FOUR (4) QUADRANTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management is defined by Project Management Institute as “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.”
Over the last decade, I have been engaged in the Project Management Cycle from grassroots to regional programming. Yet, as we embark on a new decade, I decided to keep on learning by doing and also through various training. This is the decade of Knowledge management, skills development, and specialization. A decade of sharpening the saw. I am recently enrolled in a Project Management course because I believe learning is an endless journey.
Management and leadership are not synonymous, both are vital in project management and the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques in leadership and management is what differentiates one project manager to another.
This article is focusing on the four quadrants of Project Management Cycle; will assess how these quadrants have direct impact in Project Planning and Management and primarily how can be used to address the growing demand for designing and sustaining development projects/programs in the government ministries, agencies, development partners’ supported projects, and the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
I am always interested in tongue twist game and word formation, and for the past ten years, I have applied abbreviation to design and develop concept notes and proposals. In this article, I am introducing a new ABBREVIATION which will help you to remember the PROJECT and manage its dynamics effectively.
Therefore, the PROJECT can be meaningfully abbreviated as Planning, Resources, Organizing, Justifications, Evaluation, Closing and Time for an exit. Each word has meaning in the project management and some time is not well-considered or overlooked.
We all understand the importance of PLANNING in the project design and during management. Planning of development projects and programs is essential when attempting to allocate limited RESOURCES for specific development purposes. This will require ORGANIZING skills as effectively as possible, and JUSTIFICATION of the design process for appraising the financial and economic efficiency of development projects.
Moreover, the project goal and objectives will be measured through internal and external EVALUATION as the part and parcel of the project management cycle. In the management of development projects and programs, time is always defined during start and CLOSING and always there is the TIME for exit which demands high-level strategy to ensure the PROJECT achieves its sustainability goal.
My today interest is not on describing my new Abbreviation of PROJECT. No sooner I will work on it and will discuss every word thoroughly. This article will discuss the four quadrants in project management. These four quadrants are the master key in the project management once one aspect is missing, the project management will become hard.
For instance, if the project’s scope is increased, it will have an impact on the time, cost, and quality of the project. In reality, making any project decision will affect these four aspects.
Therefore the project management is the game of balance between all the four kings, in which the Open learning College (Brentwood) defines the four kings as quadrants and I was convinced to use as my article title.
These four quadrants (Time, Budget, Scope, and Quality) are known collectively as the balancing quadrant. The balance quadrant shows the interrelationship between the four aspects and tells how a changing one feature will disturb the quadrant.
TIME
In the quadrants, time is the connector to the remaining quadrants. Project Management is time-sensitive. There is the timeframe to achieve the project desired change, therefore TIME is always defined and timeline developed for a follow-up. When it comes to a project manager, it is important to know the hours the resource is putting on different activities.
Over a period, the accurate reporting of time by the resource helps the project manager to understand the performance and the average time a resource takes to complete a particular type of activity. This information will be extremely useful for the estimation for the next projects, especially if the activities are similar. Time management is very critical and of equal importance in project management.
BUDGET
Time is money, it is a very common phrase. But when it comes to project management, financial resources are vital to a successful project or program implementation. In the quadrants budget is a very essential part of the quadrant. The phrase such as the burning rate sounds familiar to most of the folks working in the project management field. It is important to come up with detailed estimates for all the project costs. Once this is compiled, you add up the cost estimates into a budget plan. It is now possible to track the project according to that budget while the work is ongoing.
Budget management is part of the project overall management and it is not just the work of the financial and accounting department, but the project manager needs to work hand in hand with the project team to ensure effective utilization of budget as planned.
Failure to utilize and manage budget professionally will lead to manage stress. Before budget implementation, the project team needs to conduct budget review and orientation. Since some of the organizations are using consultants to design and prepare a project proposal and budget then training on budget tracking and financial management is critically important to enhance effective project management and achieve the quadrant balance.
SCOPE
Project Scope Management as defined by PMI refers to the set of processes that ensure a project’s scope is accurately defined and mapped. Scope Management techniques enable project managers and supervisors to allocate the right amount of work necessary to complete a project — concerned primarily with controlling what is and what is not part of the project’s scope
In project management, leadership and management skills are most of the needful and high-level skills that project managers should possess. The contents matter but the context analysis is fundamental to successful project implementation.
Most often, project design and planning can overlook issues of context change and assume that the quadrants will balance. Context analysis will help to define clearly the project goal, objectives, and resources and other elements. Incomplete scopes lead to schedule slips, which lead to cost overruns. To avoid this, the scope needs to be complete and accurate.
There are some of the project constraints that may be analyzed, during scoping and measure to manage these challenges can be designed. Due to inadequate resources during the preparation of the project proposal, scope details might be limited.
Therefore feasibility study and case study development will help to define key issues to be taken into consideration and help to define the project scope clearly.
QUALITY
Quality Assurance is often seen as an integral function that monitors and coordinates the quality used within the project management life cycle by evaluating the processes and procedures. In the quadrant, every aspect is important and has an equal impact on the project management cycle.
When you’re managing a project, the triple constraint is always foremost in your head. How can you control the Scope, Time and Budget of the project? But there is a fourth concern that is just as important and is sometimes forgotten in the scramble of project management, and that is quality.
Quality is simply what the customer or stakeholder needs from the project deliverables. By keeping the definition tied to the customer or stakeholder, quality management can have a narrower focus, which means it’s more likely to achieve its goals.
The quadrants management is stressful if all the aspects are not well defined and stakeholders have a mutual understanding of their definition. Most of the project, they struggle to achieve the value for money and some point fail to achieve the desired change timely.
The four quadrants are key constraints in project management in which project managers need to develop the capacity to manage these challenges so that to achieve a balanced project management cycle. The project needs to achieve balanced quality results and within a specified time and the project scope and agreed budget.
Underutilization of the project budget can lead to project management stress and may welcome doubts on the value of money and quality work or activities. Therefore to ensure well-balanced quadrants, effective planning, and regular supervision is significant. Teamwork will add great value to the project implementation and enhance the effective management of the four quadrants.
