Integrated Project Management: Internal and External Factors and Strategies for Implementation

This article discusses the internal and external factors that impact project management and strategies for implementation. Using the case scenario of Quasar Communications Inc., the article evaluates the impact of factors such as loss of employees, communication, political, economic, social, technical, legal, and environmental. The article also provides strategies for implementing the appropriate course of action, including clear establishment of goals, scheduling of projects, and planning and preparing for success.

Integrated project management

Table of Contents
PART B......................................................................................................................................1
1. Evaluate the internal and external factors and their impact on project management
process?..................................................................................................................................1
2. Strategies to implement the appropriate course of action..................................................2
References..................................................................................................................................1

PART B
1. Evaluate the internal and external factors and their impact on project management process?
The case scenario of Quasar Communications Inc. sheds some light on the internal
and external factors capable of impacting the Project Management Process. Following key
factors have a significant impact on the Project Management Process of Quasar Inc:
Internal Factors:
By considering the SWOT analysis of QCI, following are the key Enterprise
Environmental Factors that are affecting the legal process in project management:
Loss of employees: The organization is facing issues in retaining the employees in managing
the marketing and sales operations. The contracting issues that are changing according to the
legal process are having the significant impact on the business process of organization and
influencing the satisfaction level of employees. In Quasar's case, as the Vice President stated,
the organization is facing difficulty in meeting time and cost parameters without sacrificing
the quality (Larson & et al., 2014). In their previous project, they were able to satisfy only
75% of the customers even though the work was completed on time within the estimated cost.
The factor is to manage project members for maintaining the high standards for project
management. For that employee need technical skills, experience, and working methodology
is crucial for the success of the project.
Communication: The Project Management Team (PMT) has to allocate resources judiciously
so that optimum utilization and quality work could be delivered on time (Heagney, 2016). As
the case study suggested for Quasar, project managers and line managers are facing difficulty
in carrying out effective communication with their customers as well as in managing the
activities of various departments. They have lots of responsibility but very less authority that
makes it difficult to manage team members.
External
Political factors: The political environment has the direct impact on the enterprise planning
and implementation of strategies. The changes in legal framework are influencing the cost of
project management process. However, the organization is having a good understanding of
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legislation and requirements considering the EEF political factors but lack of authority for
line manager hindering the opportunities of encouraging business.
Economic factors: Understanding the demands of the market and clients are important to
deliver quality. In the case of Quasar, the project and line managers are unable to forecast
market trends and understand the requirements of their customers. This results in decreasing
sales. They need to encourage their communication skills and interaction with customers
more to know where they are falling short to maintain the supply of the products and services
(Park, & Lee, 2014).
Social factors: Prices are decided by the senior management after consulting sales team and
studying market trends by considering the needs and requirements of target groups. Quasar is
facing difficulty in offering quality while restricting prices which affecting project
management process. QCI is also failing to identify the expectation of small and large
customer groups that affecting the EEF and project management process (Hudnurkar & et al.,
2014). Moreover, the organization struggles to balance manufacturing cost to the company
and maintain the optimum cost to the customer.
Technical factors: For managing EEF approach and maintain the business in the highly
competitive business environment, consideration of technical tools is essential. According to
analysis, the QCI management team is not having good technical assistance and approach for
maintaining communication with supplier and employees. This is affecting their decision
making for the project management process.
Legal factors: There are various legal factors for the organization that requires concern for
managing the project management process. The key factors that have the vital impact on the
process of the organization involve the cost of lawyers, contract with suppliers and lack of
sharing of profits with stakeholders (Saarsen & Dumas, 2016). Moreover, lacking in the
business review against legislation is also shaping their business process and project actions.
Environmental factors: The manufacturing organization is not following the Enterprise
Environmental rules and regulations. The major reason behind it was lack of knowledge and
authority of line manager and project manager. The lack of consideration of the legal
framework for environmental betterment is influencing project management process of QCI.
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2. Strategies to implement the appropriate course of action
For managing the project action and implementation of plan and activities for
achieving the marketing and operational goals considering the EEF and legal framework, the
project management team of QCI could use the following strategies:
Clear establishment of goals:
According to the given case of QCI, the project manager and line managers are not
aware of goals and specification of the organization. The lack of clarity in goals and direction
of the business process is affecting implementation of project actions. To overcome this
issue, the management team needs to conduct regular meetings with the manager and
employees to provide the information about EEF. The proper interaction will support to
maintain the clarity in the goals and expectation of organization in handling the customers.
The company has failed to satisfy the customers. For the large and capital investment project,
the clarity of goals and process of managing action is essential (Serra & Kunc, 2015). The
proper communication by using online tools or meetings will be beneficial for an
organization to develop an integrated project management approach.
Scheduling of project:
The strategy that organization could use for managing project management functions
and activities will involve proper scheduling of the tasks and operation related to marketing
and customer handling. The scheduling of task involves the comprehensive listing of
marketing and customer related projects, determination of SMART goals for each marketing
project as well as providing the ranking to their projects. In addition to this, the use of project
management tools like Gantt chart and PERT, network diagram and CPM will help to
develop proper scheduling of the activities and implementation of actions (Cleden, 2017). For
example, the effective R&D process will require the specification of the target audience and
requirements to develop the plan and policies that could help in the achievement of goals
along with EEF.
Plan and prepare:
The QCI management is looking to craft improvement in the project management
approaches through managing balance with employees and line managers. For the action and
implementation of tactics to improve the business engineering, the management needs to
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focus on the planning and preparing the corrective actions. In order to maintain the integrated
process in managing project related to marketing and customer handling function, QCI
management needs the plan. For example, the planning of demand and budget for managing
operations will help the organization to maintain the required balance in manufacturing and
meet the satisfaction level of customers from small and large groups. Moreover, for that, the
organization could use the bottom-up approach for project planning (Turner, 2016). By using
this approach of planning, the project manager will interact with the team members and
provide the essential information about goals and schedule of tasks for marketing and capital
investment in the project.
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References
Cleden, D., (2017). Managing project uncertainty. Routledge.
Heagney, J., (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Hudnurkar, M., Jakhar, S. & Rathod, U., (2014). Factors affecting collaboration in supply
chain: a literature review. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 133, pp.189-202.
Larson, E.W., Gray, C.F., Danlin, U., Honig, B. & Bacarini, D., (2014). Project management:
The managerial process (Vol. 6). Grandview Heights, OH: McGraw-Hill Education.
Park, J.G. & Lee, J., (2014). Knowledge sharing in information systems development
projects: Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International Journal of Project
Management, 32(1), pp.153-165.
Saarsen, T. & Dumas, M., (2016), September. Factors Affecting the Sustained Use of Process
Models. In International Conference on Business Process Management (pp. 193-209).
Springer, Cham.
Serra, C.E.M. & Kunc, M., (2015). Benefits realisation management and its influence on
project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of
Project Management, 33(1), pp.53-66.
Turner, R., (2016). Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
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