Risks and Controls in the Implementation of ERP Systems

Question: Write a report on "project management skills". Answer: Discussion In the current age, the various IT companies are involved in the development of customized ERP packages as per the requirement of their clients. Such ERP software includes hospital, hotel, studio, airport, manufacturing, retail and others (Grabski, Leech Lu, 2001). The development of such software are been treated as projects by those companies where a stipulated start and end date is been given. Such projects are assigned to their qualified management professionals whom they consider a good leader. The leadership abilities of those managers denote how the companies will proceed with the project work (Rosemann vom Brocke, 2015). Other projects can be based on the maintenance of a developed software. Whatever the project may be, the project management leadership requires in-depth knowledge of the key software functionalities. It also requires to understand the costs involved from starting to the end of the project. The manager of the software project has to make a proper portfolio analysis of the investments in a project starting from the manpower cost, hardware and networking costs along with costs for making tie ups with any external organization or professionals having a sound knowledge in the subjected domain. An efficient leadership in the project management also includes a proper communication with all the stakeholders associated with it so that the project goes well as per the given standards (Gandomani et al., 2013). The stakeholders involve the client, engineers, directors and the partners. The commitment to achieve the deliverables within the stipulated deadline is a major factor in the project management leadership. A manager who is given a responsibility to implement a manufacturing ERP in a retail company, such as the E-business Suite has to meet the requirement with efficient planning of his manpower and other resources within the given time frame (Salas-Morera et al., 2013). In this due period, he performs all the necessary research work starting from the internal to external environment of his organization. Once the project work gets started, the manager handling it has to make the necessary tracking of the proceedings through the MS project software. Through the mechanism, he can be able to find the exact position of the work in progress along with the current activities of the employees who are been assigned for the task (Hoch Dulebohn, 2013). The costs involved in each phase can also be monitored. From that position, the manager can make a generation of the estimated and the actual cost for the purpose of comparison. On the basis of such comparisons, the managers are able to guide the team towards a successful completion (Cruz, da Silva Capretz, 2015). The leadership in the management of project is expected to be consistent starting from portfolio level, project level and feature level. During the development phase, to be a good leader, the project manager has to be aware of each and every difficulties his team members is facing and he have to sort out feasible solutions to them (Mir Pinnington, 2014). He should check whether those issues are been fixed. As the software project management follows the model of software development life cycle, a built prototype is always been kept in front of the customers or end users for necessary evaluation. The project manager keeps the detailed feedback from them and provides directions for his development team to do the necessary rectifications (Schneider, Torkar Gorschek, 2013). He also guides the team who are involved in testing the software for checking whether the developed software is as per the standard of compliance. Like other project management, scope, schedule and budget are the key influences in the software project management. To be an effective project leader, the manager should have the understandings of the nuances in the dynamic of a team. They actually make a demonstration of the ability for balancing about what should be and what needs to be done for meeting the need of the business (Conforto et al., 2014). They should remain confident in applying various project management techniques to get the optimum output. The software project managers should have a strong passion towards learning of the latest platforms used in the project. Unless they have the sufficient expertise of the relevant tools used, they will not be able to guide their respective professionals in a convenient way. The managers also make a personal commitment towards the success as it enhances the accountability for translating the proactive behaviors (Schneider, Torkar Gorschek, 2013). Willingness for advocating at all the levels through finding out the motivation of the individuals along with empowering the poor stakeholders is also required. To maintain a good leadership in project management, the managers have to take calculated risks to get the benefit of the success. The calculation of the risk maybe trying new technologies or mentoring less talented member. An efficient leader will make an effective delegation through focusing in activities of higher level project management. He should agree in the level of autonomy that is required. The manager should have a goal, which will be more facilitative and less directive for providing the team for self-management (Mir Pinnington, 2014). Such goals include keeping the software project visible within the overall priorities of the organization. The leader should also create a campaign for the projects public relation. He should moreover develop a project team of high performance. The manager should understand the alignment of the project to the business strategy of the software company. He should also reward those people who have a significant amount of contributions for the projects successful completion. Conclusion It has been realized from the following discussions that beyond and above getting the projects done, the leaders are very much flexible for sharing the vision among his team members along with motivating and empowering the other persons. They are also constructive for making a good model of project management in an integrated manner and can make a balance of the requirement through a well-prepared schedule having the larger goals practical view. Review on Leadership for IT Project Management Models of Change The blog on the following topic has been written based on the various type models that are used for IT Project Management to ensure an effective leadership. It has been realized that communication, risk management, negotiation are the primary skills essential to lead a project team. Different models are there to manage a project, which can modified as per the short term creativity and powerful coalition and creation of urgency. The topic has been well prepared through mentioning of all the models and tools required for an effective project management along with the limitations and reflections. It has well stated that constant change in the management process is required for a quality leadership. Review on Strategies for Negotiation The blog on the following topic has been written on the various categories of Negotiations that are required for ensuring the progress of a business process. It can take place in the different departments of an organization. It states that negotiation can be done either in the commercial or in the international level and its the credibility of the negotiator who makes the deal proceedings in his favor. All the aspects of the commercial negotiation has been mentioned here along with the approaches that are required to make a negotiation successful including compromise, yielding and problem solving. The overall process of negotiation has been nicely denoted here. References Conforto, E. C., Salum, F., Amaral, D. C., da Silva, S. L., de Almeida, L. F. M. (2014). Can agile project management be adopted by industries other than software development?.Project Management Journal,45(3), 21-34. Cruz, S., da Silva, F. Q., Capretz, L. F. (2015). Forty years of research on personality in software engineering: A mapping study.Computers in Human Behavior,46, 94-113. Gandomani, T. J., Zulzalil, H., Ghani, A. A. A., Sultan, A. B. M., Nafchi, M. Z. (2013). 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