Essential Functions of a Project Manager Essay Example for Free

Essential Functions of a Project Manager Essay The Essential Functions of a Project Manager A project manager (PM) is a facilitator. The ideal project manager does whatever it takes to ensure that the members of the project team can do their work. This means working with management to ensure they provide the resources and support required as well as dealing with team issues that are negatively impacting a teams productivity. The project manager must possess a combination of skills including the ability to ask penetrating questions, identify unstated assumptions, and resolve personnel conflicts along with more systematic management skills. This person is responsible for initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing a project. The actions of a project manager should be almost unnoticeable and when a project is moving along smoothly people are sometimes tempted to question the need for a project manager. However, when you take the skilled project manager out of the mix, the project is much more likely to miss deadlines and exceed budgets. The project manager is the one who is responsible for making decisions in such a way that risk is controlled and uncertainty minimized. Every decision made by the project manager should ideally be directly benefit the project. A successful PM must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: resources (people, equipment, material), time (task duration, dependencies, critical path), money (costs, contingencies, profits), and most importantly, scope (project size, goals, profit). All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project, and the project manager, is to be a success. The Scope element of a project is the most important and it is the first and last task for a successful project manager. First and foremost you have to manage the project scope. The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish and the budget (of time and money) that has been created to achieve these objectives. It is absolutely imperative that any change to the scope of the project have a matching change in budget, either time or resources. If the project scope is to build a building to house three widgets with a budget of $100,000 the project manager is expected to do that. However, if the scope is changed to a building for four widgets, the project manager must obtain an appropriate change in budgeted resources. If the budget is not adjusted, the smart project manager will avoid the change in scope. Usually, scope changes occur in the form of scope creep. Scope creep is the piling up of small changes that by themselves are manageable, but in aggregate are significant. It is necessary to make sure any requested change, no matter how small, is accompanied by approval for a change in budget or schedule or both. A PM cannot effectively manage the resources, time and money in a project unless you actively manage the project scope. When the project scope is clearly identified and associated to the timeline and budget, the PM can begin to manage the project resources. These include the people, equipment, and material needed to complete the project. A successful PM must effectively manage the Resources assigned to the project. This includes the labor hours of the designers, the builders, the testers and the inspectors on the project team. It also includes managing any labor subcontracts. However, managing project resources frequently involves more than people management. The project manager must also manage the equipment used for the project and the material needed by the people and equipment assigned to the project. Managing the people resources means having the right people, with the right skills and the proper tools, in the right quantity at the right time. It also means ensuring that they know what needs to be done, when, and how. And it means motivating them to take ownership in the project too. Managing direct employees normally means managing the senior person in each group of employees assigned to your project. These employees also have a line manager to whom they report and from whom the usually take technical direction. In a matrix management situation, like a project team, the PM’s job is to provide project direction to them. Managing labor subcontracts usually means managing the team lead for the subcontracted workers, who in turn manages the workers. The equipment a PM has to manage as part of the project depends on the nature of the project. A project to construct a frozen food warehouse would need earth moving equipment, cranes, and cement trucks. For a project to release a new version of a computer game, the equipment would include computers, test equipment, and duplication and packaging machinery. The project management key for equipment is much like for people resources. They have to make sure workers have the right equipment in the right place at the right time and that it has the supplies it needs to operate properly. Most projects involve the purchase of material. For a frozen food arehouse, this would be freezers, the building HVAC machinery and the material handling equipment. For a project to release a music CD by a hot new artist, it would include the CD blanks, artwork for the jewel case, and press releases to be sent to deejays. The project management issue with supplies is to make sure the right supplies arrive at the right time. All the skill in managing resources wont help, however, unless the PM can stic k to the project schedule. Time management is critical in successful project management. Time management is a critically important skill for any successful project manager. Project managers who succeed in meeting their project schedule have a good chance of staying within their project budget. The most common cause of blown project budgets is lack of schedule management. Fortunately there is a lot of software on the market today to help manage project schedule or timeline. Any project can be broken down into a number of tasks that have to be performed. To prepare the project schedule, the project manager has to figure out what the tasks are, how long they will take, what resources they require, and in what order they should be done. Each of these elements has a direct bearing on the schedule. If a task is omitted, the project wont be completed. If the length of time or the amount of resources required for the task is underestimated, the schedule will be missed. The schedule can also be blown if a mistake in the sequencing of the tasks is made. The PM needs to build the project schedule by listing, in order, all the tasks that need to be completed. Assign duration to each task. Allocate