Introduction
The development of the Clemente Global Summit will have a lot of tasks that will require to take place simultaneously hence the application of the agile project management approach. The agile process involves continuous development and improvement of a project whereby the project manager breaks it into phases and allocates them to stakeholders according to their expertise. This approach is efficient in this project as it saves time and ensures the best results. Each phase undergoes planning, development, and measurement in an agile methodology approach. Hence, the methodology requires every stakeholder to be actively involved and motivated from the starting point to the final point of the project.
To work efficiently, the agile methodology is guided by four core principles developed by the agile manifesto. To begin with, the approach advocates for interactions between individuals while commenting and implementing observations. The method also appreciates working software rather than documentation that is sometimes comprehensive. More so, in agile, consumer or user collaboration is preferred to contract negotiation. Finally, the main theme of the approach is that it is easy to respond to change rather than following a rigid plan, which makes it possible to adopt for dynamic projects.
Subsequently, the agile approach focuses on customer satisfaction during the early stages and continuously throughout the project. It uses a technique whereby the project manager is able to break tasks into small units that are easy to analyze and complete as expected (Buganová and Šimíčková, 2019). The agile approach acknowledges that the best results are delivered from collaborative and well-organized teams. Hence, the project manager should motivate the team members by offering them support and the resources they require to complete their tasks. The method also ensures that the charges in each phase are conducted at a constant step while accommodating change in every stage of the project. Further, the approach ensures continuous collaboration of all stakeholders as the project manager assembles the team and stakeholders on a regular basis to discuss the changes (Meng and Boyd, 2017). It is easy to measure progress and quality of work in the approach as work I subdivided into small units. The agile approach encourages continuous excellence seeking and change harnessing to create a competitive advantage.
Comparison with Other Approaches
The Waterfall Approach
This is a linear or an approach that uses a particular sequence in project development. In this model, tasks are lined up one after another from the beginning to the end of the project. It involves a formal process with carefully detailed and documented tasks at each phase which should be done before proceeding to the following stage. It uses strict timelines, resources, scope, and other deliverables. It is the most traditional method used for project management often utilized in the development of IT projects.
The model is beneficial as the project requirements are defined in the early stages, which enables developers to define the scope of the project and create a schedule for developing each phase. The method also assists the developers in saving resources as everything in the project is planned (Ciric et al., 2019). The phases are documented and have detailed descriptions making it hard to make mistakes. In addition, it is easy to measure the status of the project as one can refer to the complete schedule and resource plan.
However, this model cannot be applicable in the development of the Clemente Global Summit as it is difficult to get all the project requirements before the development process commences. This is because the developers may not have a clear image of the needs and conditions of the project, hence, should leave room for change through the process (Xu and Koivumäki, 2019). Moreover, adopting this model requires a detailed description of every phase at the start of the project, which may be beyond the capabilities of the team. The Waterfall model requires experienced and expert developers who are aware of each detail (Shim and Lee, 2019). This model emphasizes that everything should be done at one time which causes the project to span for months, raising the chances of being late or spending beyond the budget.
The Summit Plan Proper
The Clemente Global Summit is a very critical event for our country and thus needs proper and adequate preparation. The event shall host the World’s most important leaders such as heads of State and prominent business people. To effectively prepare and manage the occasion, there is a need to define the needs and objectives of the event and gather the resources required to make it a success. The objectives are related to the overall intent, purpose, and strategic direction of the event. The participants, sponsors, hosts, media, and spectators shall be considered when developing the event.
In the Global Summit, our country’s leaders want to invite investors and build foreign connections to grow the economic status. To achieve this goal, the investors must be convinced that the government is ready for growth, economic development and can yield profit from investments. Henceforth, at the summit, country’s heritage and well-being must be howcased. Furthermore, managers need to focus on showcasing community facilities and infrastructure, good environmental practices, and the regeneration of urban and rural areas. The country has a rich culture and social aim and should display social cohesion and community participation in development. The event shall also expand the cultural perspectives of the Clemente communities to the visitors. The summit is also an ample opportunity to grow the country’s tourism sector, thus, the favorable weather, local foods and drinks, local talents, arts and crafts are among the things that shall be displayed at the event. Therefore, the following objectives are formulated to ensure the success of the Clemente Global Summit;
Objectives of the Project
General Objectives
- Prepare events that showcase the country as a favorable place to invest.
- Create a conducive environment to host visitors.
- Gather information from local experts and entrepreneurs to create a suitable theme.
Specific Objectives
- Generate and distribute questionnaires to local entrepreneurs to gather information on their needs six months before the event.
- Conduct vigorous marketing activities to ensure a high number of visitors attend the event.
