Project Management Factors

This report analyzes the most important project management factors that contribute to the successful delivery of projects, including risk assessment, proper planning, and team building.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT FACTORS
A critical analysis of the Most Important Project Management Factors that contribute
to the Successful Delivery of Projects
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Abstract
The main aim of this report is to understand the main success factors of project management
for ensuring successful project delivery. The most significant challenge of this project
management is to obtain each and every goal in the provided constraints. The information is
generally described within the project documentation and it is being created at the starting of
the development process. The primary constraints of a project majorly include budget,
quality, time and scope. The secondary constraint of the project includes optimization of the
allocation of every necessary input and then applying them for successfully meeting the
previously defined objectives. The core objective of this project management is producing a
completed and compacted project that complies with the objectives of the client. This report
has successfully identified the strengths and weaknesses of three project delivery success
factors of risk assessment, proper planning and team building.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Discussion..............................................................................................................................3
2.1 Project Management Factors for Making Successful Project Delivery...........................3
2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses of Planning Factor for Successful Project Delivery with
Examples................................................................................................................................5
2.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Risk Assessment and Sourcing for Successful Project
Delivery with Examples.........................................................................................................7
2.4 Strengths and Weaknesses of Team Building for Successful Project Delivery with
Examples................................................................................................................................9
2.5 Models and Theories of Project Management for understanding Success Factors........11
3. Conclusion............................................................................................................................12
References................................................................................................................................14
Appendix..................................................................................................................................16

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1. Introduction
Project management can be stated as the subsequent practice to initiate, plan, execute,
control and close the work of any team for the core purpose of achieving the specific and
significant goals as well as objectives and finally meeting the major success criteria at the
respective time (Cadle and Yeates 2007). There are several factors that are required to be
fulfilled while delivering the project. Hence, beneficial changes are brought for fulfilling
unique goals and objectives. The proper management of such factors are required for
successful delivery of the projects. The following report outlines a brief discussion on the
project management factors like planning and risk assessment, which eventually contribute to
the successful project delivery. A detailed analysis will be provided for these factors with
relevant examples.
2. Discussion
2.1 Project Management Factors for Making Successful Project Delivery
The success factors are extremely important and significant for understanding the
success rate of a project as well as for making the project successful. Since, several tasks are
ongoing during the subsequent life cycle of a project, it could be quite difficult to identify the
major critical success factor within project management (Schwalbe 2015). These specified
tasks will eventually leverage to come to fruition while the other tasks are required for the
proper execution of the project. It could be extremely overwhelming for getting the respective
project team members to emphasize on the KRAs or key result areas within the project.
There are some of the major and significant reasons that make a project failure. It is
required to identify these reasons eventually for properly identifying the success factors of
project management (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). These reasons are as follows:

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i) The projects often fail, when there is absolutely no commitment or support from the
top level management, who are eventually supposed to provide several significant and proper
oversight functionalities to the respective project team.
ii) Another significant reason that often make the project a failure is when the risk
management as well as risk identification is not being done properly (Cleland and Ireland
2007). There is always a constant requirement of this risk assessment for ensuring that the
project is successful and does not incur any type of complexity or risk. A prerequisite is
required to be identified for reducing the odds of the risk or negative event and even for
helping to minimize the scale on which this is being occurred. The uncertainties mark all the
phases of the project management as well as a good risk management plan eventually helps
the overall effects of that specific negative event.
iii) The third important and noteworthy reason that is common for making a project
failure is the subsequent absence of poorly defined project scope and statement of work
(Heagney 2016). This particular scope is the technical description of the project, which is to
be carried out and hence covering the most significant issues like maintenance, quality
assurance and development. The failure in creation of a properly defined scope can
eventually lead to the inconsistencies within the respective project deliverables. This is hence
extremely vital for the project managers to consider this issue.
iv) An absence of ownership and commitment is yet another subsequent reason that
often makes a project to be a failure. Team building is quite important and without team
building or a proper project team, it is almost not possible for the project manager to make
the project a successful one (Gardiner 2005). The collaborative project management majorly
focuses on the monitoring, coordination and systematic planning of the complicated projects

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with the overview of encouragement of collaboration and synergy amongst the respective
project team members.
v) Lack of non feasible budgets and schedules is the fifth significant and vital reason
that is required to be considered and is a major reason for project failure (Highsmith 2004).
Moreover, non practical schedules is the next subsequent reason for project failure.
The above mentioned five reasons clearly state that these project failure reasons could
turn into extremely vulnerable for the projects and these are required to be eradicated before
ensuring successful project delivery. There are several project management factors that are
required to be considered for making the project delivery successful (See Appendix). The
most significant project management factors are risk assessment, proper planning, team
collaboration, proper and feasible budgets, definite scope of project, support from the senior
project manager and many more (Mir and Pinnington 2014). Amongst the above provided
several factors, three important project management factors are being identified that are
considered to be the most important in comparison to the rest and these are risk assessment,
proper planning and team collaboration.
2.2 Strengths and Weaknesses of Planning Factor for Successful Project Delivery with
Examples
Project planning is one of the core and important part of project management that
eventually relates to the properly utilization of schedules for planning and then reporting the
overall progress of the project environment. In the beginning, the project scope is eventually
defined as well as considered as the most appropriate methods to complete the project. The
net step involves considering the respective durations of several tasks that are required for
completing the work (Lientz and Rea 2002). Project planning can even be utilized for
organizing several project areas like team and individual management, workloads and project

