Project management is the practice of leading the project work of a team to achieve goals and meet success criteria at a specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals within the given constraints. The primary constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.
The objective of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the client's objectives. Ill-defined or too tightly prescribed project management objectives are detrimental to decision making.
The success of any project depends on how well four key aspects are aligned with the contextual dynamics affecting the project, these are referred to as the four P's –
Plan: The planning and forecasting activities. Process: The overall approach to all activities and project governance. People: Including dynamics of how they collaborate and communicate. Power: Lines of authority, decision-makers, organograms, policies for implementation and the like.
Having structure around project management and knowing how to use the techniques to finish your projects in time comes with innumerable benefits.
Five immediate benefits of Project Management are:
Below are the five Project Life Cycle Stages (Initialisation, Planning, Implementation, Monitor, and Closure) where we determine the right flow and sequence of operations to bring our project to conclusion.
Pre-Project Initialisation Phase: We meet Business stake holders, initially understand business processes, functionalities and later understand basics of requirements to identify the feasibility and our scope of the project.
Initiation Stage: Whenwe decide to undertake the project, we then create a project initiation document (PID). This is the foundation of our project and a critical reference point for the next stages. Key components of our PID includes:
Project definition and planning: At this stage, we define the project scope, and develop a project plan and work breakdown schedule. This involves identifying:
Project launch and implementation: During this phase, we will carry out the tasks and activities from our project plan to produce the project deliverables. Project managers direct this work by:
Careful monitoring and control at this stage can help us keep the project plan on track. We can use a range of tools and processes to help client to manage things like time, cost, quality and risks, or to communicate progress and manage customer acceptance.
Project monitoring and control: During this time, we adjust schedules and resources to ensure that our project remains on track. We measure the performance and set targets.
We use key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine if our project is on track. Things we measure include:
Project close: During this last phase, we complete our work and dissolve the project. Closure does not necessarily mean success, but simply the final point of the project.
Project closure often involves things like:
After closure, we carry out a post-implementation project review (sometimes referred to as a 'post mortem' meeting). This is an opportunity to evaluate what went well and what didn't. Understanding failures, if there were any, can help us learn lessons and improve the way our carry out future projects.
Post-closure of Project: Once project has been completed success fully, again we meet business management and find the future project opportunities (like starting discussions about Post Production Support once Project Development has been completed). Optionally sometimes, discussions will be started bit earlier during the project development phases itself, based on how the project work is in progress. This will help business, to continue their operations smoothly after the project completion, instead of searching for the other Solution provides.
