Category: PM Tips & Ideas
If you ask successful project managers which task among their duties is most challenging, most likely they will tell you about managing human resources as this task takes much of their time and effort. Trying to allocate right employees with right skills can be extremely challenging, especially if you deal with large project teams. Here are 5 key considerations to help you achieve effective project HR management and maximize success.
Planning is vital to success. A well-planned project makes 80% of successful product delivery, while the rest 20% are achieved by effective control and execution. However, good planning doesn’t mean that a project manager needs to spend most of his/her time on creating and polishing a project plan. Instead, this executive must proportionate the time spent on the planning stage to the time expected for project implementation to ensure that valuable resources aren’t wasted and real progress is made.
Traditionally, the objective of a well-planned procurement process in business is to acquire goods and services in response to internal needs. By accomplishing this objective companies streamline business activities, reduce cost of raw material, and practice better supply management. In terms of project management, the procuring activity involves exploring the most cost-effective way of providing project teams with needed products and services, within available funds and time frames. To recognize how this process can be planned out, first we must understand what procurement is about and what basic steps are involved in defining purchasing requirements for projects and identify potential sellers.
Time tracking is one of the biggest parts of a project manager’s job. Because time is critical to success, it needs to be tracked against the schedule throughout the entire project lifecycle until all scheduled activities are accomplished, the customer accepts the product, and all documentation is closed and archived. The project manager takes primary responsibility for monitoring schedule performance, making necessary adjustments, and taking corrective action. In this article I want to highlight 5 common tips on how to make time tracking in projects more effective.
Success in managing a program greatly depends on how well each related project is performed and whether all possible conflicts with other related projects are resolved early. In my experience in managing programs successfully I see that today’s normal business environment requires team leaders to carry out multiple projects in parallel, while those individuals should also take care of superior customer service and acceptable team performance. And a company that succeeds in managing parallel projects will outpace the competition. Thus, successful program management is a competitive edge and essential for business growth. Here I suggest you 5 tips on how to manage a program successfully.