Project Management

A project management is a process of supporting and controlling a company’s activity on the completion of required tasks within the given restraints. This process becomes crucial for such spheres of activity as engineering or information technology (IT). In general, the project management is the disposal of company resources in order to complete the project. The resources of the company consist of its employees, capital, technologies, and intellectual property.

Project Management stages

The project management has a few stages of supporting the project. In simple terms, they can be called:

1. Planning. First things first, it’s important to define what has to be done and establish the schedule, budget, and risks.
2. Start, or initiation. Basically, it defines how to start the project and what to begin with. This stage is closely correlated to the planning part. Also, it includes different analyses such as SWOT analysis, financial analysis, etc. 
3. Performance, or execution, characterizes the activity on the project itself.
4. Monitoring. The stage of controlling that everything works according to the plan.
5. Conclusion is the final stage when the project gets presented and accepted.

Otherwise, these stages are known as the project life cycle.

Project manager functions

The functions of the project manager are almost the same independently of the industry he works in and consist of:

• defining the projects’ goals;
• setting the terms;
• appointing the responsible parties for each task;
• arranging the control system;
• monitoring the work process.

Overall, the project manager is accountable for the accomplishment of the required tasks in time. Figuratively, it’s like doing puzzles. You have to check that all the needed pieces are in their proper place and, finally, create the whole picture.

Project Management types

Around 7 types of project management can be distinguished. Either type is aimed to serve certain demands of the different industries, companies, and projects. Let’s review some of these types:

• Waterfall type is called so because of a specific task order on the project. Each task precisely follows the other one. None of them can be missed or taken at the same time. This type of project management requires a strict observance of the time limit and task order more than any other. The number of employees participating in the project can be increased gradually, starting with a small team for a small task and then getting bigger when the tasks become bigger as well. Interactions between the personnel and customers happen rarely. This type of management might be perfect for some static projects with deferred deadlines, but might be useless for the projects with ever-changing conditions and short time frames.
• Agile type is based on the 12 core principles stated in the Agile Manifesto. This strategy of leading the project significantly differs from the previous one. There is no step-by-step order and strict observance of the work process. The core principles of the agile management values the interactions, collaborations, quality, and adjustability. The work on the project is divided into smaller tasks that can be done parallel. The deliverables can be changed and improved several times during the process in order to adjust to the customer’s needs. This type of project management is widespread within the information technology (IT) sphere. Also, there are some other types generated from the agile project management, such as Scrum and Kanban. Both of them are concentrated on the flexibility and speed of the work process.
• Lean type is derived from the Japanese production methodologies. This strategy is focused on saving as much time and resources as possible, at the same time avoiding the negative effect on the results of work. For this purpose the project manager has to understand clearly what is the main value for the customer and build the work around this value, excluding unnecessary actions.

Project Management example

Let’s imagine that you’re the project manager of some IT company working on website development. You have to organize work on a large project. First, make the needed analyses and define the existent and required amount of the budget, resources, and time. Also, it’s essential to establish the dialogue between the team and the customer in order to define the customer's needs. Second, divide the work into smaller tasks; assign the responsible parties for each piece of work; set the deadlines. All of these tasks and terms can be visually presented with the help of the Gantt charts or PERT charts. Third, create a system of monitoring the intermediate results and day-to-day work of the team. For instance, you can control the work progress through the daily meetings. Involve the customer in the work process as well. Ask him or her to estimate the results on different stages of work and offer some changes if needed. The last step is the presentation of the final version of the website to the customer.