Understanding the Crux of Project Management
The journey of a project from its theoretical plan to action stage is done by a dedicated department that works with local stakeholders, associates and other key personnel. The basis of project management lies in understanding the background work that goes behind in auguring assignments that an organisation needs to compile for its clients.
Professionals interested in becoming future project managers or taking similar roles need to be highly aware of this domain’s core competencies. Enrolling for a PMP certification through a reputable institute can also bolster an executive’s chances of making it to higher paying career roles.
Project management in layman’s terms can be defined as an associated, interlinked and collaborative set of practises that helps in breaking down a major technical change into simple digestible parts. More often than not these changes are made to make organisations more efficient in their workings so that they can attract profitable prospects, revenues and generate greater ROIs.
Projects as mentioned earlier are team oriented activities that have separate tasks delegated amongst various members for giving a final shape to these practical assignments.
Undertaking a project management certificate offered by established institutes across the country helps young and aspiring managers to get familiarised with core concepts of these sectors for jotting up successful plans.
However, there are certain challenges that project managers need to deal with on a regular basis, these could range from insufficient funding, lack of skill sets for completion of projects, shortage of resources and no connection between team members.
Hence, knowing the principles of project management can assist oncoming managers in leading the development of long lasting projects.
Also Read : Phases of Project Management
Principles of Project Management Taught Through PMP Certification
There are specific rudimentary elements of project management that are taught through a credible PMP certification for creating a strong foundation for young managers.
The role of project management requires different skills and abilities that come into play while managing its different aspects. In such a scenario where there are lots of challenges that need to be tackled simultaneously, it’s vital to keep things simple and focus on its principles.
There are vital fundamentals and principles of project management that oncoming managers need to be well-versed with in order to draft up strategic plans for giving a practical shape to their projects.
Today there are a plethora of project management courses to study and learn from for forming a solid groundwork in terms of canvassing successful projects.
This domain encompasses a wide array of principles and the following section offers a gist of all these crucial elements.
Also Read : Project Management Best Practices You Must Follow
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Good Compilation of Project Goals and other Objectives
The end goal of any given project must be well-defined and should include all the major objectives into account. Furthermore, in order to achieve these objectives within a given frame of time, managers can split the project up into several constituent parts referred to as milestones so as to set up a clear goal for every sprint and meeting.
Goals are the main drivers of any given project since they define its success or failure post its completion. Managers must make it their top priority to ensure that both — them and their team members — are on the same page while setting up these objectives.
The PMP certification teaches the basics of goal-setting and how they need to be realistic, feasible, clear, and measurable in nature.
Realistic goals are ones that provide answers to whether the project can be delivered within stipulated times and with the resources that are available at the manager’s disposal.
Feasible goals are the ones that ensure that the nature of objectives is practical and can be achieved with the skill-sets that team members possess.
Clear and concise goal setting refers that they are easy to comprehend and everyone understands what the project demands.
Measurable factors in goals can be understood regarding the quantifiable indicators that are leveraged for judging each goal.
Also Read : Turn your projects into profits with Project Management from XLRI
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Defining the Project Deliverables
Project deliverables can be defined as the presence of any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a process, phase, or project as a whole.
Project management courses offer salient modules that further help in learning the deliverables from a customer/client’s point of view.
Project deliverables could be anything from raw materials, software, or hardware systems to even rendering training models for assisting customers to interact more with services rendered by a project.
Every project aims to add value for their clients and forms a part of its list of crucial deliverables. Just like a retailing company offers several end goods, services, and other forms of utilities to their customers, similarly, projects provide a selected list of final deliverables that are defined in the agreement document.
Managers are advised to continuously look and review the project deliverables for keeping their team members on track while achieving milestones. Any observed deviance from deliverables can lead to a loss of time, effort, and energy of project managers and their team of employees.
Also Read : What Kind Of Jobs Can You Get With A Project Management Certification?
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Adoption of a Work Breakdown Structure
A project is an assortment of different tasks that need to be achieved in a given time frame as suggested by organisations. However, it’s taxing for a solitary manager to work on all these aspects with finesse and generate expected results.
Therefore, project managers take a team of talented and skillful employees on board that can perform different tasks efficiently. Furthermore, since performing these tasks is challenging, managers need to think of ways for breaking down work and delegating it strategically for maximum results.
Work breakdown structures are the tools deployed by managers for segregating large operations into separate chunks that can be achieved on a weekly or monthly basis depending on the project’s duration.
The sole purpose of work breakdown structure is to offer a visual, hierarchical, and deliverable-oriented deconstruction of a project for working backwards.
These can be used with Gantt charts that incorporate different WBS hierarchies for effective planning, scheduling, and execution of projects.
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Creating and Maintaining Systematic Organisational Alignment
The flow of any organisation needs to be in line with its internal processes, the established systems, and other essential components that comprise its structure. Project management is a critical facet of the corporational jigsaw that must be in consistency with the defined practices that exist in organisations.
