Balancing among Cost, Time and Quality in Project Management

Describe about the Project Management Maturity Model?

According to Walker (2015), the project managers have a significant role in project management. They actively initiate, plan, design, execute and control the entire operations within the project. Different industries like construction, petrochemical, architecture IT industries require the management of project managers for production of their products and provide services. As stated by Schwalbe (2015), the time management, quality maintenance and costing is an important factor for the project management. The project managers should develop strategies for improving the quality of products and services, meeting the deadline of the projects, and analyzing the cost expense of project. It is a crucial factor for the management of project. On the other hand, Phillips (2013) stated that proper planning can help in reducing the factors of cost, time and scope and their role in project management as Project Management Triangle. The three factors have been termed as constraints and they are independent to each other. Quality is an integral part that facilitates the project and the managers are required for managing the project quality.

Importance of Time Management of a Project

Neumann et al. (2012) have defined the time as the duration required for completion of the project fulfilling all the needs of the project from the organization. The duration of the project plays an important role for the project and it should be properly managed for achieving the efficient results of the project. The activities for completion of the project can consume a considerable amount of time. Every project is assigned with a deadline, before which the project must be completed. Bakker et al. (2013), has pointed out that the completion of task depends on a number of factors such as working condition, experience, skills, and number of people working on the project. Hence, for management of project all these factors must be considered and proper and effective management must be done in each of the aspects for managing the time of the project. However, Crawford (2014), has pointed out that time is an uncontrollable factor. It has been seen several times that the project failure can be observed in some cases and it creates adverse effect on the organization and the project manager managing the project. The lack of resource is the major reason for the failure of the project or not meeting the time requirements of the project.

According to Heagney (2012), the cost in a project can be defined as the amount of money that would be required to be invested in the project for completion. It includes all the expenses the organization have to do for buying the initial raw materials and tools that would be required in the project. Alberighi et al. (2013), has stated their views on the cost effectiveness of the project management as the most crucial and necessary for any project. The whole idea of doing any project in the organization is attaining profit at the end of the project. The profit calculation can be done by analyzing the project and making the list for the expenses.

Importance of Time Management of a Project

However, according to Sallam et al. (2015), the cost analysis of a project is imperative from both financial and managerial point of view. The project manager and the organization both require having an estimation of the project that they would undertake. Hope and Fraser (2013) explained that the budgeting of the project would ensure that the developed project would be implemented at a known confided cost. Irrespective of such points, Verzuh (2015) has stated arguments that an additional provision for the expenses of the project. Even the projects are being limited to a certain costs, the project managers can keep a provision for meeting the needs for additional cost that may arise during the project operations.

Burke (2013) opined that the quality of the project as the instant needs of the project that helps in providing the desired or required functionality to the operations of the project. According to Phillips (2013), the quality of the project is the eventual objective of the project. The projects yielding good quality are beneficial for attaining customer satisfaction. The project management triangle implies the quality of the project delivered. Sallam et al. (2015) has stated that ‘high quality projects cost high’. It means that for achieving fine quality of the project, the expenses on the project must be high.

The projects yielding low quality for meeting the deadline of the projects is not beneficial in terms of overall success of the project. Hence, as per the theory of Leong et al. (2014), the quality maintenance plays a crucial role for the project success and time and cost are related to the quality of the project. The successful management of a project can result in yielding fine quality of project and services to the customers.

Neumann et al. (2012) have stated that the success of any project is the combined effort of project plan development, management of operations and successful implementation that provides the desired outcome for the project. The effective management of the quality, time, and cost to form a balance among them is crucial for the successful operations of the project. Bakker et al. (2013) have pointed out the balance between these three factors have a varying aspect and it is related to the key requirements of the project. The quality, time, and cost factors impact on varied level at different circumstances of the project.

