6 Project Management Tips for Beginners
A project manager is at the heart of any project and their role involves planning, scheduling, budgeting, and monitoring a project. The role of a project manager can be demanding and challenging and requires an individual to possess flexibility, communication and leadership skills.
Poor project management practices attribute for over 36% of project failures, according to a Project Management Office report. Hence, a project management professional should have the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to execute a project smoothly.
While a Project Management Professional certification training can give you the necessary basic knowledge of being a project manager, having an idea of some tips and tricks commonly used by project managers can make the learning curve easier to navigate.
Project Management Tips for Beginners
When used right, project management tools and applications can help you go a long way in managing the project team. Here are some of the top beginner tips for project managers.
Have a Business Case Ready
When a project is in the initiating stage, a project manager needs to have a clear idea of what the project is about and what the end goal is. When developing a business case, keep the following in mind:
- Full details of the problems and opportunities
- List of the alternative solutions
- An overview of the business benefits, costs, and associated risks
- A list of the recommended solutions and how to implement them
Prepare a Feasibility Study
Feasibility study refers to the documentation containing the probable solutions to any problems that are predicted, and the opportunities discussed in the business case. When preparing this study, you need to focus on historical data of success reports, industry-wide success rates for solutions you have developed for similar problems, determining capabilities and needs by speaking with other project teams.
Create a project charter
A project charter is among the most crucial documents in the project lifecycle. It is also an essential deliverable document when the initiation phase ends. The project charter consists of the project summary and lists the goal, scope, deliverables, budget, and deadlines for the project. A good project charter should contain the overall vision of the project, as well as the specific objectives. A project manager needs to find the right balance between the vision and objectives for the smooth delivery of a project.
Develop a project management plan
Every activity and phase involved in the project should be properly planned in advance. The project plan is a document that identifies the activities that allow for the successful delivery of a project. It should also contain a list of the required resources, milestones, and timelines for deliverables.
Communication, resource gathering, budgeting, risk management, and change management, all form a crucial part of developing the project management plan. When creating a project management plan, you need to list out all the tasks that are involved in the projects. A list of the resources needed, and proper budgeting of the same are also a part of the project management plan. Finally, you need to create a schedule for executing the deliverables by designing a breakdown structure. Set delivery dates in advance to help you manage the deliverables better.
Manage your resources
It is the project manager’s responsibility to manage resources that are needed for the execution of a project. Managing the project team is the right way to keep an eye on all the resources. In a creative project, people are the most important resource, and they need proper management, which in turn can be achieved through communication and collaboration. Resource management is a never-ending process in a project management lifecycle. Proactively communicating with your team and reaching out to them with problem-focused solutions can make resource management easier.
Monitor & control the project
Monitoring and control goes hand-in-hand with smooth project execution. Here, the project manager needs to ensure that the ongoing project meets the quality guidelines set out by your during the planning phase. Tracking the project progress and making sure it complies with the project guidelines is the most important part of monitoring the project.
To Conclude
Learning from successful projects and documenting the success stories, problems and their solutions, and the best project management resources is also a great way to prepare for your next project. Prepare these documents at the close of every project, which can help not just you, but others in the team and organization. These beginner tips will help project managers navigate through the project lifecycle easily. Taking PMP Training is just as helpful in advancing your career as a project manager.
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