Project Management.....a 60 k feet view

Project Management – 60 k feet view….

Many people come to me and I am sure many of my audience saying “I want to see myself as Project Manager after couple years” with absolute or little clue on “What does a Project Manager do?”

Well, let’s see by definition,

Wikipedia Says:

“Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated with program management, however technically a program is actually a higher level construct: a group of related and somehow interdependent projects.”

Project Management Institute (PMI) Says:

“Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet Project Requirements. It is accomplished through the application and integration of the project management processes of Initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, controlling, and closing.

Well, big definitions but i can certainly say with my experience that they are so true.

After Studying and practicing Project Management since few years now, want to define Project Management in my own words for all my friends who are new to Project Management or want to get into Project Management in future.

Project Management for me at 60 k feet is to manage Schedule , Cost and Performance/Quality. Lets define it:

Stakeholder Management

Ever thought of running a project alone and aloof? No, it will be 100% failure. Project Success is a team   work where Project Manager need to manage all Stakeholders, External (Customer, Vendors, etc.) and Internal (Senior Management, Team, Peers etc.).

Quick Tips:

• Set Expectations
• Reviews
• Take Sign Offs
• Get Feedback periodically

Assurance Management

Being the Biggest Authority for Project, you need to assure all stakeholders of Project Success and their requirements/needs/demands to be met.

Quick Tips:

• Result/Outcome Oriented Approach
• Planned Vs. Actual Analysis

Communication Management

Most Focused area in project Management. Project should have set schedule of recurring status meetings, Status Reports and Dashboards

Quick Tips:

• Informtion Distribution
• Have 1:1 meetings & Team Meetings
• Performance Reporting & Status Reviews

Planning & Time Management

What you do, when you are given a project? Understand and execute certain things?

The first thing when you take a project is Project Planning.A project without PROJECT PLAN is just Nothing.

Quick Tips:

• Using Organizers
• Project Plan
• Follow Rule of Plan before Doing

Risk Management

Any project, professional or personal is just *impossible* without doing Risk Management. We do it everyday life consciously or unconsciously. Doing an organized and In time Risk Management helps catching the problems/issues proactively. It helps in not only mitigating the risk but to keep reserves for unknown risks.

Quick Tips:

• Identify Risks and record them
• Analyze Risks
• Brainstorm on Risk Mitigations
• Reserves for Unknown Risk
• Monitor & Track Risks

Finance Management

Budget and Costing are areas which add to Project Success or failure. A well completed project without considering cot can be a Project failure. In fact. a survey says that 80% of Project are terminated in middle or fail due to budget issues.

Quick Tips:

• Cost Estimation
• Budgeting and Track of Profitability Targets and Actuals
• Milestone checks & Control

Here are few Quick Tips to be a good Project Manager:

• Communication is the key: Spend 90% of your productive working time in communications. It can be mails, conference calls, discussions, brainstorming, reporting etc.
• Customer Focus: Whatever you do, however you do, the focus remains Customer Delight. Your *Exit Criteria should always be Matching Outcome to Customer Requirement
• Human Resources: Each individual has some qualities. Tri to recognize the right quality of resource and utilize it accordingly. Effective use of human resources definitely adds maximum to Project Success
• Self-Organized: A project can never be success if the Project Manager is not Self Organized. A Project Manager should maintain documents like Self Organizer, Project Issue log, Action Tracker, Project Plan

This is all for this article of 60k view of Project Management. Will write more on it.

Comments are welcome to encourage me and improve me on writing.

Happy Writing!!!!!

Signing Off for this article..

Reacha

Management....Let's learn it Birbal way

Just finished reading a book on Management and Solve your Problems...The Birbal way. I got it from Landmark in "Management Section", yes you read write, Management section. When I saw this first, I was like....Was Birbal a Manager really?

For my readers, who do not know Birbal, Birbal was Grand Vizier (minister) in famous Indian Mughal Emperor Akbar's court during 16th century.

He was known to be his *Right Hand* in taking key decisions. He was part of 9 advisors of Akbar's Navaratna Council.  He was very wise and could resolve any problem and turn situation into his favor with his wisdom and wit.

While I starting reading it, i had my own doubts. But amazing, the same stories which we have been hearing/reading since childhood, i read the same stories in different perspective with a "Management Lesson Learnt".

The ability to turn awkward situation to a situation in your favor in an art which you can cultivate. The next time you are in a situation like this, think by putting you in Birbal's shoe and see what would he do(use ideas below) in this situation, you might get the right way/direction. Alternatively, you all might have *A Role Mode*. You might put yourself in his/her shoe to solve a problem or situation by thinking what he/she might have done in this situation.

Learnt a lot from the book so thought of sharing Management fundas things i adopted or going to adopt for effective Management with due respect from Authors(Vas's) of the Book :

·         Hard work and organized/systematic management can turn lot of so-called "Bad luck" to "Good Luck".

·         The ability to trust is important and necessary in business and professional life. However, one has to be selective for whom to put trust in. Judicious trust is *an absolute mandate* for both efficiency and effectiveness in management.

·         Examples work much better than arguments. During presentations, if you use dramatic examples, it will work better than long-winding arguments to support it.

·         Choose your words with precision, or you may land in trouble. Language is to communicate and communicate effectively. All is waste of time and breadth , if we talk too much and do not communicate the thought/message with precision.

·         Corruption do not need power, it needs cooperation from its victims in order to succeed. Do not blame the system but deny cooperation and see where you are contributing to it to stop corruption. Example - Bribing, Do no bribe to get your things done and then blame on it.

·         Some problems/situations are tough enough that even a wise/intelligent man cannot find answer to it. During these times, it is important to do brainstorming/take help from subordinates and acknowledge the help.

·         One cannot retain everything in daily life. However, we can remember the important things relevant to our functioning, efficiency and relationships.

·         Don't degrade the one you want to challenge but defeat him/her. Hate based behavior or writing hate based mail do us no good. The same energy could be challenged to change the things we find wrong.

·         Love can overcome animosity. Peaceful action against unreasonable opposition will yield the best results. An argument with superior will not give anything big than trouble vs. well-thought and positive response will make world of difference.

·         If you want to know something widely known about you, share it to gossips who will do your work for free, particularly if you give it newsy twist

An important one, before i close.

Problem Solving and Management becomes easier if you read the mind of those with whom you deal. Give time in observing the behavior pattern and deal accordingly.

This is a start to my writing on different fundas. Hope, that readers get benefits out of it.

Comments are welcome to encourage me and improve me on writing.

Happy Writing!!!!!

Signing Off for this article..

Reacha