Once you understand the project’s success criteria and constraints, it’s important not to make assumptions about how the project should unfold. Return to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) to inform your project before developing your plan.
Armed with the knowledge you’ve gathered thus far, you can begin to craft the documents that will ultimately guide your project. Two of the most important of these include: A project plan, which is a formal document designed to guide a project’s execution.
Typically, “success” means the project is completed on (or under) budget, on schedule, within the designated scope, and results in high-quality deliverables. “Based on these factors, the project manager can then define the project’s critical success factors—meaning, what must go right for the project to be successful,” Emerson says.
Effective project management is part art, part science, requiring project managers to tailor their approach to the unique needs of their current project. Regardless of the specific methodology or framework that you prefer, though, there are several strategies you can use to inform and guide your project.
5 Strategies to Guide Your Project. 1. Understand what success means to the project. A project manager has many different responsibilities that fall into the different phases, or processes, of the project life cycle: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. It is through each of these phases ...
Two of the most important of these include: A project scope statement, which will provide a detailed description of the work necessary to deliver the project on schedule and within budget. A project plan, which is a formal document designed to guide a project’s execution.
Risk: Processes to identify, analyze, plan for, and manage risk on a project. Human Resources: Processes that organize, manage, and lead the project team. Stakeholder Management: Processes required to identify, analyze, and effectively manage stakeholders and their expectations in project decisions and execution.
This knowledge includes 10 key areas, including: 1 Scope: Processes required to ensure all the work—and only the work necessary to complete the project successfully—is included in the project plan 2 Time: Processes required to manage timely completion of the project 3 Cost: Processes involved to plan, manage, and control costs so that the project is within its approved budget 4 Risk: Processes to identify, analyze, plan for, and manage risk on a project 5 Human Resources: Processes that organize, manage, and lead the project team 6 Stakeholder Management: Processes required to identify, analyze, and effectively manage stakeholders and their expectations in project decisions and execution 7 Communications: Processes required to ensure timely and appropriate communication of project information 8 Quality: Processes and activities to ensure the project satisfies the needs for why it was undertaken 9 Procurement: Processes needed to acquire products, services, and results from outside the project team and organization 10 Integration: Processes and activities to coordinate across the nine other knowledge areas
Ultimately, there is no single project management strategy or approach which is guaranteed to be completely effective for every project you manage. Each project will require a unique strategy, and it’s up to the project manager to analyze the project’s requirements and craft the strategy which will best fulfill those needs.
Stay flexible. Even after the project has officially kicked off, Emerson notes that it’s important to remember that a project plan is not a static document. It should be a living document that, while providing guardrails for the project, also has the ability to evolve to meet the emerging needs of the project.
The project manager manages the team to stay within scope and schedule and budget. And the functional manager will make decisions as to who does the work and how that work is to be accomplished. In a strong matrix, the project manager has much more responsibility and authority.
In a weak matrix, the functional manager is in charge and he or she will probably have the assistance of a coordinator. The project coordinator will help maintain the schedule and the status and assist the functional manager, but the coordinator, not gonna have any decision making responsibility.
As a project manager, you oversee the success of the project. You are using your knowledge and skills, combined with project management tools and techniques, to ensure that project objectives are met. You are the one who is responsible for defining that special event or that payroll system or implementation.
A constraint is a factor which might place limitations or restrictions on what you do or how you do it or when you do it. For example, if your project is a party or an event and it has to occur on a specific date, that is a constraint.
It was held on a specific date and time. That means it was unique, temporary, and had a defined beginning and end, and created a specific product or service.
The Matrix Organizations work well when team members are going to be assigned to a combination of multiple projects and also other work. And in a matrix, team members could be assigned to quite a few projects. In a matrix situation, you as the project manager, most likely you're running multiple projects.
It has a defined beginning and end. And the purpose of the project is to create a specific product or service or to make changes to a specific product or service. Let's consider some examples. If you have ever planned a large party or an event, that is a project.