Project Goals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Project Goals - Essay Example One of the simplest concepts from project management that I learned that is very important for the functionality of a project is the fact that projects are tracked based on deliverables. The sequence of deliverables determines the project map. In the first round of the simulation I had to create a sequence of deliverables needed to transport the elephants from Zaminaka National Park to Ungoba National Park. The exercise of creating a sequence of activities was an example of a work breakdown structure. I learned from the simulation that project managers have to adapt to the situations based on circumstances and that minimizing risks is important in order to improve the possibilities of successfully completing a project. Project managers must make decisions based on tradeoffs between time, cost, and performance. The simulation shows that despite all the planning unforeseen circumstances occur. A reality about the business world is that a lot of projects are going to fail. In the pharma ceutical industry it takes approximately $800 million dollar to develop a new drug due to the cost of all the failed new drug projects the company has to absorb. The expenses that a company incurs in a failed project are considered sunk costs (Economist). The use of work breakdown structures is an advantage of the application of project management. WBS enables the project manager to accurately track the time of completion of many deliverables. Even if a project has over 100 deliverables to be completed the correct implementation of a work breakdown structure will ensure that the project manager can manage time and cost of the project effectively. A major limitation that was illustrated throughout the simulation was time. When a project gets delays it causes a ripple effect that affects all future deliverables of a project. Time becomes more sensitive when dealing with the health of live creatures. It is the responsibility of mankind to protect the animal kingdom and the endangered s pecies. Another advantage of the use of project management is that it provides a flexible leadership structure that employees understand. The project manager is the person responsible of the project, but he depends on the self-discipline and leadership skills of all the team members. Project management also offers advantages to a corporation such as the ability to separate special projects away from the normal operations of the firm. A project manager can focus on the performance of a specific project without worrying about the implication the project has on the corporation as a whole. A way to minimize the effects of bottlenecks on an operation is by performing adequate preparation. It is important to categorize the different types of bottlenecks. Seven types of bottlenecks are staffing, budget, people issues, client dependencies, vendor dependencies, task completion, and process dependencies (Sisco). Once bottlenecks are identified the project manager can develop contingency plans to deal with different scenarios based on each bottleneck category. All the alternative solutions to deal with different types of bottlenecks must be documented by the project manager. As a project manager if I was required to crunch a project and I had to select between sacrificing risks or time I would sacrifice the risk variable. Once a risk is identified even if a company incur in the risky behavior there are ways to minimize the e