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Project Management Written Assignment 1 Essay examples

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2012-02-MAN-435-OL009: Project Management
Written Assignment 1

1. Discuss the principal reasons why project management has become such a popular business tool in recent years.

Business has changed in the past 20 or so years. Products are being produced more rapidly and with the introduction of globalization competition has become more abundant. There is a need to become more customer focused but at the same time quicker to market while still reducing cost. Doing business the old way is just not cutting it anymore. Project management gives companies the ability to focus on many things at once without losing focus on their core business model. Processes become projects that have a start and finish and can be tracked and quantified …show more content…

More would be expected of me than just meeting quota. 3. Describe the basic elements of the project life cycle. Why is an understanding of the project life cycle relevant for understanding project management?
The project life cycle consists of the conceptualization phase, the planning phase, the execution phase, and the termination phase.
Understanding the project lifecycle is important because it is the base of all project management. You take one phase out and the project will fail. You cannot start a project without a good scope, or blueprint. The project lifecycle is set up so that you cannot move on to the next stage in the cycle without going through the previous stage. I also want to mention the termination phase. This is where you terminate the project and put together a document that explains the delays and fixes that helped the project come to fruition. 4. Compare and contrast the three organizational structures discussed in the text: functional, project, and matrix. Provide examples that show the difference between the three, including some of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

There are three main organizational structure types used in business today. They are functional, project and matrix. They each have their strong points and weaknesses. I will list the strengths and weaknesses of each while comparing them to each other.
The functional structure is based around having similar activities grouped into

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