Successful project management

Pre-study

Always start the project by making a pre-study. Pre-study precedes the actual project start and includes: need-assessment, target definition as well as the description of the project goal(s). It is a document that contains an outline of what the project is supposed to deliver and implement. To reach successful project management it is an important factor to demonstrate at an early stage a plan for how the project intends to reach its goal.

Project management team
In order for a project to be successful, the right project team must be formed. A strong and skilled project team contains people whose skills and experiences can benefit the project. This applies to all members of the project, as well as the project leader and all other participants in the team.
The project should be organized so that the distribution of the roles, powers and responsibilities are clear. Each project role should have a role description that is unique. Avoid shared responsibility, it only gives rise to uncertainty about who should do what, with the risk of duplication or that important things will not get done.

Planning
To plan a project means to develop time- and resource plans, calculate costs, organizing work and to analyze risks. The project manager’s role is to make sure that those tasks are in focus.
Planning takes time, but it’s time earned multiple times during implementation. The project schedule is a key part of planning which should be continuously updated and monitored during the project. An easy way to follow up projects’ planning is by breaking down the project plan in milestones which are monitored during the project and deadlines for when the activities should be completed. In this way you create a clear and well-implemented strategy for how you want to reach the project goal.

Project finance, risks and quality
Costs and budgeting are important areas to master in order to know what the project will cost and how these costs are allocated to different activities.
Managing risks in the project means to identify, analyze and address the risks that may arise. Risk management aims to ensure that the project will reach its target.
Project Quality Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project meets the needs for which it was created. Quality work involving all members within the project. Changes during the project should also be quality controlled in a systematic way.

Communication
For the project team to know how to work, the project leader to have control and the client to feel safe, it is important that communication works in a project. Goals and plans should be distributed, results should be reported, changes should be determined and documents distributed. Communication is one of the key factors for the project to deliver and be completed in time.

Monitoring
To ensure that a project remains on course the project lead needs to continuously follow up and monitor the outcome of the project activities and if necessary make changes. Examine what already has been done to assess the future and to decide on any changes.

Project results
The implementation phase is about bringing the product into the environment it is intended for. In other words, start using the result that the project developed. After this phase it is important to follow up the work that has been done throughout the project and determine whether the product meets the client’s expectations.

If you want to know if you can become more successful in your project management work, please contact us today.