Project Management for Security, Facility Managers - Essay Example

Running Head: Project Management for Security/Facility Managers Student’s Name: Instructor: Course Code and Name: Institution: Date the Assignment is due: Project Management for Security/Facility Managers Introduction This essay paper starts by reviewing the available literature on the discipline of project management today. In doing this, an assessment of project management as a feasible tool for Security/Facility Managers is attained. Before drawing a precise conclusion, the paper also compares and contrasts the contemporary evidence on project management efficacy. Literature Review - Project Management The word project refers to the concept of a temporary engagement of endeavor, with a precise beginning, some identified objectives and an end constrained by a particular date or objectives or even by funding. At the need of a program, its engagement should have enabled beneficial change to the original situation (Cleland & Gareis, 2006). In this light, project management has been conceptualized as the discipline of strategic planning, organizing and effectively managing a supply of resources towards the attainment of some specific project objectives and goals. Sometimes literature conflates project managements with program management (Cleland & Gareis 2006). However, we have a technical difference between the two since a program management is somehow a level higher since a group of related and interdependent projects can add up to a single program. Most experts in the project management discipline concur in that; a project always has a temporary nature that is contrastive to day-to-day business operations (Free Management Library). Business operations are rather repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent in an organisations engagement in the production, marketing and distribution of products and services. Project management demands a distinct set of technical skills such that it must be adoption as a separate function of management, aside of normal business operations management. Ireland (2006) agrees that the primal challenge of a project management endeavor is to successfully achieve the predefined project objectives and goals irrespective of arising constraints. As the secondary and more ambitious challenge, project management has to optimize the manner in which resources are practically allocated and integrated towards attaining pre-defined objectives in a process that turns theoretical plans into decisive actions (Ireland, 2006). According to Kwak (2005), documented evidence points out that project management was in use even in early civilization. Up until the 1900’s however, construction projects were left to the civil engineers and architects. Kwak (2005) lists the most famous project managers in history to include such engineers as Vitruvius 1st the Century BC, Thomas Telford (1757-1834), Christopher Wren (1632–1723) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859). While a concept of project management can be traced in these early days, the discipline only emerged as a pertinent management facet in early 1950’s (Cleland & Gareis, 2006). This was the time that most organizations adopted systematical approaches in project management as a set of techniques and tools that facilitated the administration of complex projects. In this respect, Henry Gantt (1861-1919), is regarded as the father of modern project planning, administration and control techniques. The 1950 era is what finally saw project management emerge as a distinct discipline that was not within the normal management realm (Free Management Library). The major areas that helped project management emerge and develop include building and construction, civil engineering and defense activity. Henry Gantt developed a famous Gantt chart, which was a useful project management tool. The second father of project management is considered to be Henri Fayol who created the 5 management functions. From the foundation set by the body of knowledge created by Gantt and Fayol, both project and program management became feasible. These two had been students of Frederick Winslow Taylor and his theories of scientific management. In fact, Winslow’s work still is used in modern project management tools such as work breakdown structures (WBS) and project resource allocation. By 1956, project-scheduling models had been developed complemented by the technology to estimate project cost, facilitate cost management and work out engineering economics. The works of Hans Lang was a pioneer of new thinking in project management. Most of the American literature available at this time concentrated on planning and scheduling of projects, cost estimating and cost (called project control). By 1956, the European International Project Management Association (IPMA), a federation of national project management associations was founded (Kwak, 2005). IPMA today incorporates member associations from every continent but Antarctica. The same year, an American version of IMPMA was formed, the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI published the pioneer Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). Over the years, several project management approaches have emerged. These approaches can be listed as agile, incremental, interactive and phased project management approaches. Whichever of these approaches is adopted, the important considerations that belie every project remain the overall project objectives, the time frame, the project cost (budget) and the role/responsibility allocation to all stakeholders or participants (Lock, 2007). In a typical traditional approach, project management is phased into a sequence of 5 logical steps (components) that a project must develop through to be successful (Nokes, 2007). These include, project initiation, project planning (also called the design stage), project execution (also called production stage), project monitoring (also called controlling systems stage) and finally project completion stage (Nokes, 2007). Many industries and firms do no always employ these stages consecutively. Nonetheless, the project management process follow some common steps like those employed in problem solving such as defining a problem, weighing available options, choosing the most appropriate path, implementing the chosen path and evaluation (Nokes, 2007). In modern approaches, the initiation stage helps analyzing the requirements of a project, in relation to current operations, analyzing the costs and budgeting, assigning relevant stakeholders and support personnel and finally developing project charts that include a correlation of tasks, costs, deliverables and the schedule (Heerkens, 2007). The planning and design stage involves the map of time, cost and resources allocation based on which the project will be executed with minimal risks. According to Heerkens (2007), the initiation stage of a project is dependent on sound planning as the only way to achieve a project’s objectives. Project execution, the processes necessary to practically implement the defined project plan is initiated as a means of accomplishing the project's goals. These execution processes involve coordinating resources and people as well as integrating and performing project activities according to the plan. Finally, the monitoring and controlling stage involves the evaluative processes that are solely performed to examine how the project execution processes were implemented (Heerkens, 2007). This is important in diagnosing problems and amending them appropriately. In most cases, the project plans have an element of variance in their actual execution. The monitoring and evaluation stage helps adopt such variance in a way that helps attain the project’s objectives successfully. It is also important to note here that a project management effort must accommodate what has been called the project management triangle (Dinsmore, 2005). The triangle constitutes of the constraints of a project that must be monitored and tailored to suit a particular project. The three constraints include scope (all that must be done to attain the project’s objectives), time (available time to complete a project) and cost (budgeted amount available for a particular project). The reason why these are thought of as a triangle is because a change in one results to a change in the other two. They form the three sides to every project management venture (Dinsmore, 2005). A correlation and balancing of the three is what makes for a successful project management. Project Management for Security/Facility Managers As established above, project management has become a distinct discipline on its own right. Most managers are realizing the need to develop specialist skills in project management as a part of their job description (Stevens, 2002). For instance, project management is a valuable tool to managers of security and facilities. The modern conceptualization of project management is as the systematically planned and organized efforts that are targeted at accomplishing specific one-time (temporal) objectives such as erecting a building or implementing a new computer system at work etc. In its proper practice, project management involves developing a good project plan that defines and confirms the objectives and goals of that project and then identifies the necessary tasks that will help attain those objectives and goals (Blomquist, 2006). There is also the need to qualify the time and resources necessary to attain the objectives and goals and finally to manage the implementation process of the necessary tasks with proper controls and evaluations (Blomquist, 2006). This is also very applicable in modern facility management. Facility management refers to the interdisciplinary practice devoted to care and maintenance of institutional and commercial buildings. In some areas, such entities are referred to as security management firms. Either has the responsibility of managing and securing a building, installation or institution such as hotels, office complexes, resorts, sports arenas, schools, convention centers etc. The primary duties of a security/facility management firm include maintenance of security, groundskeeping, air conditioning systems, lighting systems, electric power systems, plumbing systems, cleaning tasks, decoration tasks etc. In most cases, these tasks are not part of the overall organization’s core business tasks. As such, the security/facility management tasks are non-core support services. That is why they are usually though of as projects instead of as normal business operations. Facility and security managers have a separate team of personnel and a small department that do not interact with the other employees during their work. In a way, the team or department are an appendage to the organisation and not anchored in the organization’s structure. The facility and security managers have to plan coordinate and oversee the processes that creates a safe, convenient, secure and habitable environment in the organisation. These involves the administration of precise temporal operations and maintenance practices with a predefined set of goals such as preservation of asset value, janitorial duties clean and sanitize the environment and then secures the building and its compound fro external and internal burglary (Witzel, 2003). The facility or security management firm may be an outsourced private firm that is hired by several clients of an in house department charged with the responsibility of that single organisation. The facility managers usually focus on the existing tenants in a premise and who in most cases are owner occupants. One of the most important features of facility management is that they maintain the buildings and any other constructed facilities in such a way as serves the interests of the tenants progressively (Witzel, 2003). That means that they sometimes have to engage in complementing constructions and engineering installations. And this is where the element of project management comes in. the job of maintenance and new constructions require the facility managers to undertake new and one-time projects now and then. Facility management in today’s practice is normally performed during operational phases of buildings’ of a building’s life cycle. That means that although each project is undertaken as a singular engagement, the services provided extends back to back for many decades, each project serving a new purpose, objectives and goals. This is comparable to security management in that, everyday, the managers undertake different assignments that are one-time and temporal but which are regular for an extended period. In both this cases, there is a continuous process of phased service provision in a bid to support the ever-changing client’s core business needs. According to Bredillet (2009), there is a need for perpetual improvement that involves the project management components of decision-making namely, design, planning, implementation, control and monitoring. Each task is undertaken as a singular project and its successful completion is what enables future assignments to occur in a continuous process of providing optimal support to core business. As Bredillet (2009) notes, facility management must assume planned, coordinated, controlled and evaluated processes of design, budgeting, engineering, construction, operation, and maintenance responsibilities. The facility managers are usually briefed on the needs of a client, the budget available and the time frame during which certain projects must be accomplished. The facility managers have then to sit back and formulate a project management thesis for each of these tasks to ensure that they are all successful. Project management is a core skill that each