Table of contents
What is Project Management?
The management of project resources is the organization and planning of company resources to accomplish a task, event, or duty. This can be a one-time or ongoing project. Resources managed include finances, personnel, technology, and Intellectual Property.
Management is commonly associated with engineering and construction, and more recently, healthcare and Information Technology (IT). These fields often have complex components that must be assembled in a specific fashion to create a functional product.
No matter what the industry is, the project manager has the same job. They help to define the goals and objectives for the project and decide when and who will complete them. To ensure that components are up to a specified standard, they also perform quality control inspections.
What is the Importance of Project Management?
Because it gives leadership, motivation, as well as roadblock-removals, project management is vital for teams to introduce new products and services, grow revenue, or meet other company goals.
A study by the Project Management Institute found that:
Mediocre performance or poor management accounted for 11.4% of all dollars invested in projects in 2020.
Organizations can avoid mistakes and overspending by prioritizing the effective use of project management frameworks and methods. Companies that rise to the top in these rapidly changing times rely on strong project management to stay productive and efficient.
Benefits
Project managers perform many intangible tasks, so it is not unusual for people not to fully appreciate their value. How can you show the benefits of project managing?
- It all starts with you. Every project manager needs to be familiar with their role. Being a great project manager will demonstrate to your team the value you add to a project.
- It all comes down to the organization. If your company doesn’t value your role as a project manager and doesn’t see the benefits to the business, you won’t be able to thrive.
- The people who work with you will see the benefits of having a project leader on your team. You won’t be able to help if your team isn’t committed.
While you may not need to have a project manager daily, it is important that someone can manage project management tasks. Sometimes, a small team may just need someone to handle organization and communication. This person could be a producer or account manager, designer, developer, or any combination thereof.
Team members can collaborate more easily and have more time to manage tasks and communicate. These additional benefits will convince you of the importance of project management.
Happier clients and teams
With a smile on their face, everyone walks away from projects that were completed on time and within budget. They are also happier when they communicate well. Guess who makes all this possible.
More productive teams
A project manager is someone who works hard to ensure that work gets done on time. This person ensures that the team runs smoothly so that they can concentrate on producing high-quality products and working hard.
Team development and growth
It can be difficult to manage multiple tasks and work simultaneously. This means that you are unable to concentrate on your work product or develop strategies or methods to make it more efficient.
The stress of managing a project is removed and the team can collaborate and learn from each other by trying out new ways to deliver. Even if the expert is a project manager, there’s still something to be said about letting them focus on their craft.
Flexibility
Project managers who are great at managing change know that projects can change and they’re constantly on the lookout. They adapt to changes as they occur and can adjust the project’s course when necessary. A project manager is a person you can count on to keep you informed about any potential issues, risks, or changes that may arise so you can prepare for them.
Transparency and accountability
The hard facts and details that you can get from project management reports are also beneficial to organizations. Regular reporting improves transparency and accountability for tasks and increases timeline and budget transparency.
Production increases
This is a crucial point for business owners. This is a wonderful way to free up time for your team to work on more projects. It sounds like a solution where everyone benefits.
Organizational excellence
Project managers are a great asset to teams. They pay attention to what, when, and why it should happen. To simplify communication and get the details right, great project managers use tools such as project plans or RACI tables.
Better quality
Focusing on your craft will result in a higher quality work product because you have all the time (well, within the scope) that you need to complete the job.
A good project manager will be able to keep quality in mind while delivering work to stakeholders. A project manager will often contribute to internal reviews and proofread work before it is sent out.
These project management benefits combine to impact not only the bottom line but also the people and the entire process.
What is the Project Management Process?
There is no one way to manage all projects. Many companies spend a lot of time making mistakes, adjusting their approach, and finding it is not working out.
Processes need to be able to adapt to changing business goals and objectives, fresh staff or expertise, or evolving or innovative technology. It is important to have a framework that outlines how projects work in your company or team.
Researching project management will reveal that most models divide activities into three basic phases. Each phase has a different name, task, and deliverable.
Planning, research, and discovery
A typical organization will conduct some research to assess the feasibility of a project. This could be market research, user research, or any other activity.
These crucial steps in the project help to define goals and requirements that will be used for designing or building. This is where a project team meets to discuss how they will work together and their execution plan, considering all external factors.
Executing
This phase will be a time for collaboration, creation, and review. Stakeholder groups will be partnered with teams to present work, receive feedback, and create deliverables that can be referred to as a final deliverable.
This phase is fraught with delays, change, and sometimes even conflict. This is also where project managers are most active.
Iterating, testing, and measuring
Once a project is launched, it’s time for it to track its progress towards its goals.
- An Agile project will require a minimum viable product (or MVP). This MVP will be launched to get early feedback and allow for iteration.
- Waterfall projects will see the launch and testing of the feature-complete product.
In both cases, the test results will show what is and isn’t working for stakeholders and users.
Teams will use test results to modify or build on the product to achieve their goals. This is normal for Agile projects but not for Waterfall projects which will require a new or “Phase II” project.
There is no one right or wrong way of implementing a process. It’s important to ensure that the process is in line with the company’s values and talents. It’s easy to see if a process doesn’t work for your team. People will be unhappy, and problems will arise in the workplace.
It is a great idea to sit down with your team and discuss the best way forward. Document your decisions, create a process, and be open to discussion and changes.
Tips to manage your project successfully
Projects can be a wonderful way for companies to create new products and services, transform their internal business processes, or provide value for customers. Without the right building blocks, projects can be a drain on time and money, and lead to a lack of innovation.
