Quite a large part of modern business in Ukraine, Europe and around the world is project-oriented. For example, in Ukraine, this share is already approaching 50%. This is due to the fact that more and more companies are focused on creating fundamentally new products and services, on achieving new results in many well-known areas.
Thus, the success of the company depends on the ability to implement the project. In this regard, project management becomes a relevant and important topic for managers of any level. So let's understand!
What is project management?
Projects are an integral part of the real life of any organization, because each company has its own development strategy and goals, which are formed into separate projects. However, it is important to understand the difference between projects and daily activities in the organization.
Firstly, each project has its own unique goal and time limits for its achievement. As for daily activities, their goals and deadlines are repeated.
Secondly, the project tends to end when the goal is achieved. Daily activities have an endless nature and their purpose is to maintain the normal flow of business.
Project management is something that helps to quickly and efficiently achieve the set goals, forming a whole system of complexes that can be used to achieve the overall goals of the company, as well as developing a scheme for the reasonable allocation of resources.
What does it include?
The project management system includes a number of sequential actions:
- definition and formation of project requirements
- formation of clear and understandable goals
- establishment and implementation of communication between the parties involved in the project
- settlement of restrictions: budget, resources, risks, deadlines, quality
- communication with the team: taking into account their needs/wishes/expectations and adjusting existing plans in accordance with the received materials.
Also all these actions can be divided into some other stages: project initiation, planning, execution, control and completion. Due to careful planning, organization of tasks and project components, provision of necessary resources and control of the chosen strategy, there is a prospect of achieving the goal.
Initiation – the start of the project, a certain acquaintance with it. At this stage, the essence and goals of the project are determined, and the team that will work on it is formed.
Planning is the most important part in project management. According to statistics, planning takes about 50% of the total time in the process of project implementation. During this stage, all the actions that the team must take to achieve a given goal are carefully prescribed. For convenience, the project is first divided into parts and a set of small tasks is carried out. Thus, a certain “work schedule” is created, in which deadlines for each of the tasks are prescribed, and a list of necessary resources is worked out. Also, since new nuances and subtasks may appear in the process of work, the planning stage includes periodic adjustments.
Execution and control. The ideal picture of the project management system looks like this: set a task, do it, control it, make the necessary adjustments to the plan, set a new task and then repeat cyclically. At the stage of execution, certain tools are usually used to facilitate the flow of processes: delegation, time management or crossing out cases. And remember that this stage should be alternated with the previous one.
Completion of the project. At this stage, a control check of the work done is made and the original data, instructions and regulations used are necessarily saved. This is necessary in the case when a new person appears in the team so that they can understand what and how were done before them and can quickly join the workflow.
