Management by projects, structural model of quality progress in projects management.

Mateescu, Liviu Mihail

Abstract: The management activity came out at the same time with the collectivity work and developed simultaneously with the material and spiritual development of human society. This activity is known under the name of "management" and the specialists doing it "managers". The management technique is destined to lead to a better utilization of the existent resources at the company level, leading to a modern management system with a view to solve the intricate problems which weed a very different kind of activity ensembles unfolding and implicitly ask for a wide range specialists participation and integration in an independent structure of the project.

Key words: management by projects; management resources; quality; objectives; performance; implementation.

1. INTRODUCTION: CONTEXT ELEMENTS

Beyond the present difficulties of the companies, during the next years the enterprising persons and the managers will have to face more and more complex business medium challenges. These will result from the escalade of some elements as salaries level, raw materials price, syndicate rising requirements, shareholders urge; and all the due to the sharpeners of the competition climate. At present, the managers are trying to prevent and limit the medium elements effects by massive programmes of cut in prices. The more often results of these programmes are the retirements before time limit, dismissals, sometimes the finance of more and more equipment acquisition projects and everything is destined to try the productivity improvement by the limitation of hand work weight. One of the key points in improving the performances of an organization consists in obtaining the best utilization control of the unity resources. Consequently, a responsible and close analysis of the company internal situation care lead to the best solutions identification. The manager start following the way the company activities are managed, the management by projects and the project management becoming necessary to be known since possible progress modalities are aimed at. Starting with this supposition, must be analysed the approach of some aspects within the project management complex draft, with connotation upon: the classical organization structure analyse in related to the project management requirements; the quality components in the project management; the opportunity substantiation study and project feasibility details--on the structural model of the project medium and the existent correlation between the project objectives and the company strategies; the management and company functions, making a differential comparison between "Management by Projects" versus "The Project Management"; the structural analyse specific to the management by project respectively the matrix structure, regarding the implementation rules, the advantages and drawbacks of the elements and at the same time specialized elements to implement (Kerzer, 2001).

The specific instruments and techniques used to the projects management, time and budget resources, the equipments and the logistics involved in the programmes, as well as essential elements of decisive approaches during the research--developments programme implementation of the developed project in all respects of the subsequent developments of the solutions assimilated for the time being. Taking the organisation as cybernetic system, two functional situations can be identified in all situations: a managing one (management) with the causative links between its constitutive elements. The managing system includes the total decision and managing bodies, expression the essential component of the organizational system. The managers confront events and limit states and in these conditions they resort to a principle complex, systems methods, techniques, rules and instruments to solve correctly and fast the problems. The managed system includes the performer's multitude, the subordinated persons, constituting the second organizational system components.

2. THE NOTION OF "PROJECT CONCEPT"

The project management is a relative modern notion in the managing methods field. A project consists of combination the organization resources to create a new product / position and obtain performances in the projection and the implementation of organizational strategies. To understand the notion we must start from what constitute the theme as a notion: personal wishes; business plans; instrument to achieve purposes; physical, organizational and social systems; different nays and types of documentation; projecting integrates system.

An applicative research relies on the fundamental research results, achieved during long period. The economic efficiency determinations as part of the feasibility study within these projects, presents great difficulties. On the conditions, we point out that a project doesn't unfurl as a simple constant process and totally predictable. There is a succession of elements and information's which make us have au entirely other attitude towards a project approach: the initial data complexity and uncertainty; the temporal sphere available to materialize the project; the technical objectives and the predicated costs; the project team resources; the promoting technology justness.

A project consists of combination the organisation resources to create a new product / position and obtain performances in the projection and the implementation of organizational strategies. On the international plane ISO divided the projects management ensemble in processes allowing the entrance data to turn into exit data which are able to give further data, marking the project main stages. The management by projects allows: to treat all processes as independent processes; to spread a project culture and the ability to interpret the medium; to galvanize the management by passing from a task to another one, from a project to another one; to project, develop and improve the investment recovery through project; to change the project objectives depending on the resources limit; to administrate the conflicts and to provide structural adjustments; to mobilize and integrate the internal and or external experience; to orientate the project depending on the applicant customer needs.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

There also is a succession of management by projects drawbacks, bound up to some incompatibilities as: the difficulty of harmonizing the project organizational network with the company structure--functional element; the company conflict situations frequency and force increase--social element. The company management points to the values appreciated by the customers. A changing from the company traditional structure to the one organized on projects and programmes brings about many transformations and disturbances (Newell, 2003). The employed persons roles and values will develop, the jobs will be different, the work simplified and the hired persons rewarding systems will be adjusted to the new created situations. The project management is destinated to control the resources of an organisation allotted to a specific activity complying with the time limitations, cost and performance. If the project is destinated to an external customer, then a fourth limitation occurs: good relationships with the customer.

