Top Reasons that Project Management will always be Around

You may be faced with a situation at some time in your career that makes you answer the question “is project management (PM) really necessary?” As a well trained and experienced project manager, you should be in a position to confidently provide the answer in the affirmative, with several reasons to support your answer as you do so. Read on for a closer look at why the approaches and tools of project management will always be around to lead projects to success.

 

Learning

 

As your project comes to a close, you will need to review the different phases and task assignments. You will have to ascertain how successful (and profitable) they were. All the relevant elements of the project will be reviewed and analyzed to identify the areas that need improvements. Additionally, all the successful processes will be benchmarked for implementation in future projects. This learning process includes the documentation of all negative or positive features of the project for future referencing and benefitting future work.

 

Preparation

 

The various uncertainties related to a project can often turn into important issues that require immediate attention. You will have to incorporate effective risk management strategies into your PM framework so that any potential issues are dealt with the proper risk management strategies in place. 

 

Exploration

 

At the initiation stage of any project, assumptions are usually made with respect to the framework and expected processes involved. Well-conceived project management tools help in exploring the expectations and needs of clients, reliable information from varied sources, and all potential constraints. Working along with the approach that ‘assumptions are not enough to lead the project’ ensures its success.

 

Communication

 

Effective communication is the primary key for maintaining control over projects and allowing all stakeholders the opportunity of remaining abreast with problems, developments and successes. PM is always an important component in creating the right communication channels and developing open dialogues for addressing any issues, as and when they arise.

 

Process

 

Utilizing the knowledge driven by premium quality PM courses, software, past experiences and/or a robust project management frameworks lays down the ground for processes that have easily manageable potential errors. The act leads a project towards timely, well-budgeted and successful completion.

 

Critical Path

 

Projects usually involve a series of tasks that come packaged with their own potential issues and challenges. Managers have to identify and take into consideration the critical paths pertaining to these tasks and place them in the best possible optimized order to allow processes to reach their successful completion. 

 

Justification

 

Good project managers use the initiation phase of projects to serve their advantage, while collecting all available information for creating relevant business justification for their case. With the right inputs in place, the case can be adjusted accordingly to be presented to diverse stakeholders for gaining support and buy-in.

 

Team Leadership

 

Leadership is undoubtedly the key skill of any project-manager and is essential for keeping the project team focused on the larger picture. A manager requires the right PM tools to organize various tasks, delegate the same to different members in his/ her team, and lead the same to success. It has to be ensured that every element of the project is well planned, documented and ably completed on time.

 

Delivery

 

Project management focuses on the budget and timescale of projects and explains why a project-manager is important for its successful delivery. In other words, it ensures optimal performance and effective (and timely) completion.

 

Change Management

 

Effective PM creates the right awareness about all those small changes that may skew the project in a risky direction. Having prior knowledge of all ‘scope creeps’ (via benchmarked PM solutions) helps in identifying project risks and adjusting process accordingly, so that potential risks are well counteracted and initial expectations are met with the right strategy in place.

 

With so much and a lot more attributed to project management, the possibilities of it being around for a long time are fairly large—you will surely agree!