- Renovate, refurbish, and decorate 10 major government facilities to be used by visitors in six months.
- Reconstruction and repair the roads and stadiums that will be used in the event in two months.
- Hire and train 1000 entertainers in two months that will display the country’s culture and welcome visitors.
- To recycle an average of 80% of the event’s waste. (Bátori et al., 2017)
- Contract 20 hotels in three months that will host the visitors and provide food and beverages throughout the event.
- Contract 10 interior designing companies to decorate the facilities to be used for the event.
- To increase awareness of the country’s heritage and tourism sector by 40%.
- Achieve media coverage for 70% of the event.
Work Identification and Break Down
First and foremost, the project’s success will be determined by how well the event is planned. In the planning phase, managers must identify all the tasks and resources required for the event. The project team should collaborate with all the stakeholders to collect the needs and requirements and find an effective way to carry out the work. In this phase, the main work shall be outlining a strategy to carry out each task. To begin with, marketers should gather information on the major aim of the process, which is financial development. To ensure the citizens and business owners in the country are involved in the event, they shall be required to fill in questionnaires and information gathered used in the event. Therefore, 2 million questionnaires shall be produced and distributed according to different regions. Team members must also concentrate on showing the visitors that our country is in a position to make economic growth. To achieve this, industries need to display various successful sectors such as agriculture, tourism, education, and manufacturing. Five companies from these sectors shall be hired to show their products at the summit. Entertainers need to showcase our culture and social connectedness to assure investors of a peaceful busy environment. A thousand entertainers need to be hired and trained for this purpose.
Most importantly, the project team needs to get ready for the visitors. They should plan where to host them and hold different meetings and displays. They should display an appealing site and make them feel comfortable. This requires renovation of 10 government facilities and hiring ten comfortable hotels. Construction companies shall repair roads and stadiums where the event shall be held and 20 interior designing companies to decorate the facilities.
The event should be advertised six months before it takes place, and 70% media coverage should be achieved. This requires contracting about five media stations, mounting billboards in 3 major towns, and weekly advertising on the three most purchased newspapers. Awareness shall also be increased by hired field workers who shall be distributing questionnaires to citizens. The successful implementation of the event shall require USD 500 00,000.
Work Break Down
To begin with it is the planning of the event, which involves meeting with various stakeholders. The group shall have meetings with the government agencies and representatives in various sectors. The meetings with suppliers of various goods and services also must be arranged. More so, researchers shall meet citizens in do sectors and regions in the country to collect their views and agendas to be presented in the event. The development team members shall also hold regular meetings to analyze different parts of the project.
The next phase is the implementation, where the work with different organizations and resources must be comducted. First is the construction organizations which researchers shall contract to renovate and rebuild the roads, stadiums, and government facilities. After renovation, managers shall decorate the facilities using lights and other interiors that display the beauty of the country. Thereafter, shall work with the technology experts to install various security systems and display systems. All through, managers shall coordinate with the media to advertise the summit and finally air the actual event.
At the development phase, managers shall need to hire legal officers who will perform different tasks such as contracting companies, negotiating with suppliers, ensuring the hiring process is within the law, among others.
Figure 2. Tasks’ Cost and Time Estimates
The Risk Analysis and Baseline Plan
Risk is an occurrence that, if experienced, could lead to the failure of a planned event. Every project is exposed to various risks, and hence, the project manager must identify and manage them. A project manager should identify, analyze, assess and mitigate the potential project risks. Unlike crisis management, risk management occurs before the onset of the activity and often goes unnoticed. Therefore, in the Clemente Global Summit, the possible risks must be identified and managed in a manner that the outsiders do not notice if the risk existed. Some of the potential risks to this project are political, people or expertise, financial, technological, and security risks. These risks need to be addressed for the smooth development and implementation of the project.
Political risks may occur due to the unstable political situation faced in the country recently. Since the current government overthrew the previous to take power, the former may be willing to cause havoc during the event as a form of political revenge. Members of the project team may also be included or supporters of the previous government and hence compromise the delivery of quality service. Political risks are one of the major risks affecting the development of this project. To address it, the support from the current government during the development and undertaking of the event should be taken to provide enough security for the visit and citizens. In addition, reserchers shall ensure that all the project team members carry the objective of the project by constantly gauging their performance and interests.
Our country has lagged in the form of education advancement and training due to the previous government’s policies. There might be a challenge to find experts in various fields such as technology and construction that will develop the project according to international standards. The personnel hired in different sectors such as entertainment or other services delivery may also fail to turn up during development and implementation, leading to a significant failure. To mitigate this risk, the group shall outsource experts from various departments which will not be available locally. Further, researchers shall recruit a backup team for every service to ensure delivery.
