Approach to Effective Project Management-8Manage PPM

Practical and effective project management has its roots in simplicity. Keeping a thing simple makes it easier to understand. Stakeholders can provide their requirements in simple terms and they can set clear expectations. Stakeholders can measure project success in terms of benefits it delivers.

But it is very important that not to confuse vagueness or the lack of clarity with simplicity.  When you need to understand the cause-and-effect relationships of a number of project activities or the interdependencies of several deliverables, even they aren’t easily expressed in a very simple manner, but you will still need to understand them.  Therefore, when your project has a certain level essential complexity, you can’t just pretend that they are simple.  You can only make it simple by leveraging the power of an effective project management tool such as 8Manage project management system. 8Manage PPM functionality is second to none, which supports PMI 9 project management areas. Its’ multi-project management facility is suitable for the management of all kinds of project work.

After you are ready to tame the essential complexity of your project to make them simple, you can then follow the steps below for project planning:

Identify and meet with stakeholders -- Meet with your stakeholders (e.g., project sponsors) to discuss their needs and expectations, and establish baselines for project scope, budget, and timeline. 

Define and prioritize goals -- After you understand the needs from your stakeholders, you should define the project goals and prioritize them. 

Define milestones and deliverables -- Identify the important milestones and deliverables and project planning steps required to meet the project goals that you defined. 

Create the work breakdown structure and schedule -- Look at each deliverable and define the series of tasks that must be completed to accomplish each one. For each activity, determine the amount of time it will take, the responsible person and the needed resources.

Present the project plan to your stakeholders -- Explain how your plan addresses stakeholders needs, and present your solutions to conflicts (if any). 

After you get buy-in from your stakeholders on your plan, you can start executing your plan. The project execution phase is the longest and most difficult phase in the project life cycle. In this phase, you will build the physical project deliverables and present them to your stakeholders (e.g., customers) for signoff. 

To enable you to monitor and control the project during this phase, you will need to implement a range of management processes using the effective 8Manage project management system which will help you manage time, cost, quality, change, communications, risks and issues. It will also help you manage procurement, and outsourcing as needed.  After you have set up the processes mentioned above in your project management system, you can start execute your project by

-Communicating with and managing project members / stakeholders / others

-Executing activities

-Managing changes

-Helping the team to get the work completed

-Ensuring the team is calibrated, focused and informed

-Utilizing resources effectively

-Keeping the project on track as per schedule

-Increasing productivity and efficiency by performing process improvements

Technology has given many gifts to project managers.  A powerful project management system such as 8Mange PPM can act as a big information repository of all the relevant project information. From files to documents, file-sharing to giving feedback, effective communication to seamless collaboration — project management system acts as a centralized platform for everything and everyone in the team.

Approach to effective project management with 8Manage? Get A Free Trial!