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.

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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.

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