Decision Making in Project Management

This essay explains the importance of decision making in project management with the help of certain theories and models. It covers the risks in project management, theories of decision making, and a framework of decision making for project managers. The essay also discusses the significance of fuzzy decision making in project management.

Decision Making in Project Management
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Table of Contents
ntroductionI .............................................................................................................................................3
Main odyB .............................................................................................................................................3
Risks in project management............................................................................................................3
heories of decision making in project managementT ........................................................................3
ramework of decision making for project managersF .......................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................6
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Introduction
roject management is a discipline which demands very high and precise skills of decision making tP . I
also uses the help of digital tools and analogues to help the project managers in talking decisions
which are in favour of successful accomplishment of projects Any project has three major.
constraints cost ti me and scope and any difference in the stipulated values of these constraints may– , ,
impact the outcomes of the projects Al Araki( 2006). roject management thrives on the rationality ofP
the process of decision making and therefore it is very important for the project managers to,
develop a process of decision making which enables them to think rationally about different aspects of
the project Risk management is an important aspect of project management and the skill of.
decision making is required by the project managers to take the company out of the risks Sullivan(O’
2015). he decision theory has a significant role to play in project management he essay e plainsT . T x
the importance of decision making in project management with the help of certain theories and
models Decision making prevents the organization from project related risks and helps them to gain.
success in every company operation.
Main Body
Risks in project management
n project management decisions are required to overcome the risks generated due to threeI ,
constraints Schedule can the schedule of the project activities be changed can the milestones be- ( ,
eliminated or can the activities be skipped uality how much quality functionality and number of), Q ( ,
users are required for the project and Cost can the cost be reduced for a particular segment of the) (
project can over cost be accepted and can the scope of project be changed within the e pected cost, x
range hese risks need to be evaluated by the project managers here are a number of tools and). T . T
techniques available today that may help the project managers to evaluate the risks Atkinson( 1999).
Theories of decision making in project management
here are a number of theories of decision making which are used by project managers he mostT . T
common theories which are used are ownsend s theory ame theory ti lity theory Resource basedT ’ , G , U ,
theory and Contingency theory he, . T Townsend’s theory suggests that there is nothing like a good or
bad decision but a decision is influenced by good or bad analysis before taking the decision Verburg( ,
osch Sijtsema and VartiainenB - 2013). heT Game theory is highly used in the oil and gas industry due
to its multi criterion nature and is suitable for the highly comple process of decision making he- x . T
utility theory allows the decision maker to assess the risk attitude and it is compulsory to conduct the
cost benefit analysis for using this theory of decision making he decision is taken by the project. T
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manager after analysing the economic data historical data and condition utility and probability functions, .
heT Resource based theory focuses on decision making with regard to management and marketing,
and production management and operation his theory is highly utilized in project management to. T
understand the ways in which resources can increase the competitive advantage and gain a higher
value from investments Suda et al( , . 2015). Contingency theory is the most widely used theory in
project management out of all t helps the company to make decisions related to the. I
environmental fi t of the organization and project with the environment t is widely used by; . I
organizations in risk management and needs to be highly implemented to analyse project failures t. I
identifies the fi t between the managerial organizations and the contingencies which may improve the
efficiency of the organizations anisch and ald(H W 2012).
Framework of decision making for project managers
here are a number of techniques used by project managers to identify and evaluate the risks in newT
projects and after evaluation they need to take effective measures to overcome those risks in an effective
manner his leads the project manager and his team to the comple path of decision making he. T x . T
project manager needs to make decisions to reduce the level of risks or to eliminate the risks he. T
authors modelled a process of decision making to help the project managers take these decisions in
accordance with the system decision making theories he project managers can use the data. T
processing and reasoning capabilities for making the decisions in favour of the project A decision.
making framework based on risk identification and continuous project improvement has been created by
the authors idel autier and Duchamp(G , G 2005).
he decision making has a huge significance in project management in terms of Multi criteriaT -
performance analysis of the team and the steps of the project which have been performed hey. T
studied the importance of decision making in the in the service and product development industry.
he decision support needs the capability for characterizing the recent state of the performanceT
evaluation of the project and the point of view of the decision maker while taking decisions ti ll reaching
the given state of the project owever different projects have different needs of the performance. H ,
evaluation based on the requirements of the stakeholders and thus different processes of decision,
making are required by them According to ten authors in some cases the method of controlling. , ,
project performance can be using elementary components of an ron triangle which include imeI T ,
Cost and uality are the three major constraints of project management as discussed above areQ , , ,
not efficient enough he authors proposed a multidimensional roject erformance Measurement. T P P
System which would help the managers to deal with high volumes of data he model proposed by. T
them integrates the given character of each project including objectives tasks competencies and, ,
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personality of decision makers t also includes a few good practices with regard to the dimensions of. I
universal project management as well as the performance analysis hey also showed an aggregation. T
tool also known as MAC for analysing the performance measures as per the performanceBETH
evaluation criteria of the project managers Marques ourc and auras( , G L 2011).
