Effective Project Management

A project is defined as a temporary endeavor to achieve a planned result. This can be in construction, software development, making theses, and even organizing events. We’ve been doing them since we were still in school. Project management fundamentals can be applied practically to any project in your life.

There are a lot of areas of every project that you must remember, some of which are the cost, manpower, and project timeline. This means that tackling a project without a clear-cut plan how to go about it is like holding a ticking time bomb. Here are some of the things you must remember in managing your projects:

Time. In a project, consider the time necessary to prepare the plan, implement the project, and analyze the results. List down the different activities involved in your project in a Gantt chart to keep things visually organized. A Gantt chart is where the list of activities necessary in the project is listed in the first column, time frame in the first row, and the time consumed shaded under the corresponding time and next to the corresponding activity. This will help you plot out which activities must be accompanied simultaneously, and which activities must immediately follow after the completion of a subsequent task. Time is always essential in a project with deadlines you must meet.

Scope. A project must have its target participants, set of activities planned, and the intended goal. A project can only be as organized as it is clearly defined by the planner’s intended purpose to it. In events, you must know the demographics of your attendees, what they want to experience in the event, and what the event really means. In software development, you must remember where the software will be used, and its main purpose. Maybe you have a good idea that you want to add in the software, but maybe you should stop and think first if it will actually be relevant, or a mere annoyance for the persons who will be using it. Understanding the scope of your projects does not only tell you what you must do, but also what you must not do.

Cost. Some projects will not cost you much, while some may cost millions. A project entails overhead costs, equipment and supplies, travel-related costs, and labor costs, so this means you have to do a bit of accounting work, especially if you are preparing a project proposal. Prepare a budget proposal, with itemized costs for you to know (1) the total costs incurred, (2) the area where cost is greatest, and (3) which items can be foregone or substituted with a cheaper one.

To know more about this topic, BusinessCoach, Inc. conducts an excellent seminar entitled “Project Management Fundamentals.” Contact (02) 727-5628, (02) 727-8860, (0915) 205-0133 or visit www.businesscoachphil.com for details.

Click here to view details of the seminar: Project Management Fundamentals »

*Originally published by the Manila Bulletin. CC-4, Sunday, November 9, 2014. Written by Ruben Anlacan, Jr. (President, BusinessCoach, Inc.) All rights reserved. May not be reproduced or copied without express written permission of the copyright holders.