Project Managers are in demand all over the world regardless of the type of industry, location, etc.
Project Managers, or rather, properly trained, skilled, and qualified project managers are always required to plan and provision the functioning of a business. That’s why a project management course is a top choice for professionals who wish to make their career in project management.
The gold standard for Project Managers is the certification issued by Project Management Institute or PMI, which is referred to as PMP or Project Management Professional. A PMP certification is not limited to one industry and can be applied across geographies and industries. A PMP certification enables you to earn huge salaries.
Can you guess the average salary of a PMP certified professional?
It’s a whopping 17 lakhs per year, according to data by PayScale.
The PMI projects 2.2 million new job openings for project management job roles by 2027.
How rewarding a career can be with such huge job opportunities everywhere?
Also, when you prepare for the PMP certification exam, you acquire the skills and knowledge required to fulfill a multitude of tasks that are required to achieve the desired goal.
Here is one more amazon fact about PMP. The PMP certification enables you to earn almost 25% higher than non-certified peers.
Let us discuss some main concepts of Project Management.
Main Concepts of Project Management
What is a Project?
A Project, as defined by Wikipedia, ‘is any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim’.
So a project is typically a time-bound activity that is taken up through a group or individual to achieve the desired goal, product, or service. These are generally transitional which implies that it has to be accomplished within the given time constraints and should have a properly defined scope, timelines, and resources.
Every member involved in the project must know everything about the project goals, resources, processes, and timelines.
People involved in a project may work from different organizations, locations, or companies. So, the team should be aligned with the project processes right from the beginning to the closure stage.
It is a temporary effort and a proper plan designed by a skilled and qualified project manager.
What is Project Management?
Project Management is the process of planning and organizing a company’s resources such that the specified tasks, duties, and events move towards completion.
It is the integration of knowledge, processes, methodologies, resources, skills, tools, and techniques to attain the business objectives set for the project within the defined time constraints.
The most common examples of Project Management include relief work after natural calamities, construction of a building, developing a software application for improved business procedures, expanding sales across new geographies, etc.
The fundamental concepts of Project Management are contained in the ‘A Guide to the Project management Body of Knowledge- PMBOK Guide issued by PMI.
The Five Stages of Project Management
The stages of the project management process, that are applied to most of the projects, are:
- Initial stage: The very first stage of a Project is initiating a project where you are required to understand clearly the requirements of the client and then set objectives and goals. The main things you do in this step are define the project charter, identify stakeholders, and study the entire business case.
- Planning: This step requires you to create an action plan to shape up the project and outline the cost, resources, manpower, timelines, etc.
This step requires you to create plans for project management, define the budget as well as the scope of the project, determine risks associated with the tasks, and also construct a structure for work breakdown.
- Execution: Executing requires you to implement steps according to the plan. So you have to allocate project resources, schedule tasks related to the project, continue project status updates, etc.
- Project Control: the true project management skills of a project manager are revealed here. While monitoring or controlling the project, you must oversee breakdowns, interruptions, developments, etc to make plans to attain the desired goals. So, this step requires you to measure key performance indicators, monitor the progress of a project, and revise the project management plan to check the status.
- Project Closure/Delivery: in this step, the final product or service is ready to be delivered to the client. So, you are required to record project processes and findings and hand over deliverables. Finally, you have to document and review the data.
When the project is initiated, it is studied carefully to define its scope, feasibility, timelines, budget, etc.
Then comes the planning phase where a proper plan is chalked down for carrying out the activities of the project. During the planning phase, the main task you have to do is set the goal. There are two popular methods of doing so. They are:
SMART stands for:
- Specific: you have to set specific goals such that it answers who, where, what, when which, and why.
- Measurable: you have to measure yardsticks to measure the success of the set goals.
- Attainable: identify the most important goals and make strategies to attain them.
- Realistic: the goal you set must be realistic enough that everyone in your team or concerned persons identify it and agree to attain it.
- Timebound: the most important aspect of project management is defining a timeframe within which that goal can be achieved.
CLEAR stands for:
- Collaborative: the goal you set must be such that the team members collaborate and get motivated to achieve it.
- Limited: the scope of the project should be limited so that it can be managed efficiently.
- Emotional: if there is an emotional connection between team members with the project, they strive hard to complete it successfully.
- Appreciable: some of the complex tasks are fragmented into smaller and simpler chunks so that they become easy to achieve.
- Refinable: you should refine the goals according to situations and incidents that take place during the process.
Executing the project requires actual implications of what all is defined in the planning stage. Then comes monitoring where you have to measure the progress of the project and take actions accordingly.
While closing the project, you deliver the final product and document the report.
Conclusion
After going through the key concepts of Project Management, you can conclude that it is really interesting work to manage projects. If you are willing to make a career in Project Management, you can take up an online training course.
These courses are so designed that they prepare you well for getting a certification in project management. Note that there are many certifications you can pursue to get into a career in project management, of which PMP certification is the favorite of a majority of project managers.
Enroll Yourself Now!!