Case Study Around the Fundamentals of Project Management

Introduction

A project is defined as the temporary endeavor often designed to produce a unique result in the form of a product or a service. The temporary endeavor must always have time, staff and time constrained defined beginning as well as the end. Project Management involves the application of processes, skills, methods, knowledge, as well as the experience in achieving the objectives of a given project (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). The process includes initiating, planning, executing, controlling, as well as closing the work done by the given team to achieve specific goals that are in line with specific criteria of success in a given period. In any given project, clear, unique goals and objectives must be set to bring about the beneficial change or add the required value to the given organization. Often, the nature of projects undertaken in any given project usually contrasts the normal business operation which is often permanent, as well as repetitive to incorporate rigorous activities that leads to the production of functional products and services in the long run (Kerzner, 2017). Management of such projects usually requires distinct technical skills as well as strategies to be put in place to achieve the results.

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Every individual project must always have defined outputs, outcomes, as well as benefits. The success of any individual project is always dependent on the achievement of the outlined objectives in the acceptance criteria and must be within the defined timescale and the budget (Heagney, 2016). Project management is distinct from other management practices because of its final deliverables in a finite timespan as opposed to management which is usually an ongoing process. Thus, a project management professional ought to equip himself or herself with a wide range of skills technical, management, as well as good business awareness skills to succeed.

Any given project management task often involves defining the necessity of the project, capturing its requirements, specifying the quality of its deliverables, as well as the estimation of the available resources and the timescale through which the project can be accomplished. The project manager must also prepare the business management case that would justify the investment while securing the agreement as well as funding from the corporate (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017; Kerzner, 2017). The business case will be essential in the development and the implementation of the management plan for the given project and act as the guidelines and motivation for the project development and delivery team.

Project management practice also helps the team to manage risks, issues, as well as changes that may arise during the project delivery process. The project manager is also tasked with monitoring the progress of the project against the plan and the budget while maintaining the communication between the delivery team and the stakeholders due to the ever-changing requirement specifications (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016). Project management is also vital as it equips an individual with the management skills for issues and changes that may be introduced as the project progresses.

Resource management, on the other hand, focuses on the efficient as well as the effective development of the resources of an organization when required. The organization's resources may include the financial resources, production resources, inventory, human skills, and information technology.

Resource management has been considered key to the project management processes, philosophies, as well as techniques for the allocation of resources during the delivery stages of the project (Heagney, 2016). The techniques have been successfully applied in the functional as well as the cross-functional allocation of resources in various organizations and have now formed some of the fundamental courses in organizations such as the Project Management Institute.

Case Study as a Community Service Leader

This given case study on project management will discuss my experience as a Community Service Leader tasked with the delivering the community services to the locals in my community and across the country. Community service refers to the work done by an individual or a group of individuals to benefit others more so, the less fortunate in the society. Community service is always undertaken near the area where those undertaking it lives. It is always aimed at giving back to the community. In such services, the individuals carrying out the projects don't always get paid to perform such duties, but often work as volunteers. Community services are essential as they provide help to a range of people such as children, people with disabilities, senior citizens, as well as animals in the environment. Community services are always organized and undertaken through local groups such as schools, places of worship, or non-profit organizations (Ferrari & Chapman, 2014). In this individual case, we organized our community service project with a major focus on the homeless individuals. My team for the community service was comprised of passionate individuals who enjoyed helping others and improving the lives of their communities.

The primary focus of the project was aimed at improving the living standards of the homeless individuals in the streets through feeding them and advocating for affordable housing plans for these individuals. Homelessness is a crisis in most countries around the world. A greater number of these homeless individuals are refugees who have migrated into the country due to various reasons such as political unrest, civil war, in search of better opportunities, and for other reasons. My team was tasked with delivering a vast number of projects in the various refugee camps across the country. Some of these projects include building houses with habitats for humanity, collecting, and donating old clothes, used important items such as old eyeglasses, collecting nonperishable food to a food bank, and collecting toiletries and beddings for the homeless individuals. All these were to be done under a defined timeframe and a period of thirty days as it was approaching winter.

