Project Management for the 21st Century, Third Edition
A modern, proven approach to project management that has the potential to supply structure, focus, and control to drive work to success.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Management for the 21st Century, Third Edition
Chapter 11: Succeeding with Projects Great and Small and Programs
THE SIZE FACTOR
Size can be measured in several ways:
-
Scope of the project the more broad the scope, the larger the project tends to be.
-
Number of organizations involved.
-
Number and severity of issues in the project, reflecting on risk.
-
Importance to management the greater the importance to management, the more attention the project gets. With more attention may come more organizations, more complexity, and, hence, greater size.
-
Extended life and time of the project the longer the time horizon, the larger the project tends to be.
Many of the methods we have discussed apply to projects of all sizes. Projects at either end of the size spectrum have some interesting characteristics. From experience, the size of a project is often a major determinant in how the project is managed, the likelihood of success of the project, and the extent of problems encountered. Then we will turn to programs, which are another type of project.
Size and Risk
We often associate greater risk with larger size. Although this is generally true, there are exceptions. In projects of any size we treat risk as we have discussed in other chapters. Why is risk often higher in larger projects? Large projects tend to consume more resources across more of the organization. This means that there is greater competition for the resources between the line organization activities and those of the project. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, work on canals and pyramids was scheduled at times when people were not involved in planting crops or...
Copyright ACADEMIC PRESS 2002 under license agreement with Books24x7