the required resources. Determine predecessors (what tasks must be completed before) and successors (tasks that cant start until after) each task. The difficulty in managing a project schedule is that there are seldom enough resources and enough time to complete the tasks sequentially. Therefore, tasks have to be overlapped so several happen at the same time. Project management software greatly simplifies the task of creating and managing the project schedule by handling the iterations in the schedule logic. When all tasks have been listed, resourced, and sequenced, it is noticeable that some tasks have a little flexibility in their required start and finish date. This is called float. A line through all the tasks with zero float is called the critical path. All tasks on this path, and there can be multiple, parallel paths, must be completed on time if the project is to be completed on time. The Project Managers key time management task is to manage the critical path. Be aware, that items can be added to or removed from the critical path as circumstances change during the execution of the project. Installation of security cameras may not be on the critical path, but if the shipment is delayed, it may become part of the critical path. Conversely, pouring the concrete foundation may be on the critical path, but if the project manager obtains an addition crew and the pour is completed early it could come off the critical path (or reduce the length of the critical path). Regardless of how well you manage the schedule and the resources, there is one more critical element called managing the budget. Often a PM is evaluated on his or her ability to complete a project within Budget. If the project resources and project schedule is managed effectively, this should not be a problem. It is, however, a task that requires the project managers careful attention. Each project task will have a cost whether it is the cost of the labor hours of a computer programmer or the purchase price of a cubic yard of concrete. In preparing the project budget, each of these costs is estimated and then totaled. Some of these estimates will be more accurate than others. A company knows what it will charge each of its projects for different classifications of labor. Commodities like concrete are priced in a very competitive market so prices are fairly predictable. Other estimates are less accurate. For instance, the cost of a conveyor system with higher performance specifications that normal can be estimated to be more expensive, but it is hard to determine whether it will be 10% more or 15% more. For an expensive item, that can be a significant amount. When the estimated cost of an item is uncertain, the project budget often includes a design allowance. This is money that is set-aside in the budget just in case the actual cost of the item is wildly different than the estimate. Unusual weather or problems with suppliers are always a possibility on large projects. Companies usually include a contingency amount in the project budget to cover these kinds of things. So a project budget is composed of the estimated cost, plus the contingency and design allowance, plus any profit. The project managers job is to keep the actual cost at or below the estimated cost, to use as little of the design allowance and contingency as possible, and to maximize the profit the company earns on the project. To maximize the chances of meeting the project udget, the PM must meet the project schedule. The most common cause of blown budgets is blown schedules. Meeting the project schedule wont guarantee the project budget is met, but it significantly increases the chances. And above all, management of the project scope is detrimental. PM should not allow the project scope to creep upward without getting budget and/or schedule adjustments to match. Successful project management is an art and a science that takes practice. The ideas presented above can give a basic understanding of project management, but consider it is only the beginning. In order to have a successful career in project managements, it is necessary to talk to successful project managers, read, and practice to acquired experience and confidence.

Agression :: science

Agression There are different reasons why a person may act aggressively towards other human beings. The person may act this way because of his culture or the way he was brought up in society. The person does not, however, act this way based on instinct alone. Aggression is a molded, learned behavior. A human being must have both environmental and instinctual factors in order to display aggression. Some of a person's natural instincts are to desire food, reject certain things, escape from danger, fight when challenged, sex desire, care for the young, dominate, and to accept inferior status. The combination of instincts and environment determines a person's behavior. This is based on the theory that everything human beings do would have to be learned from other human beings. Aggression must be learned; it is not simply there from birth. Rather than being an uncontrollable instinct, a person's behavior is something that is taught to him. For example, a newborn baby is breathing because it is an involuntary reflex. On the other hand, a father may tell his young son to beat up the school bully who is picking on him. As a result, the boy is taught to deal with the situation by using violence. In order for an individual to display aggression, it must be driven by an instinct interacting with that person's surroundings. McDougall defines the word instinct as "an inherited or innate psycho-physical disposition which determines its possessor to perceive, and to pay attention to, objects of a certain class, to experience an emotional excitement of a particular quality upon perceiving such an object, and to act in regard to its particular manner, or, at least, to experience an impulse to such action." This definition basically explains that people have different reactions for different stimuli. Therefore, an individual is prone to act a certain way when he is stimulated to do so from his surrounding environment. For example, the Eskimo does not have an innate instinct that allows him to survive in his climate. He is taught to work with his people in order to survive when he is very young. When people are brought up in a society, they learn certain customs and traditions. These customs are usually taught to them because it's part of their society's way of life, even though some of the customs may seem cruel and repulsive to others. For example, cannibalism is abhorrent to us, but in some primitive cultures, to eat an enemy is to gain his or her strength.

