Today’s Project Environment

People sometimes confuse project management with project planning. While good project planning is a vitally necessary part of project management, you will need to look at project management on a broader scale.

From Project Planning to Project Management

For many people their first exposure to any kind of project management is as a member of a project team that has a list of activities with time targets and designated owners. This activity list is part or all of a project plan. Historically, project planning was something that happened in industry, the domain of engineering departments, where detailed task and resource planning was required to complete complex engineering projects on time and within budget. Engineers developed a series of tools and techniques to manage large projects such as the building of a ship.

What Does a Project Manager Do?

Project management is more than simply completing a list of activities on time. Project managers also have to deal with issues that are critical to the success of the project, such as:

• Motivating people.

• Resolving critical issues.

• Management of budgets.

• Mitigation of risk.

• The effective use of all of the organization’s resources.

Tip

Brief your team members not only on their activities in the project but on their role in achieving the team and organizational goals.

Think Smart

Once a project has started, the project team will be committed to achieving its objectives and may find it difficult to see that other teams are duplicating some or all of the project’s objectives.

Review the overall portfolio of projects – avoid duplication because it wastes precious resources and can cause internal friction as different teams attempt to have their project accepted as the standard.

Adopt a Holistic Approach

Try not to get into the detail of a project plan too quickly. You can complete the plan but fail to meet the project’s main objectives. Perhaps the customer no longer wants the product, the competition has launched a better one, or other internal resources have achieved the objectives of the project, thus rendering your plan irrelevant. Take a holistic view, starting from an understanding of what the customer needs, the requirements of the key stakeholders, and an awareness of how this project fits into the organization’s overall project portfolio. Make sure that you align your project to one or more of the business goals of your organization and of your team. If a project does not help to deliver at least one key target, then either close it down or modify it to correct that fault.

Keep sight of the organization’s overall activities, aims, and objectives.