The country has not advanced in technology hence may be lacking some equipment needed for development. The available kit is also vulnerable to failure, therefore, may need to be replaced. Equipment should be included in the budget, buy the ones that are available, while outsourcing others (Friedland, Folt and Mercer, 2018). Most importantly, financial risks should be carefully analyzed as they could easily lead to project failure. To mitigate this risk, researchers shall document all the processes before the commencement of the project and ensure it is in line or a little bit lower than the government’s budget. The government must be advised to avail a higher amount than mentioned in the report in case anything will be missed out.
Consequently, the Clemente Global Summit could face an environmental risk such as extreme weather conditions making the visitors uncomfortable. Climatic conditions are an awkward factor, but the risk can be mitigated. For instance, in case of heavy rains, it could affect the media signals or electrical connection, influencing the success of the project. On the other hand, harsh sunshine could affect the comfort of the visitors, thus their interest in the event. To avoid this occurrence, the project team shall install instruments such as backup generators, cooling fans, and heaters. The hotel rooms that will host the visitors will also be equipped with these instruments, and drinks will be served according to the temperature conditions. In hot weather, cold drinks will be offered, and hot chocolate or coffee will be served in cold weather. These will ensure that the visitors will not be affected by changes in climatic conditions.
Leadership and Human Resources
Project Management versus Leadership
Most times, managers and leaders are perceived to have the same meaning and duties in an organization. This could be because managers are expected to play leadership roles. However, leaders and managers differ in terms of roles, characters, and positions in any organization or project. For the successful running of a project or organization, managers should aim to be leaders. A leader’s role is to initiate or introduce a policy while a manager oversees the implementation of the policy. Goździewska-Nowicka and Rajs (2018) identify that a leader identifies a problem, evaluates and analysis it, and later comes up with a solution. After the discovery of the resolution, a leader hands it to a manager who overlooks its implementation. A manager allocates duties to employees, which ensures the achievement of the set objectives.
A project manager is an overall overseer during the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of an IT project. An effective project manager should switch from management to leadership roles. They should actively participate during the planning phase, where they should offer their expertise on finding the best solution to a business. Rather than being given a planned project to implement, a good project manager should analyze and evaluate the viability of the proposed project, identify involved stakeholders, come up with a development plan and budget and assess the possible risks.
A project manager controls the creation and organization of tasks during execution. They should come up with an implementation team, define the role of each member and provide guidance on how to perform. The manager should identify and provide necessary resources to the team. To be effective, a project manager has to be a good communicator with the team and other stakeholders (Goździewska-Nowicka and Rajs, 2018). They also monitor and assess the quality of work performed by team members and manage the budget. At the closure stage, a project manager analyzes the team performance and quality of the project. They must document all aspects of the project, making sure all expectations are met. They should also conduct post-implementation reviews and account budgeting.
Qualities of a Good Project Manager
Project management is a very demanding job as a project manager has to oversee every operation in project development. It must be updated on every activity that different team members are undertaking and must be in touch with different stakeholders. A project manager acts as a gluing force that holds the project together. Therefore, project managers should be good team leaders, communicators, motivators, problem solvers, and critical thinkers, among others.
A project manager should act as a motivator to his team members and other stakeholders. Project development could be a challenging task as people strain to meet strict deadlines and work within the given resources. Sometimes failure might occur in some activities leaving the developers discouraged (Goździewska-Nowicka and Rajs, 2018). During such instances, they need someone to lift their spirits and keep the work going. A manager must motivate and encourage team members for the project’s success.
Good project managers should also be problem solvers in that they are in a position to address any risks that may occur during project development. They can foresee threat and plan on how to mitigate it. For instance, if a contracted company for a particular task fails to show up for the job, a project organizer should have a backup plan to guarantee that it does not influence the prosperity of the project. More so, good project managers can think on the job to solve an emergent situation that was not foreseen (Hanna et al., 2018). Every stakeholder trusts the project manager to have the roadmap to the project’s success.
A successful project manager possesses good communication and interpersonal skills. These skills enable the project manager to relate well with all the stakeholders and uphold a mutual understanding among them. This professional should have the ability to understand different employees and team members according to their personalities and address them accordingly (Sanchez and Terlizzi, 2017). The project manager should understand how to facilitate successful and productive meetings and establish group cohesion among the stakeholders. Manager can address key issues and communicate them effectively to all necessary parties.
