Executing consists of the processes used to complete the work defined in the project management plan to accomplish the project’s requirements. Execution process involves co-ordinating people and resources, as well as integrating and performing the activities of the project in accordance with the project management plan. The deliverables are produced as outputs from the processes performed as defined in the project management plan.
Projects require people with different skills to work together in a coordinated way. The project team consists of individuals brought together purely for undertaking a specific project. Teams will cut across functional boundaries, giving rise to ‘matrix’ organisations. The size of the team and the period of their existence will be determined by the nature of the project.
Team members:
A team member is selected to join the core team because of their specialist knowledge or expertise.
– Specialist or technical expert
– Representative
– Monitor
– Change manager
– Problem solver
Project sponsor:
– The project sponsor or project facilitator will normally be a senior member of the management team.
– They are often chosen as the person with the most to gain from the success of the project and the most to lose from the failure of it.
– Their job is to direct the project, and allow the project manager to manage the project.
The project manager:
The project manager is the person appointed by the organisation to lead the team, and manage it on a day-to-day basis. Primarily the project manager’s responsibility is to deliver the project and to ensure that effectiveness and efficiency are achieved across the entire project.
Problems faced by project managers:
Typical problems faced by a project manager will include:
– Managing staff who are assigned to the project part-time and have responsibilities in their ‘home’ departments
– Managing the relationship with the departmental managers who have staff on the project team
– Managing the size of the team given variable resource requirements throughout the project life cycle
– Dealing with specialists in areas where the manager is not an expert.
Managing project changes:
Managers will also have a problem if the project changes during its life.
Project changes may be forced onto a project in many ways:
– Changes in the environment may mean that the project needs to be adapted in order to achieve a better environmental fit
– There may be internal changes that impact on activities in the value chain, resources available, production techniques etc.
– The project sponsor may change one of the project constraints such as the scope of the project.