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plans. The significant project resources could be estimated and the expenses for every activity
could be allocated for every resource and hence providing the entire cost of that specific
project. In this step, the project schedule is also optimized for obtaining the correct balance
within project duration and usage of resources for complying with the several objectives. This
progress would be measured against the respective baseline schedule in the entire life cycle of
the project (Kerzner 2017). The analysis of this project progress is termed as EVM or earned
value management.
The major steps of this project planning for any project involve identification and
meeting with the stakeholders, setting and prioritizing of goals, defining of deliverables,
creation of project schedule, identification of issues as well as completion of risk assessment
and finally presenting the project plan to the stakeholders. The examples of project planning
can be acquisition project, corporate business service review, technology implementation
project and many more.
The main strengths of this project planning are as follows:
i) Proper Organization of Ideas: The first and the foremost strength of this project
planning is that it helps in better organization of the ideas and concepts of the project
manager and client (Leach 2014). This planning is also termed as the most effective and
efficient as it helps the entire project team to emphasize on the major components of any task
by ensuring that the project team has planned the entire project outcome efficiently and thus
the benefits are obtained in the project work.
ii) Effective Conflict Resolution: The next important and significant strength of this
project planning is that it helps in effective and efficient conflict resolution. A proper team
charter eventually comprises of each and every provision of conflict resolution like how to

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deal with the team member, who is not giving inputs in the work or how to resolve the
disagreements regarding tackling of a specific project element.
iii) Effectiveness in Project Budget: The entire project budget could be easily
analysed if it has a proper planning (Marchewka 2014). This type of project planning is also
effective for eradicating the extra expenses in the project lifecycle and hence delivering the
work successfully.
Although, the above mentioned benefits are effective for a project, there are few
disadvantages as well in project planning and these are as follows:
i) Excess Consumption of Time: Project planning often incurs excessive time
consumption (Too and Weaver 2014). The procedure could be fairly time consuming and
more than one team meeting can easily be spent for creation of project planning, hence
incurring excess time.
ii) Lack of Utilization: Often it is being observed that a project plan is not used and
hence it becomes useless to make the project plan, which is a major weakness of it.
2.3 Strengths and Weaknesses of Risk Assessment and Sourcing for Successful Project
Delivery with Examples
Project management is required for feasibility addressing the objectives of the clients.
When the objectives of client are properly established, they must eventually influence each
and every decision made by the other people included within that particular project such as
designers, project managers, contractors and sub-contractors and these were required for
decision making (Maylor, 2010). The second important and significant factor that is required
to be considered while ensuring successful project delivery is risk assessment and sourcing.
The projects are eventually designed for undertaking benefits from resources as well as the
opportunities. The risk assessment is required for describing the entire procedure or

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methodology by which the major risks and hazards are being identified, which have the core
potential of causing harm to the project. In the planning process of the project work, it is
extremely important for producing a risk log with proper action plan for every risk that the
specific project can eventually face (Pemsel and Wiewiora 2013). The major stakeholders are
absolutely aware of the risk log and also know where they could find it. When any negative
event occurs, the project team eventually checks for identification of issues.
Risk sourcing is also required for this purpose as it can easily analyse the several
significant and important factors that could be harmful for the project. The core advantages of
this risk sourcing is that it incurs low cost, simplifies processes, predicts results and costs and
even has the ability in producing or procuring technology that is not available (Meredith,
Mantel and Shafer 2016). The major examples of risk assessment and sourcing include
identification of negative events within the project and steps that are required for taking to
manage the risks.
The main strengths of this risk assessment in a project are as follows:
i) Proper Risk Identification: The most significant strength of risk assessment is
proper risk identification. When risks would be identified, the entire process of project
delivery will be extremely easier in comparison to the others (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017).
Moreover, it helps in enhancement of the positive risks and thus getting pre assumptions of
the project work effectively without any type of complexity.
ii) Minimization of Risks: Another significant and important advantage of this risk
assessment within any specific project is that it helps to minimize the risk of the project to a
high level (Burke 2013). A proper assessment is highly required for minimizing the impact of
the risks eventually and hence it is important for the organization to include risk assessment
and sourcing.

