Sunday, June 26, 2016

Basic Information Related To Project Management

By Carol Phillips


Proper planning is a requirement if any project is to be completed successfully. Project management is a process in which a manager ensures which a certain task is accomplished in the specified time and within the available budgetary constraints. A good deal of knowledge and skills is required for one to be a successful project manager. In this article, we will have a look at some of the important aspects of this process Salem city businesses need to know of.

A project manager plays the vital role of mobilizing people and resources so as to achieve various objectives. They have to ensure that team work is achieved among the stakeholders involved in the assignment. The role is slightly different from that of an ordinary manager running a business since the latter instance is a continuous process. There are different types of management styles that can be adopted depending on the complexity of the assignment.

The first thing that the manager needs to do is to come up with their own objectives that are in line with the desires of their client. Such objectives can be expressed as outputs (such as a new sewage treatment plant in a certain municipality), outcomes (such as reducing the amount of untreated sewage being released into water bodies) and benefits (less environmental degradation in this case).

Other than the formulation of specific objective, the manager needs to ensure that a number of other things are on track before they take off. Among them is the documentation of requirements that will be needed for the whole assignment. Such will include the quality of deliverables, the estimated resources and the time schedules. The budget should also be prepared early and the source of funding identified.

Projects are likely to involve a large number of stakeholders. As a result, conflicts are a common occurrence. Proper communication should be adopted to reduce such conflicts. It is the role of a manager to make sure that communication occurs both horizontally and vertically. The communication may be formal or informal.

Regular monitoring will be required to make sure that everything remains on tract. Adjustments are at times needed with regard to the timescales and the budgetary allocation due to unforeseen challenges. Controlling is a function of management that ensures that mitigation actions are undertaken to reduce the impact of such challenges on the overall assignment.

The final stage is known as closure. It involves the handing over of the complete project to the client. The client may accept it right away or may request for some modifications. The importance of this stage to the management team is that it acts as a learning opportunity. Failures should be avoided and success replicated in future tasks.

There are a number of benefits that will be realized by hiring a project manager. The most important is the fact that, the likelihood of completing the assignment is very high. Additionally, the completion will be done using the resources allocated at the beginning or very few adjustments have to be made. Such a manager helps link up all the stakeholders which in turn helps reduce the chances of disagreements.




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