ITMG321 Information Technology Project Management : Systems Approach t

Last week you read about organizational structures and cultures and this week you learned about estimating durations and costs for your project. For this discussion, I'd like you to consider these two topics together. Each company has a different culture and a different approach toward estimating and toward getting estimates approved. For example, in some companies, the project manager is expected to involve all departments in the estimates; in others, they are expected to involve just key stakeholders. Some companies have specific processes or tools to assist with estimating.

 

What type of organizational structure do you have? What's the culture like in your organization and how can it help or hinder you with estimating your project? If you don't have much experience with this in an organization, then consider how the organization's structure and culture would affect all aspects of the estimating process.

 

As you respond to this thread, be sure to describe at least 3 different aspects of estimating that are affected by the organization. Describe how those aspects can be helped or hindered by the organization. What effects does this have on the project?

mating the duration and cost of the project. The current organization that I am working in, operates in the textile industry. The company makes use functional organizational structure, which is one of the oldest organizational method for undertaking the project. The operations manager supervises the project and allocates the various functions to the employees working under him. This method has a clear chain of command that is initiated by the operations manager. The functions that are allocated consists of the examination of the quality, field investigation etc. The textile industry requires a lot of cost and the products are required to be delivered on time.

According to my knowledge, Bottom-up estimates are ideal when the importance of time and cost are high essential as the project requires a fixed contract with respect to the quantity of product to be delivered within a stipulated time period. Even though the time period is fixed, there are issues that are related to the project that may hamper the exact time of executing the project (Kerzner 2013). As the operations manager is accountable for the proceedings of the project, it is crucial that he has proper knowledge about all the relevant data related to the project. He needs to have knowledge about all the processes that have been allocated to his subordinates so that he has knowledge about the functions and maintain a healthy relation. A lack in any of the responsibility will hamper the progress of the project and maintenance of it (Schwalbe 2015). The other factor that remains that in a functional organization, every employee have defined roles assigned to them and therefore, it is the job of the operations manager to have knowledge about his subordinates and allocate the exact tasks to each employees who have sufficient knowledge and depth in that area. A wrong allocation may lead to the delay of the project. At the end, it is vital to keep an updated schedule of the project periodically. However, it may be tiresome in analyzing the time of meeting in the execution of the project and equalize the time allotted to each employee or unit with the functional organization.

Reference:

Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

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