Basic Principles of Project Management

Projects are essential aspects of life and work. A business that is not up to date with the latest from its competitors will never shut down. Therefore, it is necessary to be organized and efficient in your business tasks, as well as in your projects. Some simple principles for project management can improve a lot on their efficiency.

About Project Management

The primary purpose of project management is to deliver the desired benefits efficiently, cost-effectively, and timely manner. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.

Projects are temporary endeavors to create unique products, services, or results. A project has a defined start and end point. It often has a budget, deadline, and a list of objectives that must be completed by its end date. Projects can vary in size from small projects with budgets under $10,000 to large projects with budgets over $100 million.

Project managers play many different roles throughout their careers depending on their experience level and the type of organization they work for or with. For example, project managers may be responsible for managing one project or multiple projects at once. They may also have additional responsibilities, such as supervising staff members or managing budgets within their organizations.

Defining a Project

The first step in planning a project is to define what the project is straightforward. What are you trying to accomplish? What will be the goal of your project? An excellent way to describe your project is by using SMART objectives. The acronym SMART stands for:

Specific - your objective is clearly defined and precise.

Measurable - some metrics or measurements can be used to determine whether your objective has been achieved.

Assignable - someone is accountable for achieving the objective, and some steps can be taken to help them achieve it.

Realistic - the resources necessary to achieve the objective are available or can be obtained at an acceptable cost or within an acceptable timeframe (if they aren't readily available).

Timed - there is a deadline by which you want this objective completed.

Structuring the Project

Structure the project means identifying all the tasks that need to be completed, how they fit together, and in what order they should be done. It would be best if you also decided how many people are required to complete each task and how long it will take them to do it.

Using these figures, you can start scheduling your deadlines for each task and putting them into an overall schedule for the project. Of course, everything must fit together smoothly so that one job doesn't depend on another being finished first — this would cause delays that could affect the outcome of your project.

Clear Goals

The project manager is responsible for ensuring all project goals are met. To ensure that you can meet your goals, you should use the SMART paradigm (specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-bound) to define each. This way, you will have a much easier time managing your projects and keeping everything organized.

Managing the Project Disturbance

Project management is about people and relationships, but it also requires a certain amount of discipline. One of the most challenging things to do in project management is deal with the inevitable project disruptions. However, it's essential to deal with these disruptions in a way that doesn't impact your team and your project.

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a project or lose focus on what's happening around you. When this happens, it's easy to forget about dealing with the various issues that come up as part of any project.

You can do two things when you find yourself distracted during your work: put down the work and focus on managing the disruption instead, or continue working on your project but manage your time so you don't let those distractions distract you for too long.

Risk Management

As well as managing the project, it's essential to understand and manage risk. Risk management involves identifying potential problems and developing strategies for dealing with them before they happen. Project managers should be aware of internal and external threats that could affect their projects, such as financial constraints or poor communication between team members.

Project Deliverables

Project deliverables are the output of a project. They are usually written documents, such as an e-mail, reports, or presentations.

In project management, the purpose of deliverables is to document and communicate the results of a project. The main types of deliverables include:

Documents - reports, presentations, and web pages that explain the work done by an individual team member or group of people on a particular project.

Presentations - handouts explain a study, analysis, or review results.

Reports - factual summaries with supporting information written clearly, and concisely describing what was learned from an event or activity.

Evaluations - written assessments of individual team members' performance during an event or activity to reflect their contributions to team success.

Create a Communication Plan

A communication plan is a structured approach to communicating with stakeholders. It outlines how you will share with your team, customers, and others throughout your project. The purpose is to ensure that everyone knows what needs to be done, who should do it, and when it needs to be done.

A communication plan includes:

Who? A list of team members who are responsible for communicating with each stakeholder. This will help ensure that everyone has the information they need when they need it.

What? An outline of how often and in what format you will communicate with each stakeholder. For example, suppose someone is responsible for communicating directly with a customer. In that case, they should be included in the schedule for these conversations. Suppose there are multiple people responsible for this. In that case, each member should be included separately (in case one person misses a scheduled call).

When? A timeline for when each communication must take place (if applicable). This may include deadlines for meetings or other important events such as product launches or deadlines for payment from customers.

How? Information about how contact information can be shared with other parties involved in the project (in case someone gets lost in the shuffle).

Be Transparent

You don't have to be a perfectionist by nature to have this skill, but it's essential to be consistent in your approach.

Be transparent in project management. This doesn't mean you should share every detail of the work with your team members — that would be a waste of time and resources. But it does mean that you need to let them know when you're about to embark on a new project and what the expected milestones are. Also, be open about how long it will take for you to complete the work (and why).

Just as necessary is having an honest discussion about what went well and what didn't — and why. Again, this isn't about sharing every detail with everyone on your team but communicating what worked well, what didn't work well, and why it was important for everyone on your team to understand those things before moving forward with the next project or task.

Conclusion

As you have seen, there are many essential principles to project management (after all, there are whole books devoted to the topic!). If you follow even a few of these principles, however, you will likely be better off than if you had not. The most important thing is to know where to start. Project management concepts include tracking multiple tiers of scheduling, budgeting and dealing with risks, and meeting performance expectations. You can count on success if you remain focused on these goals throughout your project.