Project Management Approaches

Quality Control And Management in Traditional Project Management Approaches

The traditional project management is a process of discipline and critical planning of the project along with the control. There is a proper sequence followed to reach the actual result of the project. The main assumptions of this method are that the phrase of the project once completed will not be seen in the future one (Shen and Walker, 2001). This method makes a structure of the development process and also ensures the clear requirement of the project. But, sometimes following the phrases one by one may be a hurdle for the project manager as per the availability of the requirements. The traditional method was focusing on the planning and the control of the project specifically. The task of the project is categorized on the basis of time consumed by the task. The traditional method is more clearly described in the following steps :  
a. The initial stage.
b. The planning stage.
c. The designing stage.
d. The execution stage.
e. The controlling stage.
f. The final completion stage.

All the stages are followed according to the need and requirement as task of the project. The major difference that this process makes is that the planning is foremost done at the beginning of the project and then the execution of the plan is decided. The traditional project management approaches focuses on the following :

Control is centralized : The control management of the traditional approach is managed by the central chief leaders.

Planning process is from top to bottom : The planning of the project is done by the top level management and there is no involvement of the lower level for the assurance of the plan execution (Mitchell, 2011). The traditional methods of quality control tools and its outcomes are as follows :  
a. Brainstorming which finds out the techniques for solving a project.
b. Trend analysis for the forecasting method with the help of the scattered data.
c. Cause and effect which help to find out the integrity of cause and effects of the problem.
d. Control charts which aid to find the variations in the current performance.
e. Scatter diagram assisting to find out the relationship of the cause with the problem.
f. Pareto diagram which seeks to differentiate the data according to their nature.
g. Data collection analysis which helps to present the data in the tabular format.
h. Histogram which eases to show the data in the graphical format.

Quality Control and Management in Agile Project Management Approaches

The major change in the project management was brought by the agile project management. The reason for acceptance of this approach was that it brought the software development process in the business (Bentham, 2012). This method has valued the drawbacks of the traditional approach and has brought the technological change in the management of the business. The process of the agile project management is as follows :

The main focus of the agile project management is :  

• The team management should be in integrated way and there should be free communication between the team for the clearance of the doubts about the project. The integration system should be from the developer to the quality control and from them to the customer.
• The daily meeting for the improvement of the quality factor of the project through the feedbacks and the views of the team members of all the top-to-bottom level management.
• The delivery of the result should be very short and specific. The performance of the delivery should be customer focused (Various Approaches to Project Management. 2013).

The scope of the agile project management is that the project is handled by the whole team and not by the project manager alone. The decision making in this approach is fast as all the decisions are taken by involving the feedbacks of daily meetings of the organization. This approach helps to motivate the other followers for the completion of the project and as a result it helps in carving the manager of the project as a perfect leader. This increment of the motivation level helps the teams to build team spirit and work together for the project completion. Its major role is to control the quality of the project results (Sage, Dainty and Brookes, 2011). The traditional methods of quality control tools and its outcomes are as follows :  
a. Benchmarking which is beneficial for enhancing the performance of the recent project. It makes a comparative analysis of the industry best practices.
b. Risk analysis tools that are applicable for forecasting the risk in advance and plan for overcoming the situation of the risk (Walker, et. al, 2001).
c. Tree diagram analysis helps in finalizing the best strategy for the completion of the goal.
d. GERT network analysis is helpful for planning of the time and control the schedule of the project as per the probabilities of the distributions.
e. Matrix data analysis that is applicable for displaying the data as per the multi-dimensional grid system (Kilkelly, 2009).

Comparison of Quality Control and Management in Traditional and Agile Project Management Approaches

