Applying the SPP to a Project
The contribution of project management frameworks, including Specific Processes for Projects (SPP) and understanding the Enlightened Planning (EP) approach, is critical. SPP offers a reliable way to manage a project by giving a structured approach to planning, executing, and monitoring projects (IDC, 2020). On the other hand, abiding by the Enlightened Planning (EP) method allows project managers to remain agile and responsive to changes to help the project adapt despite adverse challenges to the project’s aim (Yang, 2021). Therefore, to identify and understand the role of SPP, EP, and their impacts on the project management process, this analysis has chosen the NASA Mars Rover project to show how project managers can implement the SPP to spur the project’s success.
The NASA Mars Rover project is a complex plan to discover and explore the Martian planet. Numerous strategies have been implemented, including using sophisticated robots, multiple scientists, engineers, and even technicians to search for any sign of life on Mars (NASA, 2020). It is currently at the execution stage, and the first robots, including the latest rover, have already landed on the planet by 2021 (Amos, 2022). The project intends to collect and test samples from Mars to find ways humans can extend their reach into it and expand their settlements to Mars. Attaining these goals raises a high degree of difficulty unless appropriate project management and resource allocation strategies are in place to help it succeed. Through this lens, this analysis proposes that implementing the SPP framework can help the NASA Mars Rover project to effectively and efficiently meet its goals.
Vision Framework
SPP is fundamental in a project’s development, execution, and even the closing section. The first area that can be implemented in a project is the initiation stage, where a clear vision and the project’s objectives are presented. This helps to develop a comprehensive plan for the project’s goals and identify ways to attain them (IDC, 2020). SPP contributes in this stage by giving project managers a clear framework to establish dreams and visions that will guide the project’s scope and primary objectives. In this process, key considerations are met, including what the project intends to achieve, essential resources available to ensure its success, and a viable framework needed to stay alert of any challenges and risk mitigation strategies.
In the NASA Mars Rover project, this stage of SPP was fundamental, assisting project managers in developing a clear insight into what they wanted to attain. The project aimed to explore Mars, identify any form of life, and inform scientists how they could reach the planet for further exploration (Amos, 2022). Stating a clear vision was fundamental and helped the project align all other objects with this primary vision. SPP ensured that the project stayed on track and achieved its objectives within the set timeframe and budget.
The SPP framework also insists on understanding and addressing all stakeholders’ perceptions and needs regarding the project while developing the vision. Various people involved in the project can present diverse opinions on what should be done and left out. Understanding everyone’s perspective, addressing their varied opinions, and bringing them to a common understanding (Hidalgo, 2019). This prevents potential deviation from the project’s primary goal and brings a sense of collectiveness and collaboration when dealing with the project’s challenges. Similarly, this provision applied to the NASA Mars Rover project, where various stakeholders, including scientists, researchers, and project managers, presented their unique viewpoints about the project’s aim.
Strategy Framework
The Strategy Framework is the second stage of the Specific Process for Projects (SPP). It is a significant step that helps project managers develop a clear critical plan that guides the project’s objectives. It aims to identify the project’s primary aim and strategize critical operations and directions that every stakeholder must follow to align with its primary objectives.
This step is essential for the NASA Mars Rover project as it intends to have a strategic way of exploring Mars. The project relied upon its primary goals and a well-defined plan to set the grounds for efficiency and appropriate management of the critical resources developed to help the project succeed. For instance, the project heavily depends on technological tools and human expertise. Proper strategies for dealing with technical issues and adapting to crises are essential.
Effective implementation of the strategy framework requires a deep analysis of the project’s scope, goals, resources, and stakeholders’ status. The Mars Rover Project understood this aspect. When the managers set the project’s objectives, a clear plan was introduced to send robotic rovers to the planet. Specific stakeholders were given appropriate tasks to help the project get enough funding and equipment to attain its goal.
Moreover, the plan included using sophisticated technologies that can transmit information from the region back to scientists and researchers on Earth (NASA, 2020). Thus, the project has achieved a clear roadmap that sets the pace and strategies for all stakeholders. The stage also helps the project to include a proper resource allocation to ensure it does not fall short of the critical resources and funding needed to attain its primary goal.
Execution Framework
With a clear vision and a potential framework to attain that goal, a project proceeds to the execution stage, where its well-defined strategies are executed. The SPP includes various considerations and operations that define this process. For example, critical activities in this stage include resource allocation to support the project’s objectives (Mishra, 2019). it also involves a proper and efficient scheduling process involving key activities and the specific tie they can undertake (IDC, 2020). Moreover, the execution process must include a reliable monitoring strategy to certify the project’s alignment with its goals and correct any problem that might expose the project to a severe downfall.
NASA’s Mars Rover project relies heavily on an effective execution plan to ensure it stays within the intended goal and deals with associated issues. Even though it involved a highly complex activity, the project was built on a potential framework that ensures it utilizes the complex technological equipment and diverse team of experts as expected. However, there were risks and changes worth considering. The journey to the new planet is challenging and characterized by potential risks of damage to the machines sent to explore it. These issues can limit the projects’ success and enhance the costs, considering the high costs of building the robots.
