Do You Possess the Skills Need to Manage a Project Plan?
Project management can be defined as the process of consolidating the way changes are implemented within a business or organisation. No matter your role, it is likely that you’ll play an active role in managing a project at a point in your career. Having a good understanding of how to juggle multiple tasks, responsibilities, deadlines, and people will allow you to build a reputation for yourself and will improve your chances of promotion.
Many managers face something known as triple constraint. This is the competing demands of scope, quality and time on a project manager’s list of things-to-do and how well he or she will manage these constraints will determine if their project will be successful or not. Without project management, organisations and managers would find themselves having to deal with chaotic and unpredictable environments that they have very little control over. As such, project management is both essential and necessary to the success of any project.
Here, GBS Corporate Training explains the top 8 reasons why project management is important to businesses:
1. Managing Change
Managing changes is a daunting and complex task. Projects are often handled in environments where nothing is constant except for change. Proper project management helps manage change efficiently.
2. Calming the Chaos
The main function of project management in businesses is planning and organising projects to calm the chaos change brings.
3. Managing Risk
Project management pinpoints, mitigates and controls risk. When uncontrolled, risk will usually end up leading to compliance issues and asset destruction.
4. Maintaining Quality
Not managing quality is equivalent to producing things of random value. Project management allows you to identify, control and manage the quality of deliverables.
5. Integrating Projects With Existing Businesses
Integration is one of the main aspects of project value. As projects do not happen in nothingness, it is vital that they are integrated with already existing business structures, systems, and processes.
6. Removing Barriers to Progress and Improving Decision Making
Business initiatives often encounter issues that need to be managed for objectives to be achieved. By implementing project management methodologies, some of these problems can be effectively highlighted, making it easier to manage things hinder that progress while improving decision making.
7. Efficient Knowledge Transfer
Management of projects ensures that project knowledge is recorded, managed and transferred to all relevant areas of business.
8. Mistakes Are Learning Opportunities
Some projects will fail, and when they do, it is crucial that you learn from the process. Allowing yourself to learn from failure is important to quality improvement and business innovation. Project management allows you to learn lessons from both project failure and success.
Project Management Training Options
Managing a project requires a mixture of patience, art and science, especially when it comes to reaching an agreement with a virtual or diverse team consisted of external stakeholders and peers.
The science here consists of planning techniques and the use of logic diagrams, critical path analysis, and network analysis. The art involves getting your project team maintaining communication, working together and influencing others. Patience will require strong interpersonal skills to ensure that conflict does not arise.
While these skills are important for project managers, the interesting thing is that the approaches and tools they need to use can be quite helpful to everyone in an organization. Even the most minuscule tasks can benefit from the use of good project management tool or technique, especially during the first stages of your planning. Project management techniques can be quite useful in the managing and planning of all types of tasks, especially the more complex ones.
Whether you’ve just started understanding project management or have been working as a project manager, you will be glad to know that there are a variety of project management courses that could suit you. Acquiring a project management certificate from the CMI or Chartered Management Institute will allow you to develop essential project management knowledge and skills that should give you the confidence to use the understanding you’ve acquired at your place of work. This will allow you to perform your project management role more successfully and proficiently.
Investing in professional development will also set you apart from the rest as it demonstrates a drive and passion for your career. The variety of Chartered Management Institute certifications available are designed to improve your marketability and performance and should make it possible for you to earn more.