Project Management is a very important topic in the area of business and entrepreneurship. In today’s blog we’ll be visiting this topic to explore more about it and enrich our knowledge.
We will highlight the features of project management by summarizing and reflecting on a lecture given by a project management expert, Alanoud AlShowaier.
Event Information
Event: The International Week for Entrepreneurship
Organizer: College of Business and Administration
Lecture Topic: Project Management
Presenter: Alanoud AlShowaier
Location: Princess Nourah University
Date: Oct 28, 2018
The Speaker Biography
Ms. Alanoud AlShowaier is Account & Project Director at Hrakat. She has worked for many digital marketing institutions. From 2016 till 2018, she worked as Finance Manager (Part-time) for TTP Creative Agency. She worked also as Senior Data Analyst at eTree. She’s a graduate of King Saud University with Bachelor of Business Administration, Economics degree 2005-2010. On 2015, she got her Diploma, Digital Marketing from DM3 Institute. Lately on 2017, she attended The University of Liverpool for an English program (Linkedin, 2018). This eventful biography of Ms. Alanoud AlShowaier gives her a great knowledge of the topic of project management.
Project Management Definition
According to Kerzner, he defined project management in his book as: “The application of knowledge, skills and tools necessary to achieve the project’s requirements. The knowledge, skills, and tools are usually grouped into activities or processes.” (Kerzner, 2017)
Summary of the Lecture
Ms. Alanoud’s lecture outline featured the following topics:
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Hrakat for content creation and visual production.
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Classifications of Projects.
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Project Life Cycle.
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Examples and Case Study.
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Risk Management.
Hrakat for content creation and visual production
Ms. Alanoud provided an overview about Hrakat to facilitate explaining project management concept while applying it to Hrakat.
Hrakat is a saudi company that was established in 2011. According to Ms. Alanoud, Hrakat has served more than 35 client and has produced more than 500 minutes of visual production and contents.
Services Offered by Hrakat:
1. Communication products that enhance engagement.
2. Informal content.
3. Digital course development.
Hrakat Clients:
Government institutes: Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Communications, and Ministry of Housing.
Private Sector companies: Elm, Thiqah and Kareem.
Classifications of Projects
Classification of projects is an important step in the project management plan, and it affects every phase of planning. According to Ms. Alanoud, projects could be classified as follows:
- Big-Projects: Projects that continue for more than 2 years and cost more than 3 millions.
- Med-Projects: Projects that continue for 1 to 2 years and cost less than 3 millions.
- Small-Projects: Projects that continue for less than a year and cost up to 500 thousands.
When we review the literature, we find similar classifications based on size, but modified locally to fit the national measures. This is very Similar to the approach Ms. Alanoud provided in her presentation by stating the local measures for classifying projects.
According to CAM2P™ (The Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects™), projects could be classified as the following: (Ajam, 2018)
1- Small- Simple Projects.
2- Medium- Moderate Projects.
3- Large- Complex Projects .
Project ClassificationsOn the other hand, many opinions suggests that classifying project is a complex concept that can’t be universally unified (Dvir et al., 1998). According to their study, “Our results suggest that project success factors are not universal for all projects. Different projects exhibit different sets of success factors, suggesting the need for a more contingent approach in project management theory and practice.”(Dvir et al., 1998)
Project Life Cycle
According to Ms. Alanoud, project life cycle is summarized in the following phases:
1. Initiation.
2. Planning.
3. Executing.
4. Closing.
To enrich the discussion of project life cycle, Jeffrey and his partners concluded from their study that critical factors become very significant at specific stages of the project life cycle (Pinto and Prescott, 1988). This in turn signifies the importance of the distinctions between those 4 stages and how understanding them contributes to the overall success of the project.
Case Study
2030
2030 is an account created by Hrakat to provide informal explanation and clarifications about 2030 vision of Saudi Arabia. This approach allows reaching the public and provides a clear concept about some of the complex and unclear point related to 2030 vision.
Risk Management
Ms. Alanoud presented a case in which her company Hrakat face a difficult situation in dealing with a project. Ministry of Communications and Information Technology requested a video from Hrakat to be published concurrently with the Saudi National day. Ministry of communication is a dear client to Hrakat, but the problem was the duration of the project, which was 6 days, and the fact that Hrakat couldn’t collect the pictures needed for this project in the given duration.
This situation required a close study of the risk and benefits and brainstorming of possible solutions. At the end, Hrakat was able to propose different concept to The Ministry of Communication suggesting using sketched drawings instead of pictures, and they got the approval for it. This was the end result:
Comments on the lecture
Opinion
Ms. Alanoud has presented a very important topic in a very innovative and integrated way that engaged the audience and benefited them regarding project management.
What did we learn?
Project management requires flexibility, time management, and the ability of dealing with rapidly changing situations. Understanding project management is crucial for any project to succeed.
How can we Apply this knowledge?
The knowledge provided by Ms. Alanound was clear and informative enough to be applied for any future project to ensure the best outcomes.
References:
- Linkedin. (2018). Alanoud AlShowaier. [online] Available at: https://sa.linkedin.com/in/aalshowaier [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
- Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management workbook to accompany Project management – a systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling, eighth edition. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, pp.1-10.
- Ajam, M. (2018). What is meant by projects’ classification? | Applied Project Management. [online] Applied Project Management. Available at: http://blog.sukad.com/what-is-meant-by-projects-classification/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2018].
- Dvir, D., Lipovetsky, S., Shenhar, A. and Tishler, A. (1998). In search of project classification: a non-universal approach to project success factors. Research Policy, 27(9), pp.915-935.
- Pinto, J. and Prescott, J. (1988). Variations in Critical Success Factors Over the Stages in the Project Life Cycle. Journal of Management, 14(1), pp.5-18.
Reema 