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iii) Successful Business Strategies: A proper risk assessment is also required for
successful business strategies since it is majorly responsible for eradicating the issues to a
better level.
Although, the above mentioned benefits are effective for a project, there are few
disadvantages as well in project risk assessment and sourcing and these are as follows:
i) Dependent on External Entities: The risk assessment factor of being dependent on
the external entities for project successful delivery is one of the basic weaknesses (Milosevic
and Martinelli 2016). Due to this type of dependency, the entire process of risk assessment is
not always successful.
ii) Difficulty in Implementation: This is yet another important and significant factor
of risk assessment to make a project delivery successful. It is often extremely difficult to
implement this type of assessment and thus project does not gets completed effectively.
2.4 Strengths and Weaknesses of Team Building for Successful Project Delivery with
Examples
Each of the key result areas could even be termed as the CSF or critical success factor
in that project. Such success factors are the core elements of any project, which are require to
be put in place for ensuring that completion of project is done efficiently. It refers to the fact
that they could easily create a proper environment for that particular project so that they exist
in the first place (Krajewski, Ritzman and Malhotra 2013). These success factors are the
metrics that help in measurement of project success at the end of the life cycle. These are also
required for ensuring that the successful competitive performances are being enhanced.
Collaboration or team building is the next significant and important success factor in a
project. It is the core procedure to take a collection of few individuals with different
requirements, expertise and background and then transforming them by several methods

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within an integrated and effective working unit. Within the transformation phase, the several
inputs and ideas of every project team member merge as well as support the respective
objectives of team. The entire concept of this team building eventually becomes extremely
important since it brings diversified ideas and views to the team. Moreover, with a proper
team for the project, it becomes quite easy to deal with the issues faced in the project work
and the project efficiency is highly enhanced without much complexity (Ofori 2013). Several
team building exercises have the core objective of exposing and addressing the interpersonal
issues in the group and the activities are intended for the better improvement of performance
within a team based environment. It is a major foundation of this organizational development,
which could be applied be groups of construction and software projects.
The main aspects of this team building eventually involve alignment of goals,
building of efficient and effective working relations, reduction of role ambiguity of the team
members and even finding problems for the several complexities in the project. The most
significant strategy of this type of project collaboration is that it helps in team building retreat
and the team members try in addressing the underlying concerns for building trusts after
engaging into activities, which are not part of the project (Lientz and Rea 2016). The several
significant targets of the project are being met without failure and thus it ensures that the
project delivery is successful. A proper collaboration even involves proper goal setting and
role clarification. Problem solving is also possible with this team collaboration. The major
examples of team building involve effective communication, leadership, motivation,
providing feedback and problem solving in the project.
The main strengths of this risk assessment in a project are as follows:
i) Better Communication: Team building better communication amongst the project
team members and hence there is always a better chance for project success. This type of

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improved communication is one of the positive results of a successful team building and it
helps in accuracy of the end product. Moreover, team building even helps in decreasing the
issue related to misunderstandings.
ii) High Efficiency: A higher efficiency in the work of project is the next significant
and important strength of team building (Morris 2013). When the team members have the
ability to remain focused on the group goals and then rely on another person’s strengths for
compensating, the entire project is achieved professionally and quickly. It also increasing the
morale by eradicating the problems related to budget and scope of the project.
Although, the above mentioned benefits are effective for a project, there are few
disadvantages as well in project team building and these are as follows:
i) Unintended Consequences: There could be a major issue of unintended
consequences in a project and team building might be proved ineffective and thus the project
might be delayed under certain conditions. This is often a major cause of unsuccessful project
deliveries.
ii) Unequal Involvement: This is the second significant and important weakness of
team building in any particular project (Boyle 2017). It is one of the major challenges that is
being faced while completing the project delivery successfully.
2.5 Models and Theories of Project Management for understanding Success Factors
A proper development of software to make a business process extremely improvised
or the construction of any bridge or building or expansion of sales to a new geographical
market, all of them are termed as projects. These projects are required to be delivered in time
and within budget so that learning and integration is needed by the companies. Project
management is the significant application of skills, tools, techniques and knowledge towards
the project activities for subsequently meeting all types of project needs by the clients

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(Meredith, Mantel and Shafer 2016). The major and the most significant processes of this
project management involve initiation, planning, execution, monitoring as well as controlling
and even closing of the project. The knowledge of project management eventually draws on
ten distinctive areas of integration, scope, costs, time, human resources, stakeholder
management, procurement, communications, and quality and risk management.
There are few of the important and significant models and theories of project
management that are helpful in understanding the project success factors like for planning,
risk assessment and team building. The various changing paradigms of project management
are understood to make the project even better in comparison to the others (Too and Weaver
2014). There are several significant methodologies of project management that are helpful in
this case like agile, waterfall, traditional, adaptive, critical path, PERT, rational unified
process, critical chain, six sigma, scrum and many more. Each of these above mentioned
project management methodologies are extremely important for ensuring successful project
delivery in respect to the success factors of planning, risk assessment and team building.
3. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that a project is temporary
endeavour, which comprises of a definite start and finish and even comprise of proper
resources and scope. This type of project is extremely unique and has a set of specified
operations that are being designed for accomplishing the goals and objectives. Hence, a
project team subsequently involves individuals, who do not generally work altogether and
even from separate organizations as well as in other geographic locations. The proper
management of the distinct production approaches needs the proper development of the
management strategies and technical skills. A project becomes success and could be easily
delivered by the help of few important and significant success factors. The above provided

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report has properly outlined the details of success factors for planning, risk assessment and
team building to make a project successful with subsequent details and examples.

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References
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Appendix
Project Management Success Factors