Project Management

Ing. Dize Devrim Hacioglu

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Imagine it’s late after midnight and your car is the only one left in the parking lot. It’s there because you’re still in the office in the dark and a light beam reflects on your face, shoulders slumped, palm pressed to your forehead, deep in thought. Even though it sounds like a mysterious scene from a David Lynch movie, actually it summarizes the life of a project manager. Then let`s continue with the story: You’re in the middle of a project, consumed with worry, and the fact that you’ve barely seen your bed in the past week is one indication that things aren’t going so well. Your project is a little bit out of control; you’re not sure you’ll make your deadline. Too many loose ends still need to be pinned down. Moreover, your boss has expressed reservations about how things are going. You feel isolated, the clock is ticking and you’re uncertain about what to do next. This out-of-control project scenario plays out often in companies large and small. Halfway into a project, risks that should have been apparent start emerging. Some typical pitfalls include e.g. higher than expected risk, variable scope, need for status reports, inadequate planning, inadequate administration, poor team organization, communication problem in the team, cost problem implementing phase, countering resistance to change (Goodman, Major, Greenwood, Nokes 2008). These pitfalls require companies to be more prepared for the risks in the projects. Even though, companies have been trying to be more prepared for the external risks in the projects recently by trying to improve the traditional project risk management methods that they have been using, this change was not enough and a more radical change is needed. On the other hand, Agile as a concept has been influencing risk management methods which makes the project managers, project management teams and project management methods more flexible during last years. When traditional methods focus on one variable in a system and hold the other variables constant, Agile methods take everything into consideration as variables in the projects. Especially, sprint concept which is based on the system of iterations throughout the project life cycle and so the project risk management life cycle is a common concept that is used as part of Agile methodology on the projects. Agile methods are important because we are not living in an environment that everything is stable. Higher instability means higher number of factors with uncertainty and higher risk in the companies just like everything else in life. This introduces us to the concept of risk in the businesses and projects. Kindler (1990) defines business risk “a course of action or inaction, taken under conditions of uncertainty, which exposes one to possible loss in order to reach a desired outcome” and adds to that decision makers usually have three different ways to deal with the risk: obtaining further information; securing control of factors that may determine outcome; and reducing the impact of any negative consequences by sharing the risk. Motivated by the information which was mentioned hereinabove, the goal of my thesis is to state that using Agile methods as part of the project risk management in Morphin CO. Brno (which is a multi-national company subsidiary in Brno that will be introduced in detail later) would increase of the chance of success on the projects. To be able to do that, the current fundamentals of project management literature and Agile methods in comparison with traditional (specially Waterfall methods) are going to be explained in the theoretical part to give provide insight to the reader about project management, project risk management and Agile practices respectively. My research questions and sub-research questions to be used in my work are as follow: 1) Are the risk management methods in Morphin Company Brno Agile project management methods oriented? 2) What are the external risks in Morphin Company Brno that affe

Abstract:

cted the projects recently? 3) Are the project risk management methods sufficient to prevent or minimize the effects of external risks on the projects in Morphin Company Brno? 4) How can project risk management be improved through Agile methods in Morphin CO. Brno? In order to answer those questions, some research methods will be needed to collect data. Also there are some analysis techniques will be used to analyze the data (which will be explained later). The thesis is going to be divided into two sections which are the theoretical and practical parts and eight sequenced chapters. The theoretical part is going to start with definitions and explanation of the fundamentals of project management discipline. The second chapter will explain the project risk management by specifically focusing on different phases of it. In the next chapter, the traditional Waterfall project risk management and Agile risk management methods will be introduced and discussed with clarification of the differences between them. However, the main focus is going to be on Agile practices. The next step then will to clarify the methods to be used during the practical part. After that, the practical part of the research will structure as follow: The introduction chapter will represent introduce the Morphin CO. Brno and project management process in the company. Then the survey results and analysis chapter will show my findings during the interviews with the 25 project managers in the company and will analyze these findings. By the knowledge that is going to be obtained throughout the first three chapters, I am going to end up with the recommendations and costs & benefits of the recommendations for the company subsidiary.

Keywords

Agile, external risk, iteration, project, project management, project risk management, Scrum, Sprint

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 12. 5. 2017

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 22. 6. 2017
• Supervisor: Ing. Bc. Sylva Žáková Talpová, Ph.D.
• Reader: Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Master programme / field:
Economy and Management / Business Management (Eng.)