Reflect on the assigned readings for Week 1 and then type a two page paper regarding what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding.  Define and describe what you thought was worthy of your understanding in half a page, and then explain why you felt it was important, how you will use it, and/or how important it is in project management. After submitting your two page paper as an initial post in the "Reflection and Discussion Forum," then type at least two peer replies in response to your classmates posts (200 word minimum each). 

 Initial response is due Thursday by 11:59 PM EST.

Two (2) responses to other posts are due Saturday by 11:59 PM EST.

Responses:

response 1 for Nehl Lodhi:

Projects is a type of temporary endeavor that will used for the creation of products, services in a unique mode. Projects are mainly focused on customers, they help to develop solution for customers problems and resolve for goal clearance. Projects will be always in a complex mode there are mainly used for processing only once in a lifetime. Projects have some limitations that may be regarding budget, schedule and resources. There will be some characteristics involved in each project, some of the regular characters that seen in most of the projects are. Projects are helping to provide a philosophy and they also maintain some strategy for changing management. They will be with ad hoc endeavors which will be working with clear life cycle(Dennis Lock, 2007). 

Projects are acting as building blocks for both designing and execution process of organization. The main advantage of project will be they act as main reason for getting new products with much more improved services and organization processes even. Management of change is possible only understanding both philosophy and strategy of project that is involved in it. Both for the software and hardware projects success rate will be very low, failure rate will be approximately 65%. Technology based projects and programs are also not getting good profit rate, they are getting almost 30% of success rate which will be very low comparatively(Joseph Phillips, 2003).  Project plays a main role in product, services improvement, it also helps to shorten life cycles of product. Launching windows is possible with the project management. Complex and technical products are increasing highly by project implementation. 

Project life cycle contains different stages involved in development of project, these will be explained into four distinct phases: conceptualization, planning, execution, termination. All these phases are very essential for project development, each phase has different working process that combinedly helps to reach their goal.   There are some criteria that need to be fulfilled by the projects to get successful IT project finally, system quality needs to be high, information should maintain high quality, user satisfaction, impact on other individuals, impact on organizations. Here we got to know important details of project that includes with execution process, project management, time period etc. to complete the project successfully(Martin Stevens, 2002). 

References:

Dennis Lock (2007) Project Management (9th ed.) Gower Publishing, Ltd., 2007. ISBN 0-566-08772-3

Joseph Phillips (2003). PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide. McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. ISBN 0-07-223062-2 p.354.

Martin Stevens (2002). Project Management Pathways. Association for Project Management. APM Publishing Limited, 2002 ISBN 1-903494-01-X p.xxii

Response 2 for Mounika Vasireddy:

The important topics that the authors discussed in chapter 1 are why project management is important and key determinants of project’s success. Every organization has strategic goals and projects helps in achieving these goals. Managing projects is a difficult task and need a deeper understanding of project planning, scheduling, tracking, and communicating results. And project management helps in aligning the project goals with the organization’s strategic goals by ensuring to deliver right things that increases the organizational value. Therefore, it is important to effectively manage projects for organizational sustainability in this highly competitive environment.

The main goal of project management is to ensure all projects are being implemented according to established project management policies and procedures, develop capabilities, and continuously improving the project outcomes through lessons learned. Project management will provide a oversight of how the projects can be handled effectively and increase value (Antonio & Ludo, 2018). Without project management, there will be no direction for the teams to work on the project because there is no defined project plan. The team members will be under lot of pressure in understanding the objectives and completing different tasks. The project will be doomed and will not meet the established deadlines and deliverables expectations. Effective project management sets the expectations and help team members focus on the goals and complete the project without any confusion or chaos. With technical advancements, many organizations started using project management software that can help tackle complex projects. My organization is currently using Clarizen, which is a project management software which helps us in documenting user requirements, organize tasks, manage resources, costs, deliverables, and controlling and monitoring project progress. At the same time, there should also be a scientific approach in managing the tasks and achieving objectives by balancing the demands of the stakeholders ensuring that the purpose is achieved. By using the project management methods defined in PMBOK guidelines, organizations can ensure that projects are being implemented as per established procedures and policies.

Many factors influence project performance that will make the project successful or failure. According to the textbook, the main determinants of project success are time, budget, quality and project performance. An organization can achieve goals based on project performance. It is important to continuously monitor project performance based on established or approved timelines, budget, scope and quality. Project can be successful if delivered on time, budget, within scope, and stakeholder satisfaction. All projects are often based on 3 different and important constraints- time, budget, and quality. A change in one of these constraints will automatically impact other two. There is often trade-off between these constraints in order to manage stakeholder requirements and achieve project success. Project constraints always occur, and project management will help deal with them strategically by carefully reviewing the changes by weighing on the impact that they would have. Certain changes can be made to the project plan based on the evaluation thereby controlling budget or timeline overruns. Poor planning and monitoring may often result in the budget overruns and meeting project deadlines. By using these concepts, I will be able to manage my testing projects taking into consideration all key factors will help the project manager to implement projects without impacting the success of the project.

Reference

Antonio, N., Ludo, V. (January 2018). How Boards Can Create Lasting Value Through Strategic Project Oversight. NACD Directorship. Vol. 44 Issue 1, p40-41. 2p

Pinto, J.K. (2019). Project Management: Achieving Competitive Advantage (5th ed). Boston: Pearson.