Question 1
Top-down Planning Approach for Complex Projects
Introduction(150 words)
Project planning is a necessary process that helps a great deal in defining the project goals, clarifying its scope, and responsible for developing assignment lists for respective stakeholders. Deliberation of project tasks indicates that success is deemed to be possible. To meet the objectives and stakeholders requirements while undertaking the complex project, there is need to adopt vital planning approaches that best suits the task (Sharon & Dori, 2014, p. 370). Top-down approach proves to be efficient in molding the final deliverable to smaller chunks of attainable goals in project execution.
Top-down planning approached favors project execution in controlled environments in limited time. This is because decision making processes are eased by the upper management’s capabilities to ensure that the goals they formulate are definite. The consensus of resource planning and funding is easily reached upon definition of each of the stakeholders roles in the project. It is, therefore, vital to agree to the fact that Top-down planning approach is good for complex projects in controlled environments
Main body (5000 words)
Top-down approach stands out to be an important approach that is mostly used in planning of complex projects .Complex projects in controlled environments require proper formulation of goals that help to define the strategic objectives of an organization. Top-down approach in planning, therefore, considers formulation of informative goals by the uppermanagement. It is practical that the upper management constitutes of personnel with vast experiences in dealing with complexprojects (Ahern, Leavy & Byrne, 2014, p. 1380). When there is limited time, top-down approach is mostly tenable by the senior management. For example, construction engineers can make use of this approach to come up with decisions that will definitely control the processes of the project.
Top-down approach in planning offers a definitive space for resource planning and funding in advance. It serves to facilitate completion of complex projects in time because of availability of these resources. A consensus is easily reached by informed upper management team who sees the future in facilitating the project’sprocesses (Pissourios, 2014, p. 90). An organized manner of communication of the defined goals to the relevant stakeholders is necessary for complexprojects. This is attained through adoption of top-down approach used in project planning. Forinstance, authoritative voices of experienced senior managers help in quick decision making when financial resources are needed for project implementation.
More importantly, top-down approach ensures that the project team is given the assignments that befit their qualifications. In this case, quality of work is enhanced and project success is deemed to be possible. The strengths of team members are considerable factors that are considered while adopting top-down approach in planning processes (Heravi, Coffey & Trigunarsyah, 2015, p. 990). This comes in tandem the executive’s roles to assess the feasibility and scope of the project based on its complexity. Adoption of this approach is also indicative that the stakeholders are made aware of the intended project goals hence will work to attain productivity while executing the project plans. Failure to consider assignment of roles based on experience and strengths depicts that the project managers have failed in their responsibility and the project is at the verge of collapsing. For example, in construction firm, the stakeholders with expertise in metal work should be assigned the tasks to ensure that metals used in construction are strong and durable.
Further, Top-down approach is good for complex projects because eliminates time-consuming and complex coordination of assignments.This is through direct dependence on the sub-goals formulated by the upper management in correspondence to overall strategic goals of the project. Complexprojects customarily need quality time in execution of the assigned tasks through adoption of agreed resource planning and funding techniques. Consultation time with the team members is seen to take a lot of time that would otherwise be used in realization of project’s goals (Senescu, Aranda-Mena & Haymaker, 2013, p. 190). The upper management team, say, an IT company, might consider to facilitate planning of resources as they make the project’s goals upon agreement of the intended amount.
Conclusion (100 words)
To this end, it is essential to note that adoption of top-down planning approach is beneficial for complex projects in controlled environments. From the discussion above, it is indicative that ease and quality formulation of definitive goals by the upper management helps to relate to the scope of the project. There is no doubt about success of complex projects when top-down approach is used by the upper management to deliberate on resources needed to execute project’s tasks. Effectiveness of the Top-down planning approach is, consequently, considered to yield to attainment of certain goals by the project management.
References
Ahern, T., Leavy, B. and Byrne, P.J., 2014. Complex project management as complex problem solving: A distributed knowledge management perspective. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1371-1381.
Heravi, A., Coffey, V. and Trigunarsyah, B., 2015. Evaluating the level of stakeholder involvement during the project planning processes of building projects. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.985-997.
Pissourios, I., 2014. Top-down and bottom-up urban and regional planning: Towards a framework for the use of planning standards. European Spatial Research and Policy, 21(1), pp.83-99.
Senescu, R.R., Aranda-Mena, G. and Haymaker, J.R., 2013. Relationships between project complexity and communication. Journal of Management in Engineering, 29(2), pp.183-197.