These tips will help you manage your project effectively and propel your company forward instead of holding it back.
Encourage transparency and ownership in your organization
Transparency is key to managing complex projects and managing sensitive issues. A strong culture of transparency allows team members and leaders to rely on one another to raise flags and take responsibility for their work, no matter how complex or stressful it may be.
Clear communication is key to ensuring that everyone involved understands your long-term goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) as well as your plans. This can be achieved by involving all employees in the planning process (at least at some level) and giving them control over tasks and deliverables through a solid project management workflow that you can create using monday.com Work OS. This culture has an additional benefit. Employees are more likely to manage themselves (so much, micromanaging), and their motivation to do their best will rise with increased accountability.
Set realistic goals
Project managers often face scope creep. Fifty-two percent experience scope creep and unforeseen changes in the scope of a project. This could be due to uncontrollable circumstances but having the right people at your planning table will help you define the scope of the project from the beginning. You can save a lot of frustration later by including experienced stakeholders and team members during the planning and initiating stages. To help you set the scoping stage, you can refer to previous project data.
Engage stakeholders
A stakeholder refers to someone who is directly involved in the success of the project. These people could include a client, an executive, a product user, or a product manager. Teams and project managers should not cut corners to gain their financial support, which is essential for any project.
These two parties need to communicate and exchange information before, during, as well as after a project. Why? Each offers unique perspectives and insights that are relevant to the goals of the team and the capabilities of the organization.
Practice effective resource management
Resource Management is an essential tenet in project management. It describes the process for pre-planning and scheduling your resources, as well as allocating them to maximize efficiency. A contractor could choose to hire a concrete pourer to work on two construction sites instead of paying for the entire cost of two.
Digital projects often use resources to refer to specific people or teams. Graphic designers may be working on multiple projects simultaneously. You will need to work with them to make sure they are all successful. This list can include all resources, including capital and people.
Invest in the planning and initiation stages
When answering the question Why are projects failing? many of the causes can be attributed to poor planning and research. These crucial parts of project planning and initiating stages are critical. It is easier to avoid confusion later by establishing, syncing, and agreeing on key elements such as organizational priorities and objectives.
Choose the right framework or methodology to support your project
Finding the right framework or method is the second step to successful project management. The project management methodology is a collection of guiding principles and processes that are used in planning, managing, and executing projects. These frameworks can be used to determine how work is prioritized, completed, and visualized.
Get wise about scheduling
You want your team to be productive. To do this, you must create work schedules that are realistic for your team’s workload and the expected delivery date. It’s not easy to create the perfect project management schedule. However, it is worth investing in balancing these two elements.
Clear communication and a clear schedule will help to avoid delays and other costly setbacks. Your team’s time used to achieve a goal or several smaller ones, can be affected by the project management method you choose. Scrum is an Agile framework that focuses on short-term deliverables. You should also schedule time for things that you have not planned for in a project.
Types of Project Management
To meet the needs of specific industries or project types, there are many types of project management. These include:
LEAN Project Management
This method is about avoiding both time and resource waste. These principles were inspired by Japanese manufacturing practices. They are designed to provide more value for customers using fewer resources.
Agile Project Management
This methodology was first used by the computer software industry. The basis of agile project management can be found in the twelve core principles of the Agile manifesto. This iterative process focuses on continuous monitoring and improving deliverables. High-quality deliverables result from providing customer value, team interaction, and adapting to changing business circumstances.
Agile project management doesn’t follow a stage-by-stage method. The phases of a project are completed by different team members within an organization in parallel. This allows for the identification and correction of errors without having to start over.
Waterfall Project Management
This approach is like traditional project management, but each task must be completed before the next one can start. The steps are linear, and the progress is in one direction, much like a waterfall. This makes it important to pay attention to tasks and timelines in project management. As smaller tasks are completed, more people will be involved in the project.
Although there are many other methods and types of project management than those listed here, these are the most popular. The preference of the project manager and the company managing the project will determine the type that is used.
Scrum Project Management
Scrum is a quick “sprint” method of managing projects. This is a short “sprint” approach to managing projects for teams with fewer than ten members. It is ideal for small project management teams. It works within an agile framework that includes time boxes, team interactions, product backlogs, and feedback cycles.
Kanban Project Management
Kanban, a visual approach to project managing, is a visual tool. Tasks are placed on a Kanban board where progress and workflow are clear for all. Kanban is a tool that improves efficiency and can be used to schedule lean production in Agile projects.
Kanban tools and methods have new uses with the advent of visual planning boards in software, such as Trello. Agile teams use Kanban boards to storyboard user stories and backlog planning in software engineering.
Lean Six Sigma Project Management
Six Sigma works to improve the quality of a project by identifying problems. This method applies quality management and empirical statistics to the project. It employs experts in these areas. Lean Six Sigma adds lean methodology to eliminate waste.
It is a doctrine that says consistent efforts to attain stable and predictable results are the key to success. It is possible to improve and define processes. Maintaining quality in a project takes all levels of the organization.
Critical Path Method (CPM) Project Management
To identify the project’s tasks and duration, the critical path method involves building a model that includes all activities listed in the work break structure. This information can help identify the critical activities that must not be missed to maintain the project’s schedule.
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM)
CCPM focuses on the resources that project managers will use to complete the project. This includes equipment, people, and office space. This is a less technical way of managing projects. It doesn’t place as much emphasis on task ordering or scheduling. Instead, it focuses on managing resources and staying flexible.
CCPM applies to large and small businesses, as well as projects in the construction, program development, and tech research and development industries.
