Discussion
Haynes (2002) defines project management as “an undertaking that has a beginning and an end which is carried out to meet established goals within the cost, schedule and quality objectives” (p.3). Bringing together and making the best use of the necessary resources required to complete the project. These are skills, talents, and cooperative efforts of a team of people; facilities, tools, and equipment, information, systems, techniques, and money (Haynes, 2002). In light of this fact, an online fire prevention information system will involve the creation of the information and communication system, that will control fire security on a particular territory. The entire system will consist of three main components: detectors (fire, water pressure in the fire extinguishing system, availability of evacuation exits and fire ladders), a communication system for transferring the information to the control center, and an analysis and output system for warning technical team if one of the rules of fire safety is violated. (Kohli, 2006)
The Purpose
Lock (2007) states that “the purpose of project management is to foresee as many of the dangers and problems as possible and plan, organize and control activities so that projects are completed successfully despite all risks” (p.1). These involve planning, coordinating, and controlling various types of activities in modern industrial, commercial, and management change projects (Lock, 2007). The purpose of the regarded project is to elaborate an effective fire prevention system that will help to monitor fire security and warn in cases of increased fire danger. This is required for proper assessment of the risks, as well as saving lives, equipment, and documents. Additionally, considering the fact that prevention is often more preferred than solving the appeared problem, this system will help to minimize losses in the case of fire, if it is adjusted properly and effectively. (Choudhury, 1988)
Background
As is stated by Haynes (2002) Different projects move through a predictable life cycle of four phases that require different skills from project managers namely; conceiving and defining the project, planning, implementing, and finally completing and evaluating the project. Projects come into being gradually and others fade out slowly. Many projects have their actual beginning and end dates with significant dates in between these recognized as key events (Lock, 2007). Therefore, the background of the project management process will be based on the requirements of ISO standards for fire safety. Therefore, it should be stated that the actual importance of an online fire prevention system would be associated with the matters of traditional views on safety, fire prevention, team experience, and cooperation, as well as communication principles applied. (Cleland and Rolandm 2006)
Before committing any resource, the project management plan should be started well and has to be continued until all work is completed. As a methodology, project management continues to advance both in its application to different situations and refinement of the process for a wide variety of efforts. Project management has evolved to become the principal means for dealing with organizational change (Cleland & Ireland, 2006).
The Aim of the Project
The key aim of the regarded project is to create a reliable, and effective fire prevention system that will warn the personnel in the case of increased danger online. This is needed for controlling the fire safety level by the means of technical tools, while this may help wither decrease expenses for the fire safety team, or increase the effectiveness of their performance. Regardless of the financial aim of a company, the implementation of this system will be an important step for increasing safety levels for workers and preventing fires that may be dangerous for the nearby buildings, as well.
In the light of the fact that the main principle of this prevention system will be based on technical detectors, including audiovisual control, smoke detection, and water pressure controllers, the system will be a single control mechanism intended for effective assessment of the fire safety level, and timely warning for fire prevention, or extinguishing.
Another aim will be the installation of an emergency communication channel, which may be also used as a reserve channel. This will be required for the proper functioning of the system in the case of damage to the main communication line, and for increasing the effectiveness and bandwidth if the load will overwhelm nominal calculations.
Objectives
The main objectives of project management are time, performance, and cost. They are the factors that drive the project contractor and should be aligned with the expectations of the project owner. Project management objectives are directed towards achieving project goals, which could be summarized as delighting the client and creating commercial success for the contractor. Many projects must satisfy more than these two stakeholders for instance the financing institutions who have a keen interest in the success or failure of the project (Lock, 2007).
Because the importance of the project is to create a reliable team, that will create a reliable system within the given terms and using the given amount of resources, the key objectives of online fire prevention project management will be associated with proper resource allocation principles. Hence, the management of this project will also involve the application of proper resource management principles. These resources will be:
- Financial resources
- Technical and management teams
- Material resources. Detectors, communication consumables, data processing equipment.
While the actual importance of the project is linked with creating an experienced team, managers should also consider the fact that detectors, consumables, and data processing equipment should be selected by the technical team. Hence, the reliability of the project will increase.
Business Case
The project’s business case must be flowed down along with the requirements to levels of decomposition. Projects are driven by the business case in response to economic opportunity or threat. It substantiates the need for the project and the expected outcome created by the development of the solution. Return on investment and the break-even point is metrics that are often estimated and quoted in the business case to justify the project. Flowing down of the business case, it takes a different form and is represented by solution criticality, risk, budgets, and schedules. Satisfaction with these criteria must be assured (Mooz, Forsberg & Cotterman, 2003).
The implementation process of the project will be as given below:
Considering the fact that the entire project will require at least 11 weeks, the approximate length of each phase is given in the table.
