Project Management

Project management is an endeavor undertaken to accomplish specific goals in a given time period. This blog aims at providing an initial idea of project management as a whole. It deals with the real-time importance of implementing project management from the initiation of any IT project.  

Project Management & its Importance

Project management provides a framework to achieve goals and target, which leads to the production of a distinctive product/service. Thus, a project is temporary owing to a defined start time and end time allocated to it. Group of activities involved in project management are interrelated and cannot 

function independently. 

There are myriads of challenges, risk factors and constraints faced during the process of project management. If a project manager does not have a systematic, structured and scientific approach towards planning, implementing and controlling a project, he will face an unforeseeable and tumultuous environment with little or no control.

  

Terminologies 

A project is a series and sequence of activities with a predefined start and end time with a predefined goal for its accomplishment.

An activity or a task is one of the actions or a unit action within that particular project which takes up both time and resources as a mandate which are controlled by the project manager. 

Schedule is a time-frame which is set up for completing the entire project from the beginning till the end.

Project management is the skillful application of knowledge and skills (soft and hard) in initiating, planning, organizing, executing and controlling activities and resources (people, finance and timelines) both internally and externally in an organization to achieve predefined  singular goals and results.

The main objective of project management is to successfully complete the project with the allocated or available resources, cost and time constraints. 

A successful project is the one in which:

• The goal is achieved on or before time resources are used optimally and the cost is in budget
• The end-user is satisfied with the output achieved
• Project Management Process

Project Initiation

The aim of this phase is to define the high level plans and assess risks associated with the project. Many of the high-level deliverables will be found out in this stage, which will provide a base for estimates. It is the responsibility of the project manager to work in association with the project sponsor to come to a feasible solution and precise scope of the project for major opportunities. Requirement gathering and analysis are carried out in this stage.

Project Planning 

This is the phase where the new project plan kicks-off with accurate details, milestones and schedule, where the success rate of the project is the most vulnerable. The infrastructure and backbone of the project is defined at this stage, resources and people are allocated, roles and responsibilities are assigned, communication plans are developed, time-schedule is assigned to the various tasks and activities listed down. 

Project Execution

In the execution phase the task and activities defined in the planning phase are executed, developed and completed. Many of the project parameters like project development updates and status reports, performance reports are captured for analysis in this stage. 

Project Monitoring & Control

This phase basically checks and monitors the progress and performance of project and whether it is being executed in alignment to the established project parameters. The project manager uses certain KPIs to carry out these functions. Project objectives, quality deliverables, effort and cost tracking, project performance are some of the KPIs utilized during performance review. Followed by these actions, corrective measures are planned and put into action in case of discrepancies.

Project Closure

This phase represents final project completion in which the success and failure parameters that occurred in the project identified. A punch list of the factors which did not work out in the aid of the project is listed down by the project manager to be worked upon, prepare a final project budget followed by the final project report and stored for future reference.

Thus project management has become indispensible part of organizations which have short temporary projects to be carried out. The absence of the management module would lead to the project becoming haywire and unorganized. It essentially helps in accomplishing the project goals and understanding the pros and cons of the methodology deployed to arrive at the success and failure parameters at the time of project closure.

Devika Vaghela is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, She actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at:devika.vaghela@spluspl.com

A Meeting Invite Inside

With the advent of technology, all major communication is now done using the internet. An invite right from a meeting to wedding is send online. On daily basis we come across many mails in our inbox and send out so many mails too. Do you reply to every mail sent to you? Do you receive replies to all the mails you have sent? Let’s try and gain an understanding of how a well written email distinguishes itself from the others.

1 Subject Line: 

The best email subject lines are usually short and provide the reader a reason to open your email. They need to be descriptive and should include the meeting name and an indication of what kind of invitation it is that you are sending.

2 Date & Time: 

In the text of the e-mail make sure to include the full date and time of the meeting, including the time zone. Spelling out month names helps avoid confusion for people from other countries who are used to seeing different date formats. Remember that Outlook automatically converts the invite to the local time of the receiver. 

3 Highlight the Agenda: 

An organized meeting will always have a well-written agenda. You must keep all your meeting streamlined and focused, ensuring that you meet all of your goals for your meeting in the shortest amount of time. Always keep time for Q and A in agenda ensuring that the participants are engaged. 

4 Accept, Reject, Decline: 

Any meeting invite send must be responded to. As a participant you can accept or decline a meeting request. If you are unsure you can send a tentative response or propose a new timing. But ensure that it is replied to. Not answering to meeting invites is considered unprofessional.

E-mails reflect a lot on an individual’s professionalism. Ensure you keep e-mail strictly professional, do not get too emotional. If you are unsure of your emotions take some time out and then draft the e-mail. Do not forget to format the e-mail and check for spelling errors. 

As they say “Regardless of the mode of communication used, professionalism and courtesy never go out of style”

Shweta Samudra is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, She actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at: shweta.samudra@spluspl.com