TOP 10 Project Management best practices

TOP 10 Project Management best practices

Projects play a significant role in determining the overall success of an organization. The success of a project depends on how effectively a project manager, plan, execute monitor and control the project. This is necessary for the project to be completed within the specified timeframe and allocated budget.

In addition to technical skills, a project manager must possess excellent management and leadership skills to ensure better, faster and more efficient results. Following are the critical areas that all managers have to keep in mind to ensure the success of their project:

1. Defining scope and objectives
2. Specifying Budget
3. Planning the project effectively
4. Proper communication channel
5. Create a resource plan
6. Set realistic milestones
7. Keep a change management plan ready
8. Tracking and monitoring project progress
9. Good reporting mechanism
10. Keep proper documentation

Defining scope and objectives

The first step of a project manager is to identify the project's objective. Based on identified objectives, the project manager defines the project's scope. The project scope outlines the work that needs to be performed by the project team members. The project scope clearly defines the roles and responsibilities of the team members. After determining the scope and objectives of the project, the project manager must get official approval for it from the stakeholders or sponsors of the project.

Specifying Budget

The other thing project managers must keep track of is the allocated budget for the project. The project managers must ensure that the project is completed within the allocated task. Suppose, at any given point, the project manager feels that the allocated budget is insufficient. In that case, they have to report this issue to the stakeholders and top tier management officials.

Planning the project effectively

This is the most crucial part of project management. To develop an effective project plan, the project managers must divide the project into different phases, and it should clearly state the list of activities performed by team members. During the project planning phase, it is crucial that the project manager specifies the period for each activity assigned to each team member and have milestones.

Proper Communication Channel

Communication is the critical factor in determining the success of a project. Project planning will be of no use if a proper communication channel is not defined. A suitable communication mechanism will ensure that the information is passed appropriately to all team members and stakeholders. Otherwise, the project will fail due to a communication gap between team members and stakeholders.

Create a resource plan

Effective resource management is necessary because a project manager will have to handle multiple projects simultaneously. For the smooth progress of a project, project manager must create a resource plan. The resource plan gives an overview of all the available resources and where they are being utilized. Resource plan must show how your resources are allocated and their availability in a clear and understandable format.

Set realistic milestones

Some project managers set unrealistic project milestones and agree on deadlines or features that are almost impossible to achieve. Sometimes, clients push for quicker completion, and the manager accedes to pressure. Nevertheless, the project and the team working on it suffer. You might be able to pull it off and deliver on time by having multiple caffeine-induced working nights in a week, but that is counterproductive. Exhaustion significantly affects the overall quality of the final product and has a severe impact on the team's morale, and demotivates them. Realizing the limits of team management and sometimes standing up to the clients is a practice effective project managers adopt.

Keep a change management plan ready

The scope of your project can be changed, and experienced project managers always have some change management plan ready. Sometimes, the slightest change requests combine to become a massive headache for the team, and in the end, the project spirals out of control. This is called scope creep, a colossal challenge that affected more than 50 per cent of the projects in 2018. It is project management practice to document every change request from the clients.

Tracking and monitoring project progress

Keeping track of the project progress must be at the top of the list when it comes to the best project management practices. The project manager has to regularly monitor the project status by conducting team meetings. The project manager must note all the variations between the actual and planned schedule. The project managers have to report the variances to their superior officers and the stakeholders. The project manager must ensure that the gap between the proposed schedule and the project progress doesn't widen up and take corrective measures to fix the issue.

Keep proper documentation

Good project managers always maintain a detailed project log where every decision is explained. With proper documentation, you can quickly get any new members up to speed in a short time. One can also refer to the project record if they later run into a similar problem. However, it would help if you stay alert. Many project managers start to focus too much on ensuring proper documentation, which makes them lose sight of their actual project objective.

Conclusion

The best practices that a project manager must follow are listed above to ensure that the project is completed and delivered within the specified time frame and the budget. Though these best practices do not guarantee that the project will be a hundred per cent successful, there is a better chance of success by following these practices.