Posted by The idea of a successful project comes from the right project management approach and seamless team collaboration. But the question is, how to balance all key project management steps at a time? How to tackle complex and large projects in the right direction? Is the allocation of required resources enough to complete a project? I believe, project completion depends upon multiple factors that you cannot ignore.
For project managers, it is the biggest challenge to manage all the project related tasks and meet all the specifications at a time. It becomes a struggle for them to keep track of every project without using any project planning app and due to this they sometimes lose control over some tasks. The mismanagement of the project may cause severe damage to the company’s reputation and cause project delays.
Essential Project Management Functions
- Project Planning – Be able to easily plan projects while taking previous track record into account.
- Tracking project evolution when it comes to completion, time and costs – Warn the right people when things are veering off track.
- Scheduling and Time Management – Be able to easily register time on work items and take people’s work schedule into account.
- Resource allocation – Making sure that people are working on the right things at the right time.
- Project budgets, incl. costs of people – Keeping real-time check of not only time but also allotted budget.
- Communication and Collaboration – Easily post comments and concerns, communicate with external stakeholders, all while keeping a full historic record of all actions.
Why Is Project Management Important?
1) Strategic Alignment – Project management is important because it ensures what is being delivered, is right, and will deliver real value against the business opportunity. Every client has strategic goals and the projects that we do for them advance those goals. Project management is important because part of a PM’s duties is to ensure there’s rigor in architecting projects properly so that they fit well within the broader context of our client’s strategic frameworks. Good project management ensures that the goals of projects closely align with the strategic goals of the business. In identifying a solid business case, and being methodical about calculating ROI, project management is important because it can help to ensure the right thing is delivered, that’s going to deliver real value
2) Clear focus and objective – Without effective project management, teams might start working on a project without even clearly defining the project plan. When team members understand the focus and objectives, a project progresses without any confusion or chaos. The half of the battle is already won if you begin a project the right way.
3) Make better business decisions – With clearer records of how your project is progressing, you get a deeper understanding of where your resources are being spent, what you need to prioritize and when, and if you’re at risk of going off track. Good project management means that you can forecast issues before they become issues, prevent bottlenecks, and make smarter, data-driven decisions.
4) Keep teams accountable – Team productivity depends upon the responsibility of every individual. By working on a single project management platform, the team will be aware of their assigned task, deadline, and their progress to meet the project objective.
5) Balanced resource management – Seasoned project managers know that to deliver projects successfully, they’ll need an effective resource management strategy to keep their teams in a tip-top shape without overbooking them with work or vice versa. The importance of resource planning should not be underestimated, as it encourages healthier standards of work. Project and resource management tools have the best features to spot resource bottlenecks and insights when to bring more people onto the team, like the following heat map that provides visibility into the workloads of the entire portfolio of resources.
Project management creates and enables happy, motivated teams who know their work matters, so do their best work. And that project management enabled team ensures the right stuff is delivered; stuff that delivers real return on investment, and that makes happy clients.