HAND-IN ASSIGNMENT FOR WEEK FOUR With regard to project planning improvement, the study by Zwikael and Globerson

(2006) is of particular significance to my industry, which is in the category of the Production and Maintenance (PM) industry. The findings of the study provide a benchmark for improvement in the PM industry which was ranked lowest in technical performance, poorest in quality of project planning and consequently, lowest in project success (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). Accuracy of Estimation in Relation to Project Success The accuracy of the estimation for Task duration and cost estimates are directly linked to the overall success of the project because more often than not, the success of a project is measured by its timely completion, within budget and according to the quality specifications. In Zwikael and Globerson (2006), the authors make a connection between the accuracy of estimation for task duration, cost, resource allocation and project success; such that an inaccurate estimation of one or some of these variables would create a ripple effect on others, thereby jeopardizing the overall success of the project. For instance, the authors found that, as shown in the equation below, an overrun in cost is directly proportional to an overrun in schedule: Cost Overrun = 0.76 * Schedule Overrun (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). Benchmark for improvement in the PM Industry (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006): Customer Satisfaction: The findings show a high score for both technical performance and customer satisfaction which his interpreted to mean that some customers may be willing to trade time and cost for quality (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). Improvement could be made in the PM industry such that during project planning, more would be invested towards achieving clarity of the client and end users requirement so that their exact interest is captured throughout the project lifecycle. Thus, the clients ultimate desire should be preferred above the traditional inclination towards the attainment of a predetermined cost, time and quality.

Cost and Schedule Overrun: The aforementioned findings on the correlation between cost and schedule overrun (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006) could be useful in the PM industry such that more could be done to improve the accuracy of estimation for projects since the findings provide more insight into the long and short term implications of schedule overrun; showing that inaccurate estimation of duration would translate into more costs (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). The findings of the study present a high record of cost and schedule overrun for the PM industry, which is traceable to their poor project planning (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). Projects in the PM industry could possibly see more effective management, if cost and schedule overrun are treated hand in hand.

Effective Planning: The article relates a companies quality of planning to the outcome of their project. This is in tandem with the opinion of Wysocki (2012) who portrays the optimum importance of planning to the management of any project. In the PM industry, investing more time and resources in project planning could translate into more project successes. Although the PM industry is not involved with as many projects as the construction industry, which is more project oriented (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006), they do have projects; therefore, the infrequency should not justify any ineffectiveness.

Organizational Support: In Zwikael and Globerson (2006), the authors analyzed the impact of the organizational support on project planning and interestingly, organizations in the PM industry were found to have the lowest level of organization support. The authors maintain that the low quality of planning in the PM industry is probably due to the fact that there is no organizational support structure in the industry. This further explains the success level

of projects in the PM industry as buttressed by Johns (1999), who explains that for project teams to accomplish notable performance, there has to be apposite organizational management support. Going by the findings of the Zwikael and Globerson (2006) study and by the assertion of Johns (1999) above, the PM industry needs to improve on organizational support in order to achieve better project planning.

Project Managers Expertise: In terms of project managers expertise, Zwikael and Globerson (2006), found that organizations in the PM industry had the lowest planning quality, which was linked to the fact that the organizations in the PM industry do not see projects as their main business and rely extensively on the individuals who run the projects; thereby making the success of the projects directly dependent on the qualification of the project managers. There is therefore need for organizations in the PM industry to take a more serious view of their projects, and ensure the use of highly qualified project management professionals.

Conclusion The Zwikael and Globerson (2006) study found that the PM industry has the lowest quality of planning and consequently the lowest level of project success. On the other hand, the Construction and Engineering industry is found to have the highest quality of planning and the highest level of project success. In addition to the project orientation of these two industries on either extreme, other factors which gave rise to these findings are discussed above. As another contributory factor to the low level of success in the PM industry, the authors also found a common difficulty in differentiating between the management of projects and the regular operational routines (Zwikael and Globerson, 2006). This write-up seeks to provide a benchmark for improvement in the PM industry. The benchmark for improvement lies on the principle that improving on the factors which have been found to be critical to the success in project planning and execution in

the successful industry would result in a similar experience for the projects in the PM sector.

REFERENCES Johns, T. G. (1999) On creating organizational support for the Project Management Method, International Journal of Project Management, 17(1) pp. 47-53 [Online] Available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263786397000628

(Accessed on 3 July 2013)

Wysocki, R. (2012) Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, 8th edn. Canada: Wiley.

Zwikael, O. and Globerson, S. (2006) Benchmarking Of Project Planning and Success in Selected Industries Benchmarking: An International Journal, 13(6) pp. 688-700. Available at: DOI 10.1108/14635770610709059.