During this period, I learned that the community service initiatives are continuous. These projects ought to be regularly undertaken to help the less fortunate cope with the various challenges they are facing in the streets. I was at the helm of managing the initiatives as a strategic project manager that increased and expanded our chances of success. The leadership role assigned to me involved a continuous analysis and refining of the strategies in place to ensure the whole project was successful and the homeless individuals with poor health conditions are resettled and fed. Often, we were forced to fine-tune some of our strategies for effective delivery of the services. The skills and knowledge that I acquired in the class were very essential in helping us meet our goals as well as objectives of the community services through the feeding programs, building a habitat home before the winters, as well as collecting clothing, beddings and other essential items that could help the homeless individuals live a comfortably.

Goals and objectives of the Project

Goals

The goals of the community service project included:

• Promoting, fostering, and achieving better living conditions for the poor, low income and homeless refugees.
• Promoting, fostering, and achieving better healthcare services and support for these refugees.
• Promoting, fostering, and achieving the resettlement of the poor, low income, and homeless refugees through the assistance of Government and United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
• Promoting, fostering, and achieving increased support from the public for the refugees throughout the country.

Supporting and advocating for the public roles and employment opportunities for the skilled refugees throughout the country.

Objectives

The main objective of this program was to save the lives of the refugees, to offer protection to the displaced individuals, help the refugees meet the legal obligations of the country and to respond to any impending international crises through the provision of assistance to the homeless individuals. Other objectives of our community service program included:

• To act as a unifying organization between the citizens and the refugees.
• To promote and empower the homeless refugees through initiatives that can provide employment opportunities for the skilled and experienced refugees.
• To increase awareness of the public through the digital platforms on the sensitivity towards poor homeless refugees.

Time Line

The implementation of and delivery of our services to the homeless individuals is a continuous process and is expected to continue to ensure as many homeless refugees as possible have been resettled. However, during this time, the team was competing the season. We planned to help in the resettlement of at least one hundred individuals before the start of the winters which is often characterized by cold and very low temperatures. A working logic model was drafted by a team that would ensure we optimize delivery within the available period. The model had a defined input, outputs, and outcomes of the community service project.

Program PlanningThe community service project based on providing help to the homeless refugees around my community involves adequate planning. The resettlement program required the knowledge and authority of the both the local and the national governments of the jurisdictions in which the homeless individuals dwell. The resettlement and feeding project was administered in the category of immigrants, citizens, as well as refugees since all these individuals may in one way or the other find themselves homeless. Our country has a rich history of assisting the refugees and providing the humanitarian assistance to the individuals who are affected in their motherland forcing them to flee in search of peaceful environments.

Thus, our project was seen to be a lifesaver. It was also essential as it offered protection to the displaced refugees, helped them respond to the legal obligations, as well as in acquiring the legal obligations. Our project was closely designed in line with the constitution of the country which places emphasis on the long-term planning, protection every individual, the reunification of families, increasing the efficiencies of every common group presenting the resettlement need, processing of urgent and vulnerable cases which involves the protection of the homeless individuals, as well as balancing the inclusiveness of these homeless people within the our project.

Our community service project requested support from every organization that deals with the humanitarian issues such as the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other private sponsors (Binder, 2016). Our close working relationship was a requirement as per the laws of the land which hinder the direct application of resettlement of the refugees as most of the homeless individuals in the country are immigrants. The private sponsors played a major role in the helping our team in resettling some of the homeless individuals across the country. Our team acted as a bridge between the private sponsors and the Government to help support the refugees. Some of the team members were delegated, with the task of following up on the Resettlement Assistance Program by the Government which has been key in helping the government-assisted refugees in acquiring the essential services and any income any income generating activities that would have been essential in improve their living conditions doing away with the homelessness menace as a result.

As a team, every individual was tasked with promoting the program through th...