As both the methods have their own importance in the project management. So, it is important to forecast the factors firstly that distinguishes these methodologies. The major focus of the Agile project management is to interact with the customers and find out the specific need of the customer and then to satisfy it. The satisfaction of the customer on the basis of the time and cost at the same time is a challenging task of the Agile process. But, the traditional model mainly focuses on planning the task and then to execute the plan as per the stages decided. The stages followed one after another for the fulfillment of the task and then the major grouping of the task is done (Eskerod and Huemann, 2013).
The Agile project management help to focus on the changes and respond to them. The traditional model concentrates on the management, which is having a tight change management. The control of the plan is the major task of the traditional model followers (Rad and Levin, 2006). This kind of project management is evolutionary by nature and aids in planning to evolve into the situation of the management of the task. The modification of the control of the cost and time factor is easy in this technique. The traditional model is very complex and is applicable at the beginning of the project and have the rigid nature. The modification is not made because the stages are not seen after their completion (Wysocki, 2011).The Agile model team works together for the completion of the task and also helps to make an integration among the team through the regular communication. The project is discussed among every member of the team and then the extent of the plan is made possible for the employees. But in traditional model, the structure of the authority is followed that makes the process of the project complex in nature. This structure takes a figure of the plan after the execution. There is a complete restriction on the communication because the team is structured on the basis of the levels of the management (Chapman and Ward, 2007). In this model, the team is manageable on the self basis and can take decisions as per the requirement of the projects. In case of the traditional model, the decisions are taken from the top level and are followed by the lower level team as per the hierarchy system (Schwable, 2010).The Agile model is more flexible as it is modified as per the requirement of the customers. However, the traditional model is rigid and follows the structure of boss and employee. This traditional model is a complex process and have the detailed relation of the stages of project management. The Agile model concentrates on the issues of the value that the customer desires from the project result. The traditional method focuses on the control of the quality, but it may happen that the customer value is not focused (Kerzner, 2013).The Agile model helps to facilitate customs of scrums, demos and retrospectives while the traditional model helps to manage the plan and execution of the projects reports (Gido and Clemens, 2008). Also, it assists in removing the obstacles to the implementation of the plan while the traditional aids to find out the obstacles of the project. Former is a new management role for the project management whereas latter is applicable at projects of project management during past so many years. The control management of the latter approach is managed by the central chief leaders whereas in Agile model the control is distributed according to the accountability of the team.  
The planning of the project is done by the top level management and there is no involvement of the lower level for the assurance of the plan execution, but in case of the Agile the decision is on the basis of the all management levels. The structure followed by this method is similar for every project as to look out for the link between the goal and the solution while, in the Agile, the structure is not implied. The plan of the project is always at the foremost and everyone cannot see the implication of the plan, but in Agile the plan is accessed by all the team members for their individual improvement.The tools of the approach are not flexible and are applicable in the project, which are of same nature. The users have to be specific while using the tools of the traditional model. But there is a freedom to access the tools of the Agile model, as they are applicable in every process of the project management (Turner, 2007).

Conclusion

The major prospects of the report are the features of the traditional and the Agile project management. Former model involves the proper planning and control management. The life cycle of the product is easily displayed according to this approach. The sequence of the task is followed for the completion of the task and there is a discipline followed in the serial number of the task. The Traditional approach has the planning at the primary level and the execution at the secondary level. The Agile model is a change management where the values of the customers are given importance on a priority basis and then the planning of task is being done.  The team management is initiated in the Agile model as communication brings integrity among the members of the team. The Agile model is although the demanding method for some of the customers who differentiate between every task of the project, which involves application of the traditional project management approaches. The flexibility of the Agile method is more than the traditional method. Both the methods can exist at the same time as they complement each other (Walker and Wing 1999).

References

• Eskerod, P. and Huemann, M., 2013. Sustainable development and project stakeholder management: what standards say. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.
• Gido, J. and Clemens, J.P., 2008. Successful Project Management. Cengage Learning.  
• Greasley, A., Bennett, D. and Greasley, K., 2004. A virtual learning environment for operations management: Assessing the student's perspective. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
• Kerzner, H., 2013. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. John Wiley & Sons.  
• Kilkelly, E., 2009. Blended learning: pathways to effective project management. Development and Learning in Organizations.
• Mangematin, V. and et.al., 2011. Project Management: Learning by Violating Principles. Advances in Strategic Management.
• Rad and Levin, 2006. Metrics for Project Management: Formalized Approaches. Management Concepts.  
• Sage, D., Dainty, A. and Brookes, N., 2011. How actor-network theories can help in understanding project complexities. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.
• Schwable, K., 2010. Information Technology Project Management. Cengage Learning.  
• Shen, Y.J. and Walker, D.H.T., 2001. Integrating OHS, EMS and QM with constructability principles when construction planning – a design and construct project case study. The TQM Magazine.

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