The 10 Project Management Knowledge Areas - Essay Sample

Introduction

To manage a business or rather a project without any outside interferences calls for better knowledge and skills by the project managers. Sources have it that plan management professional certification (PMP), is the most effective tool that any manager needs to have, so that they find it easy in undertaking their duties in the project, thus keeping the project at higher chances of achieving its goals.

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On the contrary opinion, it is interesting that getting the certification has become a big headache for many learned investors with aims of managing their projects. Studies indicate that the PMP test is whatsoever not related to the level of education and the number of degrees that someone has achieved. Moreover, about 40% of the total individuals who apply for the test fail in their first attempts, indicating that the idea is not as easy as the majority may assume (Kloppenborg & Opfer, 2002, pp. 5-18). In this research, the ten essential knowledge management skills incorporation with the six cultural dimensions highlighted by psychologist Dr. Geert Hofstede. The two ideas are then used to evaluate the concept of managing the restaurant in the Middle East, identifying the potential factors that should be considered before the actual setting up of the plan.

The 10 Knowledge Management Areas

Project Integration Management

Integration management enables the project manager for a project to specify by identifying and defining what the project is to entail. In this particular scenario, it is crucial for the manager first to highlight all the strategies to be used in the management and the chose accordingly depending on the efficiency that an approach may bring into the project.

Project Scope Management

Cope management helps the manager to clearly define the scope of the project, highlighting all the requirements, work breakdown plans to avoid errors during the time of implementation. To begin a new project of a restaurant, housing and how activities will run in the restaurant are some, among the scopes that can be stated.

Project Time Management

This is the knowledge area where the project manager of the restaurant should set all the resources place, determine the amount of duty that should be done in either daily or monthly basis, and then structure out a working schedule to keep the project on close supervision.

Project Cost Management

The budget for the restaurant should then be estimated in this particular knowledge area, and include the possible solutions and ways of managing the costs too. The aim of many businesses is usually to minimize costs and maximize output. This knowledge area provides the similar basics.

Project Quality Management

This is the management's level, where the manager should check the quality issues of the product in the restaurant and fix the possible problems identified.

Project Human Resources Management

The HR management level of knowledge allows the project manager to define appropriate ways of acquiring, developing or utilizing human resources.

Project Communications Management

In this level, the project manager is needed to design proper communication strategies that will be used in the restaurant, and follow the guild lines correctly to ensure that the worker adheres to them.

Project Risk Management

This is a very crucial knowledge area that project managers should always emphasize upon, to avoid losses, for example, in the restaurant. As the main aim of many businesses is to make a profit, the manager in this level, Identifies possible risk causes, management plans for the risks defined and the possible ways of avoiding them.

Project Procurement Management

It is at this level that the project manager of the restaurant should identify clearly, an organized procedure for obtaining all the required materials in the restaurant to keep the project moving successfully. As a result, the manager is required to conduct, control, and close the procurements as the principal leader of the entire project.

Project Stakeholder Management

This area is more cultural; the project manager is supposed to recognize all the parties that have been affected, either internally and externally, and listen to them. In this case, they may be customers. By doing this, the manager might be in a position to acquire some new ideas, which could otherwise be used to propel the project of the restaurant even to a higher level.

The Cultural Dimensions

For a project like a restaurant to perform appropriately in the market, it is imperative to consider the cultural dimensions. One of the psychologists, Hofstede, discusses the six significant aspects in a culture that the manager must work around for the success of the new project established.

The first dimension is the power distance index, which shows the level of inequality in an organization set up. The project applies the low PDI, to give the employees, customers, and the management equal chances interaction. This can help the project to advance as it is capable of borrowing ideas from all the three parties that can be used to improve the quality of products in the restaurant and eliminate other possibly identified errors as well. This dimension is also related to the Individualism versus collectivism (IDV), an aspect which defines the level of operational strengths that each has in an organization or the entire community. Suppose the people of the Middle East can be given equal chances with the project management to provide views on the project, then most probably, a lot of benefits can be realized because there will be harmony between the parties.

Conclusion

Generally, the restaurant may effectively run, in the present, when the manager incorporates together the ten primary knowledge area with an excellent understanding of the cultural dimensions. For instance, concerning the project risk management as one of the knowledge laws, can better work with the uncertainty avoidance index (UAI). The manager ca define risks, be ready to take risks, and use high UAI concept as sources indicate that people with lower UAI are usually more relaxed, open, and more inclusive. Time, quality, cost, and procurements knowledge values can also be essential when PDI, IDV, and masculinity versus femininity (MAS) are considered subsequently.

References

Kloppenborg, T. J., & Opfer, W. A. (2002). The current state of project management research: trends, interpretations, and predictions. Project Management Journal, 33(2), 5-18.