Project Management: Structuring Projects and Work Breakdown Structures - Prof. W.Douglas C, Study notes of Production and Operations Management

Download Project Management: Structuring Projects and Work Breakdown Structures - Prof. W.Douglas C and more Study notes Production and Operations Management in PDF only on Docsity! The dopest of dopest, smoke but don’t choke bitch, on it Operations Finals Notes Project Management  Project : A series of related jobs usually directed toward some major output and requiring a significant period of time to perform  Project Management : Planning, directing, and controlling resources (people, equipment, material) to meet the technical, cost, and time constraints of the project  STRUCTURING PROJECTS – Senior management must decide which of the three organizational structures will be used to tie the project to the parent firm: pure project, functional project, or matrix project o Pure Project : (skunkworks) A self-contained team works full time on the project  Advantages  The project manager has full authority over the project  Team members report to one boss. They do not have to worry about dividing loyalty  Lines of communication are shortened. Decisions are made quickly  Team pride, motivation, and commitment are high  Disadvantages  Duplication of resources. Equipment and people are not shared across projects.  Organizational goals and policies are ignored, as team members are often both physically and psychologically removed (not included?) from headquartes  The organization falls behind in its knowledge of new technology due to weakened functional divisions  Since team members have no functional area home, they worry about life- after-project, causing project termination to be delayed o Functional Project : Housing the project within a functional division  Advantages  A team member can work on several projects  Technical expertise is maintained within the functional area even if individuals leave the project or organization  The functional are is a home after the project is completed. Functional specialists can advance vertically  A critical mass of specialized functional-area experts creates synergistic solutions to a project’s technical problems  Disadvantages  Aspects of the project that are not directly related to the functional area get short-changed  Motivation of team members is often weak  Needs of the client are secondary and are responded to slowly o Matrix Project : Specialized organizational form attempts to blend properties of functional and pure project structures. Each project utilizes people from different functional areas.  Project manager(PM) decides what tasks and when they will be performed, but functional managers control which people and technologies are used.  Different projects borrow resources from functional areas  Senior management decides if matrix form is weak, balanced, or strong. This decides if project managers have little, equal, or more authority than functional managers (Respectably?)  Advantages  Communication between functional divisions is enhanced  A project manager is held responsible for successful completion of the project (Are they not for pure)  Duplication of resources is minimized  Team members have a functional home after project completion, causing them to be less worried about life-after-project like they are with Pure  Policies of the parent organization are followed. This increases support for the projects  Disadvantages  2 Bosses. Functional manager usually has more power because they can promote and give raises  It is doomed to failure unless PM has strong negotiating skills  Suboptimization is a danger. PM’s hold resources for their own project, thus harming other projects o Project manager is the primary contact point with the customer (all structures)  WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE o Project start out as Statement of work (SOW): written description of the objectives to be achieved, with a brief statement of the work to be done and a proposed schedule specifying the start and completion dates. Also can contain; performance measures in terms of budget and completion steps (Milestones) and the written reports to be supplied o Task : Further subdivision of a project. Not longer than several months in duration and is performed by one group or organization.  Subtask : Used if needed to further subdivide the project into more meaningful pieces o Work Package : Group of activities combined to be assignable to a single organizational unit.  Provides a description of what is done, when is it to be done, when it is to be started and completed, the budget, measures of performance, and specific events to be reached at points in time.  Project milestones : Specific events. Typically things like; completion of the design, the production of a prototype, the completed testing of the prototype, and the approval of a pilot run o Work breakdown structure (WBS): The hierarchy of project tasks, subtasks, and work packages. See 10.2 pg. 341 How much detail or how many levels to use depends on:  The level at which a single individual or organization can be assigned responsibility and accountability for accomplishing the work package  The level at which budget and cost data will be collected during the project  Not a single correct WBS for any project. Project management is an art not science. Correct way depends on experience  Activities : Pieces of work that consume time. Usually require use of effort by people but not always (Waiting for paint to dry). A part of WBS; must be defined in such a way that when activities are completed, project is done  PROJECT CONTROL CHARTS See 10.4 pg 343– US deperatment of defense one of the first large users of project management. They have published variety of helpful standard form. Computer programs generate these charts fast as fuck o Gantt chart : Bar Chart: Shows both the amount of time involved and the sequence in which activities can be performed.