'The Human Aspects of Project Management and its Influence on Project Essay

'The Human Aspects of Project Management and its Influence on Project Performance' - Essay Example A project can best be understood as a one time undertaking or endeavor in response to a need. But although a project begins as a response to a need, the manner in which it evolves is not always disciplined, due to its human elements that leave scope for errors to occur (Heerkens, 2003). According to LaBrosse (2007), projects are short term efforts that are undertaken in order to meet the strategic objectives of the organization. But in managing a project effectively, human elements are the most diverse and complex elements that must be managed. There are various human interfaces that may form part of a project, such as the project manager, project team members and stakeholders. (Rao, No date). A project team may comprise members drawn from various cross sections of society, belonging to different ethnic groups and with different temperaments and skill levels. The difficulties in successful implementation of a project may be increased when these different human elements are unable to coordinate together effectively, which in turn can impact negatively upon the progress of the project.(Rao, no date). Heerkens(2003) has set out four ways to measure the degree of success in executing a project (a) meeting project targets in terms of cost, quality and functionality (b) project efficiency or how well the project was managed (c) user utility or the extent to which the project addressed the need that gave rise to the project and (d) whether there was improvement in the organization as a result of the project? He points out that in all of these four aspects, the human elements impact significantly on the degree to which the project is successful. For instance, the achievement of the project targets will depend upon how well the project manager executed what was expected. LaBrosse (2007) points out human elements can impact upon the speed of completion of the