Benefits
The ultimate benefit of project management is to have a satisfied client. Completing the project scope in a quality manner, on time and within budget provides a great feeling of satisfaction. A project delivered in time, within budget and in line with its specifications will provide the contractor with a good profit, beneficial publicity and a warm glow of satisfaction. Projects that have a relatively short duration do not involve large amounts of capital expenditure and are relatively easy to manage. The life cycle of a project begins with the authorization of the work on the projects to the time of handing over the desired end product to the customer. Some project purchasing and fulfillment duty can usually begin well before the completion of the designing phase (Lock, 2007).
The benefits of the regarded project are associated with the opportunity to protect lives, property, and information, as fire prevention systems have already revealed higher effectiveness in comparison with fire extinguishing systems (Kohli, 2006). As a rule, the benefits will be enjoyed by all the employees who will have to work in the building with installed fire prevention system. Additionally, this system will improve the emergency measures applied by the building administration, and may help to decrease costs for fire protection measures.
Costs
During the formative period and definition phases, some expenditure must be made by the owner of the project. A feasibility study costing large sums of money might have to be commissioned to explore the risks, benefits and best strategies to carry out the project (Lock, 2007). Project design provides the initial input regarding equipment, drawings, purchase specifications and bills of materials. Materials management provides information on actual material and equipment prices to be used. Planning provides information on required materials and their actual receipt dates. Estimating and materials management provide input on estimated materials and equipment costs for each cost account to the budgeting module (Harrison & Lock, 2004).
Tasks
Effective project planning and early team involvement are crucial to successful project team management. Team involvement in the early stages of a project builds enthusiasm towards the project, team morale and ultimately team effectiveness. Proper planning involves all the stakeholders including support departments, management and subcontractors because project leaders need to integrate various tasks across functional lines (Cleland & Gareis, 2006).
Precedence Chart
The precedence system is of notation is preferred and has emerged to be dominant due to flow diagrams that can be more easily understood, notations that allow clear illustrations of activities whose starts and finishes do not coincide directly with their immediate predecessors and successors and precedence networks can widely be supported by computer software (Lock, 2007). The flow of work in a precedence diagram is always from left to right. The diagrams are not drawn to scale and codes are given for computer processing. Codes range from small serial numbers to complex alphanumeric codes.
Gantt Chart
Gantt charts are always drawn in linear timescale. They are excellent visual aids and their effectiveness can be enhanced by the use of different colors. They are useful for every simple resource scheduling because the amount of any particular kind of resource needed in a given period of time can be calculated by adding the number of times the task needing the resource appear in each period column (Lock, 2007).
Fire and Rescue Operation Project Plan
Staffing
Investigation into the characteristics of project management will enable an organization to understand the problems that occur during staffing. In the project environment personnel performance and policy are the major problems that can occur. The least complex and uncertain projects require different type of staffing management unlike those with the highest levels of complexity and uncertainty.
Risk management
Special crisis management contingency plans must be made in order to prevent the impact of some risk events that can have potential impact on a project. Plans for risk management must be set up to deal with the sudden crisis. Once the possibility of a crisis has been established, the first step is devising a contingency plan to identify the key people who will take charge of the crisis management project (Lock, 2007).
The Purpose of the Document
Management change project of any significant size will usually require a charter and contract (project initiation document) procedure. Some organizations invoke a lengthy authorization procedure that consists of a project charter followed by a contract. The document sets out the principal objectives and is prepared for consideration and approval by the company’s senior management. It establishes the project in the organization under the nominated project manger (Lock, 2007).
Conclusion
A project life cycle is determined by the period between the beginning and end of the project. In this case, there are three key players in a project life cycle namely the client, contractor and the project manger. The client is a person or an organization that wants to by the project and put the end product into use. The contractor is the organization that is responsible to oversee the project. The project manger is the person employed by the contractor or client so as to plan and manage all the project activities to be completed in time, within its budget and its specifications (Lock, 2007).
References
Choudhury, S. (1988) Project management. Noida, Tata McGraw-Hill.
Cleland, David and Gareis, Roland. (2006) Global project management handbook: planning, organizing, and controlling international projects. 2nd edition. Dubuque IA, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Cleland, David and Ireland, Lewis R. (2006) Project management: strategic design and implementation. 5th edition. Dubuque IA, McGraw-Hill Professional.
Harrison, F and Lock, Dennis. (2004) Advanced project management: a structured approach. 4th edition. Aldershot, Gower Publishing Ltd.
Haynes, M. (2002) Project management: practical tools for success. 3rd edition. Florence KY, Cengage Learning.
Kohli. (2006) Project management handbook. Noida, Tata McGraw-Hill.
Lock, D. (2007) Project management. 9th edition. Aldershot, Gower Publishing Ltd.
Mooz, H., Forsberg, K and Cotterman, H. (2003) Communicating project management: the integrated vocabulary of project management and systems engineering. John Wiley and Sons.