Top 7 Principles of Project Management

Managing is an essential step in any administration process. Management involves complex work as the outcome is to produce products or services as per the requirement of the customer. Therefore it is called an art and every person must understand few basic principles to handle any work. 

Project management certification training will cover the following topics in detail. A gist is explained for your reference below. 

1. What does a project manager do

Fundamentals of the project management begin with the project manager (PM). He has the responsibility in the entire project life cycle. 

• Initiation
• Planning
• Execution
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closure

The project manager certificate online course will explain the duties of a project manager with practical examples. 

2. What is Definition phase

In this phase, the requirements that are required for the results are specified. This involves the results as well as the stakeholder’s expectations concerning the project and its management. There are various types of expectations and requirements as listed below. 

• Preconditions - This defines the conditions of the customer before the start of the projects. Example approval requirements, working conditions requirements, etc. 
• Functional Requirements - These are generally the product quality that is required for the functioning of the products. For example how many rooms the building must have or how energy efficient the automobile must be etc.
• Operational Requirements - These are generally about the use of the project. For example - the software must run without malfunction up to 90% of the time, etc.
• Design Limitations - It is the actual results of the project such as the use of the toxic materials must be restricted etc.

In the definition phase, the collaboration between the various parties including the customer and also the users who will use them to test them are important.

3. Project status and its lucidity 

The benefits of providing clearness include. 

• Performance and responsibility - Members perform better and be accountable for their actions when they have transparency in the projects. They know that their actions will impact the whole projects and other colleagues' work.
• Eliminates the wrong direction in projects - The members become accountable for their work and thus the project manager is clear of the status of the project, the progress made and issues are addressed then and there itself when the issues arise. 
• Teamwork enhancement - The effect of transparency is that each member understands the various tasks and its relationships, with effective communication it is possible to fix the issues when it arises and all the team members are aware of their duties in the team.

4. How to make Clear goals

The goals are the most important parts and fundamentals of project management concepts. Without having a monitoring system to focus on the goals of the project the project would not meet the requirements. The goals must be stated clearly and communicated among the members so that everyone in the team is aware of the goals.

• Typically start the description of the goals with a ‘verb’ such as develop, utilize, implement and establish, etc.
• Then comes the ‘focus’ of the goal, what the goal is telling us to do to achieve the goal.
• Then comes the ‘target’, it may be numerical such as percentage, range, and the amount that are 5% or 20 to 30 or Rupees 50,000, etc.
• Finally, you must have a definite ‘deadline’ to the goals such as by January 31st, 2024, etc

An example of the above four parameters in making the goals will look something like this. Increase production by 20% by January 31st, 2024. Where the word increase is the verb, the word production is the focus, the target is 20% and the deadline is January 31st, 2024.

5. Project management objectives – Recognize the risk 

No matter how securely and smartly we plan, the projects are going to have risks. The risks are nothing but the uncertainty in the projects that have a negative impact on a certain probability of occurrence. The risks can be treated in the following 6 ways namely Accept, Mitigate, Avoid, Transfer, Share, and Plan for business continuity. The project management addresses risks by identifying, classifying, assessing, treating, managing, and controlling the risks. At the minimum, the project management risks must have a Risk Management approach and the risk register. 

6. Structure – One of the key project management basics

The business organization structure for any organization is the process in which roles and responsibilities are assigned and hierarchy is formed from the top management to the lowest level staff all of whom work for the completion of the project. There are 4 types of organizations structure those are as follows, 

a) Functional - In this type of structure the organization is divided into functional lines such as Sales, Production, HR, Quality, etc. The functional managers are assigned the project tasks and work along with other functional, regular, and roles, etc. Here in this structure, the PMs do not have the authority to manage budget and schedules and obtain the resources. They have to rely on the divisional managers for these things as the organizational structures are based on the provision of divisional duties rather than the project deliverables itself.

b) Project - Everything is project-oriented and the PM managing the project have the authority to schedule the project, obtain resources, and do the budgeting for the individual projects. 

c) Matrix - In this type of structure it is typically hybrid, in the sense the functional management or the departments allocate. The PM once assigned the duties is relieved from the functional duties. Thus the high priority is put on the project management and at the same time maintaining the functional divisions. There are types of classification in the matrix structure that is a weak matrix wherein the functional managers do the project instead of having a separate project team. Whereas in the strong matrix type along with functional managers there is a separate arm for project management duties which is lead by the PM. 

d) Composite - In this type both the functional and project-oriented division can be maintained with equal importance side by side. Both the divisions report to the chief executive officer of the organization.

7. Ways to manage disturbances in project

There are various types of project issues such as major problem, situational issue, an issue concern, and an opportunity. This needs to be addressed on a timely basis and in a prompt manner.

There are 8 steps to manage the issues they are as follows,

• Creation of Issue Register
• Prompt reporting
• Early reporting
• Logging the issues in the issue register
• Take actions on the issues
• Monitor the progress of the project
• Assess the impact of the issues and its resolution
• Get the approval for the resolution

PMP Certification

Training

Delivered by PMI® Authorized Training Partner

View course

 

Conclusion - How do we define a project success

Project success is defined as a project that meets the success criteria and objective. For this, the success criteria must be defined from the beginning of the project. There are 3 levels of project success, they are as follows,

Project completion - This success defines the criteria for which the project process of delivering the project is successful.

Results success - This defines the success of the final deliverables that is the products or services to the customers.

Development success - This defines the levels by which the project completed brings benefits to the project sponsor or the board

Now that you know the concepts of project management to know more and read other blogs of StarAgile click on the links provided. What are you waiting for? 

To explore and register for the pmp certification training course visit the StarAgile talk to the training coordinator now.