The word project management comprises two different words, Project & Management. A project is defined as a group of various tasks that needs to be done in order to achieve predetermined business goals. Management in layman’s language can be described as a process of getting work done either through human employees or automated software in the most effective and efficient way with minimum input employed. Clubbed together, ensuring proper functioning of all the jobs or tasks required to be completed in order to gain maximum productivity for completing a project, and eliminating the deviations from the process throughout is called project management.
Functional Advantages of Project Management –
- Defining the need for a project.
- Calculating the requirements of the project, the quality of the deliverables, resources required, and the timeline of the project.
- Ensuring the source of funding for the project.
- Identifying the project team.
- Calculating the risk for any deviations in the process.
- Marking the progress of the project.
- Managing the budget of the project.
- Ensuring undiverted and uninterrupted communication with the stakeholders.
- Ensuring utmost efficiency and effectiveness of the project.
The importance of project management in any company is undeniable. Looking at the current scenario where the global economy is progressing, the individual need for improvement also comes into the picture. Every business has an important role to play in helping various economies to grow as a whole. In an organizational setup, we usually tend to have an expert for each domain. For example, a marketing grad to look after outbound sales, a Digital Marketing expert to maintain the online reputation and generating leads, a Human Resource expert to get a right candidate with the right skill set at the right time in the organization, a certified project management individual to look after the efficiency of a project, etc.
Let’s consider the reasons why a company needs a certified project manager-
- Provides Vision and Motivation – A certified project manager knows the importance of having a well-described and practical vision for his company. He is the one who identifies the aim and vision of the project and guides the entire project team to work towards it. Also, a project is expected to perform really well if there is only one command giver. A certified project manager is the only point of contact and this leads to no miscommunication or misinterpretation. He is the one who is held responsible for all the official communications with the project team, customers, stakeholders, etc.
- Provides a way for improved efficiency – A project manager along with his team decides the entire course of the project and allocates responsibilities in a manner which is required to complete the project in the most effective and efficient manner.
- Monitors the project life span – he ensures that his project team is able to deliver the project requirements that nobody can counter. Also, he closely monitors and controls the scope of deviations as compared to the actual project plan throughout the lifespan of the project, eliminating duplication of efforts.
- Helps in managing costs – the key to the success of any project lies in the costs incurred to complete that particular project. An efficient, certified project manager will leave no stone unturned to ensure project deliverables staying in the limits of the project budget.
- Saves Time – a project manager ensures that the project deliverables are handed over as per the decided timeline. He closely monitors the critical path throughout the project to finish it off in time.
- Schedules the work – following a time schedule is the key to complete a project in the given amount of time. A project is a series of various tasks taking varying amounts of time and processes to complete. The project manager ensures that there are no delays in the project schedule and eliminates lag time if any.
- Fighting against potential risks – risk can be defined as the probability of any unfortunate happenings over the given period of time. No matter how well a project has been planned, risks and bound to come into the picture. An efficient project manager will identify all the probable risks, assess the intensity of it along with the impacts of them on the project, and ultimately prepare a remedial plan to reduce or nullify the effects of the risk.
- Looking after the procurements – ensuring optimum utilization of resources required to complete the project is one of the major roles of a project manager.
- Reporting to the clients – once the project is under progress, a project manager has to communicate about the progress of the project to the clients building their trust with the organization.
- Finishing the project – after the successful trial of the project, a certified project manager will document the project report and will share it with the project client. Key learning during the course of the project is duly noted to be kept in mind for the other project.
A project manager is a key person of the business organizations that revolve around completing various sorts of projects. With growing competition, the need of recruiting a certified project manager is also increasing. Also, corporate employees indulge themselves in a certified project management course to enhance the competency and improve the portfolio because the scope of it is really broad.
