Quang Regan - A Simple Definition of Project Management

Project management is a system of knowledge, skills, and tools that a manager can make use of to deliver his projects effectively. Projects often take place in an unstructured environment where the involved parties have to deal with new information every day. Clashes with outdated information further complicate the matter because of miscommunication.

 

Quang Regan - A Simple Definition of Project Management

Projects also often require the manager to deal with a wide range of challenges which can include solving technical issues, making sure that it complies with regulations and conducting sufficient stakeholder engagement. An untrained manager could probably survive one such project and manage to deliver satisfactory results. When the number of projects and/ or complexity increases, sending an untrained manager for the job might jeopardise the projects. Managers equipped with proper skills can deal with such unstructured environment, by ensuring that proper systems in place.

 

As a project professional, I personally find that the system laid out in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) to be particularly useful. It is a best practice that managers should learn and try to implement in their management practice. The PMBOK divides the entire project into 47 logically grouped project management processes that can be generally categorised into five process groups. The five process groups are as follows:

 

a) Initiating;

b) Planning;

c) Executing;

c) Monitoring and controlling; and

d) Closing.

 

This is a fine example of a proper project management system that managers can use to manage and deliver projects effectively. Project management is system that comprises a set of processes that enables the manager to break down the project into different groups for easy manageability. In order to manage a project effectively, the manager should include the following tasks:

 

a) Identifying requirements;

b) Addressing the various needs, concerns, and expectations of the stakeholders in planning and executing the project;

c) Setting up, maintaining, and carrying out communications among stakeholders that are active, effective and collaborative in nature.

d) Managing stakeholders towards meeting project requirements and creating project deliverables; and

e) Balancing the competing project constraints.

 

Changing one of these factors will often affect the others and cause project complications. It is almost impossible that a project can be completed without any changes to these factors; therefore it is inevitable that the project manager has to rely on a proper methodology to deal with it. A complete project management plan should also include assessing how such changes will affect the other factors, to determine if the project deliverables are affected.

 

 

 

Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quang Regan - Essential Project Management

Image
"The nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression." -- author unknown   If you get in a car in Chicago with the intent of driving to Los Angeles, the GPS rarely plots the California portion of the map while you are in your driveway. Rather, the GPS methodically and sequentially plots each road to take in order to reach the desired location. Project Management follows the same logic of a series of key tasks or steps that have to be completed in a systematic process in order to meet the desired outcome. Traveling to Los Angeles from Chicago can only happen if the tasks of traveling through the Midwest and the Rockies are met first.   This type of thinking seems elusive when it comes to business project management. Ask someone to "map" out the many steps required to achieve a desired result of managing a project and many times you get resistance as in "overkill...
Read more

Quang Regan - Project Management Effectiveness

Image
To get the desired result from a business project, you need to know exactly what you want to achieve. It often helps to break down larger projects into smaller manageable stages to ensure effective project management. A Project Manager must see to it that the sponsor's aspirations are fulfilled while ensuring the customer satisfaction within the prescribed time limits and budgetary allocation. Outcome of a project is no doubt important but so is the journey towards it. Effective utilization of the resources on hand and balancing the risks involved all contribute to the end-result. There are the important factors for the effectiveness of project management.   Communication... project staff do not know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them, then the entire project will grind to a halt. If you do not know what the project staff are (not) doing then you will be unable to monitor project progress. And if you are uncertain of what the customer expects of you, then the proje...
Read more

Quang Regan - Project Management - Achieving Your Desired Results

Image
What is Project Management?   There are two types of projects - cynical ones and genuine ones!   The cynic in me has seen projects that are nothing more than ways of deploying surplus staff - creating cult De sac 'projects' where they can do no damage - a direct result of cowardly performance management. I have also seen projects created for the glory of their creator - business as usual events that are magnified to create an impression of dynamism and as a way of empire building. Watch out for these and run a mile!   Cynicism aside, generally project management is used for managing a specific change which is outside the normal day to day activities with a fixed timetable. This is the approach defined in most methodologies. There is usually a specific budget to manage and a specific objective to deliver.   What It Is Not:   Despite all the sophisticated tools and techniques available, it is definitely not a black art. It is common sense and u...
Read more