Project Management is a valuable skill that can be applied to a variety of jobs and situations in our daily lives. To successfully complete a project, it’s essential to first define what the project is and what the expected outcomes are. Moreover, tight deadlines and high expectations are also crucial aspects of a project. Being a student, it is important for you to understand this area completely. Thus, in this blog write-up, I have discussed everything important related to project management.
In project management, everything is done by hand. Unlike other areas, you cannot succeed by making mistakes and experimentation. That will only lead to your destruction. Thus to succeed, you must adhere to the principles to the detail.
There is more in project management and this is why we have created this guide for you. By the end of reading this blog, you will get familiar with a lot of aspects related to project management and the institutions where you can pursue this course. Moreover, if you need any additional help with your course, you can easily go for any trustworthy online assignment help service as well. Therefore, don’t go anywhere and stick to this guide till the end and enhance your knowledge.
This blog guide will give you the glimpse of the following:
- What is project management?
- Different Types of Project Management
- 5 Phases of Project Management Life Cycle
- Causes Of Project Failure
- Skills possessed by a Project Manager
- Study Project Management in USA
So, let’s get started!
What is Project Management?
Project management is the process of planning and organizing a company’s resources in order to complete a specified work, event, or duty. Project management is frequently connected with disciplines such as engineering and construction, healthcare, and information technology (IT). All of which require a complicated set of components to be completed and put in a certain order to generate a working result.
All projects are a one-time attempt to produce value through a one-of-a-kind product, service, or outcome. There is a beginning and an end to every project. They have a team, a budget, a timeline, and a set of goals that the team must achieve.
The fact that project management has a final deliverable and a fixed timeframe distinguishes it from simple management. As a result, a project manager needs a diverse set of skills, including technical expertise, as well as people management and business expertise.
Different Types of Project Management
Many distinct styles of project management have been developed to address the needs of various sectors or project types. The following are some of them:
- Agile Project Management: Agile is a concept that can be extended to other types of project management, rather than a specific project approach. It includes working in smaller pieces, known as sprints, that allow projects to turn as needed.
- Waterfall Project Management: Waterfall project management is one of the oldest approaches, still used by many development teams. This process requires working in waves, with each step significantly dependent on the previous one.
- Lean Project Management: Lean is all about putting the customer first and seeing how processes may be simplified to give them the greatest, most inexpensive, and timely experience possible.
- Six Sigma Project Management: The Six Sigma method is used to improve the output quality of a project. This is especially useful if you’ve tried a lean management style and found the final result to be less than ideal, as Six Sigma focuses on improving the customer’s end result.
- Kanban Project Management: It is another variant of agile project management and is all about organization. Kanban focuses on how many tasks are involved in a process and how they might be streamlined, minimized, and so on.
While there are many different types of project management, the most commonly used are listed above. However, the sort of project management system utilized is determined by the project manager’s or company’s preferences.
5 Phases of Project Management Life Cycle
A project phase is a cluster of closely connected project management tasks. In the life cycle, their relationship is frequently sequential, with each project phase resulting in the completion of one or more project deliverables.
Project management is divided into five phases. Although the life cycle provides a high-level overview of the project, the phases serve as a road map for completing it.
Phase 1: Project Initiation
This is the first phase of the project. Its objective is to define the project in broad terms. A business case is usually the first step in this phase.
The performance of a team during the Initiation phase can lead to the approval, postponement, or cancellation of a new project. In this phase, internal and external stakeholders should be included for the greatest results.
Phase 2: Project Planning
This phase is essential to project management success and focuses on creating a roadmap that everyone should follow. Setting goals is usually the first step in this phase. Moreover, S.M.A.R.T. and CLEAR are two common strategies used in this phase for defining goals.
- S.M.A.R.T. Goals: This strategy ensures that the objectives have been carefully reviewed. It also provides a means of properly understanding the goals-setting process’s consequences.
- C.L.E.A.R. Goals: A innovative technique of goal-setting that takes into account the fast-paced climate of today’s organizations.
