Project Management

A project is more often a temporary endeavour undertaken by an individual or teams within or across organizations to achieve specific goals or add value within a specified timeframe.

That said, project management encompasses all those activities needed to achieve specified goals and tasks within the specified time. Project management activities typically involve:

  • Initiating a specific task on the lines of scope, time, quality and budget
  • Planning and organizing company resources and the workforce
  • Executing the project while simultaneously maintaining top-notch quality
  • Successfully closing the project while meeting the desired criteria within the given time constraints

The following factor can help you determine which project management methodology is right for your business or project:

  • Your organizational goals
  • Your organization’s core values
  • Team size
  • Type of the project
  • Scope of the project
  • Project constraints
  • Your stakeholders
  • Cost of the project
  • The capacity to take risks
  • Scope for flexibility

Project management process

We know for the fact that project management encompasses:

  • Initiating
  • Planning
  • Executing
  • Project Documentation
  • Monitoring and controlling
  • Closing

Let’s get into details of each of the process for better understanding and clarity.

Initiating

This step determines the nature and scope of the given project. It’s important to consider the business environment and its needs to determine its success. The following project initiation documents are critical for any business:

  • Project Proposal
  • Project Scope
  • Product Breakdown Structure
  • Work Breakdown Structure
  • Project Schedule
  • Analysis of Business Needs
  • Review of The Current Operations
  • Financial Analysis
  • Stakeholder Analysis
  • Project Charter
  • SWOT Analysis

Planning

Here time, cost and resources are planned accordingly to manage risks during execution. Thoughtful planning goes a long way in ensuring the success of the project. This typically includes:

  • Determining the project management methodology
  • Developing the scope statement
  • Selecting the planning team
  • Identifying deliverables and the activities needed to achieve them
  • Creating work breakdown structures
  • Estimating the required resources
  • Estimating time and cost for activities
  • Developing the schedule and the budget
  • Risk planning
  • Developing quality assurance measures

Executing

The planned activities should be executed in a systematic manner with proper work allocation. Managing human resources and other resources play key roles in this stage.

Project documentation

Every activity undertaken in a project should be documented to avoid any hiccups. Physical documents help keep track of various tasks, including maintaining the budget and pace of a project. It makes it very convenient to cross-check whether a requirement has been met. It’s also an effective way to monitor and control various phases of a project.

Monitoring and controlling

It’s critical to observe project execution to address potential issues and to take corrective action immediately. The process also includes the measuring of ongoing activities, identifying corrective actions and influence the outcome in better ways.

Closing

The final stage includes the successful completion of the project and closure of the contract. It’sthe formal acceptance of the project.

An important inclusion in this stage is the post-implementation review. Here, the team members take away important learnings from their experiences, useful for future projects. This stage helps analyse those activities that went bad and determine better ways to avoid such instances in the future.

Project management software and its importance

Project management software helps carry out project management activities smoothly. The software helps in planning and estimating budget, allocating resources, control costs and make decisions.

Project management software acts more or less like humans and assists in maintaining and improving quality and document important information for future use.

These are some of the popular types of project management software:

  • Desktop
  • Web-based
  • Mobile
  • Personal
  • Single user
  • Collaborative
  • Visual

The Takeaway

The cut-throat competition in this digital age demands more than just advanced skills and modernization. Organizations these days should be flexible enough to adapt to the dynamics of the ever-changing consumer demands.

The only way to achieve goals and expand is through the thoughtful implementation of ideas and resources. Project management is both an art and science to oversee the timely implementation of resources to ensure desired outcomes with scope for expansion.