help to understand the key factors that lead to layout design and help to tackle with the nature of issues. Also, they help to decide the best layout option depending on the circumstances.
A group technology layout is the best option for a group of ten students working as a project team. Such a layout seeks to exploit the commonality in the group by grouping the students on the basis of their tasks . The layout ensures that each row has a certain number of students. It is manageable and involves independent rows of students. In a group technology layout, planning and control become simpler and easier. Moreover, students would be able to relate better and make concentrated improvements in the process. Also, the layout helps to implement several operations management practices, such as small group improvement activities.
10. Talent management assessment refers to the recruitment, development and retention of individuals who consistently deliver superior performance. It is a corporate approach to assess and employ talented individuals within the organization. Talent management assessment helps large enterprises to assess the quality of their business practitioners over a planned period. The various reasons for assessing the employees are optimizing the workforce, identification of candidates in line for promotion, recognizing the top performers within the organization and training needs analysis .
Talent management assessment enables decision making criteria, delegation, motivation and leadership. It also aims at managing change within the organization. It emphasizes on the need to set realistic targets and goals for the employees, thereby leading to appraisal, counseling and coaching . In order to become a project manager, one needs to possess good communication and decision making skills. He needs to have great leadership skills and ability to control large number of employees in terms of both productivity as well as performance. A project manager must possess knowledge about the organization and its processes. He needs to have a good sense of critical thinking in order to take quick and effective decisions.

References

Davis, T., Cutt, M., Flynn, N., Mowl, P., & Orme, S. (2008). Talent Assessment: A New Strategy for Talent Management. Gower Publishing, Ltd.
Gong, Y. (2013). Global Operations Strategy: Fundamentals and Practice. Springer Science & Business Mediaa.