Phase 3: Project Execution
Deliverables are developed and finished during this phase. Because there is so much going on during this time, such as status reports and meetings, development updates, and performance reports, it might feel like the body of the project.
The beginning of the Project Execution phase is frequently marked with a “kick-off” meeting where the teams involved are informed of their responsibilities.
Phase 4: Project Performance
Tracking and evaluating project performance is the most effective technique to assure progress and improvement. This stage is all about tracking project progress and performance, as well as ensuring that everything is going according to plan.
In this phase, Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used by project managers to determine if the project is on schedule.
Phase 5: Project Closure
All actions connected to the project’s conclusion are completed in the final project management phase. The factors that should be taken care of at this phase are the submission of a final deliverable, the fulfillment of contractual duties, the termination of applicable agreements, and the release of project resources.
Moreover, Project Documentation and other Turnover Documents may be among the documents that have to turn over during the project closure. Further, when the project gets completed, PMs still have a few things to fulfill such as making a final budget for the project and writing a final report.
Regardless of their size, all projects go through each of the five phases. The decision to divide the project into stages is a great method to keep the team focused, allocate resources, and ensure that the entire life cycle is aligned with clients and stakeholders.
Also, a project is associated with various risks. Thus, you should know about risk management plans as well.
Causes Of Project Failure
Every year, high project failure rates strike enterprise firms around the world, costing millions of dollars per failed project. In any organization and on any project, project failure can occur. Although, failure can have an endless number of causes. It is sometimes beyond the project manager’s and/or team members’ control or sometimes can be managed.
However, I have discussed the major causes of project failure. These are:
- The scope of the project is unclear.
- Risk management that isn’t up to standard
- Failure to recognize critical assumptions
- No use of formal methods and strategies by project managers who lack experience and training
- At all levels, there is a lack of efficient communication.
- The project’s and/or company’s key personnel are leaving.
- Expectations were not managed well.
- Leadership that is ineffective
- Promised resources may not be available when required
- A lack of comprehensive documentation
- Inability to keep track of requirements
- Tracking progress is impossible due to a lack of information in the project plans.
- Estimates of time and effort that are inaccurate
Project failure has a wide range of causes. However, all these failures can be avoided by recording project management actuals, such as date started, work accomplished, and estimate of remaining work. To know more about how to control these failure, you can also reach out
Skills possessed by a Project Manager
So, what are the various skills that a project manager should possess? How to become a successful project manager? How to handle the whole project management cycle effectively and efficiently?
Your questions will be answered in this section of the blog. Lets explore the basic skill set of a project manager.
Few of the skills that every project manager should have are:
Analysis skills
So, what are the analysis skills possessed by a project manager to provide the right project managment? It is requirement analysis. Requirement analysis is the foundation of any project. It is the responsibility of a project manager to keep a track of the changing requirements throughout the project life cycle.
Communication skills
We all know the importance of communication skills in managing teams. A successful project manager bridges the gap between the teams and facilitate effective communication. This is a must have skill to be a successful project manager.
Negotiation skills
If you are a part of management, and need to talk to the stakeholders. You should have good negotiation skills. This helps you in budgeting. Project manager is the intermediary between higher management and the clients. It is the duty of a project manager to ensure a win win situation for both the management and clients.
Effective Time Management
We should not consider time as a non tangible item. Time is an indirect cost for the project development. To complete a project successfully one has to manage the time effectively.
Leadership experience and Team Building Skill
To be a successful leader all the aforementioned qualities are necessary ,however a qualified project manager should be able to be a good leader. There should not be a feeling of depression in the team. He should keep the team motivated by various means like appreciation and redirecting the right person on the right work.
Budget Management
The project manager should be aware of basic accounting principles and financial system. This includes laying out a budget and monitoring it. Cost Estimation is the heart of this particular skill. However, if you need to know more about budget managment, you can easily reach out to a top assignment writing service in USA as well.
