Ingredients of Better Project Management

Project management is a highly demanding field in today’s business world. As the projects are becoming too complex, the need of project manager becomes crucial. Every project manager has different experience, but when we look at the theory behind major functions of management, we can see Henri Fayol’s six functions that has become the significant point in every organization and are obligatory for better results. These are:

• Forecasting
• Planning
• Organizing
• Commanding
• Coordinating and
• Controlling

The successful businesses are those who indulge in the management of each and every project whether it’s internal or external by taking into consideration the scope, time and budget allocated. There are multiple risks involved and identification of all those risks is not possible, however, we can mitigate maximum risks with the help of proactive strategies by the management.

An excellent management system in any organization first indulges in the forecasting phase in which they forecast, check probabilities, calculate budget, time and expenses at first before starting any project. Forecasting helps in proper decision making and provides the foundation for planning. After strategic planning, managers engage in organization of the process, give authorities by making a project team, highly emphasize on coordinating among all the team members, top management and above all the customers who are the real people as they are going to invest money and their needs need to be fulfilled. Controlling is the function that is applicable at all level and helps in monitoring, maintaining quality at all stages, proofreading or testing and resending it for further improvements.

Organizations, are small, medium or large size business entities, have to make their processes agile. What does the concept of agile means in project management? Agile is a method that is specifically used for software development, in which high divisions of tasks are transformed or converted into short phases, which make it convenient to reassess critical or high end designs.

Here we would like to quote a famous saying by Stephen Covey in his book entitle Seven Habits, “If you want to make significant improvements, work on paradigms. If you want to make small improvements, work on behaviors and attitudes.”

For better project management the basic ingredients are disclosed below:

1. Integration:

One the main ingredient of project management is project integration management in which effective project managers ensure the effective coordination of various project elements. It totally depends on project managers’ ability, knowledge and skills that streamline all the elements and integrate it technically and rationally so that project can complete its phases on time.

2. Project Scope: 

Project scope management is the other area of concern in which the scope of the project is clearly identified so that focus can be put on all the required and relevant work. Every project manager who can identify the scope of the project at firsthand can easily manage the project without hurdles and can mitigate the risks.

3. Project Time:

Time is the most important factor as if project manager completes all the tasks on time and also takes the work from all the concerned people working on particular project, than only the perfect project can be delivered on time. Project time management help managers to schedule all the processes, time allocated at each and every process plus time to be taken by the quality assurance people in testing.

4. Project Cost: 

Proper cost management is significant as no one wants to go out of cash while working on the specific project. A particular cost is allocated and the project has to be completed within the provided budget. So it is better to identify the resources needed and maintain budget control at every step.

5. Project Quality Assurance: 

It is project manager’s duty to maintain quality throughout the project and to ensure that functional requirements are met.

6. Project Human Resource: 

Project manager’s duty is to allocate right tasks to right people. It is stated that human resource management for effective engagement of personnel is needed as they have to complete the assigned tasks and the company are paying for them.

7. Project Communication: 

Effective internal and external communication is necessary for coordination and right direction that will lead to complete the project in most efficient manner. Project managers try to remove the barriers of communication and are constantly involved in leading the team and are continuously in contact with the client.

8. Project Risk: 

They identify the risks involved and are prepared to meet the challenges beforehand. They know the tactic how to mitigate risks and at what level.

9. Project Procurement:

Project managers manage intelligently all the procurement steps so that they can obtain relevant resources from external resources within the allocated budget.

10. Agile Mindset: 

Project manager must hold an agile mindset so that organization can reap some benefits and understand the agile manifesto like maintaining proper interactions between the individuals over processes and tools, keeping comprehensive documentation, collaborating with customers and responding to any changes over the subsequent plan.

11. Measure:

Proficient project managers keep a track of records and measure the completion of tasks and success so that the results can be improved.

12. Lead by example:

Potential team works effectively under the leadership of a great leader. A talented project manager leads by example and emphasizes team members to show their best talent and skills in project completion.

Sources:
Fayol's Six Functions of Management
Agile Transformation: The 3 Key Ingredients
Organizing for Project Management