Title - Successful Agile Project
Management in the Chemical Industry (Specialisation: HR)
Introduction
Project
management is today a current and highly discussed area. How projects within
the chemical industry are managed has not changed significantly during the last
decades. The chemical market, the number of different actors and the way that
projects are procured today has however changed. This has led to a gap between
the managerial view on how the projects should be conducted today and how they
actually are executed (Charvat, 2003). This is reason enough to question this
conservative industry and look into what possibilities there might be in the
future.
The
Agile project management approach evolved from the software industry where it
has grown and developed through empirical progress. It is suited for large
complex projects where it is difficult to specify the product in advance
(Barker, Tjosvold & Аndrews, 2005). It is today used in different
industries but mostly in the software business where the customer detects their
needs through means of repeated tests and improvements to a prototype.
Chemical
industry is a multibillion industry across worldwide and one of the most
dynamic businesses available. Good project management plays an important part
in gaining success on complex projects (Belout, 2005). This report will
research on what opportunities there might be in implementing the agile project
management approach in the design phase of projects in the chemical industry.
The
major advantages found with implementing the agile approach is an increase in
the client’s involvement. The Agile approach almost forces the client to increase
their participation in the project compared to the situation today. It can also
decrease uncertainty and improve risk management. By the use of time management
and specific meetings it will also be beneficial for keeping track of the
project’s progression and status.
Importance of the Study
”Project
management is today a current area undergoing intensive development” (Clark
& Wheelwright, 2003). Finding the optimal way of managing, control and
coordinate projects is a constant challenge (Clark & Wheelwright, 2003).
Adjusting working methods, clarifying roles, simplifying project reporting or
visualizing the project-status through new user-friendly management tools are
examples of how this challenge can be met. Project management today often
concerns the entire organization whether it is a small private company or a
larger public business. If you think about it, the whole idea of a tradition
causes us to turn off our brains. Just blindly follow the past so you don't
have to do the hard work of critical thinking in the present (Archibald, 2002)
The
traditional way of managing projects has been around for half a century and is
still the basis on which chemical business relies. The way that projects are
actually conducted has, however, changed. The gap between an old view on
managing chemical projects and a new way of actually conducting them creates an
uncertainty and anxiousness within the business and its employees. People in
the chemical business today are at times aware that they are working in a way that
is not always according to the managerial view causes confusion. To examine and
define the way projects are actually managed and conducted today may ease the
uncertainty and confusion. Another option might be to investigate the
possibilities of using an already defined and tested management approach, which
is the topic of this thesis. Whichever solution one chooses to pursue there is
a need to question the traditions of the chemical industry and look at the
possibilities of the future.
It
the beginning of a project, when the amount of money spent in the project is at
its low point, the possibilities of influencing the design and the direction of
the project is at its highest (Archibald, 2002). This is illustrated in Figure
1, which also shows that the ability to influence the project decreases with
time while the amount of money spent increases. Once the project has initiated
the initial phase, changes made can become very costly both in time and in
actual money spent. While the money spent in a project increases the ability to
influence it decreases (Ashforth & Mael, 2005).
Furthermore,
there are projects in which the time during the initial phases is a restricting
factor when producing the required documents and investigating the necessary
components. Therefore the material produced during these phases can include
mistakes and errors. These will only be amplified the further one get into a
project before they finally surface, at which point it may be too late or
costly to correct it.
Large
sums of money and a lot of time are put into a project in a chemical industry.
These among other aspects, such as the fact that many projects actually shape
our society, are reasons why different stakeholders in a project are interested
in its success. Projects in chemical industry throughout history have been
overall mostly successful, and this in combination with it being a conservative
business generates few incentives of changing the way a project is conducted
today. It is, however, necessary to accept the fact that the market is
constantly changing and the chemical business need to take countermeasures in
order to keep up.
A
prototype with fewer errors before the production starts will lower the risks
for expensive changes during the production phase. It is cheaper and easier to
make changes in the earliest stages of a project and it is therefore important
that the planning and design phase is efficient and streamlined so that it
produces a flawless prototype that can go into production (Baker, Murphy &
Fisher, 2008).
There
are most certainly different ways of improving and streamlining the design
phase of the projects in the chemical industry and there is also most certainly
a need for it. This master thesis will investigate what the agile project
management approach can contribute in the mission of developing a more
efficient design phase.
Scope of the Study
Although
the literature had look into the factors affecting a successful agile project
management and adoption, it has largely overlooked the actual use of the system.
However, as agile project management systems have become widespread in many
organizations, it is important to examine the use of such systems and their
organizational consequences in-situ. This research is particularly concerned
with the impact of the use of agile project management systems on
organizational control and drift. The main argument is that there are
contextual factors, in the form of existing organizational control and drift,
which influence the use of the agile project management system by its users.
This depends on the way the system is used by its users, as well as the
affordances of the system.
Rationale of the study
The
main scope of this study is to introduce the agile management
approach to the chemical industry. The methods include regular information to create
a more flexible and adaptive way of proceeding with the planning and design
phase may generate more communication between the different actors in a
project. This would hopefully result in a more precise prototype and design,
which all actors have agreed upon.
Objectives
The
objectives of this research are as follows:
Ø To
introduce the agile management approach to the chemical industry in general.
Ø To
study the opportunities that are responsible for a project success
Ø To
analyze the impact of the use of agile project management systems on
organizations
Ø To
explore the advantages of agile project management during the design phase for
a chemical organization.
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