Actions element

Revision as of 16:48, 22 February 2019

Abstract

In project management, the project canvas are an essential tool for managers to organize and to visualize all the elements. One of the elements named actions is always attached high importance in projects. Project actions are tasks, activities or work that help to achieve the project’s results[1].

Nowadays, the schedule and budget are the fundamental consideration for project management. Nevertheless, plenty of projects still fail to meet these targets, especially on money and time. The reasons for failure have often been blamed on poor project definition, incomplete information, poor productivity, inadequate communications, uncertainties around labor and material costs, and the failure to use timely and appropriate project management practices and controls[2]. The solution to these problems from the root is to manage these project actions.

This article is mainly about the actions element in project management and introduces how actions element influence management of project to help project manager improve from detailed action management by making a good action plan. Being focus on the actions and interventions enable the monitoring and smoothing of group process, improve cooperation and communication, as well as maintain the health of group dynamics[3].

What are Actions

Definition

Project actions are tasks, activities or work that helps to achieve the project’s results. Actions are the completion of specific tasks within a defined period of time. They advance the project toward the desired result. An action can be split into minor activities depending on the level of detail of the Project Canvas. Actions are always best described by these verbs: create, provide, organize, test, produce.[1] Actions are always the combination of a series of detailed verbs to clearly declaim the to-dos when the project is carried out.

Importance

Actions plays a very vital role in the project management. The quality of action plan directly decides how the process of this project would be like. The absence of a clear action plan can lead to confusion or poor resource management, which may lead to project failure. Clearly defined actions make it easy to allocate the workload between the team members and keep the process under control[1]. As the template of project canvas(from DTU Project Lab)shown below,

Actions different phases in a project

Actions element varies a lot in different phases of a project. Normally there are five phases in a project, which are respectively Initial phase, Planning Phase, Definition Phase, Execution Phase and Evaluation Phase. Actions plan should be as detailed as it could be, so that the objectives could be very clear at any period of project to guarantee no confusion when it is undergoing.

Actions in Initial Phase

Actions in Planning Phase

Actions in Definition Phase

Actions in Execution Phase

Actions in Evaluation Phase

Limitation

Reference

[1]http://www.doing-projects.org/resources/projectcanvas

[2]Uppal, K. B. (2008). Project management, cost engineering, project definition, action plans or what? Aace International Transactions, PM.01 (11 pp.), PM.01 (11 pp.).

[3] Rui Cao, Kong Bieng Chuah, Yiu Chung Chau, Kar Fai Kwong, Mo Yin Law, (2012) "The role of facilitators in project action learning implementation", The Learning Organization, Vol. 19 Issue: 5, pp.414-427, https:// doi.org/10.1108/09696471211239712

[4] https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/action-item