Successful Management of a Project

A Project is basically achieving planned objectives. To achieve it within a defined timeframe and budget, proper planning, execution and closure is required.

In order to manage a project efficiently, various factors are to be considered. Some of them are as follows:

Project Visibility: 

There should be a clear picture of project goals, timeframe, resources required etc. It is important to know what has to be achieved, in order to achieve it successfully. Without having a clear picture, it is not wise to jump to next step i.e. how to achieve it. Business cases prepared properly helps to understand the requirements of the customers.

Involvement of Management:

Top Management should help to provide the required resources, authority, and any kind of assistance wherever required. 

Project Schedule:

In a project, number of people work who perform various activities. So, action plan focusing on ideas and steps to be taken to achieve the objectives should be discussed and documented. It is important to figure out tasks to be carried out, time required to complete each task and resources to be allocated for the tasks. Project Manager has to make plan to recruit, select and train the required skilled personnel.

Communication: As many people are involved in a project, a network is required so that people can interact with each other. Team is aligned on activities taking place, roles and responsibilities and assistance required. The proper flow of communication reduces the ambiguity and helps to achieve the goals in an efficient and effective way. Communication is the backbone of a business, organization and system.

Monitoring, Feedback and Control:

All the activities should be monitored and accordingly decisions should be taken as and when required. Depending upon the feedback, improvements should be made. It is very important to compare the expected performance and actual performance. Control is required to reduce this gap between expected and actual results. The types of controls used in project management are cybernetic, go/no-go, and post-performance. Cybernetic control focusses on the outputs. Whereas, go/no-go control ensures that before undertaking a task the prerequisites are satisfied. After the completion of a project, post-performance controls are applied. This control is about the learning

Customer Focus and Acceptance: 

Amid all the activities, it is important that the customer’s interest shouldn’t be neglected. Along with the project manager, customer should also be benefited by the process efficiency. Ultimately we expect the product to be accepted by the customer.

If the customer focus is shifted, all the efforts may go futile. So while working on other aspects of project management, it is highly recommended to keep the requirements of the customer in mind. As we know that the customer is the king!

Motivation:

There are various activities involved in a project. To ensure the efficient working of the team and successful achievement of the objectives, Project Manager should motivate the teammates. Sometimes things may not work as expected but it is required that team is motivated to work together to achieve it.

Project Manager should talk, understand and try to find the solutions for the issues faced by the team.

It is the job of the Project Manager and management to help the team with timely solutions. It is the collective job of the management, Project Management and team to achieve the target of customer acceptance and satisfaction.

Having mentioned few factors, while working on projects, one may come up with various other aspects to increase the efficiency of the Project Management. 

Conclusion:

As efforts, money and time are involved in a project, it becomes a necessity to manage the project in a proper manner with an aim to make it a success. Project Manager manages the project skillfully with proper visibility, scheduling, motivation, and monitoring & control taking help from top management and successfully achieves the project objectives.

About Author:

Madhumita Mishra 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: madhumita.mishra@spluspl.com

Management’s Role in Audit Assessment

An internal audit assessment typically has 3 phases: Planning, Testing and Reporting. Management has an important role to play in each of the above phase of the assessment

Planning

During planning, the auditors prepare the audit plan that outlines the guidelines to be followed during assessment. It also covers the risks / impacts and the planned responses for the same. It is then the responsibility of the management to guarantee that the plan is understood by the senior officials. Management should make sure that senior officials agree with the audit purpose and approach. An open end discussion with the audit team on the approach on how to go about the whole process of audit is important. This helps the management and the audit team to align on the prospects in advance. Management talks about the assessment criteria that the auditors will use in testing the controls with the employees in the company, helping them understand on what needs to be done for the successful accomplishment of the audit.

Testing

During testing, the Management allows the auditors to investigate the company’s critical systems and frameworks. Management agrees with the audit results by checking the procedures and information so as to gain trust in the audit findings. The audit group and senior officials of different departments that were audited meet frequently throughout the audit procedure – generally weekly or monthly – to talk about audit progress, identified issues, and potential activities.

Such open, straightforward meetings between senior officials from both Management and the audit groups help avoid misunderstandings before the audit group issues its draft report. The auditors should convey all crucial findings to management at the earliest, even before the planned meetings. These findings are investigated during regular meetings, however proactive notification is essential.

Reporting

Once the auditors complete the assessment, they prepare the final audit report which outlines the gaps in the processes and corrective actions that need to be taken by the management. This will help in making the processes more effective and efficient. The management checks the findings, analyzes the gaps in the processes and thereby implements the corrective actions as suggested by auditors.

Audit Communication flow

• During planning, the audit team prepares and communicates the audit plan to the management. The meeting is then conducted between the management and auditors to discuss the audit goals and scope of the assessment
• Once the audit plan is finalized, auditors then test the controls by checking the evidences submitted by the management. Management also validates testing processes and meets frequently with the audit teams to discuss audit progress and issues
• Post assessment, audit team issues draft report and conducts meeting with management. After all the discussions, the audit team issues the final report, which is then reviewed and agreed upon by the management
• The management then starts to work on the gaps found in the processes by implementing the remediation as suggested by the auditors
• The auditors then follow up to check how well the Management has implemented the corrective actions suggested in the report

Conclusion:

The point of all this is: Audit team and Management should work in a joint effort throughout the audit assessment to guarantee that auditors meet objectives and have legitimate knowledge of IT and business forms. Great correspondence throughout the audit process guarantees that audit findings are applicable and can be utilized for the progress of the company.

About Author:

Nisha Bhatt 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: nisha.bhatt@spluspl.com