Beginners' Guide in Project Management

A real guide for beginners

Project management is about the application of modern management techniques and systems in the execution of a project from start to finish, to achieve predetermined objectives, quality, time and cost. It also involves systematic planning, organizing and controlling of allocated resources to accomplish a project on time and within budget.

What is a Project?

It can be difficult to explain. Some people perceive projects as part of the day job ie operational activity. However, they usually have the following characteristics:

• Are one-off or discrete piece of work or activity that has a beginning, middle and an end.
• Has a specific purpose to plan something new, make improvements or fix something.
• Involves resources such as money, people, computer and skills
• Has some kind of business purpose

Projects are not routine day to day or even year to year operational work. They are usually new or aimed at fixing or improving a particular problem. They should influence operational activity.

Why do PM?

The main point here is that projects should be the mechanism in which improvements are carried out and to implement changes on the operational activity. They are essentially the 'off-line' operational activity. Once piloted, it can be rolled out across the organisation replacing the current operational activity. With this in mind, it makes PMa powerful tool for change management, to processes and the way things are done. Using PM this way means that it is integrated with the annual planning process ie projects fall out of strategy development. Using PM with the various tools and techniques should give both a top-down and bottom-up approach to strategy development and implementation.

Sizing the scale of a Project

Projects come in all shapes and sizes and levels of complexity. A project can be a small project and at an individual level or within one organisational function or it can be a big project at a corporate level involving many people across various functions and not stuck within one department or service. Is there a one approach that fits all? Most methodologies cater for large projects and can be quite bureaucratic for a small project. The question is to what extent should the elements of project management methodology be followed? Are there steps that can be missed completely? Is the choice methodology based on the nature of the project. Small projects usually need an approach that is more straight forward and simple.

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Basic Steps in An Effective Project Management

Basics of Project Management Techniques

The task of project management often requires specific knowledge, skills, and expertise, which is why it is not a position that is easily filled up in a company. The projects a company undertakes are often a major part of how the institution makes revenue and profit, making project management quite an essential part of overall operations. As the job title would suggest, the project manager is in charge of every aspect of the project, from deciding the best way to start the project, determining what particular business model would best suit the project, seeking out and tapping the needed resources, and ensuring that execution of tasks are done in a timely manner, and be able to respond effectively to whatever contingencies may come up during the project.

All of these are important facets of the project that the project manager must be able to respond to as soon as it comes up, so as to ensure that operations continue smoothly, there is no disruption in the production, and problems which may potentially lead to bigger issues in the near future are dealt with promptly. Being a project manager necessarily dictates that the person always be on top of things, and this even includes the times normally classified as "downtime". This being said, there are specific points in a project that the project manager needs to always consider before undertaking the project itself, which are, incidentally, also key points that are covered in e learning modules that primarily deal in project management:

The kick off

There is, of course, a need to discuss the project will al pertinent members of the team that will be undertaking the project itself, often dubbed as the kick off. In some cases, the kick off also necessarily entails talking with the client that contracted the services of the team to complete the project. The kick off is typically where the initial details and particulars of the project is laid out for everyone involved in the project to see. This is where ideas are often stoked into gaining more meat onto them, until they are fully formed into useful concepts and plans for the project.

The digestion

After the initial kick off of the project, team members are allowed to prepare for the tasks which fall to them. This is the period where team members try to "digest" what was discussed in the kick off, and then visualize how best to approach the task set before them. It is in the digestion period that the questions also typically pop up, since this is also where the unforeseen contingencies and problems become apparent. This appearance of unforeseen questions also serves as the analysis phase of the project, since each member of the team will try to run scenarios involving their tasks and try to project where the problems may arise, allowing them ample time to prepare for such eventuality.

Testing phase

There is also a need for a testing phase, to see if what the team proposes will work, will indeed work as it is supposed to, if at all. The testing phase is needed to determine if the job being done is something that will produce the needed results, rather than continuing doing something that may actually turn up to be the wrong thing and then just finding out it was wrong near the end of the project. Testing allows for whatever tweaks or changes to be made before the project completion, where all the efforts could just prove to be a spectacular waste if it were being done wrong.

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Essential Strategies in Project Management

Essential of a Successful Project Management

Good project steering is vital for early success in a project. This means taking a structured and systematic approach to identifying, prioritising and setting up of projects. It also about maintaining and supporting them all the way to the end. Steering can occur at any level of an organisation. Projects can cascade through an organisation from the corporate centre right down to individual departments or services. Usually steering is done by management teams through the selection of a champion who then establishes the remit and selects the leader.

Which Projects?

As mentioned earlier, projects can come from the review and planning stages of corporate planning. They could emerge as improvement projects identified by internal and external audits. Employee and customer surveys may also reveal ideas that require a PM approach. Also, assessment frameworks such as EFQM (Foundation for Quality Management) may point to improvement activity that needs to take place. Unforeseen events may also create a firefighting approach to PM. So you have a list of potential projects, how does the management team decide which has priorities?

Roles and Responsibilities

Champion
The role of Champion is very important in the success of a project. It is essentially a 'hands-off' role, but with a direct responsibility to support the project leader. It is likely to be someone senior who has an influence across different boundaries.

Leader
Depending on the size and scale of a project, the project leader may be a manager working alone or as part of the project team. It doesn't have to be a professional project manager. Specialist project managers are usually brought in for major projects.

Team Members
People involved in projects can be involved for different reasons and varying contributions. There can be full time members that have major contributions to make or specialists that have a one-off involvement at a particular stage in the project. Facilitators can also be used for group work and when using the various tools and techniques.

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Project Management WIth Proper Time Management

Project Management Integrated With Time Management

There are a lot of different tools as well as software that you can make use of that can be beneficial when it comes to your work or business. When you are more efficient with your work then it means you can be more productive. This is where Project Management software integrated with time and billing is beneficial.

One of the most effective tool that you can make use of in order to have a more effective work is the Project Management software which includes time as well as billing service. This kind of software is most beneficial to you when you are in a business where you have a lot of bulk work to do.

There are a number of Project Management software that you can choose from the different websites on the Internet. It's just a matter of researching which would be the most beneficial to you according to your project management needs.

. There are also some types of Project-management Software that includes time and billing services. Most often, an integrated package such as this is time and cost effective. Project Management Integrated with Time and Billing software means you have all of the high priority areas of a potential project organized.

If you choose a good software package that will manage your project as well as its time and billing then you will definitely be happy as well as satisfied with Project Management software because the price of this software is affordable.

These are some of the advantages of Project Management software that includes time as well as billing service:

• This kind of software is easy to use; all you need to do is install the software and wait for you a few seconds to do the processing of the software. Not only that, because it is easy to use and to install, you can install in yourself.

• This kind of software helps you to monitor and organize your different projects in order to make your work faster as well as more efficient in order to for you to have more projects in the future. By automatically being able to track the time spent on a job, it makes it more cost effective when it comes to billing.

• You will also find that you are able to analyse the jobs, which will help you to plan future jobs of the same nature more effectively. This software is also very beneficial because it helps you to save money and even your time. This means you have more time to spend towards the other priorities of your business.

• Project Management with integrated time and billing service. It is also beneficial most particularly if you are having problem as well as difficulty when it comes to your financial statements as well as transactions. Not only that, this software will also help you to budget your money when it comes to your expenses and other transactions pertaining to a specific job.

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