Becoming Better Project Manager

Before starting to this journey , I'm going to start with one brilliant sentences.

“Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.” ~ Joy Gumz

As long term project manager , I’m going to share my experiences and knowledge with who needs those kind of information.

I’m starting with the general cycle and processes of Project Life.

Before starting the learning path , always remember below sentence in your project journey.

“Project is Project” It means that whatever you do in your private life or business environment , each target contains project cycle and rules. So that If you follow those methods and techniques , you will catch your targets easily and successfully.

Project Life Cycle and Processes

I - P - E - M - C

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing

I will start directly Planning Phase , Because Initiating start with planning.

Project Planning ;

To find correct answers about planning period of project , we can ask below questions to us.

• What are we going to do ?
• How are we going to do it ?
• How will we know when we’re done ?
• What problem are you solving ?
• How are you going to solve this problem ?

Project Executing ;

• During executing period , you should below task for succesfully beginning
• Launch the project
• Acquire project team
• Develop and manage project team
• Explain project guidelines
• Clarify this question in your mind “What is main role of Project Manager ?” with below main roles.
• Managing the Project Team

Project Monitoring and controlling ;

• Report performance
• Control schedule
• Time management
• Control Costs as Actual Costs and Baseline Costs

Closing the project with report ;

At the end of all projects , I recommend to do below tasks for project managers.

Celebrating of Projects ;

Celebrations is one of most important thing during projects but we usually pass this and don't see this important.

I can honestly say that do something with team and celebrate project together. You'll see advantages of this in your next projects. Becuase celebration will provide you good and strong communication with members of team and stakeholders.

Celebration Techniques ;

If you have enough budget from your project, I highly recommend you to go for Dinner with Customer and also Internal Stakeholders separately.

If you don't have budget , doesn't matter , you can drink beer in the pub or eat marshmallow in the office.

Finally , You should write an celebration and thanks e-mails to all stakeholders as well.

Don't forget , If project finishes unsuccesfully , You have to organise something again , believe me this will provide to find weakness and reason of fail.

Lessons Learned ;

Sharing template of "Lessons Learned" with internal stakeholders

At the end of project , you should measure your and stakeholders outputs and performance about project.

To do this , I highly recommend you to request "lessons learned" reports from your internal stakeholders. Don't forget to share outputs of lessons learned reports with them for next project.

"Each person can make mistake , important thing is that don't repeat your mistake again. "

Lessons learned outputs will provide learning from your mistakes.

Congrats , You’ve been started your project within point of view of professional project manager.

I want to finish my this articles with one of my favourite sentences.

“Project management is like juggling three balls – time, cost and quality. Program management is like a troupe of circus performers standing in a circle, each juggling three balls and swapping balls from time to time.” ~ G. Reiss

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