10 Things You Need to Learn
From Successful Project Managementby Elaine Ee Lee
To be successful in project management is not difficult, the most
important facts are to make sure the key items and things which would
highly caused the failing of a project to be well taken care of, by
designated leads, with great prioritization and attention,
1. All project deliverables and project activities must be visualized and
communicated in vivid detail. - In short, the project manager and project
team have the same focus in the same direction by knowing what are the
priorities and expectation for the project . Avoid vague descriptions at
all costs.
2. Project managers must focus on the three dimensions of project success
- which means to complete all project deliverables on time, within budget,
and within agreeable level of quality as defined by and to sponsors and
stakeholders. The project manager must keep the team's attention focused
on achieving these broad goals.
3. Top management must actively set priorities. - In today's world , it is
common for project team members to play active roles in many projects at
the same time. Ultimately, there comes a time when resources are stretched
to their limits . - In response, some organizations have established a
Project management Office to act as a clearinghouse for projects requests.
The Project Office reviews the organization's overall mission and
strategies, establishes criteria for project selection and funding,
monitors resource workloads, and determines which projects are of high
priority to be approved, to prevent multi-project log jams
4. Successful projects work great with a proven time tested project life
cycle tool - Models such as the standard ISD model helps to tailor in
professional standards and best practices into our project plans. These
models support quality and help reduce rework as much as possible.
5. Project managers must enforce on-time management and sense of urgency.
- Because every projects are finite endeavors with limited time, money,
and other resources available, they must be kept moving toward completion.
It's up to the project manager to keep their team focusing on project
deliverables and deadlines. Regular status checks, meetings, and reminders
are essential and cannot do without.
6. Project manager responsibility must be matched by equivalent authority.
- Project managers must obtain equivalent authority to execute their
responsibilities to drive the success of any projects. Specifically,
managers must have the authority to acquire and coordinate resources, set
expectations, give instructions, set priorities, and resolve any disputes
in the team. He is also authorized to make appropriate, binding decisions
which would have major impact on the success of any project.
7. A good manager is a good communicator. If you have an aptitude for
management, you have the Midas touch of great interpersonal skills,
eliciting others hidden strength and skill sets, and to work with you to
obtain the best results for any projects or initiatives. Good
communication skills can infect everyone, and the management point of view
is a great way to manage "up"-building lines of communication with the
people over whom you have no power.
8. Good management of resource allocation: how to juggle Good (quality),
Cheap (money and other tangible resources) and Fast (deadlines and
perceived convenience) when coordinating a project. - Each project
resources allocate and has an agreed upon ratio on these three resources.
- This ratio is sometimes called the expectations of the project. If there
are any issues with any one of these resources, alert the upper management
about the problem as early as possible and also you need to be able to
suggest alternatives to the management that will either solve the problem
or minimize it. These other alternatives may propose the use of additional
resources beyond the current budget, or as the final resort, they may even
review and propose a change in the objective which make it more
achievable.
9. A good project manager listen and empathy: This is the integral part of
communication. One need to be able to listen and understand what's going
on. Empathy is the softer side of listening and truth. You should be able
to understand how people feel, why they feel that way, and what you can do
to make them feel differently. Empathy is especially important when you're
dealing with your customers as this makes them come back for your service.
10. Division of Work. This is an activity of breaking down large tasks
into sub-tasks which are easier to get managed. These sub-tasks can be
assigned to a larger groups of individual employees. Ideally you want to
figure out how to accomplish a large objective by dividing the work up
into manageable pieces. However you also need to provide careful attention
to the interdependencies among each division and to carefully assess each
employee's strengths and weaknesses to the best possible way.
For more information about project management and steps and
project management skills, visit ProjectManagerAdvice.com
