Project Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 7

Project Management - Essay Example This fact clearly suggests that at the time of procurement, project managers did not clearly defined the exact needs of the project. Based on wrong assessment of the same, the system appeared to work on wrong footings as what was expected out of the system was not clearly delivered. It was therefore believed that the project failed because project managers failed to clearly anticipate the needs and solicit the correct vendors to implement the project. The vendors were probably either not as professionals as they should have been in developing the payroll processing system or the information to them was not correctly provided. This resulted into the cancellation of the project as well as it cost a lot of money to the organization because of the loose credit management as well as the wrong procurement polices because there was no clear strategy being developed by the project managers. (Washington Times, 2005) I believe that there were multiple issues involved in this project's failure. Initially it attracted the criticism of the employees working over there therefore at first stage, it failed to achieve the necessary acceptability within the organization. The issues were further complicated when the project managers failed to properly prepare the strategy for implementing effective contract as well as procurement management for the project. If project managers have given a good thought to the solicitation stage of procurement, it would have been lot better and the project would have been a success. 2) Department of Defense initiated a project in 2002 with the name of Personnel Management Key solution. The perceived objectives were to obtain efficiency in different functional areas such as organizational structures, personnel administration and leave, career management as well as work force planning etc. Many believed that it was a bigger project for a military organization however it started with lot of ambitions and hopes to accomplish something bigger for the organization which was termed as too administrative and bureaucratic in nature. The major reason for the failure of the project was cost overrun. Initially it was estimated that the total project cost would be $ 25 million in 2002 however as the project unfolded the cost rocketed to $70 million dollars forcing the project managers to abandon the project in the middle due to high cost variations and other factors which led to the cancellation of the project. However, a much deeper analysis of the issue would suggest that there were other factors which were directly responsible for the failure of the project. Initially it may be considered that the project managers have properly planned the procurement as well as contract management strategy however they were not. Though the whole details of the project are not available but the cost escalation suggests that the type of contract entered by the project managers may not have been adequately selected. It seems that the project managers may have selected actual cost reimbursement contracts where they became legally obliged to pay or reimburse all the costs to the vendors regardless of the need to assess that the cost overruns can also be caused because of the vendor's inability to provide the desired goods and services at the agreed contractual terms. If the project managers would have entered into a fixed pay contract, they could have