The traits and knowledge and skills required to be a successful project manager are known as project management skills. While “project manager” may appear to be a simple job title, this position is responsible for much more than just keeping projects on track. Thus, all these aforementioned skills must be there in a project manager to run a project smoothly and effectively.
Study Project Management in USA
As a national or international student, you have access to all of the top schools, colleges, and universities in the United States that specialise in the best Project Management programmes. Thus, if you are planning to make a career in project management, you should first learn about the best project management universities in the USA.
Read more to learn about the best project management universities/institutes in the United States.
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was established in 1919 and has a total area of about 419 acres. After the University of California, Berkley, it is the second-oldest university. UCLA is regarded as one of the best universities in the United States.
UCLA Extension offers unit Project Management Certificate program courses. These are:
- Agile Frameworks including Disciplined Agile, XP and Lean SD
- Agile Methodologies with Scrum and Kanban
- Free Online Project Management Certificate Information
- Fundamentals of Project Management
- Leadership and the Human Element in Project Management
- Managing Global Outsourced Projects
- Project Control and Change Management
- Project Management Capstone
- Project Planning with Microsoft Project
- Project Quality and Leadership
- Project Risk and Procurement Management
- Project Schedule and Cost Management
- Scaled Agile Approaches
Boston University
High-achieving candidates from all over the world apply to Boston University Project Management and IT Project Management programmes and certificates.
The following are the Master’s Degrees and Graduate Certificates provided by Boston University:
- Master of Science in Project Management
- Graduate Certificate in Project Management
- Master of Science in Computer Information System with IT Project Management Concentration
- Master of Science in Computer Information System with IT Project Management Concentration (blended format)
- Graduate Certificate in IT Project Management
Southern New Hampshire University
At Southern New Hampshire University, project management and operations management are both provided at the undergraduate level. It is available as an online course under Business Studies in Operations & Project Management and under Operations Management. If you choose online course from this university, then there are many online class helpers who can take your online class on your behalf.
Moreover, You’ll study three mandatory courses at SNHU to help you build the abilities you’ll need to manage money and time.
- Project Management
- Quantitative Analysis for Decision Making
- Seminar in Project Management
New York University, School of Professional Studies
This university offers a master’s degree in project management as well as twenty diploma courses in basic and advanced project management. It also provides legal project management, healthcare, and construction services, among other things.
Here is a list of courses that one can pursue from the New York University.
- Agile Project Management
- Basic Project Management
- Leading Teams in an Agile Environment
- Project Communication Management
- Project Management (CAPM) Certification Exam Prep
- Project Management Foundations and Methods
- Project Management Professional (PMP)(R) Certification Exam Prep
- Project Management for Healthcare
- Risk and Change Management
- Project Management Tools and Applications
- Earned Value Management
- Introduction to Scrum Project Management
- Managing Virtual Teams
- Negotiation and Contracting
- Portfolio Management for Project Managers
- Scaled Agile Framework
Walden University
Walden University offers MS, MBA, and BS programs are offered with project management. The list of the programs are mentioned below:
Graduate Certificate in Applied Project Management
- Practices in project management
- Budgeting and management of operations
- Enterprise and project risk management
Master of business administration in project managament – Core courses
- Business essentials
- Dynamic leadership
- Improving business performances
- Accounting for management and decision making
Post doctoral bridge to business administration certificate
- Business strategy and innovation for competitive advantages
- Seminar in program and portfolio management
- Seminar in project based strategic leadership
To accomplish a degree in project management from these aforementioned universities, you might need some external help. Therefore, it would be a wise decision that you take university assignment help service from a relaible website.
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I hope this guide helps you in gaining much knowledge about project management. For more such write-ups, visit our website.
Frequently Asked Questions
| Q: What is the main aim of project management? A: The aim of project management is to organise and manage a project so that its stated goals and deliverables are met. |
| Q: What are the teams needed in the execution of a project? A: i) Marketing team ii) Product team iii) Sales team iv) Customer support v) Event team |