Project Management can be described as the practice of planning, analyzing, managing, and monitoring the work to achieve specific objectives within the stipulated time.
It was established to make sure that all the goals and results of the project are achieved successfully without any delay and errors.
Although project management is complex, it’s an important practice which is followed by the top organizations in the world.
For example, consider a situation where you want to implement a new strategy that might increase the profits of your business or reduce the overall development costs.
But, if you executive the idea without a proper plan, it might have a negative impact on your business.
To make the project successful, you need to create a detailed strategy including the purpose, objectives, budget, time required for completion, and others. Make sure that the project progresses according to the plan dealing with the unexpected setbacks and changes.
With the help of the basic principles of project management, you can successfully complete any project.
Below are the 9 basic principles of project management which you should keep in mind while working on your next project:
- Project Goals & Objectives
The most important principle of project management is understanding about your project’s goals and objectives. You need to have a clear idea about the purpose of the initiative and what you want to accomplish. This helps in creating a strong project structure going forward.
After listing down the objectives, create relevant, measurable, and small goals which can be achieved within a short period.
For example, simply increasing the overall profit of a business is a vague goal. Instead, getting three new clients every month is considered a SMART goal.
Listing down the objectives helps to understand what necessary steps should be taken to complete and achieve the desired results.
The primary purpose of project management is to ensure that every team member is on the same page before starting a project.
- Budgeting
After listing down the goals, you need to plan your overall strategy. While creating a strategy, you will discover many constraints such as budgeting and others which will impact your project success.
Most of the businesses ask their team members to achieve more with less budget. You will face the same situation while developing your project management plan.
Once your budget gets approved, you need to set project priorities and find out which aspects are important and which can be eliminated to get the desired output.
The budget is an important asset of your project which cannot be ignored or overlooked.
- Scheduling
One another constraint along with budget is time; therefore it’s essential to have a comprehensive schedule for your project.
According to PMI, i.e., Project Management Institute, the schedule of your project should focus on when the tasks will be performed, and not when they must complete.
Hence, before creating your project plan note down the important factors such as holidays, bandwidth, and prior commitments.
Proper scheduling helps in understanding the actual working hours required to complete a work. This principle of project management ensures that you don’t have to complete the necessary tasks in an impractical timeframe.
- Allocating Team Responsibilities
This principle helps in defining the responsibilities of individual team members of a group. You need to create a checklist in an excel sheet, graph, or any project management tool which contains all the duties assigned to the team members.
Mapping out the roles in a comprehensive manner helps in understanding about the things required and in what order to successfully complete a project.
It is an essential step as it outlines everyone’s roles and reduces the overall workload.
It also helps in predicting potential problems and blockers which can easily be solved by changing the schedule or managing shifts depending on the strength of the team members.
- Define Milestones
Defining milestones for your project is an important principle of project management. Although for the smaller and shorter ones you can skip this, but for the complex long-term projects it’s mandatory to define milestones at regular intervals.
You can set milestones after completing a particular part of your project. For example, if you have a business related to sales, then you can define a milestone after getting ten successful deals.
It helps to track the progress of your project transparently and also boosts the morale of team members
If you want to take your project management experience to the next level, then take a PMP Certification Houston training course. It includes all the emerging practices, trends, which will enhance your business as well as practical knowledge.
- Manage to change the business goals
When the project is in, it’s initial or development stages, the biggest challenge for any business is changing their priorities and goals.
According to a report, more than 50% of the project managers believe that changing business goals and priorities in between is one of the top issues that impact a company.
To get the most out of this project management principle, you need to make your business flexible so that you can easily make any changes in the plan if anything unexpected happens.
It could be in the form of reduced budget, fewer team members, or any new order from the head of the organization, etc.
- Accountability and Responsibility
It is an important principle for both the project manager as well as individual team members of a project.
The project manager needs to have the necessary skill set and knowledge to keep the team on track, and each and every team members should also be accountable for the goals they want to achieve.
The best way to master this principle is by constantly communicating with the other team members and understanding their needs and requirements for the project completion.
The project managers should report the investors and stakeholders about the project’s status, and convey any feedback received back to the team members.
This helps in creating transparency in the work which ultimately benefits your business.
- Tailor to the environment
To develop a successful project management plan, you need to consider the specific needs and requirements of the project.
You should not create a plan or framework without understanding about the environment that they are working in and the exact time required to complete a project.
For example, if a project has a timeframe of 3 years, then it has to be followed with a different approach and methodology compared to the one that needs just 6 months to complete.
You need to tailor a project management strategy or plan depending on the type of business, goals, industry size, etc.
- Monitor and Retrospect
Retrospecting is an important project management principle which cannot be ignored as it helps in understanding what improvements you can do in future projects.
After completing a project, you need to review and discuss the aspects with your team members which could have been further improved.
You can use the learnings in your next projects to optimize the overall development process.
The Final Say
There are many more principles associated with project management. If we mention all of them, then the list will be endless.
However, the principles listed above will help you to create a roadmap to success.
If you want to implement a new system or refine the existing one, these principles will help you to approach your project effectively.