Today when you look around, you will find projects are underway everywhere, whether you are recruiting new staff for your office or constructing the world’s tallest building.
So, the need for successful project management has become a necessity rather than a luxury. So,
What is Project Management?
Project management is about exactly what you want to achieve, how you are going to achieve and how long it will take to achieve it.
Projects have a definite beginning and an end and the job of the project manager is to manage these short-term endeavors. The end of the project could be, when the project’s goal has been accomplished or when your client withdraws from the project.
It’s about ensuring that everyone involved, shares and understands those aims before the first steps are taken and that the project team members continue to act till the end of the project.
Successful projects don’t just happen, they are not just a long list of jobs to be done.
There is a masterpiece of planning, management organizing, and right communication. A carefully choreographed sequence of event where progress is smooth and steady.
Successful projects need people with the right skills and knowledge at its heart and working together in a well-managed, motivated team with clear roles, responsibilities and reporting lines will carry a project to its conclusion without compromising on time, cost and quality. Or,
You can get your hands on project management software tools that will help you stay organized, manage all your moving tasks & teams, activities and meet your project's goals on time and within budget.
Capabilities of Project Management Software
When you begin to review project management software applications, it almost becomes obvious that you would find different types of project management software with different features and capabilities in the market.
There are also free project management software systems available. But they are generally quite limited and will only provide you with limited features like scheduling tasks or assigning resources and allow you to create and manage one or two projects.
More capable project management software can really help you and your project team members to create estimates, track your resources, manage your project documents & files, track billable and non-billable hours of work, manage and create tasks & milestones, generate and send invoices to your clients, project planning, tracking project evolution when it comes to completion, time and costs, scheduling and time management, resource allocation, project budgets including costs of people, communication and collaboration, and above all its easy to use.
Benefits of using project management software
Using a project management software can adversely help you and in:
Collaborating your Projects
Managing your internal & external communication
Budget Management
Monitoring and tracking process of your project from start to end
Sharing and managing files and documents
Communicating with your clients and suppliers
Optimizing your decision-making process
Enhancing your client’s satisfaction
Staying on the right track and schedule
Delegating tasks and resources to your team members
Types of Project Management Software
Basically, project management software has four main categories, regardless of its capabilities or features and the categories are chosen and used based on the project’s need. It can be managed in the following four ways such as:
Desktop
Desktop project management software is a program that runs on the desktop for each user. Project management software that is implemented as desktop software and has the most responsive and graphics interface.
Client Server
Project management software that is managed by client-server are installed on a company’s server and it can at once allow multiple users to be logged into the application. It also allows your centralized data storage and makes your collaboration easier.
Web-based or online
Web-based or online project management software is a web application that can be accessed in your desktop, laptop or from any mobile devices using a web browser.
SaaS is also a web-based and has become a common delivery model for many business applications, including project management.
Integrated
Integrated project management software is a combination of project management functions with other aspects of a company’s businesslike, invoicing. It is either installed on the company’s server or is accessed via the internet.
Project Management Process
There are 5 basic processes in project management, and these are:
Initiating the project
Planning the project
Executing the project
Monitoring and Controlling
Closing the project
Initiating the project
You have to make sure that your project really fulfills a need and your project has been authorized. Usually, the project is authorized by the development of a project Charter and that project Charter is the foundation stone of project management.
This Charter could formally sign and authorized by someone generally known as a project sponsor or the initiator.
The Charter authorizes the project and it also authorizes the project manager to apply resources to the project. The project manager should lead, guide and serve the team to successfully carry out the identified work that has been imposed on the project manager.
The project manager should begin to identify people who could affect the project or the people who would be affected by the project's outcome. These people should be plotted on a power interest grid to identify the levels to engage these stakeholders throughout the project process.
Planning of a project
A project manager and the team should develop a plan for how to deliver the best to their client. The main objectives that take you to deliver the best project are to make a successful plan before the project starts. Planning is everything and these includes:
Cost Management
The project cost management is next and this involves determining how much you need to get the project done, making sure it's realistic and you don't pay those costs.
It is a method that uses technology to measure cost and productivity through the full lifecycle of the projects. Cost management has to look at several specific functions of project management like estimating the project, data collection form field, scheduling account works, etc.
The main goal is to complete a project within an approved budget. As the project continues, job control uses data from the estimate with the information reported from the field to measure the constant production in the project.
From project initiation to completion, project cost management has an objective to simplify and cheap in the project experience.
Risk management
Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks. Risk management involves planning on how to identify potential risks, analyze risks and respond to risks.
Risks can come from various sources including uncertainty in financial markets, treats from project failures at any phase in design, development, production or sustainment, life cycles, legal liabilities, credit risk, accidents, natural calamities and disasters, deliberate attacks from an adversary or events of an uncertain or unpredictable root cause.
There are two types of events that if negative events can be classified as risks.
While positive events are classified as opportunities.
Resource management
Resource management involves planning on how to engage in any necessary contracts to procure items or resources to complete the project.
Resources can also refer to the amount of money that you will need on your project, it can be building and also equipment and they can also mean the technology and the IT requirements for your project.
Stakeholder management
Stakeholders are the category of people that includes everyone who is involved negatively or positively and affects the project process.
It can include users, consumers, departments, groups, managers, organizations, companies, and even communities.
Proper identification of stakeholders early in the project is essential to the success of your project.
Stakeholders are sometimes subcategorized into other groups such as the:
Key stakeholders. These key stakeholders have significant decision-making involvement in the projector with the activity taking place. Your customers or clients are the key stakeholders of your project.
Primary stakeholders and Secondary stakeholders
Execute the project
The project management plan should be executed through the implementation of identified actions in the project plan. The project manager should track and ensure that the communication is transparent and that the team is coordinated to deliver incremental project results.
Monitoring and controlling a project is a process of integration management knowledge area. There are two processes in monitoring and controlling of a project.
Monitoring and controlling the project
The monitoring and controlling of a project is about making sure that the project plan is followed, watching for problems or variances from the project plan, team or stakeholder issues, and managing procurement contracts and making sure that project changes are properly managed.
A manager has to focus on monitoring and reporting on risks, scope, schedule, cost, quality, and team performance as well as a process for managing the project team, stakeholders and contracts.
It allows stakeholders to understand the current state of the project, the steps taken and the budget, schedule and scope forecasts.
It is really about checking the performance and acting on information provided by the project team. The key inputs in this process are performance reports.
The project team will be providing the project performance reports that can be reviewed by the project manager to determine the status of the project as well as determine if any changes are needed.
Closing the project
This is where you will close your project after all project deliverables have been approved by the customer and your requirements are met, then the project team should transition the deliverable to your client.
Officially closing a project is often overlooked and undervalued. Closing a project entails more than getting sponsors to sign off on the project and handing it off to the implementation team.
Closing a project is the ideal opportunity for capturing lessons learned, demonstrating acceptance and usability and facilitating knowledge transfer.
For enterprise software development projects, user’s acceptance is a tool gate for project closure. When stakeholders are dispersed, pockets of resistance are almost guaranteed to surface. Leveraging virtual collaboration tools, allows you to showcase your success stories where change is either problematic or painful.
So, it is important that you go slowly in the closing of a project so you can ensure the greatest transfer of knowledge. Reflection is generally underrated and the lack of it gets organizations into trouble all of the time.
Conclusion
Project management could be said to be a science and art for accomplishing your project goals, completing tasks successfully, completing your project on time, scope and within budget.
Project management is carried out by the application of methods, tactics, skills, leadership and everything you've got, making sure that you are focused on the project’s value and time of completion.
Blog , Business
