Effective Project Management for Project Success

The Project Management Book of Knowledge, compiled by the Project Management Institute, defines the term as:

“Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.”

In simple words, project management is all about making the project happen. Effective project management however, means making the project successful by meeting project requirements within the stipulated budget and time.

Why Project Management?

A number of factors make project management very important to IT Professionals. However, the entire list can be summed up to one major point i.e. Profitability.

Project is an investment for the organization and all investments must give a profitable return. These business benefits are realized by following a structured project management methodology. To keep a tab on the profitability of a project, the following activities must be performed at different stages of the project:

• At the beginning of a project, calculate the required ROI (Return on Investment).
• During the project, conducting periodic performance reviews. This will help keep track of the project, confirm the project benefits and address gaps in real time.
• At the time of the project closure, get confirmation of acceptance that the project meets the business objectives as set out in the project plan by the stakeholders.

Key Attributes for Making Project Management Effective:

1. Effective communication: I believe that Effective communication plays a major role in successful project management. An effective communication plan must be prepared which includes information regarding who needs what information and when, escalation matrix and communication channels. To make communication effective, communication should be clear, consistent and most importantly honest.
2. Smart Planning: Smart planning provides a smooth path for success right from the start. Smart planning means reliable and realistic time estimates for accurate cost estimates, appropriate resource requirements, clearly defined milestones and deliverables. Good planning keeps project teams focused and on track while keeping the stakeholders aware of project progress.
3. Right Team: It is very important to build a project team with the right set of resources, access to each aspect of the project and ensure that every team member is working together towards the project goal and the larger organization goal. Without the right team in place, any smart plan has the potential of completely failing apart.
4. No Micromanagement: No one wants to be controlled but everyone wants to be guided and appreciated. Hence, as a good project management practice, do not micromanage but lead people. Effective project management requires a balance of left and the right brain, technical and soft skills.
5. Be Agile: In today’s competitive era, where getting more in less time and less cost is becoming the universal mantra, project management practices should be flexible enough to adapt and grab any new opportunities. Being agile will help to respond quickly to customer needs and stay competitive.
6. Change Management as well as scope creep guarding: Managing scope in software management projects is a big challenge. Many project failures are not due to problems with estimation or team skill sets but by the project team working on major and minor deliverables that were not part of the original project definition or business requirements.Many times we do see appropriate change management processes in place. However, I would like to mention that in a proper scope change management process, the change request must be approved by the project sponsor, since he is the only one who can allocate more funds to cover the changes and know if the project impact is acceptable. While often times proper change management process is established, but the scope creep is often not handled or is overlooked. Scope creep is a term used to define a series of small scope changes that are made to the project without using scope-change management procedures. Scope creep means a series of small changes, which does not seem to affect the project individually, but brings about a significant overall impact on a project when accumulated. Therefore, project managers should take it seriously and keep track of scope creep in the project.
7. Proactive Approach: To make project management effective, a proactive approach should be cultivated. There should be plans ready to deal with issues before they occur. Proactive approach in project management is all about doing RFT (Right in First Time), so that no time is wasted in rework, clarifications or apologies for delay.
8. Creating a Win-Win Situation: To create the best possible outcome for your superiors, collogues, subordinates and clients, you have to think about how your actions will impact the “wins” of others as well as yourself. It is actually more challenging to find a win-win situation for everyone. However, when you invest your efforts towards a solution that benefits everyone, you will get more trust, acceptance, increased productivity and overall team synergy.
9. Adequate documentation: Documentation is mostly seen as boring, clerical and unnecessary, but it is an important aspect of project management and can often play a vital role in critical situations. Without proper documentation, project teams may not capture the right functional and technical requirements for a project. Lack of documentation creates confusion, which in turn creates conflicts, delays and cost overruns. Therefore, plans, requirements, project status and major decisions taken over calls/meetings must be documented and kept in safe and secure place. These documents can work as artifacts, evidences at the time of audit or any other conflicts.
10. Appropriate Project Closure: If a project does not get closed appropriately, it can continue to consume resources. Hence, a robust project closure process must be conducted, confirmation of release must be agreed upon and signed off by the stakeholders. Defined closure activities must be conducted without failure.

The list does not end here. There are many other project management areas that are important and critical depending upon specific project requirements. However, these 10 areas are key project management aspects that I feel, are very important for making project management effective. Followed diligently, it can go a long way towards making a project successful.