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- Are you happy with your performance as a project manager?
- Are your projects completed on time and under budget?
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Most likely, your answer is a “no”.
Best project management practices are the secret sauce that can help you achieve your goals. These best practices are usually a combination of effective methodologies, international standards, industry conventions, and the organisation’s own guidelines.
The practices can be learned by pursuing an online certification in project management. However, till you decide to enrol in one, here’s an essential guide to give the kickstart you need.
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- Communicate With ALL Project Stakeholders
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From Day 1, you must communicate the goals and objectives to everyone ranging from managers, stakeholders, team members, sponsors, and valued users. And not just to select a few, but to EVERYONE associated with the project.
What good will that do?
It ensures that everyone associated with this project is on the same page; everyone is aware of the deliverables and the progress. In retrospect, effective communication is the key to delivering a project successfully, on time, and under budget.
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- Create a Risk Response Team
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Projects and tasks are subject to a certain level of risk, no matter how simple or intricate it is. That’s why it is a great practice to have a response team in place. A response team ensures that the project remains in green and helps avoid the yellow or dreadful red. Think of the risk response team as the first responders when problems occur.
Want to learn how? Pursue an online certification in project management. For instance, the project management courses from IIM can help you understand the intricacies of project management from stem to stern, enabling you to stay one step ahead at all times.
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- Use a Detailed Work Definition Document
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The most common problem with managing projects is laying down who is responsible for what. A detailed work document can help you take uncertainty and confusion out of the equation. This document clearly states what level of work needs to be done, by when, and by whom, providing a clear understanding of the level of effort involved and quality of output expected.
But make sure to create this document and share it with everyone, including the shareholders. Don’t just let it sit in your drawer and pull it out once a week to check the progress. This requires monitoring on a daily basis.
Learn about this and more such best practices with project management courses from IIM. Offered on the Talentedge platform, these courses are delivered by the eminent faculty of IIM and industry experts who have real-life experience in dealing with project management challenges. Just imagine how much you can learn, the exposure you can gain, and the skills you can inherit.
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- Define and Evaluate Quality Standards Throughout the Project’s Lifecycle
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Delivering the project is not a challenge; the real challenge is maintaining the quality of the project.
This requires identifying standards and criteria to be set in each phase of the project’s lifecycle. For this, you must have a clear idea of what constitutes quality and is based on standards accepted by every stakeholder, especially those who have to sign off on the final deliverables.
Some ways to ensure this include:-
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- Breaking the project into multiple stages and getting stakeholders to sign off on each deliverable.
- Lay down criteria for quality measurement.
- Document and share processes with stakeholders.
- Establish a foundation for quality that all stakeholders agree to.
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- Document Everything to Death (not literally)
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As a project manager, you must have seen deliverables pushed and deadlines missed by a few days or weeks. Why does that happen? What causes this to happen? And how can you prevent it from happening?
To find answers to these questions, you must draw on evidence. And to discover this evidence, you need to document everything that happens during the project’s lifecycle. This can help ensure you have all the data you need to make better-informed decisions and learn from previous challenges. So WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN ranging from the project scope, steps, bottlenecks to risks and task dependencies.
An online certification in project management can help you gain exposure to popular tools and techniques you can leverage for everything ranging from documentation, analysis to tracking the progress and final delivery.
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- Seek Feedback
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No one is perfect. And there will be ups and downs every step of the way, even with your own performance. Being aware of such improvement areas is considered an extremely powerful tool to harness, especially if you are willing to seek feedback from your team.
As a project manager, you must ensure the success of the project. However, humans are prone to errors. Seeking feedback is a great way to increase the likelihood of success and hone your management skills. Well, if that’s what you’re after, consider enrolling for the project management courses from IIM. These project management courses aim to help you gain knowledge, hone your skills, and acquire hands-on experience in project management best practices.
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- Hold a Wrap-up Meeting
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Most project managers skip this best practice. However, it’s one of the most essential ones. Once your project is completed and delivered, it’s time to see how you can optimise your processes for future successes. Holding a wrap up meeting is the perfect opportunity to get everyone on a single platform for discussion.
Go over lessons learned, look for ways to improve, and optimise your work management. This will be beneficial not just for you or the team but your organisation as everyone can learn from your successes and failures.
Next Steps
By following these best practices, not only can you perform exceptionally but also ensure your team does too. However, this theoretical knowledge can only get you so far. You need expert guidance and practical knowledge. This is where an online certification in project management comes into play. IIM is offering one such array of certificates you can rely on.
Boasting of a unique pedagogy, extensive curriculum, and market-ready skills, the project management courses from IIM are the ideal choice. So what are you waiting for? ENROL TODAY!