Sharon, A. and Dori, D., 2014. A Project–product model–based approach to planning work breakdown structures of complex system projects. IEEE Systems Journal, 9(2), pp.366-376.
Question 2
Reasons to Resist Changes to the Project Baseline
Introduction
The starting point of a project plan in project management is defined as the baseline. It stands out to be a reference point that aids in comparing and measuring of the project’s progress (Vanhoucke, 2013, p. 20). More pointedly, project baseline constitutes three elements that include scope, cost and schedule. Monitoring and controlling of the project baselines are fundamental to keep them integrated in the project’s performance index.
Dynamics in the project baselines implies that the whole processes in the project are rescheduled to accommodate the changes. This is because of possible recurrence of such radical changes that might alter with the project’s baseline (Acebes et al., 2014, p. 425). The stakeholders and the project’s clients are responsible for coming up with negotiations that the project managers ought to resist them. In this case, consultation among the responsible members of the project management is needed to help in attaining approval to change the baselines. This paper, therefore, agrees to the fact that project managers should resist to the baselines as to enhance efficient execution of the project
Main Body
The project management executives should withstand the changes to the project baselines so as to avoid unnecessary deviations in the project. Failure to control over the project’s scope, time needed toaccomplish the laid down tasks and irregular costs incurred upon adopting unplanned changes leads to reduced performance of the project. Itinsinuates that the project’s team has failed to achieve the targeted goals. Deviations that occur during project execution can be combated if the project management team comes up with decisions to turn down the baselines in the project. For instance, in the IT related projects, coming up with newer software through re-negotiation processes between the project owners and the stakeholders means investment on unnecessary budget is alleviated.
The project executives should also consider resisting dynamics in relation to the project’s baselines because it destroys the project’s reputation. Unprofessionalism cases negatively taint the project’s image hence resulting to its failure. It is indicative that the managers failed to attend to the full requirements of project execution while engaging with the other project members. In this case, the project managers should at all cost focus to withstand changes to the project baselines (Kerzner, 2017). Resisting changes will aid in retaining of the original schedule of the project so that a lot of time is saved in enhancing performance in the project (Lundy, 2013, p. 60). For example, the construction projects have definitive goals to come up with beautiful designs that impress the owners of the project and if the changes are often accepted, achievement of these goals will delay hence creating conflicts among the project’s stakeholders.
Changes to the project’s baselines should be resisted because it will serve to frustrate the responsible stakeholders in the project team. The project team will lose the motivation to offer reproducible resultswhen the changes prove to overwhelm the project management team Resisting the changes by the project managers to this effect will therefore ease the stakeholders needs to attend to the assigned roles positively hence attainment of successful results. The changes will impact on the financial resources allocation to the project as a lot of money will be used to correct the changes (Carvalho and Rabechini Junior, 2015, p. 320). This means that extra workforce will also be required to attend to the needs of these changes hence draining the human resources’ efforts. It is worth noting that some projects such as those involved in renovation of a kitchen should have streamlined activities so as to avoid possible deviations. The project manager in this case will need to withstand changes that come later after the renovation process starts so as to avoid incurring unnecessary costs in the project.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the project managers have the greatest responsibilities to resist changes that are related to the project baselines. The projects’ preamble is necessitated by baselines that need to be protected against numerous changes in order to record tremendous performance .From the discussion, resisting these dynamics will help a great deal in alleviating unnecessarydeviations of the project that significantly alters with the scope, timing and costs of the project. Additionally, the paper discussed on alteration of the project’s reputation upon failure to resist changes to the project’s baselines. Dynamics of baselines drains the project team capabilities to attain the predetermined goals in the project.
References
Acebes, F., Pajares, J., Galán, J.M. and López-Paredes, A., 2014. A new approach for project control under uncertainty. Going back to the basics. International Journal of Project Management, 32(3), pp.423-434.
Carvalho, M.M.D. and Rabechini Junior, R., 2015. Impact of risk management on project performance: the importance of soft skills. International Journal of Production Research, 53(2), pp.321-340.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lundy, V., 2013. Project leadership influences resistance to change: The case of the Canadian public service. Project Management Journal, 44(4), pp.45-64.
Vanhoucke, M., 2013. Project baseline scheduling: An overview of past experiences. Journal of Modern Project Management, 1(2), pp.18-27.
Appendices
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