For the successful completion of a project, a project manager should delegate different tasks to the team members. Sanchez and Terlizzi (2017) posited that as an overall overseer of a project, the project manager is not in a position to perform any specific duty, while doing so would lead to the failure of other aspects within the project. Thus, the project manager should delegate his duties to the experts within the team and focus on the big picture of the entire task. In addition, a project manager should concentrate on the indicators of a project, such as timely delivery, profitability, and completing the project within the required budget.
Disastrous Project Management Skills
During the development of a project, many things are likely to occur, making the project manager desperate. Despite the challenges faced, there are certain attributes that a project manager should avoid to achieve success. To begin with, project managers should not be micro-managers, rather, they should delegate different tasks to experts within the team. Micro-managing the development process would lead to demotivating the team members facilitating failure of the project. Moreover, project managers should not compromise on anything within the process. They should ensure everything is delivered according to the initial plan or an improvement of it.
Project management involves coordinating people and resources towards the successful completion of a project. To effectively achieve this goal, a project manager must not have a temperamental attitude as this will hinder good collaboration with other team members (Xu and Koivumäki, 2019). Although positive relationships are encouraged, a project manager should not form informal relationships with team members before the completion of the task (Hanna et al., 2018). Dishonesty, biase, corruption, and greed are among the attributes that a project manager should avoid.
Conclusion
Planning and developing the Clemente Global Summit project will involve undertaking a high number of corresponding tasks. The project will involve many stakeholders and cover a wide scope of work. Hence, the agile approach will be most suitable for the project. This approach consists of the subdivision of tasks into subunits which are allocated to different members of the development team according to their expertise. The subunits are easily monitored and developed to the highest standards. The Agile approach allows changes at any point in development hence most suitable for the project.
The primary objective of the project is to prepare an event that will display Clemente as a conducive environment for financial investment to the attendants of the summit. The project also aims at creating a comfortable environment that is technologically advanced to host visitors. The project also aims at providing the local investors and small entrepreneurs a platform to air their views and concerns that will help in the development of the event. The development and implementation of this project will take place in phases. First will be the starting stage, where the necessity of the interested parties will be collected, team members hired, and contractors and suppliers employed. The second stage will be the needs requirements analysis, followed by the actual development and financial release and closure of the project.
For the successful fullfilment of the project, the manager has to possess certain skills and capabilities. The project manager should have leadership skills such as problem identification and solving, critical thinking, motivator, risks management, and accountability. A project manager should be the binding force between the clients and project team members. He should also hold different pieces of the project together and evaluate its success using the relevant parameters. Good communication and intrapersonal skills play a significant role in the successful implementation of a project as the manager is able to effectively communicate the project’s information. On the other hand, there are skills that project managers should avoid in their practice as they would to a project’s failure. Micro-management is one of the factors that demotivate team members leading to poor performance. Moreover, corruption and greed portray a project manager as untrustworthy by clients and the project team. A project should be delivered on time and within the set budget, hence, time and cost unconsciousness could lead to the failure of an entire project.
References
Bátori, V., Jabbari, M., Åkesson, D., Lennartsson, P.R., Taherzadeh, M.J. and Zamani, A. (2017) ‘Production of pectin-cellulose biofilms: a new approach for citrus waste recycling’, International Journal of Polymer Science, 2017.
Buganová, K. and Šimíčková, J. (2019) ‘Risk management in traditional and agile project management’, Transportation Research Procedia, 40, pp. 986-993.
Ciric, D., Lalic, B., Gracanin, D., Tasic, N., Delic, M. and Medic, N. (2019) ‘Agile vs. Traditional approach in project management: Strategies, challenges and reasons to introduce agile’, Procedia Manufacturing, 39, pp.1407-1414.
Friedland, A.J., Folt, C.L. and Mercer, J.L. (2018) ‘Basic organization and effective communication’, Writing Successful Science Proposals, pp. 33-45.
Goździewska-Nowicka, A. and Rajs, A. (2018) ‘Leadership qualities in project management’, Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership, 5(1), pp.7-22.
Hanna, A.S., Iskandar, K.A., Lotfallah, W., Ibrahim, M.W. and Russell, J.S. (2018) ‘A data-driven approach for identifying project manager competency weights’, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 45(1), pp.1-8.
Meng, X. and Boyd, P. (2017) ‘The role of the project manager in relationship management’, International Journal of Project Management, 35(5), pp.717-728.
Sanchez, O.P. and Terlizzi, M.A. (2017) ‘Cost and time project management success factors for information systems development projects’, International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), pp.1608-1626.
Shim, W. and Lee, S.W. (2019) ‘An agile approach for managing requirements change to improve learning and adaptability’, Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 14, pp.16-23.
Xu, Y. and Koivumäki, T. (2019) ‘Digital business model effectuation: An agile approach’, Computers in Human Behavior, 95, pp.307-314.