What do you think is the relationship between the project management skills and the successful completion of each project phase? Elaborate on your answer and consider the managerial action for each phase.

Une of the trst undertakngs in planning tor a project is to develop a rough trst estmate of the major tasks or work packages to be done in each phase. There are many ways of looking at a project life cycle. Adams and Brandt suggest two ways of looking at the managerial actions by project phase and the tasks accomplished by project phase. See Table 3.4 and Fig. 3.5. Once established, the life-cycle model should be updated as more is learned about the project. As the project progresses through its life cycle, the project exhibits ever-changing levels of cost, time, and performance. The project manager must make correspondingly dynamic responses by changing the mix of resources assigned to the project as a whole and to its various work packages. Thus, budgets will fluctuate substantially in total and in terms of the allocation to the various project work packages. The need for resources and various kinds of expertise will similarly fluctuate, as will virtually everything else. This is portrayed in Fig. 3.6, which shows changing levels of budget and of engineering and marketing personnel for various stages of the life cycle. cal organization is not fully designed to cope with managing such an always-changing mix of resources. Rather, it is designed to control and monitor a much more static entity that, day to day, involves stable levels of expenditures, numbers of persons, and so forth. Resource demands change over the life of a project. As has been stated earlier, project management is used by many different organizations. Banks, such as the Security Pacific National Bank in Los Angeles, California, use project management. At this bank, project management was used in the automation of its loan collection system. Security Pacific had decided to centralize all its collections, scattered throughout some 600 offices and collection centers. The plan was to devise six regional adjustment centers and a charge card center for all collection operations. Using project management, the development project was completed on time and within the budget that was allocated for it. There was a 100 percent increase in collector productivity in the first 6 months of operations under the new collection system. There was also a 95 percent decrease in paperwork generated by the collectors. Also, there was a significant reduction in loan delinquency and charge-offs. It was estimated that Security Pacific would save about $4 million by the end of the year because of the implementation of the new in tem. [5] Table 3.4 Managerial Actions by Project Phase Source: John R. Adams and Stephen Brandt, "Behavioral Implications of the Project Life Cycle," in David I. Cleland and William R. King (eds.), Project Management Handbook (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983), p. 227. All rights reserved