University Project Management: Consistency and Program Analysis Report

This report delves into the critical role of consistency in project management, exploring both traditional and contemporary methodologies. It examines the evolution of project management practices, highlighting the shift towards more dynamic and team-oriented approaches to meet modern organizational demands. The report analyzes the divergence between traditional project management designs and the congruent application of these methods within contemporary organizational structures. Furthermore, it investigates program management strategies, particularly focusing on the management of multiple projects simultaneously to enhance organizational performance. A case study of ACME solutions in the UK illustrates the practical application of program management, detailing the roles of program and project managers, and analyzing the key stages of project life cycles, including planning, definition, implementation, and performance evaluation. The report concludes by emphasizing the continuous nature of software development and the importance of ongoing adaptation and improvement in project management practices, including the role of Agile methodologies.

Running head: IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Importance of Consistency in Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Project management practice and organization sustainability...............................................2
Program Management for project management.....................................................................4
Application of program management.....................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

2IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Modern Project management exists from the 1950s, although its parameters is
changing time to time according to the project requirements. Many organizations don’t have
project management practices in present time (Seymour and Hussein 2014). Project
management pulls the whole project team together for a particular goal and need. Whereas
the project management and program management are different levels of management, it
deals with the managing the multiple projects that is in development on a large scale. On
other side, program manager is someone who ensure that the developing products can give
the highest gain to the company (Thiry 2016). This report intends to discuss about the
traditional project management practices and the contemporary methods where the
management techniques get update according to situational requirements. It also analyses the
approaches of the program management to manage multiple projects on a higher production
level. Key stages of the traditional and contemporary methods of management are described
with identification of issues in the program management approach. A case study upon
program management in ACME solutions of United Kingdom has been observed and
discussed. The role of program manager, application of the program management, and
operation are also discussed.
Discussion
Project management practice and organization sustainability
Contemporary approaches for project management is evolving rapidly in the 21st
century and influencing traditional management culture. Modern organizations are heavily
dependent on the traditional methods to match with the social and economic changes. Many
private and government organizations reported that the traditional management techniques
have failed them to achieve their basic goals in recent years (Varajão et al. 2014). However,

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the mangers of different organizations seem to be searching for the new techniques according
to the customers’ requirements and improvement in technology. The quoted statement says
about the modern techniques and tools are being used for project management. Contemporary
approach in organizational structure, where the employees work as a team following a matrix
structure. Employees work continuously on multiple projects, one after one. That is the
reason where human resources department of a company plays a major role in the
organizational approaches (Kloppenborg 2014). Human resources provides the support with
including new business strategies in the organization. Similarly for the project management
approaches, the human resources department can suggest different methods that involves
skill, knowledge, tools and techniques. Surely the project management is not the way it is
designed in this case. However, it is just congruent to the new situational requirement of the
organization that handles many projects at a time. Congruent means the team approach of
handling any projects where the work culture is considered as very important parameter for
the performance. For example, you have very talented people working in your organization,
if the culture is not good then their talent will not reflect on their work (Ojiako et al. 2015).
The current systems that are being developed are very dynamic so they need changes in the
organizational management too. If any organization is known for its technical capabilities
then every small change in business rules will need a rework in the technical areas, cost and
time of the organization too.
During the project management, if there is some set of rules for the approach then the
organization new methods and tools will always conflict with the traditional project
management methods (Conforto et al. 2014). Though it does not cost that much for having a
project management evaluation, the disruption in a project has become very common in
larger organizations. The best way to avoid problems is to stay ahead of them. The smooth
operation of completion of the project is more major concern for any organization. However

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sometimes the client or the project manager or the management makes an unplanned changes
in the project because the market requirements has changed or some new idea has come about
the project. These changes finally affects the project scopes. More frequently, this happens
due to the poorly designed idea of the project from the management end or client’s end. The
changes is doable most of the time with a proper reason. However, sometimes project
managers or team lead takes the extra work from the client as a good will or to show some
kindness (Morris 2013). Most of the time, after accepting request for adding new parameter,
the project scope is outlined without taking an account of changes in timeline, budget and
resources of the project.
Program Management for project management
Program manage is a process for managing multiple projects at a time, to improve any
organization’s performance. Program management is all about mapping all projects that
needs to achieve the overall goal. Program manager is responsible for the successful delivery
of the program outcomes. According to this theory, it can be said that a program manager is
responsible for more number of individuals than a project manager (Thiry 2016). A software
development organization named ACME has evolved globally in the past two decades. It has
more than 20000 employees across the globe and specialized in marketing software
(Somanchi and Dwivedula, 2019). Handling multiple projects at a time requires perfect
coordination between each project and their teams, whether it is from complete package
software or standalone components. They develop the software in such a way that each
module can work as a standalone and with the complete package too. For example, the
training management can work independently and with the other products like payroll,
benefits and career management too. Each component has a specific development team to
meet its organizational requirements. However, they are planning to launch all the