Leong et al. (2014) stated that for the manger of the project, prioritizing of any one of the factors over the remaining two is needed. It is related with consideration of the different scenarios of the project during the operations. Hope and Fraser (2013) explained the relation of cost, time, and quality with direct relation to each other. The project managers have to reduce the quality or increase the cost of the project for meeting the particular deadline. Therefore, a missed deadline for any project may result in compensation of cost factor. The managers would have to reduce the cost of the raw materials and hence, it would affect the quality of the project.

Importance of Cost Management of a Project

Verzuh (2015) described that the role of managers in managing the balance among the cost, quality and time by assigning good project budget and installing a superior delivery team. They would support the manager for the process of managing the project by efficient assessments to the time, quality, and cost factors. Alberighi et al. (2013) have pointed out that the reasonable set budget by the managers can lead to disciplined activities that would stimulate the creative and innovative ideas in the team members. The managers balance the factors of time, quality, and cost in creating a sound financial system for management that is prone to deliver high quality project within the stipulated deadline.

According to Heagney (2012), the managers have started considering the entire life of the project rather than just the construction and design cost of the project during the cost analysis. It would be helpful for balancing the three factors and making the whole life cost analysis of the project. The managers have significant role for overcoming the challenges to the project in presence of these constraints. Walker (2015) pointed out the roles of manager in maintaining the quality, meeting the deadline, and analyzing the cost of the project with an outline of their roles. The managers and their roles are very significant for meeting the requirements of the project.

Conclusion

These are some of the roles of a manager in maintaining a balance among the factors of time, cost and quality of the report. The mangers have to provide all the information to the stakeholders about the planning, progress, and expected outcome of the project. There are various tools and techniques that can be used for facing the challenges of the project and keeping the balance in the triple constraints for achieving the desired quality of the project. Balancing the investment of the project over its whole life in contrast to the expected benefits would provide the whole life value of the project. Hence, there should be a provision in the business plan for the extra or sudden expense of the project. A good project manager successfully executes the project operations in such a way that there is a proper balance among the factors.

The role of managers in the project

Defining project Plan: The managers should define the plan of the project considering the whole life span of the project.

Obtain the key resources: The managers should provide an insight of the project to the stakeholders and it would be helpful for managing the cost of the project.

Analysis of the operations: The managers should keep an eye for the assessment of the operations and monitor the risks for providing superior quality of the project outcome.

References

Alberighi, O.D.C., Accame, L., Frenkel, J., Gattorno, M., Martini, A., Neven, B., Quartier, P., Pierotti, F. and Turchetti, G., 2013. PW02-027-CAPS and cost-effectiveness analysis project. Pediatric Rheumatology, 11(1), p.1.

Bakker, R.M., BoroÅŸ, S., Kenis, P. and Oerlemans, L.A., 2013. It’s only temporary: time frame and the dynamics of creative project teams. British Journal of Management, 24(3), pp.383-397.

Burke, R., 2013. Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.

Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. CRC Press.

Heagney, J., 2012. Fundamentals of project management. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn.

Hope, J. and Fraser, R., 2013. Beyond budgeting: how managers can break free from the annual performance trap. Harvard Business Press.

Leong, T.K., Zakuan, N., Mat Saman, M.Z., Ariff, M.S.M. and Tan, C.S., 2014. Using project performance to measure effectiveness of quality management system maintenance and practices in construction industry.The Scientific World Journal, 2014.

Neumann, K., Schwindt, C. and Zimmermann, J., 2012. Project scheduling with time windows and scarce resources: temporal and resource-constrained project scheduling with regular and nonregular objective functions. Springer Science & Business Media.

Phillips, J., 2013. PMP, Project Management Professional (Certification Study Guides). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media.

Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.

Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.

Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.

Wilson, K.D., Shen, P., Fung, E., Karakikes, I., Zhang, A., InanlooRahatloo, K., Odegaard, J., Sallam, K., Davis, R.W., Lui, G.K. and Ashley, E.A., 2015. A rapid, high-quality, cost-effective, comprehensive and expandable targeted next-generation sequencing assay for inherited heart diseases. Circulation research, 117(7), pp.603-611.