Psychology For Social Care Practice Essay

This essay will demonstrate my understanding of developments which occur at each stage of an individual’s life cycle. I will relate these developments to two relevant psychological theories and discuss how an individual’s needs must be met to enable them to develop. The human life cycle can be broken down into 5 basic stages (Bingham et al. 2009); Infancy – 0-2 years Childhood – 2-12 years Adolescence – 12-21 years Adulthood – 21-65 years Older Adulthood – 65+ years During each stage of the life cycle, different physical, emotional, cognitive, social and cultural developments occur; In infancy, physical changes include learning to sit up, crawl and walk independently. At this stage, the infant will begin to look for attention from others and seek affection and love. Infants are able to interact with others by smiling/laughing and crying, and begin to form attachments to main care givers such as family members from around 6 months. Fine motor skills and communication skills (understanding and formation of words) develop rapidly in infancy and individuals will become used to the routines and norms of those around them. In childhood, physical development extends to skills in balance and control over the body. Emotionally, the child will continue to strengthen bonds with primary care givers and social development will move on to interactive play and forming friendships. Language and expression develop further and the child shows a capacity to learn new information and skills as well as learning about and conforming to social and cultural â€Å"norms†. The body begins to change significantly in adolescence; the individual will go through puberty. An adolescent will be more self aware than in childhood and will become detached from primary care givers, instead preferring to form closer relationships with friends and peers. The individual will form stronger affiliations to certain cultural and sub-cultural norms and will express these through personal appearance, partaking in activities and choosing certain peer groups. In early adulthood, the individual will reach a peak of physical fitness which they will thereafter have to â€Å"work at† to maintain. More physical demands are made on the body such as childbearing, work and aging. Emotionally, a person  in adulthood will have established a â€Å"role† possibly in their place of work, or at home as a parent- how effectively they fill their â€Å"role† can effect self esteem. Social development can become limited to those with similar careers or interests and c an be hindered by other responsibilities such as work and family commitments. Older adults may experience a decline in physical fitness – eyesight may deteriorate and the body may become weaker. Some individuals may remain fairly fit well into older adulthood and some may find that physical fitness can deteriorate rapidly. Older adulthood can be isolating and one’s self image can be altered through changing of roles eg. retirement. Socially, some find a sense of freedom in being able to leave work behind and â€Å"live†, others lose a sense of purpose and find that their world may become smaller and more family focused. Older adults will have a well established perception of themselves and what they find acceptable as part of their culture. For this essay I have used Mrs. Oswald as a case study. Mrs. Oswald is a resident at Thorneycroft residential care home for older people. She has been a resident at Thorneycroft for six months and at ninety-five years old, is in the final stage of development as detailed in the life cycle breakdown above. Mrs. Oswald is relatively able bodied, she is able to bathe herself but requires help getting in and out of the bath. She is able to move around independently, she does have a tripod to help her with this but she doesn’t tend to use it. She is prone to falling over and has fallen fifteen times since moving to Thorneycroft, this is not helped by her insomnia which leaves her restless at night so she ends up wandering around unattended. Mrs. Oswald is hard of hearing and requires a hearing aid but her eyesight is good when wearing her glasses. She has a good level of personal hygiene and takes pride in her appearance. Before coming to Thorneycroft she had home help who assisted her with household tasks such as cooking and housework and helped her with medication for her cellulitis. Mrs. Oswald was a midwife for fifty years, she is well educated and enjoys sharing her knowledge and talking about her career. She keeps her mind active by reading the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles and playing dominoes when she goes to the day centre but it is possible that these activities are not stimulating e nough for her. She is a little confused at times about her roles; she behaves as though Thorneycroft staff are her employees and adopts a matron-like attitude with them, which probably  crosses over from her role in her career as a midwife. She can be forgetful but does not have dementia and before moving to Thorneycroft was quite vulnerable as she sees the best in people and was being exploited by people doing odd jobs and coming in and out of her home. Mrs. Oswald appears to be content on the surface, she has started to accept death and talks