he fuzzy decision making can be used for evaluating the internal efficiency of the project managementT .
here have been very few specific applications of the fuzzy logic ion project management to evaluateT
the internal efficiency of the project he internal measurers of the efficiency of the project management. T
include project ti me project cost and project quality hey discovered the efficiency of the fuzzy, . T
decision making process for combining these three measures together to form a single measure
which can be used by the project managers his measure is called roject Management nternal. T P I
ffi
ciency M and it provides an overall estimate of how well the project was well e ecuted andE (P IE) , x
managed his project can be used by the project managers in managing the projects related to. T
construction and marketing he fuzzy decision making system is designed in a way using MA A. T TL B
software for simulation purpose for evaluating the M he evaluation of M can help the projectP IE. T P IE
managers to indicate the level of achievement of the internal objectives of project management he. T
fuzzy decision making can be used the project managers and the organizations to evaluate the
performance of the project teams Dweiri and ablan( K 2006).
he fuzzy decision making process can also be used by the project managers for assessing the risksT
related to a construction project he construction projects need an efficient way to use the fuzzy. T
decision making process as they are highly comple hey are also very prone to losses and hazardsx. T
and hence they need to assess and manage the risks as early and efficiently as possible he risks, . T
assessment by the project managers in the construction industries can be assessed using two
parameters risk severity and risk livelihood owever apart from these two there are a few other- . H , ,
risk parameters which need to be incorporated in risk assessment and evaluation process he. T
authors introduced a factor inde which can be used to evaluate and structure the risk factors andx
link them with the process of risk assessment hey also provide a risk assessment methodology for. T ,
the project managers for coping up with the risks in the complicated situations in construction he. T
fuzzy reasoning techniques can be used as effective tools for handling subjectivities and uncertainties that
arise in the process of construction hey also provided an analytical hierarchical process for prioritizing. T
and structuring the diverse risks and risk factors hey also e plained the implementation of this. T x
decision making process in the designing of the superstructure in the shopping centres efficiently
eng An and Smith(Z , 2007).
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Conclusion
he essay provides an account of the decision making process that can be used by the projectT
managers he main aim of the decision making process is to allow the project managers to analyse. T
and assess the risks and make decisions on its basis Decision making is basically for solving the.
constraints of ti me cost and quality Most of the authors have suggested the method of using the, .
fuzzy decision making process in project management So the project managers may use this. ,
method for solving the risks related to ti me schedule quality and cost, , .
References
Al Araki Magid "Decision Making ools in roject Management", . T P . Edu Hioa o. .N , 2006.
http edu hioa no arabase emne D okto pdf:// . . / / /O P_ 06. .
Atkinson Roger " roject Management Cost ime and uality wo est uesses and a, . P : , T Q , T B G
henomenon ts ime to Accept ther Success Criteria"P , I T O . nternational ournal of ProjectI J
Management no doi s17, . 6 (1999): 337-342. :10.1016/ 0263-7863(98)00069-6.
Dweiri and M M ablan " sing uzzy Decision Making or he valuation f he roject, F. T., . . K . U F F T E O T P
Management nternal ffi ciency"I E . ecision upport ystemsD S S no42, . 2 (2006): 712-726.
doi j dss:10.1016/ . .2005.04.001.
idel R autier and R Duchamp "Decision Making ramework Methodology An riginalG , T., . G , . . - F : O
Approach o roject Risk Management n ew roduct Design"T P I N P . ournal f EngineeringJ O
esignD no doi16, . 1 (2005): 1-23. :10.1080/09544820512331325238.
anisch astian and Andreas ald "A ibliometric View on the se f Contingency heory n rojectH , B , W . B U O T I P
Management Research". Project Management ournalJ no43, . 3 (2012): 4-23.
doi pmj:10.1002/ .21267.
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Decision Making n roject Management"I P . nternational ournal f Project ManagementI J O no29, .
doi j ijproman8 (2011): 1057-1069. :10.1016/ . .2010.10.002.
Sullivan David "Decision Making n roject Management"O’ , . I P . Production Planning Control& no26, . 16
(2015): 1386-1387.
Suda hairul Azizan azatul Shima Abdul Rani amzah Abdul Rahman and ang Chen "A Review, K , N , H - , W .
n heories sed or Decision Making n roject Management Studies"O T U F I P . nternational ournal fI J O
cientific nd Engineering esearchS A R no6, . 10 (2015): 562-566.
Verburg Robert M etra osch Sijtsema and Matti Vartiainen " etting t Done Critical Success actors, ., P B - , . G I : F
or roject Managers n Virtual ork Settings"F P I W . nternational ournal f Project ManagementI J O 31,
no doi j ijproman. 1 (2013): 68-79. :10.1016/ . .2012.04.005.
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eng iahao Min An and igel ohn Smith "Application f A uzzy ased Decision MakingZ , J , , N J . O F B
Methodology o Construction roject Risk Assessment"T P . nternational ournal f ProjectI J O
Management no doi j ijproman25, . 6 (2007): 589-600. :10.1016/ . .2007.02.006.
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