Lecture 1

Project management approaches:

Agile-waterfall-Scrum-Extreme programming

Agile

It is software advancement that is focused on ensuring an accumulative, repetitive approach. This approach gives an alternative methodology to planning. Instead of the usual in-depth strategic planning   before beginning a project, agile procedure is flexible and open to alteration in various factors at different time periods and also facilitates and motivates feedback from end consumers. Various groups work on constants of particular products within a certain period of time. The activities of the group are arranged in a backlog that prioritizes commerce and client values. The objective of each and every constant is to come up with a workable commodity (Lester, 2007).

Agility is meant to stimulate leadership and group a work among different team member’s accountability and transparency. Social interaction and communication are some of the benefits that also come from an agile approach (Lester, 2007).

Agile refers to a process that facilitates alignment of concepts within its manifesto. It is based on various principles: satisfaction of the clients; flexibility while changing any function and it is easy and friendly to use in order to enable people to utilize it daily. One of the advantage of agile methodology is its flexibility. The brief expansion cycles of interactive modelling processes helps it to give a more flexible point of pivoting when it is required to. It separates the entire project into small workable chunks that can be handled with ease (Lester, 2007).

Waterfall

This a very common method of developing software. A project is   broken down into definite small parts that are then finished in order. It name signifies a continuous workflow. Each stage is different form the other. Software development takes place within this distinct phases. Each phase is completed before moving to the next. One cannot proceed to the next phase if he has not completed the previous phase. Stages of implementation are: concept-initiate-evaluate-designing-code-examine-result-maintain.One of the main advantage of waterfall is its predictability in terms of the work plan (Young, 2006).

Scrum

It is a type of agile advancement that utilizes specific managerial procedures in a group environment. It pinpoints to motivating and promoting team work and advances in working within small manageable teams. Scrum plays three major roles namely: a scrum a leader who is in charge of coming up with a team; owner of commodity who is in charge off coming up with a backlog and iteration and the actual team that prioritizes its work and ensures their goals are achieved collectively as a team .The work flow of a scrum: sprint (iteration)-products’ backlog-sprints backlog-working on backlog-examination-product and functionality. Scrum does not allow changes in their sprints (Young, 2006).

Extreme programming group focuses on strictly prioritized organized projects. Characters that are to be created are given priority by the customer themselves and the team is supposed to implement them in a similar manner that has been suggested by the customer.  This technique assists when there is continuous change in conditions as per the customers’ requirements. The project format is determined by the manger (Young, 2006).

Lecture 2

Project management framework, core concepts and principles

A project management framework is a combination of various procedures and activities that assist in the management of project from the beginning to the end. A summary of this framework is: start up-plan-execute-manage-monitor-terminate. Each phase has certain activities that one must effectively complete. The project structure should be able to bring out quality, capital and time needed. The project goals should be in line with the activities that are supposed to be carried out. This also enables to know the total package of the entire project (Heagney, 2011).

A project’s organization and time chronology gives it the flow and work ethic it needs. It also makes its objectives clear. A proper timeline gives a project a visual interpretation and dictates the pace and the end of the project (Heagney, 2011).The milestone that a certain project makes is supposed to indicate cost and outcome of the project. Milestones of a project defines phases of a project and signals places that need improvement (Lester, 2007).

 

Lecture three

Planning sets the pace for a project. It elaborates on how to complete a particular project within a certain stipulated period, usually in certain phases and procedures. Project planning sets the measurable objectives; identifies and isolates results and corrects failures. It also decides how the scheduling is to be done and creates a support system (Heagney, 2011).

Risk

Even the most organized project can run into a risk that has the magnitude of bringing it down. Risks are caused by unexpected challenges that the project is likely to face while establishing it. Risks can occur when a team in charge of the project falls sick or when they run out of capital that is supposed to drive and support the project. Challenges can always be anticipated and management properly .Although not all risks are negative, measures need to be taken to curb and control them. There are various ways of dealing with risks. A project manager can avoid a risk which is one of the best ways of handling a risk. Secondly, mitigation comes in when one cannot avoid a risk. Mitigating involves taking some action that reduces the impacts of the risks. Thirdly transferring the risk is commonly applied through an insurance company .Finances from an insurance cover will ensure quick recovery in case of any risk befalls a project. The last method is through acceptance of the risk. When all the methods described above fail, acceptance shows one has tried all the alternatives ways of handling the risk but it has not worked out. The quality of a project depends on the manner in which various factors have been handled. Quality is determined by how the project was finished and the requirements that assisted in finishing the project (Heagney, 2011).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

Heagney, J. (2011). Fundamentals of Project Management. New York: AMACOM.

Lester, A. (2007). Project management, planning and control: Managing engineering, construction and manufacturing projects to PMI, APM and BSI standards. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann/Elsevier.

Young, T. L. (2006). Successful project management. London: Kogan Page Ltd.