What is project management?

What is the definition of project management?

Project management is something that helps teams organise, track and perform tasks. What’s the project then? Basically, the project is a set of tasks necessary for achieving a specific goal. It all means that project management can help your team manage tasks in a way that the project requirements are fulfilled on time.

Thanks to project management it becomes possible to organise all the details regarding the project and to have everything under control. With project management, it’s so much easier to exchange information with each other and to share status updates. All of that contributes to successful project management and effective collaboration between team members. It’s worth adding that project management is not something new. Actually, the International Project Management Association was founded over fifty years ago.

What’s the project management process?

The five project management process groups are: planning, initiation, execution, monitoring and closing. Every project needs a concrete PLAN. Unfortunately, according to a survey by the Project Management Institute, just over half of companies realise the importance of project management and planning process.

What’s more, teams need some project management tool which eliminates the need to jump between spreadsheets, e-mails and different programs and applications. By this we mean project management software which would coordinate the cross-functional teams. It would also centralise plans, details, files and feedback.

What are the types of project management methodologies?

There are many project management methodologies, but we would like to explain the most common ones. These are Agile, Cascade model, PRINCE2 methodology, CPM and PERT. What do you need to know about them?

Agile project management

The Agile methodology is the most popular of all methodologies. Agile and the Lean project management allow a more agile (flexible) approach to manage projects. Agile is particularly well-known among product teams, engineering teams and development teams. Those teams focus on flexible response to changes in projects, continuous improvement, iterative approach and gradual development. It’s worth mentioning that Scrum and Kanban are the most often used Agile methodologies.

Cascade model

In the Cascade model, tasks are performed one after another. It means that it’s possible to start a new task only when the previous one is done. There are six stages of the cascade model. These are: defining requirements, analysing, designing, implementing, testing and preserving. This project management methodology will work great in projects in which products remain the same, and that is because this model is definitely less flexible than other methodologies.

PRINCE2 methodology

“PRojects In Controlled Environments” methodology refers to process-based methods for successful project management. How does it look in practice? Project management is carried out with the use of seven processes involving: strategic project management, project preparation, project initiation, stage boundary, stage control, managing product delivery and the project closure.

Critical Path Method (CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

PERT is a project management method developed in the 1950s. This method helps teams to identify the critical path in situations when timeline and time frame are unknown. In the PERT method there are project managers who identify all the tasks that must be performed — they are responsible not only for identifying the critical path, but also for much more. Their goal is to set a reasonable minimum time needed to complete the whole project.
CPM, in turn, is an algorithm thanks to which it’s possible to define the critical path between complex and linked tasks that are defined within a time frame. For instance, teams can easily identify covariate effects due to the CPM method.

What are the main roles in a project team?

There are many people who participate in a given project, performing different roles and carrying out various responsibilities. Who are they, and what are their main roles? Read on.

Project Manager

A project manager is a person who prioritises tasks, distributes duties, determines the direction of the company, monitors schedules, supports the team in resolving conflicts and represents the team. The person is also responsible for:

• the course of the project from start to finish,
• implementation of the project plan,
• determining the methodology,
• monitoring all project management phases,
• preparing schedules of activities,
• analysing potential risks,
• recruiting project staff,
• record-keeping,
• communicating with upper management,
• cooperating with subcontractors

And the list is still not exhaustive.

Project team member

By project team members we mean individuals who work actively on one phase or even more phases of the project. These are usually in-house staff, but they can also be external consultants. Some people work full-time, and others work part-time. Their roles may vary, depending on the project.

Each member of the team has duties as follows: contributing to the project objectives, working towards meeting business needs, providing the know-how etc. Project team members should be excellent communicators with a well-developed self-confidence and a strong ability to read people.

Business analyst

A business analyst is someone who provides a project manager with key information to help the project move forward. Thanks to the business analyst, the project works and ends successfully. The person is responsible for analysing stakeholders — the thing is to find people who will be influenced by the project. Business analysts should know who cannot be overlooked.

The main goal of business analysts is to accurately define business needs. They look for ways to improve the organisation model. At the same time, the analysts are responsible for project documentation — they document business and technical requirements, makes sure that project deliverables are good enough to meet the requirements and tests solutions to validate objectives.

Project sponsor

The role of a project sponsor is pretty often unclear for some people, and it tends to be sometimes confused with the project manager role. The majority of companies carrying out projects don’t even create this position. The project sponsor is someone who supports projects and facilitates the implementation of the activities.

The role is usually performed by a person in upper management, who’s got a personal interest in running a given project. The project sponsor may manage part of the funds for the project. The person is also responsible for defining the scope of responsibilities and documentation, and overseeing feasibility study documents. The most successful projects are ones in which the project sponsor and the project manager work well together, but stay within the boundaries of their roles

.

Executive Sponsor

There is one person higher up the ladder — an executive sponsor. Actually, this person is a high-ranking management member, the champion of the project. They are the ultimate decision-makers. Their job is to approve all phases of the project, project scope changes and deliverables. What is more, executive sponsors provide additional funds when necessary.

What are the benefits of project management?

The biggest benefit of project management is that the project plans are clear and transparent, which significantly simplifies the work. Trying to proceed without a previously prepared plan is pointless and creates chaos. With the right plan everything is explicit, including deadlines.

Clear plans, no misunderstandings

The next benefit is that everybody knows their roles, which eliminates potential misunderstandings. Thanks to the right project management, no one will forget about the details, no one will stop halfway the task and no one will be unsure of who to ask for help.

Well-defined projects, well-defined objectives

We can’t fail to mention that the effectiveness of the team increases with well-defined objectives. Team members are more motivated because they know their correct target, and they avoid unnecessary work. It’s easy for the whole team to stay focused, work efficiently and communicate freely with each other. It can therefore be concluded that effective project management truly empowers project teams.