Introduction to Project ManagmentPosted by Christophersen Calhoun on April 21st, 2021 Release The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of task management and to give a simple overview of the methodology this underpins most formally work projects. Many organisations do not employ full time Project Professionals and it is common to pull collectively a project team to address a specialized need. While most people are not necessarily formally skilled in task methodology, taking a role in a project team can be an outstanding learning opportunity and can enrich a person's career profile. What exactly Project? A project is a momentary and one-time exercise which often varies in duration. It is undertaken to address a specific require in an organisation, which may be to create a product or service or to change a small business process. This is in direct contrast to how an organisation generally works on some sort of permanent basis to produce their goods or services. For example the work associated with an organisation may be to creation trucks on a continual foundation, therefore the work is considered practical as the organisation creates the same products or services over-and-over again and folks hold their roles over a semi permanent basis. Exactly what is Project Management? A project is usually initiated by a perceived require in an organisation. Being a one particular off undertaking, it will have any start and an end, limits of budgets, time and sources and involves a purpose designed team. read more are made up of many different team members, for example , stop users/customers (of a product or even service), representatives from Information Technology (IT), a project leader, business analysts, trainers, the task sponsor and other stakeholders. more info is the discipline connected with managing all the different resources as well as aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all of the output that is required to complete the actual project within the defined extent, time, and cost limits. These are agreed upon in the venture initiation stage and by the moment the project begins all stakeholders and team members will have a clear understanding and approval of the process, methodology and expected outcomes. A good undertaking manager utilises a formal procedure that can be audited and applied as a blue print for the project, and this is attained by employing a project management system. Project Management Methodology Typically, projects are split into about three phases Initiation, Implementation and Closure. Each phase subsequently has multiple checkpoints that really must be met before the next cycle begins. The degree to which task management is managed will depend on the length of the project. For a sophisticated project in a large company that involves a number of people, resources, money and time, a more structured approach is necessary, and there will be more steps built into each stage with the project to ensure that the job delivers the anticipated end result. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, some checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be all of that is required. Initiating a Project All projects start with an idea for any product, service, new capabilities or other desired outcome. The idea is communicated to the project sponsors (the people who will fund the project) using what is called sometimes a mandate or project rental. The mandate is a record structured in a way that lays out and about a clear method for proposing task management and should result in a business case for the project. Once the enterprise case has been approved a much more detailed document is ready that explains the undertaking and it is known as the 'The Project Definition Report' (PD). The PD is not only utilized to provide detailed information on the particular project, but is the survey on which an assessment is manufactured as to whether the project need to proceed or not. Some of the major areas it covers may be the scope of the project, link between any feasibility studies, and it is intended to deliver. Also this document will recognize the key people involved, sources required, costs and estimated duration as well as benefits for the business. A project usually carries a goal (the big picture) and this has to then end up being broken down into objectives you can use to measure whether you could have achieved your aims. With this list you must then recognize what is known as 'Key Success Criteria', and these are the aims that are 'key' to the success or failure of the project - even though other objectives are met. These obviously vary from task to project. Once the project has been given the go ahead, a contract document is written and the project sponsor utilizes this to give formal commitment to funding the venture and for the project to start with. The initiation phase can now be considered to be completed. Implementing task management The implementation phase is approximately tracking and managing the project. The first thing that happens if the project begins is to use typically the Project Definition Report to build a project plan which becomes how to perform what is thorough on the PD report. The particular PD is more of a summary of the project, so a detailed project plan must be designed to fill in the fine detail of how the project will be run. The project plan will be the central document that is used to handle the project for its length so getting agreement as well as acceptance from all of the crew on aspects such as the undertaking milestones, phases and assignments, as well as who is responsible for every task, associated timelines and what deadlines are to be met. A number of the stages in implementing task management are quality control, advancement control, change control as well as risk management. The first part we will discuss is possibility management, as once you have organized the project it is important to check out any factors that could have an effect upon it. 