There are a couple of perspectives for looking at systematic organisational alignment, these include the organisation-focused view and an employee-focused view.
As per the organisation focused view, the corporation needs to emphasise several different components of a firm that support one another. It’s essential for describing the company’s purpose, strategy, capabilities, structure, and systems that should all work together for the successful completion of projects.
The employee-focused view is more inclined towards encouraging managers for evaluating how well-matched their organisational workers are in terms of performing their individual roles, professional goals, team membership, and corporational vision and mission.
Project managers come to the fore in affecting the level of changes that are caused as a result of these different alignment concepts.
Also Read : Why is Project Management Critical for Corporational Success?
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Having Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities
Several phases of project management incorporate different personnel and that create room for more confusion and tension. When the hired project team doesn’t have their specific roles and responsibilities, it can lead to the setting up of boundaries and further conflicts within the structures.
The success of a project team lies in the unity and togetherness of its members, therefore managers need to clearly define the roles and responsibilities to their project members.
Similar to any team-oriented role, if the team jells well together and performs to the best of their capabilities then the desired outcomes can be achieved. Professionals who are coming up in this domain need to be mindful of creating a closely connected team environment.
Undertaking a PMP certification that is delivered by elite institutions can be a driving force behind establishing closely-knit team members.
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Developing a Strategy for Project Initiation and its Right Execution
There are several different steps of a project that need to be performed systematically for delivering expected outcomes. Young and aspiring executives can get a better idea of the project life cycle by understanding the schema described below:-
| Steps | Activities Performed |
| Initiation Phase | Project definition, project constraints, and problem statements |
| Planning Phase | Detailed planning, estimation, and scheduling |
| Execution Phase | Project Team acquisition, development, and management |
| Project Closure Phase | Monitoring, controlling, closure, and review |
As seen from the life cycle defined above, the main set of project tasks take place during its initiation and execution aspects. These two are together known as the action phase of any running project.
First up the project initiation phase refers to the preliminary work that needs to be done prior to any other activities that can take place. That specific preliminary work can be further broken down into four separate categories, these include- building a business case for the project, conducting feasibility project reports, involving project stakeholders, and lastly setting up a project initiation document (PID).
The project execution phase, it defines the different aspects that undergo the actual starting of a project and sets a plan of action steps into motion that needs to be followed accordingly.
Some certain strategies and discussions must be placed for highlighting the key deliverables of the project and how it fits in within the organisational space.
Also Read : Project Management in IT and Non-IT Fields
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Creating an Achievable Plan for Budgeting and Scheduling
One of the biggest challenges faced by managerial departments today is the ability to deal with the shortage of finances and other limitations in terms of resources. Therefore, setting up project practices with these limited utilities can be a huge area of concern for managers since it can hamper the quality of a project.
Managers need to consult financers and other close associates who can help them augment projects that require dealing with minimal funds. Therefore, a careful budgeting plan needs to be deployed in place that can deal with challenging situations.
Project managers need to approach issues strategically and with practicality in regards to designing an achievable plan for budgeting and scheduling. Several project management courses teach vital aspects of financial budgeting and the application of tools that can help in carrying out this facet of project management.
Since both budgeting and scheduling are interlinked together, businesses need to adopt a robust plan for taking care of a dire situation wherein the project’s timeline is disturbed that can lead to alteration of budgets.
Also Read : How to Develop a Robust Project Management Plan
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Self-Retrospection and Measurement of Success
Retrospection at any level academic, internal, outward, and in general can be a guiding light for figuring out the kinks, flauts, and other hazards that arise within a project at different times.
Both the project managers and team members must interact post the completion of their projects and review it thoroughly for understanding any fallacies.
Conducting a post-mortem review of the project can also help in defining the future KPIs that are essential for delivering expected results. Managers must have open-ended conversations for different areas of success and set out a mechanism for achieving those objectives.
A good working project team environment and its associated events can only be achieved if managers look for areas to improve and work consistently. Team members can take this information and apply it to the next project to achieve optimal results.
This principle is also vital in calculating the return of investment (ROI) for completed projects. If the expected cost of investment is found to be higher than its return, in that case, the project is deemed to be a big failure however on the flip side it can signal a successful one.
Also Read : 8 Key Things to Keep in Mind While Planning a Project
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Defining the Project’s Milestones
Definition of clearly defined project milestones is not an absolute given requirement but it surely helps in taking considerate measures towards canvassing projects. This holds true for seemingly large and long-duration projects.
Milestones are critical elements for any project since they help in breaking down a bigger set of objectives into smaller goals. It can help in signifying moments of completion of specific, developing incremental portions of the project itself and helps in transparent tracking of progress.
Milestones are also a great way for boosting team morale and to gather team members up in times of distress. It can help in drawing attention to team members’ achievements and make them feel valued in group settings.
