Project Management

Meticulous Project Management

Fundamental Aspect of a Project:

Planning is the fundamental aspect of any management system as it sets the direction or pathway, which the firm has to follow in order to accomplish the goals and objectives of an organization.

In a project management or a process management, planning is the key function followed by preparation of a proposal or a report that analyses and defines the resources necessary to carry on the project.

This project report can then be sent for evaluation by an expert consultant to determine the feasibility and viability of the project.

Organising to Get the Desired Result:

A project undertaken has to be meticulously planned and organized to achieve the desired result in the given time frame.

One has to understand that a project differs from a process in that, it involves fixed time fame and cost frame.Say,for instance, your firm is rewarded with a project to design ERP solutions for a big corporate company.

What will be step one?

You will try to gather all the details regarding organization structure and hierarchy, people involved and their designations, availability of physical resources, whether the corporate firm is technically equipped, product portfolio, strategic business units and their viability, distribution channels and so on.,

As one is aware, enterprise resource solution software integrates production, marketing and human resource departments to facilitate even flow of information and quick execution of orders without any time delay.

Picture Courtesy: Project Management and Leadership Champions

Data Collection:

Data collection is inevitable and has to be precise to attain your set goals. The next logical step will be deciding the time frame and allocating resources (human and other physical resources) to carry on the project.

If you feel that the delivery deadline cannot be met with, you have to immediately inform your sponsors about the time delay and extend your time frame for the project to materialize.

On -Time Delivery:

Projects that involve production and delivery of goods depend on the manufacturing cycle time and delivery lead time.

Implementation becomes a cake walk if your business plan has incorporated, 1) well laid down step by step procedures, 2) leverage for uncertainty in the external environment and 3) focus on proper communication.

Communicating the entire project plan as per the intentions to the people concerned is very vital for the success of a project, because people should understand, what needs to be done, what is one’s role, and the strategies evolved by the management.

PERT and CPM:

Program evaluation and review techniques (PERT) and critical pathway method are some of the tools that help in ascertaining the progress rate of projects.

These tools help in identifying specific milestones and activities that are to be carried out in a sequential manner and also to estimate the time required for each activity, with a help of a network diagram.

A very interesting and simple video explaining how to determine project duration using critical path….

Success of a project management is determined by

• Decision making ability
• Communication skills
• Negotiation techniques and
• Time management skills,

of the project manager and also depends on how well it protects the interests of the stakeholders involved. A project is a comprehensive team effort with the budget and time well within the scope of the project.