Project Management Report: Team Analysis, Control Cycle, and Crashing

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of project management principles, focusing on team dynamics, project control, and project crashing. The report begins by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of a project team, highlighting the importance of coordination, cooperation, and effective communication. It also addresses the manifestation and management of conflicts within the team. The second part of the report delves into the general model of the project control cycle, detailing the planning, monitoring, reviewing, and controlling phases. It then explains the Cost Performance Index (CPI) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and their application in project evaluation. Finally, the report discusses project crashing, explaining how to reduce project timelines without compromising scope or quality, emphasizing the importance of critical path analysis and resource management. References to relevant literature are included to support the analysis.

Project Management

Table of Contents
QUESTIONS...................................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Strengths of the Project Team.....................................................................................................1
Weaknesses of the Project Team.................................................................................................1
Manifestation and Management of Conflict...............................................................................2
PART 2............................................................................................................................................2
General Model of Project Control Cycle....................................................................................2
Demonstration on the Basis of Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index......3
Project crashing...........................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

QUESTIONS
PART 1
Strengths of the Project Team
At the time of completing the following project, there were several areas which were
presented by the team making confirmed about their efficiency and strengths in context of the
project of Recreating New Zealand. The explanation has been provided as under:
 Coordination and Cooperation: It is the utmost quality which had removed most of the
issues and problems faced at the time of working on the project. As every member in the
team was not perfect in everything so there was a need that everybody in the team must
coordinate with each other in order to make the effective and timely completion of the
project. This proved to be strength of the team and helped in timely completion of the
project (Fleming and Koppelman, 2016).
 Communication: The two way process in which ideas, facts and feeling are transferred
from one person to another. Our team also performed well at this platform as well
because the tasks were clearly defined and everyone was known what he/she had to do, in
what way and in how much time? The success was made sure from the successful
completion of the project.
Weaknesses of the Project Team
Along with the strengths, there were some weaknesses from which also the team has
passed. The description of these are provided as under:
 Improper Time Management: Every task was specified with some period of time in
which it was needed to be completed. So the wrong estimation of time for the completion
of different tasks in the project made the project to be wrong and also increased the
burden and work on all members of team. This proved to be weakness of the project
team.
 Leadership: It refers to the quality with the help of which an individual have the power to
influence the mindset of other people and makes them to do what the leader wants from
them to do. Our team was also lacking in this phase as well because there was no leader
in our team (Harrison and Lock, 2017). However, the tasks were divided and everyone
was clear with their own tasks but in case of leader, the directions will be proper and
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project will not lack in time which had happened earlier in the project. This also proved
to be weakness of the project.
Manifestation and Management of Conflict
The standards of any project are set before the project is started such as the quality of the
project which it needs to be. The team members also work in order to achieve the set standards
so that the project could be completed in an efficient and effective manner. This also gives rise to
conflicts of interest and perception of the team members because the perception of people from
people changes and at some point this conflict also changes into the manifestation. In our team,
this incident took place at the time of dividing the tasks of the project when project was divided
into four categories and two of our team members started arguing for the same task. The issue
was related to perception of team members that it was easy task (Kerzner, 2017).
So in order to remove this conflict, one more task was added to the task as at the time of
doing analysis of the task, it was found that the task was really easier so in order to make it
complex at some, one more task was added to it and the conflict was managed. Now all the tasks
of the project were of equal weight age that will not violate the interest of any of the team
members. The decision was at last was accepted by everyone.
PART 2
General Model of Project Control Cycle
Another important part of a project is the project control in which different activities
which are ongoing in the project are observed, checked, controlled and redirected in order to
make efficient completion of project. So the description of different stages of project life cycle in
Marketing Plan deliverable has been described as under:
 Planning: It refers to the blueprint of different activities and tasks which are covered in
the project. In the following project as well it becomes important for the management to
make proper planning in relation to the different marketing activities which will help in
the successful completion of the project (Marchewka, 2016).
 Monitoring: It refers to overseeing the work which have been implemented in the project.
In addition to this, the implementation of monitoring tools will also be done in order to
know about the overall performance of the project. For example, the use of tools such as
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KPI, Benchmarking and overall event management would be used in order to monitor the
implementation of the marketing plan.
 Reviewing: This step makes its focus on the actual and planned performance of the
marketing plan in order to know the places of deviations and the improvements to be
made in the plan so that good results could be achieved from their work.
 Controlling: In the last of project control cycle, the focus is made on the continuous
checking on the performance on which the project is moving. Corrective actions are taken
and are also being implemented here so that it could become possible to make proper and
effective implementation of the project life cycle. Also, some re planning in the plan is
also made in place of rectifications to be made in the project (Meredith, Mantel Jr and
Shafer, 2017).
Demonstration on the Basis of Cost Performance Index and Schedule Performance Index
There are two important types of indexes which are needed to be taken into account by
the project manager. These are Schedule Performance Index and Cost Performance Index. So the
description of these indexes and their usage in future is also provided as under;
Cost Performance Index
With the help of Index, it is possible to analyse the efficiency of project in terms of cost,
whether the project is enough capable of being covered in provided budget or not. The following
calculation is made by dividing earned amount with actual cost. In order to understand whether
project is efficient or not, its value must be 1 or more. Hence with the help of cost performance
index, it is easy for project managers to understand whether project has to be carry forward or
not.
Schedule Performance Index-
This is the criteria under which progress rate of project can be evaluated in context of
pre- planned time. There is evaluation of time as well with the help of which efficiency can be
analysed. In order to get schedule performance index, earned value is divided by planned value
(Schwalbe, 2015). If value is 1, then project will be completed within specified time. With this
index, it is easy for project manager to estimate whether project will completed on future specific
date or not.
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Project crashing
Crashing of project refers to the process through which time required to complete a
project is reduced without compromising with its scope and quality of final project. There are
different activities which has to be considered by managers while conducting project, but if they
analyse critical path through which best outcome is achieved by reducing time to complete it,
then it results in project crashing. Critical path is the best way through which number of
activities gets reduced and possibilities of delay in activities is possible. This is possible with
identifying slack time and reduce with through which project activities are reduced with which
pathway gets reduced and complete project before time. It is crucial for completing task within
assigned resources and time (Turner, 2016).
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fleming, Q. W. and Koppelman, J. M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Marchewka, J. T., 2016. Information technology project management: Providing measurable
organizational value. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J. R., Mantel Jr, S. J. and Shafer, S. M., 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
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