about it openly. Her remaining family all live some distance away in England but she looks forward to a phonecall from her cousin each evening and seems to take comfort in speaking to him, appearing more settled after their conversations. She has outlived her close family – husband and daughters and appears lonely. Mrs. Oswald doesn’t talk much about her husband an daughters the way she does about her career, it is possible that talking about them makes her feel sad. As before, Mrs. Oswald has not made friends with other residents of Thorneycroft, though she has made a few friends at the daycentre. She likes to talk and could be encouraged to mix more which would he lp with her feelings of loneliness, she never had friends or visitors at home before she came to Thorneycroft as her family all live far away and only visit to attend review meetings every six months. She has not formed close relationships with staff at Thorneycroft, instead, as mentioned before she treats them as her employees. Mrs. Oswald is an articulate and well spoken individual who has come from a middle class background. She appears to be well educated and has had a successful career as a midwife spanning fifty years. She had her daughters when she was young and out of wedlock, as a result they were brought up by her mother and Mrs. Oswald left at sixteen to begin her training as a midwife. Her career was important to her and she concentrated on this, not having any more children and marrying late in life. Her middle class upbringing has followed her through life, and she still takes pride in her appearance and has a strong sense of what she believes to be â€Å"proper†. Her husband and her enjoyed going on cruises and she is well- travelled. She does not attend church services or appear to be religious at all. In order for them to progress successfully through each stage in the life cycle, an individual’s needs at each stage must be met. For example, our most basic physical needs are shelter and nourishment, if these needs are not met in the infant stage, potential for development and progression into childhood will be threatened. For each aspect of development, certain needs must be met; Physical – The body must be kept fit and healthy through nourishment, shelter from the elements and the cold, excercise and rest. Emotional – The need to be loved and to feel love for others. Good self esteem can be established from feeling loved and wanted by others. Social – Being able to interact and build relationships with people around you. Cognitive – The need for opportunities to learn and develop knowledge and keep the mind active. Cultural – Having your values, religion, diet, language etc.(norms) as part of your daily life. In order for me to understand the needs of Mrs. Oswald and to what extent her needs have been met throughout her life, I examined Erik Erikson’s theory of eight â€Å"psychosocial† stages. Erikson believed that humans develop through eight predetermined stages (a detailed table of these can be found in appendix 1) and in order to progress successfully through life, we must â€Å"successfully negotiate ea ch stage† and that failure to do so results in â€Å"mental deficiencies such as lack of trust, which will remain with us throughout life† (Collin et al., p. 273). Each stage has one positive outcome and one negative outcome, and individuals progress through each life stage with a mixture of both, the differences between positive and negative being a result of the environment the individual is developing in. Mrs. Oswald, as an adolescent, would have experienced role confusion. She was from a middle class background but fell pregnant at a young age, resulting in her being hidden away and her mother raising her children as her own. It would have gone against Mrs. Oswald’s role as a respectable young girl to have children at such a young age. She went off to train as a midwife at sixteen and left her family and her daughters behind. She concentrated on her career and appeared not to have any intimacy throughout young adulthood. This was resolved in mature adulthood when Mrs. Oswald got married and enjoyed the intimacy which she had missed out on in young adulthood. She never had any more children but her husband nd her appeared to have a ha ppy life and they enjoyed travelling together. Mrs. Oswald is now in maturity and has begun to talk about death in an accepting way. Her needs may not have been met in the early stages of her life where she did not conform to her role in society and her life lacked intimacy, but later in life she had a successful and satisfying career and a happy marriage. I have used Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (see appendix 2) to assess how  Mrs. Oswald’s needs are being met now. â€Å"Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs starts at the basic physiological needs we need just to stay alive. Once these are made we have a need for safety, then we want love and affection. Within our group we want to have self esteem. Finally we have a need of satisfying our full potential that Maslow calls Self Actualization† (Deeper Mind). Maslow believed that one’s needs had to be met at each stage of the hierarchy before the needs at the next stage could be attended to. The first category in Maslow’s hierarchy