However, understanding the need to maintain flexibility and agility, as identified in the EP approach, helps the team to improvise sophisticated specifications and utilize robust technological solutions to attain a successful journey across the space. Moreover, EP theory emphasizes developing a well-coordinated strategy to mitigate such risks (Yang, 2021; Yu et al., 2018). This forced the project team to identify reliable and agile logistics and transport systems and adequately maintain the machinery to ensure the exploration objects reach their destination and perform their specific tasks.
Maintaining a proper execution process helps the project management team deliver timely outcomes. It also helps them meet the desired result with the expected budget plan. In the process, managers must learn and have critical skills and capabilities to maneuver and overcome the potential challenges that might hinder the project’s process and interfere with the general aim (Zaman et al., 2019). Effective communication and collaboration skills matter most as they enhance. Throughout the NASA Mars Rover project, managers had to incorporate various skills and abilities to manage the team and help the technological tools survive adverse conditions, including the extreme environments on the new planet (Hall, 2020). They developed a strategic way to coordinate with one another and enhanced collaboration to remain relevant to the desired aim.
Close-Out Framework
If the project succeeds in the execution plan, with all aspects of the primary objectives accomplished on time within the scheduled budget, it proceeds to the close-out step, the SPP framework’s final stage. Armenia et al. (2019) show that it provides a chance to develop a critical insight into the project, analyze its performance to pinpoint key strengths and weaknesses and make probable recommendations for the plan. The management team driving the NASA Mars Rover project must be keen on this last stage to understand its scope and accomplishments clearly.
The project must meet all its intended objectives and document progress and accomplishments. The close-out framework lays the ground where the projects’ plans, reports, budgets, and key objectives are viewed. They must be presented in a well-organized and presentable document that can be interpreted to inform the stakeholders of the project’s success and any other section that could have been done better to find ways of correction or satisfaction to the stakeholders (Armenia et al., 2019). All these steps will be necessary to ensure the MARS Rover project satisfies scientists’ desire to understand what Mars holds regarding its potential to support life. Key findings must be recorded to create room for further analysis and exploration to uncover essential information needed to enhance the public’s understanding of the new planet.
Effective communication, transparency, and a sense of responsibility must also be shown in the last stage to develop confidence among the stakeholders regarding the project results. Each stakeholder has unique desires whenever a project plan is presented and executed. A sense of common purpose is developed and guided to help everyone attain their desired goal without interfering with the primary objectives (Bond-Barnard et al., 2018).
However, the result of the project must address every stakeholder’s issues and desires. Every person involved in exploring Mars must get enough information about its progress and accomplishments to satisfy their curiosity about the new potential life in the adverse environment. The list of stakeholders in the Mars Rover project can be long, including sponsors, scientists, and even the general public who want to understand the nature of the solar system. Everyone must be informed and highlight the findings.
Contribution to Project Success and Limitations/Challenges
While the entire SPP process might look straightforward and attainable, it also comes with potential challenges that can interfere with the project’s progress and overall ability to attain the final aim. It does not fit all projects as each plan has unique goals and a set of different resources, including leadership. For a highly volatile project to change, the fixed framework of SPP might fail.
For instance, it can be challenging for project managers to maintain the high adaptation and flexibility needed in projects combated by economic crises or environmental conditions that keep alternating (Boonstra and Reezigt, 2023). Managers must remain agile and resilient to the changes while adapting their strategies to meet the new demands (Boonstra and Reezigt, 2023). At the same time, developing and running the SPP can be challenging for leaders with limited time management skills, resource allocation, and incorporation of visions (Chow et al., 2021). These are the primary elements that drive the SPP process. An effective plan is needed to identify SPP’s suitability for the project before proceeding with the development process.
SPP has tremendous benefits if correctly implemented and targeted to drive the project management process. It lays a systematic and well-structured framework that gives project managers a sense of direction. Its primary strength is dividing the project management process into different stages (Chow et al., 2021). This gives managers a viable strategy to overcome complex tasks and pinpoint challenges as they occur at each step (Chow et al., 2021). It has clear procedures and frameworks to guide appropriate measures and techniques to attain primary objectives at every step.
Consequently, abiding by the SPP frameworks presents a valuable approach project managers must embrace to plan, execute, and achieve significant outcomes. Moreover, SPP is essential to measure progress, identify pain points of the project, and ensure it sticks to the planned time and budget. Using the SPP approach, project managers can quickly identify potential risks, develop contingency plans, and allocate resources accordingly (Chow et al., 2021). It helps provide a clear understanding of the project goals, timelines, and expected outcomes, leading to successful project delivery.
