Practical Points for Successful Project Management
Today I would like to blog about some points to follow in order to increase your chances of managing projects with a successful outcome. An Australian based company called Goal Group shares ten practical points that can help project managers and companies around the world.
1. Clear goals and/ or objectives
Make sure the goals you set for your projects are clear and well-defined. In fact, one approach I can recommend is to apply the SMART method.
2. Support from senior management
It is important that the senior management within your company is not only aware of your projects, but also supports and believes in the projects you are currently vouching for me. The senior management can mobilize and allocate the necessary resources and urgency you might need for your projects. So, definitely have them be on your side.
3. Adequate funds and/or resources
Make sure you put into perspective how much funds will be at your disposal and how much resources you will need for every project you’ll be executing. The more accurate these are calculated, the better you will be at making decisions on which projects to do or not to.
4. Realistic schedule
In this day and age, everything needs to be done and delivered as soon as possible. Due to the rapid changes in the market, companies and their management teams are tempted to promise new features and deliverables to clients in the least amount of time. Often times, unrealistic deadlines are set, effectively stressing everyone involved. By calculating and making more realistic deadlines, not only will your team work effectively, but quality will remain high and nobody needs to cut dangerous corners to deliver on time.
5. End user commitment
When realizing a project, its important to involve the end user as early as possible as they will be able to lead your project in the right direction based on their real world usage of the flow or problem you are aiming to fix or improve.
6. Effective leadership and conflict resolution
Its not just about typing the right documents, having a certain amount of meetings and finding the right people for the job is important. Strong leadership and communication skills are essential to manage and advocate running projects. When there’s conflict between stakeholders, it’s important to have someone that bring people together again and work towards some common ground within the context of the projects.
7. Flexible approach to change
As I mentioned earlier, the market changes rapidly. The wishes of clients or customers also change in an increasing rate. That’s why its also important to have a certain amount of flexibility within your project management execution process. Applying the Agile/Scrum methodology within your projects can help you become more flexible.
8. Clear communication channels
Communicate, communicate and communicate. This is an another important aspect of project management, as everybody needs to be aware of the progress of a project and everyone needs to be able to know how they contribute to the projects. That’s why its important to have a centralized collaboration software platform, of which every stakeholder has access to, in order to work with others and stay up to date. Jira, Confluence, Slack, just name a few are great online collaboration tools with multiple communication channels that help you communicate changes in a clear manner.
9. Taking account of past experience
When a project is over, it’s imperative to do a retrospective or reflection on how the whole project execution process went. Make sure that process is analyzed with a certain depth so that lessons can be learned and in so doing, help your organization execute more effective projects in the future based on the things learned from previous projects that were successful or failed.
10. Effective management of risk
Putting risks in perspective that might affect a project is also an important activity when managing projects. Having a clear overview of potential risks, or a plan that would identify the risks, can be beneficial to managing your projects as you’ll be better prepared to steer your projects away from hazard or other obstacles you might encounter along the way.
So those are 10 points that can help you and your organization to have more successful projects.
Thanks for reading!