Project Management – 7 Top Tips

Project management is a thoroughly tried and tested discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific criteria of project success. A project is a temporary scheme designed to produce a unique product, service or result with a defined beginning and end. A project is usually constrained by the parameters of time, funding and the deliverable outcomes.  A project is undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value

Here are 7 Top Tips for Project Management

  1. Produce good project architecture. Bring to the people on your team words and pictures that will bring different perspectives and even learning styles on to the same page. This way they will make their best contribution to the project and be at their most committed
  2. Identify the right project and use benefit-cost analysis looking at opportunity cost. This will result in the project that gives the best value for your effort, being optimally aligned to your company’s strategy
  3. Plan the whole of the project, defining scope with precision. When you have defined the scope of the project clearly, communicate the cost of changes in order to reduce change requests, then manage all changes and add to the project only when it is essential
  4. Make sure you get the right team. Define the skills required and obtain people with those skills. Honesty about where there are shortfalls in skills is important – then rid your team of the shortfalls by taking time to learn how to do things correctly.
  5. Similarly, get the expertise that you need. Be aware that being the expert in on area means not being the expert in another, even of those areas are closely related. It is important to recognise that projects require the learning from and collaboration with experts. Furthermore, take into account that fact that hiring experts you can work with is less expensive than not hiring them.
  6. You need to cover all bases with the following seven knowledge areas: (1) Time and cost; (2) Quality; (3) Risk; (4) Human Resources; (5) Procurement; (6) Communications; (7) Integration; (8) Keep the project on track using stages and gates, using a life cycle; (9) Feedback with your team
  7. The aim ought to be to deliver an impression of quality and excellence to your customer. Seek to exceed customer expectations while providing superb customer service through your team. Every stage – every success AND error is an opportunity to learn how to improve service and do a better job. Always take into account and make sure that you measure Return on Investment

If you believe that effective change or planning is necessary or indeed vital to your business or organisation, the Alternative Partnership online Project Management programme is most likely the course that you or your employees should take. A free trial of the first unit is available such that you may assess the value and quality of the programme for yourself.

Like Alternative Partnership on facebook or Follow us on twitter

 

Have you read...

Leadership and Finance

12/04/2018

Health and Safety – The General Picture

20/07/2017

Customer Service – Our Customers Have Their Say

28/02/2017

Our Clients

I wanted to have the pleasure of working with Alternative Partnership and Tina again. Tina discussed my training needs and recommended an ILM Higher Leadership and Management qualification. I thought this might be impossible for me, but yet again, Tina’s great way of communicating to develop my understanding by putting things across, in a way that simplified the information was really helpful to me and supported what it was I needed to do to achieve success. The ILM Higher Leadership and Management Diploma Level 4 course were for 18 months and Alternative Partnership, especially Tina, ensures all students achieved great results. To that end, I successfully completed the course three months before the originally planned time. Anyone wanting to build their professional knowledge, gain confidence in the work they do and experience a great journey, I would highly recommend looking at working with Alternative Partnership and I personally look forward to making my next journey.

Richard Daniels, Morrison Utility Services

I am a Store Manager for a busy Retail Outlet and I decided to undertake my ILM Higher Management qualification.  I found the qualification excellent for developing my knowledge and understanding of higher management in business, especially when, part way through the course, I was promoted to a larger store and the ILM qualification was invaluable to my learning and management experience. Tina worked with me focusing on the training and development that I needed to succeed, which helped me to achieve the qualification, as well as, make business improvements to the running of my store.

I have worked with Alternative Partnership for many years now and I have achieved a number of qualifications with Tina’s help along my whole journey. She is always there for help and advice and I would definitely recommend Alternative Partnership to anyone who is wanting to complete a qualification to better their professional skills with full support and great mentoring by Tina.

Laura Baker, The Works

Through their excellent service and commitment, we were able to show a remarkable improvement in the quality of service we offer to all our customers. The initial training provided to all our 66 staff who was involved in the Customer Service qualification has been of great benefit to the company, in the way they interact with our customers and deal with their enquiries. Of the 66 people 8 of those progressed to a higher Customer Service qualification with Alternative Partnership.

Julie Asbury, La Redoute

Working with Tina over the last few months has been extremely inspiring. Her passion and enthusiasm for business is infectious and you can tell immediately that she genuinely wants you to be a success. Tina pushed me into writing and publishing my first book. After a conversation with Tina,  I was able to build on some existing content and turn it into a useful resource for business owners. The book, A-Z of Blogging,  has had fantastic feedback and I am so proud of what I have achieved with it, none of which would have happened without Tina’s support and encouragement. I can’t recommend Tina and The Alternative Partnership highly enough to anyone wanting to move their business to the next stage.

Lisa Slater, Make Your Copy Count

I would like to thank Tina for her exceptional support and guidance whilst completing the ILM Higher Diploma in Leadership and Management Level 4. The knowledge and skills I have gained both from Tina and the course content is invaluable and has and will continue to improve my professional and personal progression. Tina was a constant support, including times when I was uncertain on how to tackle a particularly difficult unit. I couldn’t thank Tina enough and would highly recommend her to anyone who wants to improve their own knowledge and skills in the leadership and management profession.

Lisa Vickers, Total Fitness

Dear Tina, Thank you for the Business Coaching and guidance I have received from Alternative Partnership, especially in helping me to structure myself and Key West Pest Control. This has helped to make my business run more professionally, more structured and implementing policies and procedures whilst helping me acquire my ILM Higher Strategic Leadership and Management qualification. I would have no hesitation in recommending you or your company. A big thank you.

Sean Mclean, Key West Pest Control Ltd
Email Address