Comparing SPP and PMI PMBook Project Risk Management
The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBook) is among the most valued guides shaping the project management process. They have been an essential framework for managers across different sectors, providing detailed practices, procedures, guidelines, and standards required by the PMI regarding the project management process (Lewis, 2018). Its scope and ability to guide project managers is flexible and is designed to meet the changes and potential associated risks. This process takes a holistic approach to identifying and analyzing possible risks. Also, it emphasizes the need for robust and flexible strategies to combat potential risks (Hillson and Simon, 2020).
Moreover, the PMBook project risk management process identifies and recommends engagement with everyone associated with the project process to combine resources and forces in challenging moments (Lewis, 2018). The PMI PMBook project risk management process is critical for project managers to effectively manage risks through its flexible and holistic approach, robust strategies, and emphasis on stakeholder engagement.
Comparing SPP and PMI PMBook Approaches with Project Risk Management
Both SPP and PMI PMBook Approaches have been fundamental in managing project risks. They offer potential frameworks that can guide project managers to analyze, detect, and respond to threats before they grow into more significant issues. This allows the management process to be agile and remain active in dealing with overreaching problems that limit the project’s progress.
In addition, SPP and PMI PMBook Approaches follow unique but closely related criteria while dealing with risks within the project planning, execution, and conclusion (Tavakolan and Mohammadi, 2017). They both target effective identification of the risks before making hasty decisions. At the same time, they emphasize the need to perform a deep analysis of the issues to develop a proper understanding of their underlying consequences.
Consequently, developing a plan to mitigate or prevent risks from occurring lies in a well-informed decision (Yang, 2021). Moreover, the two approaches to risk management enhance communication and team collaboration. These factors are fundamental in developing a comprehensive view of the issues and link numerous strategies individuals suggest to attain the best outcome.
Moreover, the two methods follow different steps in analyzing project risks. The PMI PMBook approach is well-targeted to deal with numerical data, focusing on assessing the probability of specific risks. Moreover, the PMI PMBook approach utilizes numerical information to estimate the potential impacts of risk occurrences on the project’s management and attainment of the primary goal. In this light, it emphasizes the quantitative analysis process. In contrast, SPP is notable for its subjective approach to viewing the frequency of a risk occurrence and the associated impacts on the project’s primary aim (Barron et al., n.d). Despite their differences in risk assessment, they offer viable results to rely on when making informed decisions about risk management techniques.
The two risk management frameworks offer different ways to respond to identified risks. The PMI PMBook approach highlights the importance of creating potential contingency approaches to prevent risk occurrences from limiting the project’s success (Obondi, 2022). The guidelines emphasize that risk managers should always be alert and ready to initiate well-structured approaches to respond to risk occurrences. On the other hand, SPP criteria have been modified to work with proactive techniques. Its primary focus is to identify risks, understand their scope, and build mitigation strategies, which focus on leveraging risk impacts and working to eliminate them.
Risk Efficiency and Project Risk Management
Project risk management takes many forms. The most common strategies are to prevent, mitigate, accept, or transfer risks (Rybnicek et al., 2020). However, each decision comes with potential benefits and disadvantages to choose from. This is where the risk efficiency concept comes from. It involves balancing the potential benefits the project will gain if it decides to prevent risks before they occur or wait for them to emerge and fight to overcome them. This strategy has been critical to risk managers as it helps them seek cost-effective approaches.
Both SPP and PMI PMBook approaches identify and embrace risk efficiency approaches. In this regard, they help risk managers weigh the costs and potential impacts of risks to go with the most suitable decisions regarding budgets and associated risks.
In the PMI PMBook approach, managers are given enough information about the concurrence and likelihood of the dangers to assist them in understanding their nature and how they will impact the project’s goals (Babenko et al., 2019). Similarly, SPP techniques enhance early diagnosis and identification to inform managers of the most appropriate measures to pursue (Babenko et al., 2019). Moreover, the two risk management techniques encourage managers to improve their proactive steps, including monitoring, constant assessments, and updating the measurement tools to stay updated on any issue.
Strengths and Weaknesses of SPP and PMI PMBook Approaches
SPP and PMI PMBook approach to risk management has similar concepts. However, their approach sets them apart, with SPP embracing more ways of preventing risks before they emerge while PMI PMBook works to avoid the impact of existing threats to the projects’ goals. They also possess unique strengths that help risk managers choose from and pick one that suits them. SPP’s technique, which is a proactive approach to risk assessment, is most lucrative as it allows risk managers to deal with risks before their impacts are even felt. In addition, SPP follows more structured steps, which gives individuals a clear path to succeed in risk management as it follows stages (Frederico, 2021). This is the best approach for those who prefer early detection and prevention of risks.
However, PMI PMBook is more flexible in terms of changes than SPP. It fits numerous risk contexts. While SPP is flexible in modifying the structure, it is inflexible in dealing with diverse situations that require adaptability and resiliency. In this case, PMI PMBook is the best option for dealing with highly unpredictable risks (Masso et al., 2022). Still, it can be more expensive and time-consuming than SPP. Any chance a risk manager takes is feasible when the proper analysis is implemented to identify the most suitable one.
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