What is Project in Project Management?

What is Project in Project Management?

“Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.”

• Joy Gumz

Let’s see how Wikipedia defines Project Management,

“Project Management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process.”

This means that Project Management involves monitoring the processes involved in the project and organizing resources efficiently to attain the desired goal. A project always has a deadline and usually few goals set with those deadlines. The phases in project management are planning, monitoring, closing, monitoring, and executing.  

Generally, project management has some sure-shot benefits such as improving team effectiveness, eliminating confusion and increasing efficiency, keeping work and goals organized in one place, and aligning communication between the teams and stakeholders. 

A project manager usually takes the project to successful completion, meeting the deadline. This is why every organization across every industry is looking for skilled, trained, and qualified project managers. 

For some professionals, it is difficult to define what is project. In this article, we will discuss what a project in project management refers to and what project management is.

Does Project Management Help?

Of course yes!

How?

1. Improved team collaboration with clean, organized plans.

When you outline a clear plan, list all your project to-dos, add deadlines to them, task owners, and other crucial details it will turn into an efficient project plan, thereby improving collaboration in the team. 

1. Eliminate confusion by defining everyone’s role.

When there is a predefined role for everyone, the situation doesn’t go chaotic. 

1. Improved team effectiveness with well-defined goals.

When the goals to be achieved are clear, it becomes easy to focus on tasks and responsibilities.

1. When there is a clearly defined communication plan, your team stays aligned and focused on the common goal.
2. Efficiency improves with project management tools such as Asana, Zoho Projects, Wrike, Monday.com, etc.

Project Characteristics

Following are the key characteristics of a project in project management:

• Every project has a clearly defined objective with a deadline, which is usually temporary.
• Every project is unique in its own way and is executed to achieve the specified goal. Once the goal is attained, the project is stopped.
• A project can cut across firm/organization lines.
• A project may bring with it unfamiliarity as some new processes might be introduced in an organization through a project.
• The failure of the project may result in loss of assets and the resources that you have put at stake.

Nature and Properties of a Project

The nature of the project is always positive. There is a clear goal to be achieved which typically results in the improvement of the organization/individual. The properties of a project are that it is finite and it has to be terminated on the achievement of a goal. 

Project Life Cycle

The project life cycle consists of five main phases. A project has to cross all those stages and then research to the point of termination on the attainment of the goal. The following phases are:

Initiation

This is the first phase of a project where it is named, and the purposes are defined. The stakeholders are informed about the budget and pricing and are required to signal the start of the project.

Planning

In this phase, the costs and risks of the project are analyzed. A blueprint of the project roadmap is designed with a deadline on the main focus. It is this phase where resources are allotted to the project. In this phase, stakeholders get the answers to the questions such as “What is the type of project?”, “What does the project consist of?” or “What will be the cost of the project?”. 

Execution

After defining a clear plan, now comes the execution of the project, where tools for the project management are identified, and the modes of communication are decided. Project planning and execution are the two most important phases of the project, as they drive the project towards achieving the goal. 

Monitoring

To make sure that the project is going in the right direction, the monitoring, and control phase is carried out. 

Closing

When the goal is achieved, project closure is done, and all of its data is recorded and stored for future reference. Team members communicate and discuss the events of the project and related profits in the closure meeting. The project is evaluated in this phase and the answers to questions like ‘what is the project evaluation?’ are given.

Project Management Methodologies

Some popular project management methodologies are:

Waterfall Project Management Model- In this style, the project moves forward in waves, and each step relies on its successor. In this linear approach, there are six phases namely requirements, analyzing, designing, coding, testing, and operations. 

Agile Project Management-   It is a type of lean project management that is popular with engineering, product, and software development teams. Teams strive for continuous improvement in iterative processes, flexible answers to change, and incremental evaluation. 

Prince2 Methodology

Projects In Controlled Environments or Prince2 is the project management methodology where projects are broken down into chunks. These small processes include: directing a project, initiating a project, Starting, Managing Stage Boundaries, Controlling the stages, Managing the delivery of products, Closing the project.

Critical Path Method(CPM) and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

With CPM, you get an algorithm to map the path between complex, connected tasks and that too with predefined time frames. PERT helps you identify the critical path when you don’t know the timeline and timeframe. 

Conclusion

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After having an overview of projects in project management, let’s come to the point where you can start your career in project management. To earn a certification in project management, you can start with an online training course. 

An online training course helps you prepare for the certification inside out. Self-paced learning, 24*7 learners assistance, and career guidance are some of the best features of an online training course. 

Enroll now!