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components or products in a complete package called “Suite” (Somanchi and Dwivedula,
2019).
To develop all components independently, AMCE uses the waterfall model approach
for the software development (Somanchi and Dwivedula, 2019). However, a major drawback
in the waterfall model is that if one components happens to be delay in the development the
time schedule for the other next developments gets affected. To overcome these risks, ACME
assigns a program manager to manage all the multiple projects named “threads” (Somanchi
and Dwivedula, 2019). For example, for HR management program, the program manager
manages the benefits, payroll, and career management components. All of the components is
managed as ‘projects’. Again, the program manager is having a senior project manager who
is covering the management of product quality. The senior project manager is also having
three roles to assist him named- project manager, product manager and quality assurance
manager. On other hand, Program managers are having interaction with the clients and
stakeholders continuously during the development cycle (Beringer, Jonas and Kock 2013).
They are also collaborating with senior project managers, project managers and human
resources department to keep the workers motivated. The workshops and training session is
introduced to get the better cohesion within the team members. The each subsection of the
mentioned phases are also checked time to time by the program manager. The program
manager handles the overall planning, control and execution of the product. Senior project
manager manages the all aspects in one project with the help of product manager, quality
assurance mangers, and project manager. It totally depends on the senior project manager to
deliver the project on scheduled time (Too and Weaver 2014). On other hand, product
manager is responsible for checking the requirements of the clients in the product. Quality
assurance mangers maintains the quality and checks it on time to time basis. Project manager
reviews the detailed structure of the project and has a tem for developing that particular

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project. Then comes the programmers or developers who are mainly responsible for the
development of the core product, distributed into different components. Later the quality
assurance engineers test the quality of the product and evaluates the need of fixing or
debugging.
Application of program management
ACME wants to release the product components as an entire suite in a single package
(Somanchi and Dwivedula, 2019). Since it follows the waterfall model, delay in one
component can delay the whole program. Resources need to be management carefully
according to the project component size in order to have a successful execution. Project scope
of the individual projects vary, that is why scope management is also need to maintain on the
basis of resources management (Crawford 2014). ACME project life cycle is distributed in 4
phases – planning, definition, and implementation and performance evaluation (Somanchi
and Dwivedula, 2019).
i. Definition: First stage is to identify the different individual projects that have to be
performed under one program. Then comes the most important part that is allocation
of the projects to the right people who are experts in that specific project component.
The allocation follows the bottom-up approach where, according to the size resources
is get allocated. Any ambiguity will lead to deviation from the scope, if get undetected
(Hagen and Park 2013). The key functionalities and operation is to be identified
before the organization of different projects. Evaluation of the requirements is also
need to done, as outcome in this phase always has a greater influence on the success
of the program.
ii. Planning: Second stage is for planning the business case according to the market

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requirements. Every product is finalized in way that it has most general marketing and
business processes and practices. Right resources for the project component is
identified in this stage. For example, developing a front end application will require
the person who is good with HTML, PHP and JavaScript platforms (Klingebiel and
Rammer 2014). The differentiation in the project scope for the technical people and
non-technical people happens in this phase. For example, if technical person is not
familiar with the business goals and they were also not present during the customer
requirement analysis. Then the final objective of the software can be different from
what client had asked.
iii. Implementation: It includes the actual execution of the coding and program.
According to the nature of the product and environment system, different components
of the project may require different technology for usage. For example, the core
applications that is mainly the internals of the whole product does not require large
number of users. Whereas the front end interface will be required high number of
users. These differentiation is usage may require different approach for the
development. Then the product is get reviewed time to time to check that the initial
design framework is getting followed (Mir and Pinnington 2014). These review
exploits the issues that is not identified in the initial design of the software. When
some features of the two components overlap each other, their functionalities are
developed jointly in the team members or teams.
iv. Performance evaluation: Final and fourth stage in program management, is about
appraisal stage that is necessary in the end of the every phase even it is depends on the
final release of the product (Serra and Kunc 2015). The phase totally deals about the
performance evaluation of the employees.

8IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Although successful release of the product provides benefits and the main goal of the
project management, software development is a never ending process. Even after the release,
team members are continuously working for the launch of the next version. Every software is
need to get updated in terms of removal of bugs and loop holes. In some cases, new
functionalities or features are also introduced in the later versions of the previous software.
Apart from this, the project management team also keeps a track of market analysis and new
requirements based on the situation. Hence, it can be said that there is no closure for the
software development as well as project management once it is released (Nanda 2016). The
major challenges in a program management are related to the multiple programs and workers.
The coordination between different components of the program and their team members is
the most required thing. Some of the issues regarding the program management is observed
in pattern related to the lifecycle of the project:
i. As the initial stage cannot figure out the critical issues in the later phases of
the lifecycle, it is difficult to set the objectives and managing the scope.
ii. When the components will be integrated with each other, the risk of
asymmetric attachment is arise as a critical issue in the final execution of the
whole package. This issue is generally occurs when the scope of the project is
not outlined well. It also effects the workers morally.
iii. Human issue factors as absence of the required developer and experienced
personnel are also major problems (Mathur, Jugdev and Shing 2013).
iv. After successful implantation of the project, identifying the contribution of the
team and team members individually is a major challenge appears in the
program management.

9IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Hence, it is obvious that continuous interaction and coordination between program
manage, project manager, senior project manager , Human resources department, team
members and stake holders is needed to be closely monitored.
However, a business organisation can be structured in two basic forms of setup:
vertical and horizontal. A vertical integration in any organisation can be achieved by well
define leaders at the top, then the later designations according to their level. On another hand,
horizontal integration is something where the structure of the organisation grow parallel on
same level. On agile project management, generally, both the structure integration cause two
issues. First, in horizontal approach, it affects in the business benefits from a product life
cycle of a project. Many large organizations have horizontal integrations as their company
growth as opening of new branches all over the different area. Hence the flexibility in
horizontal approach reduces and it becomes hard to manage. Whereas, the vertical integration
is very risky, complex, hard to reverse and expensive option (Russo, Fitzgerald and Shams
2013). Hence, the strategy of integrating project portfolios should be strategic.
Conclusion
According to the traditional management theory and former practices, it can be said
that the technology is changing very vigorously and dynamically. In order to fulfil the
organizations goal, multiple projects is being developed in parallel. This report on case study
reveals the modern methodology of project management approaches that is the present
requirements for almost all the organizations. However, it does not means that the project
management and it steps can be fully ignored. It has no doubt that project management
practices can provide the early issues, their solutions and the path of that solution. The
interaction and coordination between all the departments in any organization need to monitor
all the aspects closely that can affect the outcome of the project. The HR department,

10IMPORTANCE OF CONSISTENCY IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
program manager, program manager, team leader and the whole team need to understand the
risk management, if their goal is to develop and release any product successfully.

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References
Beringer, C., Jonas, D. and Kock, A., 2013. Behavior of internal stakeholders in project
portfolio management and its impact on success. International Journal of Project
Management, 31(6), pp.830-846.
Conforto, E.C., Salum, F., Amaral, D.C., Da Silva, S.L. and De Almeida, L.F.M., 2014. Can
agile project management be adopted by industries other than software
development?. Project Management Journal, 45(3), pp.21-34.
Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.
Hagen, M. and Park, S., 2013. Ambiguity acceptance as a function of project management: A
new critical success factor. Project Management Journal, 44(2), pp.52-66.
Klingebiel, R. and Rammer, C., 2014. Resource allocation strategy for innovation portfolio
management. Strategic Management Journal, 35(2), pp.246-268.
Kloppenborg, T., 2014. Contemporary project management. Nelson Education.
Mathur, G., Jugdev, K. and Shing Fung, T., 2013. Project management assets and project
management performance outcomes: Exploratory factor analysis. Management Research
Review, 36(2), pp.112-135.
Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking
project management performance and project success. International journal of project
management, 32(2), pp.202-217.
Morris, P.W., 2013. Reconstructing project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Nanda, V., 2016. Quality management system handbook for product development companies.
CRC press.