Six Steps Towards Effective Project Management
No matter what your line of business, one of the key factors in the smooth running of a planned project is through the effective use of project management techniques. Without it a project can easily begin to slip in terms of time, deadlines, costs and organisation. By getting your project management strategy right you will save time and money, get it wrong and your whole project could very easily descend into chaos.
1 Make sure your project is driven by business benefits
It is important to firstly define the business benefits that you want to achieve from the project in hand. Make sure you clearly outline your objectives and that these are communicated to all involved. It’s also important that you filter out any unwanted proposals as soon as possible to avoid clouding the more important issues in hand.
2. Constantly valuate the project benefits throughout the projects lifecycle
As the project evolves it is important to continuously assess and re-evaluate the marketing, operational and technical viability of the project. This needs to continue throughout the course of its lifecycle. If it’s found that a project is beginning to run away with itself and is no longer viable then there are issues that need to be addressed. Do this sooner rather than later and if need be, don’t be afraid to terminate the project.
3. Identify and Involve Stakeholders
When a project starts it’s important to identify who the stakeholders are. A stakeholder is someone who is directly or indirectly affected by the project. Be sure to involve the stakeholders at all stages including the beginning. By doing this and spending the time to understand the internal and external requirements of the customer you will reduce the scope for error later on in the projects development. As always with project management, ensure there is an effective communication strategy is put in place in order that all those involved are keeping up to date with progress. This will also provide people with an opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions.
4. Use effective Project Management Techniques
It’s vital that throughout good project management techniques and control mechanisms are put in place. This is a crucial area but is often one that many managers are poorly equipped to deal with or understand.
The core control techniques that are needed are:-
- Planning,
- Managing risk,
- Managing scope change,
- Managing schedules,
- Managing costs
- Conducting reviews.
An effective project manager will help provide guidance, training and support for all staff related to the project. This needs to include senior managers who act as sponsors.
5. Don’t cut corners
While everyone involved in a project is keen to get things moving, it’s important that you avoid the temptation to take short cuts or skip stages especially early on in the project. Decisions made here can have far reaching consequences so good management and planning early on can save time and money later.
6. Formally close a project and learn from your mistakes
Once a project has been successfully completed you need to formally close it. This process provides an opportunity for you to learn lessons from the experience and improve processes for the future. After a sufficient amount of time has passed conduct a post implementation review to establish whether the benefits that were initially set out were achieved, whether the solution that was delivered met the needs of the business for both the customer and their clients.
This is also a good time to celebrate the completion of the project and offer recognition to those who contributed to it.
Andy Butler is a UK search engine consultant. As well as providing SEO services to clients such as PROjEN Project Management Consultants he also runs several other websites such as getdiscountshopping.co.uk and getsportsmemorabilia.co.uk.
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