Project management is the process of ensuring project objectives are met using the application of processes, methods, and skills. More and more companies are investing into project management and are seeing the benefit of it. This results in higher efficiency, lowered costs, and higher client and stakeholder satisfaction, which brings any business at a competitive advantage.
There are five basic phases of project management:
- Project conception and initiation: Examine whether or not it benefits the organization.
- Project defining and planning: Draft out an outline of the project plan and beginning stages of planning by calculating budgets and schedules and what resources are needed.
- Project launch or execution: Responsibilities are delegated and teams are informed.
- Project performance and control: Comparing progress to the outlined plan in phase 2, and adjust schedules accordingly.
- Project close:
The project manager is responsible to ensure quality standards are met in every step before moving on to the next step. This ensures that the project is kept on track every step of the way and will result in a successful implementation of the project.
Project management is increasingly important as projects are separate to usual business activities. Projects usually require people to come together temporarily to focus on project objectives, therefore, effective teamwork is needed to ensure the project is successful. The most important factor from project management is being able to streamline delivery process and cutting costs. If a project has gone sideways, it may cost more to the business to try to fix the issues that have gone wrong which may be avoided in the first place with project management practices in place. As stated in “In State of the PMO 2010”, 84 percent of the 291 project professionals responding stated that their companies have a project management department and has been demonstrating steady growth from 77 percent in 2006 and 47 percent in 2000.
Project management has a proven track record of being beneficial to the success of every project and should be measured by defining the business value of each project in measurable terms for each stage. Being able to put value into measurable terms will help the team focus on the end goals and also indicates to them if they’re on the right track. Value in every project is different, so the goal of the project manager is to identify these values and make them measurable. Examples of measurable values may include factors such as budget or completing the project on time. However, it should be consistent with industry standards and practices. Therefore, project managers should be able to streamline efficiency using their industry knowledge as well as identifying measurable results that are inline with business values.
Nobody knows your business better than you. BAASS Business Solutions works in unison with YOU to achieve your goals on every project and will ensure that your project is effectively managed and therefore ensures its success. Ask BAASS about your project management options on your next project or Contact us today for more information.