Project Management
Managing projects effectively might be described as a set of standards or procedures for success as a result of completion of a family tree project. If developed and implemented with dedication and commitment all parties involved will know when to act and when to wait, as described on a PRINCE2 Foundation Qualification Course London.
What might be described as the greatest challenge in being an effective project manager is the basic building block of success: focussing on activities that add value to the project being ‘managed’. There are 12 musts that effective PMs follow, that are tested to be effective:
- Focus on an area of strategic choice and communicate it to all stakeholders.
- Create a process to deliver on the critical objectives.
- Involve the optimal set of people that have the competencies to be successful in their areas of responsibility.
- Manage proactively your schedule and maintain quality.
- Create a sharing of resources to gain control of tasks at the beginning of a project.
- Design Company’s process and policies for all activities.
- Manage the entire process of project management and all related activities
- Involve the direct Users mentioned in the project charter and define a plan for their involvement.
- Define simple metrics to measure project success and assign it to internal or external resources.
- Manage the resources available so resources are committed to the project.
- Manage the execution of the plan.
- Manage Project Budget within the allocated budget.
Projects provide people with a reason from their lives to be happy and fulfilled, to break through challenges and obstacles, and to make their lives worthwhile. Projects are the shock and awe detail of the existence of progress and bring something new into the domain of human experience.
Project managers are people with the innate ability to realize that plans to achieve a particular goal or project benefit people because of their uniqueness. Successful project managers are direct “live” stakeholders in project efforts, they act as direct contributors, who are also the end users of the project product.
Project Planning
Planning is a process where a specific action is specified to bring about something specific; it is the frame or context within which the action is outlined. Planning is more about what and how, than about when or where.
A plan can be marshalled from a Develop problem statement which defines the goals of a project. Once the problem is identified it is then clarified as a project and developed objectives
By definition, projects are defined as endeavors that produce a distinct product that is separate from the problem or challenge that the project addresses. Project objectives establish the way a project or task is to be performed and provide a distinctive, detailed and quantifiable approach to project objectives.
Projects are less about the problem and more about the solution- what tools, groups, or expertise are needed to implement the project and what is the time schedule for completion of the project.
The following purpose of a project plan is:
- To share the specific planning process with those that need to know and those that make decisions about when, where, and how the work will be structured and completed.
- For clarification purposes at the beginning of work to clearly determine the vendors/suppliers and those that have influence on the project activity.
- To conduct a project meeting to express the nature of the anticipated deliverables and to make the specific understanding of responsibility and assigned data: on the part of the team and the direct vendors/suppliers, and on the part of the organization thatvirtual authorityto claim and justify certain areas of project management’s responsibilities.
The project scheduling process:
- Planning the Work Tools that are needed to complete the Work Package.
- Defines the human competencies needed to complete the project and the deliverables. This tool must identify which documentation is needed by the team to complete the work, when it will be needed, and how it will be prepared.
- Identifies and defines a specific sequence of tasks and lead-times.