'Risk' in this instance is considered to be anything that could in a negative way impact on the project assembly completion deadlines. For example dropping team members due to illness or maybe attrition, not having taken staff members' annual leave under consideration, the possibility of having to retrain fresh team members, equipment not being provided on time or contractors going out of business. A risk diary is used to record and also grade risks and provides an associated action intend to minimise the identified danger. Issues management is an associated area and refers to fears related to the project brought up by any stakeholder. This particular phase also involves the Project Manager in high quality control, whereby regular reviews are made in formalised conferences to ensure the 'product' that is staying produced by the project will be reviewed against specific pre-defined standards. Progress Control is a responsibility of the Project Director and is the monitoring on the project and the production of normal progress reports to communicate the progress of the project to all stakeholders of the undertaking. As most projects do not move exactly to plan, the process of progress control is to be mindful of the direction of the undertaking and monitor the degree that the plan is followed as well as take appropriate action in the event that stages are deviating from your plan by employing regular undertaking tracking. This is achieved insurance firms regular checkpoints during the course of typically the project that will have been set up in the project definition. All these meetings may be weekly and they are used to monitor and command all that is going on with the venture as well as capture statistics via each project team member with actual start and finish schedules for their allocated tasks along with estimates for the next round involving tasks. By the nature of the majority of projects never going exactly to plan, changes must be made to the length, direction as well as type of tasks carried out by the team. This has to be fully documented by the Project Manager such as 'change control'. Change command involves the Project Director in documenting requests for change, identifying the impact around the project if the change is to be implemented (e. g. could it affect the finish time in the project, will the project go beyond budget, are there enough resources) and then informing all stakeholders of the implications and alternatives that the request for change has identified. The implementation stage ends once the project offers achieved its goals and objectives since detailed by the key success criteria in the Project Explanation Report. Closing a Project Most projects are designed for a specific time period and the process of project close up is an important aspect of project supervision. The purpose of a formal closedown on the project is to address all issues generated by the project, to release staff from the task and go through a 'lessons learnt' exercise. At this stage an official acceptance from the customer (the person for whom doing this product has been created) is actually gained to indicate their sign-off on the project. This is commonly done in the form of a customer approval form and is the elegant acknowledgement from the customer the fact that project has ended. Once fixed off, the project group is disbanded and no considerably more work carried out. However the job team will come together so it is called a Project Review Getting together with, to formally end the particular project and go over any outstanding issues such as persisted maintenance, the closing involving project files and do a team review of the particular project. As a result a Project Closure Report is created to formalise how successfully the job has achieved its aims, and how well the job has performed against their original business case, the particular scope, project plan, funds and allocated timeframes. Typically the Project Manager may also develop a process improvement document that will reviews the processes used by the particular project (e. g. precisely what did we do well, just what mistakes did we make) so that the organisation can educate this project and make more projects more successful. Because the project was run by a workforce of people who have spent time and effort involved in the success of a certain piece of work, that has taken all of them out of their usual day-to-day activities it is important to hold some kind of social closing event. This could be a dinner, drinks or something type of group activity exactly where everyone can be recognised as well as rewarded for their efforts. What does it take to be a Good Project Administrator? Aside from understanding the methodology, additional characteristics to keep in mind for effective project management. Given that any kind of project is involved with task management team as well as the stakeholders, an excellent Project Manager needs to have but not only excellent time management skills but also good people skills such as: Excellent communication abilities. The ability to be a team player. Great interpersonal skills. The ability to negotiate. Experienced Project Managers think there are two key variables in determining the success of a project: 1 . Hiring and selection of suitably experienced project members to appropriate project positions is essential. Recruiting of project team members needs to be handled with the same discipline and rigour as the crew recruiting of new employees to finish the ongoing positions in the business. 2 . not A well documented methodology that is kept simple and easily flexible to different sizes of jobs is a critical foundation to get ensuring project success. This particular documented methodology needs to be communicated to project team members within the initiation stage. This will make certain such things as everyone having a obvious understanding of how to progress and exactly is expected at each phase and that the methodology is adapted to the specific needs of the project being undertaken.Like it? Share it! More by this author |