refers to physiological needs. I believe that most of Mrs. Oswald’s needs are being met a t this level. She has plenty to eat and drink and since she is mobile she has some level of excercise. She can have fresh air and she has warmth and shelter. However, Mrs. Oswald’s need for sleep is not being met at Thorneycroft. She suffers from insomnia which is not helped by the fact that her bed is too small and therefore uncomfortable for her to sleep in. This has resulted in her being reluctant to settle in bed at night at all, so she is losing out on sleep. As a result of all her physiological needs not being met, all of Mrs. Oswald’s safety needs are not being met either. Although she has shelter and security at Thorneycroft, the fact that she does not sleep has compromised her safety as she has a tendency to wander around at night time and is prone to falling as her mobility is not great. Mrs. Oswald appears sad that she has outlived her close family and her husband and doesn’t speak about them much. She does have some distant family whom she speaks with on the phone every night which brings her some comfort, but she remains distant with others and reluctant to form close relationships with staff or fellow residents. Her need for love and belonging has not been satisfied. In order for Mrs. Oswald to progress and reach self actualisation the care staff at Thorneycroft must work on the needs which are not being met. Getting her a bed which is comfortable for her to sleep in may help her to settle at night and reduce the risk of a fall. She could be encouraged to mix more with fellow residents and form closer relationships with them as well as staff. This will help with Mrs. Oswald’s sense of love and belonging and boost her self-esteem which will help her to reach self actualisation. References BBC (2014) BBC News Magazine. [Online] Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23902918 [Accessed 13/11/2014] BINGHAM, E. et al (2009) HNC Social Care for Scotland. 12th Ed. Essex: Heinemann. COLLIN, C. et al (2012) The Psychology Book. London: DK London. MACLEOD, S. (2011) Simply Psychology. [Online] Available form :http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html [Accessed 11/11/2014]. NORWOOD, G. (2014) Deeper Mind. [Online] Available from: http://www.deepermind.com/20maslow.htm [Accessed 11/11/2014]

Compare and contrast the depiction of Muslim men to that of Muslim women in orientalist discourses Free Essay Example, 1500 words

Ð ¡ertainly, there are certain reasons why the West adhered to such views on an image of a Muslim woman. During the process of the European values formation, the East, in particular the Islamic world, was chosen as an example of the opposite. The negative image of the East was necessary for Europe. It was built by means of a stereotype about the oppressed and unfortunate women who live in the atmosphere of tyranny created by their cruel husbands. Men in their turn are depicted as tyrants and despots, whose main goal is to humiliate women and make their life unacceptable. The image of the weak-willed and oppressed Muslim women against the background of cruel men-tyrants became stronger in the minds of Europeans in the XIX century. Now the situation reached the stage when it is almost impossible to disprove that â€Å"the dominant representations of Muslim men as violent and dangerous and Muslim women as victims of oppression. The dominant images of both Muslim men and women served the same purpose: They established the need to intervene to rescue the women and control the men† (Mishra, 2007). We will write a custom essay sample on Compare and contrast the depiction of Muslim men to that of Muslim women in orientalist discourses or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now It was happening during the process of formation of the British and French empires. In other words, there is a direct link between this image and imperialism, and also the legitimation of imperialism, which is still happening. Muslim scientists state that when in the 21st century America tries to justify the invasion into Afghanistan and Iraq, it uses a stereotype of an oppressed woman. These sample representations of orientalists also influence the representation of Muslims about themselves and they try to reconcile with the failure. Muslims reconciled with this image refracted through their vision and still didnt refuse the defensive position imposed to them. â€Å"Instead of providing scope for critical intervention, dominant discourses in  The  New York Times  thus confirmed Orientalist framing of Muslim men and women. The media portrayals of Muslim men and women in  The New York Times  jointly reinforced the need for Western interven tion in Muslim societies and communities, whether the declared purpose was to liberate Muslim women or to keep Muslim men under surveillance† (Mishra, 2007). So, did women played any role in Islamic history? Answering this question, it is essential not to forget that their role were explained and measured by other measures. The books on history usually didnt take the life of plain people into account. The history is written only taking into account the great events and wars, but there are other forms of historical events registration such as studying of microhistory and chronicles.