and every security and facility managers must have. They will need to be able to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the physical assets that the client business needs for their core operations (Phillips, 2003). Yet the continuous provisions of such services though seemingly in a one-time mode, constitute the day-to-day responsibilities of facility and security management. The best way to conceptualize the role of facility managers is as perpetual project managers of a client’s physical assets needs. For instance, an outsourced facility manager may be given his or her first task as installation of energy saving measures. This may involve installation of wind and solar power systems. Once that is done, the client may wish to have the defective plumbing redone or repaired. By the time that is done, the client will want the premises painted and renovate in a particular way. After that, the client will then express the interest of having an outdoor swimming pool and so on and so on. The engagement is long term since the facility managers are moving from one task to another, but each of the tasks constitutes a distinct project for which the managers must adopt proper project management skills to carry through (Phillips, 2003). A facility manager of a sports arena will continually organize and plane for numerous competitions or matches every year. Each time there is a match or matches being played at the arena, it is the responsibility of the facility manager to coordinate and implement a distinct project management process that will end with that match a new one has to be developed for the next match. The security manager of a conference building will have too initiate, plan for and coordinate singular security projects every time there is a new conference hosted ate the venue. This is not like a job that is done in a similar way every day. As Atkinson (1999) notes, each new conference presents individual needs that must be well planned for and implemented. According to Crawford and Pollack (2006), recent trends in operations of a security and facility management involve planning, organization and management of resources in such a way that allows successful completion of numerous distinct projects. Project management is actually the most important skill that facility and security managers must have since their work involves exploitation of novel and ever varying methods, techniques and processes to maintain the client’s business operations running smoothly (Crawford and Pollack, 2006). This means that the managers must continually apply modern project management systems and techniques in executing singular projects from a start to a finish in respect to predetermined objectives and as provided for by client. Conclusion In conclusion therefore, project management is very relevant to facility and security management. It is evident that based on the conceptual meaning of project management, and its practice as a discipline of management, then facility and security managers need to be conversant with these skills (Phillips, 2003). Security and facility management relies on project management processes to carry on their job, which in itself is a series of distinct projects. Emerging trends in the application of project management theories and strategies indicate that in whichever application, the need for a well-coordinated set of procedures is essential in making beneficial advances for any organisation (Kweku, Barclay,.& Osei, 2009). It is therefore essential to seek a suitable measurement framework that helps assess each contributing activity in the decision making process for its contribution. The attainment of the core objectives with a singular project is what Kweku Barclay and Osei (2009) calls Multi-Objective Realization Method (MORE). Facility and security managers are career project managers since their jobs simply constitute of managing one project after the other for the duration of their contracts. According to Atkinson (1999), their mandate stretches from planning, monitoring, control and maintenance of consecutive projects based on the needs of their clients where each project has a unique set of objectives, scope, timeframe, budget and implementation. Kweku, Barclay,.& Osei (2009) postulates that most projects are constrained by scope, time, manpower, and budget. Practicality of the implementation process is what determines whether the initial objectives are attained at the end of the project (Kweku, Barclay,.& Osei, 2009). The most valuable skills for such managers thus becomes coordination, organisation, planning, controlling, scheduling, directing, monitoring, evaluating and implementation of different projects (Dinsmore, 2005). References Atkinson, R. (1999). Project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, its time to accept other success criteria. International Journal of Project Management. Vol. 17 (6). pp. 337 -342. Also available at Blomquist, T. (2006). Practices, Roles, And Responsibilities Of Middle Managers In Program And Portfolio Management. Project Management Journal. Vol 27 (14) . pp. 25. Also available at < http://www.allbusiness.com/management/4067923-1.html> Bredillet, C. (2009). Mapping the Dynamics of the Project Management Field: Project Management in Action - Part 4. Project Management Journal. Vol 21 (14). Pp. 17-19. Cleland, D. & Gareis, R. (2006). Global project Management Handbook. New York: McGraw- Hill Professional. Crawford L. & Pollack J. (2006). Uncovering the Trends in Project Management Over the Last 10 Years. International Journal of Project Management. Vol 24 (13). 175–184. Dinsmore, P. et al (2005). The Right Projects Done Right. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Heerkens, G. (2007). Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project. New York: McGraw Hill. Ireland, L. (2006). Project Management. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Kwak, Y. (2005). "A brief history of Project Management". In Carayannis, E. et al. (9 eds). The Story of Managing Projects. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Kweku, M., Barclay, C.& Osei, B. (2009). Toward a More Practical Approach to Evaluating Programs: The Multi-Objective Realization Approach. Project Management Journal. Vol 17 (26). 84-93. Lock, D. (2007). Project Management. New York: Gower Publishing. Nokes, S. (2007). The Definitive Guide to Project Management. London: Prentice Hall Phillips, J. (2003). PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide. New York: McGraw- Hill Professional. “Project Management”. Free Management Library. Retrieved on 14 March 2010. From http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/project/project.htm Stevens, M. (2002). Project Management Pathways. New York: Association for Project Management. APM Publishing Limited. Witzel, M. (2003). Fifty Key Figures in Management‎. New York: Rutledge. Read More