3. METHODS AND SPECIFIC INSTRUMENTS USED IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The management by projects ensures the organisation a frame where the organisation management model is bidimensional. Thus is created OBS (Organisation Breakdown Structure) representing formalism associated to the question who / what's doing and allows the association for each part of activity with the necessary resources and the managers assigned to implement the objectives. Beginning with this idea, we specify the following quantitative methods used in the project management: GANTT Diagram Method or Calendar Phasing Diagrams; Critical Path Method--CPM; PERT Method.

4. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT--TQM

The progress and fast changing's evolution, the social evolution and the industrial one, had and have a strong impact on the management and organisation systems of the quality insurances as an answer to the prices keeping on rising of the marker demand. The integrator notion of the quality insurances developed in the course of time depending on the changes required to be done on technical plane, technological, managing and professional, as an answer to the market demand raising evolutions and to the customers regarding the necessary quality achievement.

This notion outruns the inspection and the quality control and spreads all over the company activities, beginning with customer needs identification, conceiving the products and services demanded up to the before-selling, passing the rough fabrication and supplying as well as commercial, administrative, financial and functional services. With a view to establish an organisational system it is necessary to take into account the two independent elements of the company: the procedural organisation and the structural organisation. The project success can be measured most of the time by the actions of the three groups: (1) the project manager and his team, (2) the organisation he belongs to (mother organisation) and (3) the customer organisation. These must work together becoming a functional block (Phillips, 2004).

5. THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOPECIFICS

The most well-known method used in project management in UE is the Log Frame Analyses--LFA. This is a developed management instrument, specific for the project management which consists of a correspondingly notions set helping to: stand out the objectives; show the impact influence of the external elements; stand out the minimal requirements to succeed; to organise and present essential information's in order to obtain better results. The logical matrix is a method to analyse, plan and estimate the programmes and project, using instruments of raising the transparency and the participation of different interest groups and the improvement of the orientations to the objectives. It offers precise information's on the following aspects: the reason for a project achievement; the expected project results; the way used to obtaining the results, external element determined for the project success; the necessary means to achieve the project; cost. A research where was made the conceptual model of management by projects is the Regional Development Institution Building Programme. At the end of such an interactive process, the estimate "ex-ante" vas a key element in understanding the strategy and the financial resources allocation, justifying the choices made. The estimate becomes integrant part of the programme even if for transparency reasons it is advisable that the materials made by experts should be included in a single document. The analyse made should cove the six main elements of a programme: the taking into account of a prevision experience; the socioeconomical context of the industry; to quantify the objectives; to estimate the socio-economical impact and the resources allocation; the implementation system of the programme.

6. CONCLUSION

The Project Management offers to any company developing such activities a large spectrum of possibilities to improve the performances. Respecting the time limits, framing within the budget limits, avoiding the deviation from technological performance conditions and the quality of the objectives requested by the beneficiary, become all together challenges easy to be outrun by an appropriate application of the management method by projects and a professional program management.

7. REFERENCES

Kerzer, H. (2001) Project Management, A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, ISBN 0471225770

Newell, W., M. (2003) The Project Management Question and Answer Book, AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, ISBN 0814471641.

Phillips, J. (2004) PMP Project Management Professional Study Guide, McGraw--Hill Professional Book Company, ISBN 0072230622.

Table 1. Specifically elements to define TQM

TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

All activities, > Satisfying the > Quality is a
processes, products, customer demands problem of managerial
services of a company through the concept management
from every stage of "zero fault" > Involving all the
the quality spiral > Improving staff to the obtain
are interconnected to continuously the the best results from
improve the quality product previously their activity
 developed