Your Quick Guide to Project Management

The project management is the heart of any project. Project managers are in charge of a project’s planning, execution, and completion. This complex process needs some skill-sets that ensures the successful completion for any project.

In this article, we will be discussing some crucial Management skills that every project manager should have. Some of the Project Management methodologies will be discussed as well.

Management Skills

Team management

A project manager must be able to manage a team and move them in the same direction, aligning their personal objectives with those of the organization. Team management skills include the ability to assign responsibilities effectively, manage conflicts, evaluate performance, and coach team members to help them improve their skills.

Time management

Every project has a deadline, and there are numerous tasks that must be completed in a certain – and usually a short- period of time. Project managers must be able to develop a project timeline and stick to it throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Budget management

One of the most important responsibilities of the project manager is to create and manage a viable budget throughout the project’s lifecycle. Project managers typically require experience to effectively identify where costs are being overruns and what changes need to be made to control costs. They must be able to track costs, create spreadsheets, and decide what the budget should and should not be spent on.

Risk management

Risks are unavoidable yet not necessary noticeable throughout a project. Which is why a project manager must have the experience and ability to identify potential problems and implement a risk mitigation strategy. They must be able to ask difficult questions of their team and constantly confirm timelines, decisions, and dependencies. They should also be able to use professional risk management tools to analyze potential risks and develop risk mitigation strategies.

Conflict management

Strong conflict management skills are required for project managers who must keep their teams running smoothly and harmoniously. Conflict resolution and management skills are also required for resolving stalled processes, project inconsistencies, and other internal or external issues.

We found some interesting free Project Management templates that you can use here.

Project Management Methodologies

A project management methodology is a set of principles, tools, and techniques for planning, executing, and managing projects.

Project management methodologies assist project managers in leading team members and managing work while promoting team collaboration.

Here’s some of the common project management methodologies;

Agile

The Agile software development methodology is one of the most straightforward and efficient methods for translating a vision for a business need into software solutions. Agile software development approaches use continuous planning, learning, improvement, team collaboration, evolutionary development, and early delivery. It promotes adaptable responses to change.

The four core values of Agile software development as stated by the Agile Manifesto are:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
• Working software over comprehensive documentation.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.
• Responding to change over following a plan.

There are a few Agile frameworks you can use but the most commonly used ones are Scrum and Kanban.

This figure below illustrates the iterative approach of the Agile methodology

Some extra info on Agile methodology could be found here.

Scrum

Scrum is an Agile project management methodology that involves a small team led by a Scrum master, whose primary responsibility is to remove all major obstacles to getting work done.

Work is completed in short cycles known as sprints, and the team meets daily to discuss current tasks and any roadblocks that need to be cleared. Scrum is a project management method that allows for accelerated development and testing, particularly within a small team.

This diagram below shows the Scrum process

Critical path method

Critical path method (CPM) is also referred to as critical path analysis. It is a scheduling procedure that includes a network diagram to represent a project as well as the sequence of tasks known as paths. Once all of the paths have been identified, the length of each path is calculated using a critical path algorithm.

A critical path is a sequence of tasks that must be completed in order to complete a project. The tasks on a critical path are referred to as critical activities, and any one of them causes a delay in the overall completion of the project.

The Critical Path is made up of the following attributes:

• The tasks required to complete the project (WBS)
• The estimated time for each task.
• The dependencies between tasks.
• Where a Resource Critical Path is being mapped, a Resource Breakdown Structure will also be required.

This diagram below shows the Critical Path process

If you are looking for hiring the right Project Manager for your business, we have Project Managers from more than 100 countries that you can choose from, start exploring more from our Project Management page.

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