Research objectives:
The researcher is keen about the tools and techniques of project management. The researcher feels that the efficiency of project management can be greatly improved by employing the tools of project management.
The researcher will hope to achieve the below research objectives at the end of the research.
- To find out about the training and the usage of PM Tools.
- To analyze project failure in organizations and the causes of failure.
- To find out how project management tools have helped.
- To what extent, Risk Management can be done using software.
1.3RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
This research will focus on the main research question, i.e.
a) What is the significance of project management tools in controlling the outcome of a project?
It is important to define success and failure of project. There are a lot of factors used to evaluate the project outcome. These factors vary between companies and also between projects. This research will define the success and failure of projects and also analyze some of the failed and successful projects. Analysis of their failure will be discussed and a solution will be put forward that will similar projects in the future. The main solution will be based on the various tools of project management available in the market. Various industries use different methods to plan their project. Much such software's are available in the market for planning of projects. I am going to do an analysis of the various planning and management software's such as Primavera, Microsoft Office Project with their differences and also their pros and cons. The industries have to purchase the software and the license to use the software from Oracle which owns Primavera or from Microsoft with owns MS Project. For this, I will contact a few companies that use this software. The power industry or the construction companies are the best choice and order of preference.
Here we will research on the various project management tools available in the market and understand the preference of their usage by various companies. Some of the sub-questions that will be discussed in this project are,
b) When will the planning phase of the project begin and what are the inputs required?
Planning of the project is extremely important taking into consideration the tight schedule the project team has to follow. This makes it important to have a highly trained set of professionals who work on these software's. I will analyze the job profile of the personnel involved in the usage of the software. The value they bring to the company with their knowledge.
The planning of the project needs a lot of inputs from the client and the other stakeholders. These inputs will help the planners to put the wheels in motion. The various inputs involved in the project are the requirements, the total time of completion, etc. A study will be made on the inputs needed for the personnel to start the project and the method of presentation of the inputs, i.e. whether the inputs will be presented in a meeting or whether the project plan will be provided.
Using the inputs from the various stakeholders, the software personnel will commence the planning of the project.
c) What is the significance of risk management software?
There are various risks involved in projects. There are risks that can be managed using software. Analysis will be done on the use of software in risk management in the power and construction industry.
d) Why do projects fail even after proper planning?
A well planned project planned using the software's need not be supposedly a successful one. There can be failed projects even if all the right models are used or the right planning is done. An in-depth analysis will be done on the failed projects that were planned using the planning and management software's. This will help to analyze the reasons for failure of the projects. To do this, I will collect data on failed projects that were planned using the software. Analysis will be done on the percentage of failed projects. I will also contact the personnel that actually planned the project and get inputs from them. The industry under consideration will be mostly power and civil industry because of the importance of planning involved in them.
e) What are the factors that made the project a successful one?
Projects planning software's have a positive impact on the industry projects. This has helped the companies have a better overview of the projects and helped them on better understanding of the work involved. A lot of projects have been successfully completed with the help of the planning and management software's. A study on the impact of these software's in the success of the projects will be conducted with a survey and the parameters of impact will be analyzed the actual value brought about by the use of these software's.