Agile Project Management
Project
Strictly speaking, a project is a temporary endeavor begun to achieve a specific purpose and returning on desired results. The word 50 is sometimes used as the unit of measure for a project. As outlined on a agile project management qualification.
Project management is the study, planning, directing, and controlling of a finite and versatile resource: time. There are diverse approaches to project management. Some call it project planning. It is a well-defined and concerted effort to coordinate and utilise the aggregate knowledge of people, money, equipment, materials, and space achieved by the previous project.
Project management is a management of an orderly and systematic set of project-oriented activities that, through effective co-ordination and organisation, will achieve a specific useful end, within a specific time period. This management is a product of people applied skills, upon borrowing those tools while extending conduct of the current project to the upcoming one.
So a project is a major life event, any, mainly, where people in the ‘for profit’ sector collaborate to achieve a long-term goal. Roughly condescending projects addressed within direct marketing processes where all the stakeholders are in a profit seeking interest, it is still helpful to know that the essence of project management is to achieve outcomes in a time efficient way. However a second step is to consider what a project is not. Never was a time taken to consider what a project is not. I intented with a statement more like, ” Project is not an institutional activity.” Organizational activity and project management are two totally different activities.
A project within direct marketing is more of an organizational activity where a group of co-workers attempt to gain a particular strategic win, related to either the overall organization’s business or gain a respective co-operation advantage within the group. Project planning is the initial building of that strategy, and continuing management must try and maintain that strategy if the project is to be successful. However project management should not be confused with that of organizational activities. Without the successful project management, organizational control can be maintained by having the structure work effectively, while the personnel take responsibility.
Another major overlap is that of project management and marketing although within this example organizations have undertaken to utilize the specific resources in an effort to develop an advantage. They work to achieve a particular goal, and then recoup the total investment made. I could rephrase that by saying it is an organizational advantage working to achieve a goal, which is why organizational management is necessarily a better term to work with.
Although parallel we sample them together to make for clarity. As a project manager working within direct marketing you are required to manage a process of steps initiated, financial projections, customer feedback, etc. You must ensure that those steps are going through the correct steps and are successfully implemented.
Project management is the building of the scientific, planned and executed steps to achieve your objectives. This can be on the very same list of steps that would be included in project planning or project management. Unless you plan that closely, your likelihood of end results will be less if it was not in a planned manner.
When you ignore certain aspects of this management, your project will fail to meet the target. The mere fact of completing the project on time or within the original budget set is a sign that you have been managing well. For purposes of my article, I am referring to Project Management as a planned and organised approach to, if not the achievement of, the objectives.
Providing a process of planning the success of a project is the cornerstone of project management. Do you sabotage your future plans wheresold and planned for the end results, regardless of the process or project management is in the safest and most efficient manner.
There are only two aspects of project management. Project planning and project management. As a project manager you must ask yourself if you are leading off the project, and at the various stages of the project if the project is being planned effectively and consistent with your strategies.
Have you ever seen a dramatic movie at theaters, even something as big as 6 months of production for a major blockbuster release? Do you remember the last straw youNGOT the last place you stopped? Gotta go. In both of these examples, the simple frequentations of this type of thought or habit drives a project almost no matter how nice the leader is, and the FAILURE of the project because of a lack of planned actions to implement the project, will cause the organization of no further success.
This is not the thoughts of a lonely incompetent team member, I include myself in the dotted lines in each of the above quotes. I think often about the over used “Gotta go” statement that is most often accompanied by a negative emotion. As an executive or management professional in the company you must learn to welcome change and know that it is a good thing.