Also Read : Average Project Manager Salaries in India
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Maintaining Transparency within the Core Group
Talking of transparency, managers need to create a system wherein their team members can access the relevant information. One of the sure-shot ways for achieving project transparency can be done by making project data available to the entire team for getting insights and perspectives.
Managers can also render tools for collaboration, sharing calendars with team members, and understanding different viewpoints.
By making project transparency, managers can give team members a sense of belonging and help them contribute proactively towards projects. Once the employees feel valued and make them deliver results.
As suggested by Park Won-soon, “transparency increases credibility and accountability.” It develops an interactive space to take impartial decisions from managerial sides to create long-lasting relationships between themselves and their core group of dedicated employees.
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Developing Projects with the Combination of Company’s Mission and Vision Statements
Every organisation works with some sort of ethics, values, mission, and visions statements that it abides by and preaches through its models. There are different elements that also undergo certain projects and hence there needs to be a unification of these goals with organisational mission and visions.
The basis of any successful project is interlayered with its well-defined objectives that must be discussed openly with team members. Moreover, the articulation of mission and vision statements in organisational structures before starting with the drafting procedures can lead to the deployment of crystal clear objectives.
The same can be learnt through a credible PMP certification that opens doorways for understanding minute concepts of project management and its association with the development of mission and vision statements.
Before initiating any given project either for construction, information technology, business services, or retailing, it’s vital to take a closer look at corporational mission and vision statements. Once managers are through with these written documents, they can devise the project’s objectives that adjust to the blueprints followed.
Also Read : Project Management Vs Product Management: Which Is A Better Career Choice?
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Sketching out the Project’s Scope
Project managers know that once their projects take off from the ground, it’s essential to transition smoothly between the initiation phase to its planning stages. While managers spend their team assessing the value offered by a specific project and the services it provides for the clients/company, they also need to devote their time towards sketching the project scope.
Giving a project a clear and concise vision that paves way for scope management is necessary to perform at the initial stages.
New and upcoming managers can think about scope management by addressing whether the project’s boundaries fit in with the end goals? The deliverables required for achieving those objectives, delegating tasks as per employee’s capabilities, and the risks that can emerge throughout its duration can help in determining a project’s scope.
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Addressing Important Questions related to Projects
Managers must make it their responsibility to start and end their projects in the correct manner by addressing the correct questions. Irrespective of the nature of projects or tasks- content-based, marketing particulars, gathering resourceful information, the conceptualization of new products, etc., managers need to ask viable questions.
These include- should this project go ahead? Does the organisation have the required resources for developing such projects? Can the company benefit from this project at the given time? What problem is the project solving, etc?
Asking the questions mentioned above can help in solving and understanding the project’s issues and the opportunities it brings.
Also Read : Step-By-Step Guide to Project Management
Abide by Principles Offered by PMP Certification for Project’s Success
Though project management is a complex process, it is an integral business practice that leads the way for a firm’s growth and success. Project management aims to achieve all the defined goals set up by managers by following the principles mentioned above in this article.
These principles act as a guidebook for helping new professionals that gather their learnings from a PMP certification gained through a reputable source.
Also Read : 10 Reasons Why Project Management Matters
The following section enlists some of the FAQs that constitute this domain.
FAQs on Project Management
Q. Can a PMP Certification lead to the development of successful careers?
Ans. Yes, a PMP certification offered by leading institutes can help professionals in laying a solid start to their careers.
Q. Is a PMP certification necessary for career development?
Ans. Yes, a PMP certification is ideal since it provides learners with theoretical models and practical tools that are used in live project management scenarios.
Q. How do project managers develop good working relationships with their employees?
Ans. By being transparent with co-workers and recognising their dedicated efforts.
Q. Is Project Management a rewarding field?
Ans. Yes, project management proves to be a rewarding career domain for professionals since businesses today take up contract-based assignments for enhancing their internal processes.
Q. What is the most practical way for developing successful projects?
Ans. By imbibing the several principles discussed in the article above, managers can develop long lasting projects.
Q. How to perform cost-benefit analysis (CBA) in project management?
Ans. Project managers need to look at a corporation’s expenses and tangible benefits for performing CBA. Then, ROI is calculated along with the internal rate of return, net present value, and payback period.
Q. What are Gantt Charts in project management?
Ans. It’s a table that illustrates the course of a given project and different elements that are involved in the same.
Q. Define earned value in project management?
Ans. It can be defined as the values assigned to work and is stated in hours worked/local currency.
Q. What is PERT in project management?
Ans. Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) is a project management tool for calculating the time taken to complete an assignment.
Q. What are the different methodologies leveraged by project management?
Ans. Agile, waterfall, hybrid, etc., are some of the methodologies used by PM.
| Steps | Activities Performed |
| Initiation Phase | Project definition, project constraints, and problem statements |
| Planning Phase | Detailed planning, estimation, and scheduling |
| Execution Phase | Project Team acquisition, development, and management |
| Project Closure Phase | Monitoring, controlling, closure, and review |
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