Managing IT projects comes with great responsibility. Poor project planning, weak management, insufficient resources and poor teamwork are some common culprits for most projects to fail. Your clients will always expect good results that are cost-effective and delivered timely. Despite putting your best efforts, the risk for failure is still relatively high. Therefore it is important that proper planning and necessary actions are taken. Here are the three project management best practices that will ultimately lead to your goal: Successful IT projects.
First: Precise Project Planning
This will ensure that the project activities run smoothly and the project objectives are achieved. Project planning is the groundwork for every project. The project needs to be divided into phases (through a Project WBS: Work Breakdown Structure) and the steps involved are properly defined. Provide a documentation of the procedures that has to be undertaken. You can employ the use of different tools and techniques like flowcharts, expert judgment, estimating techniques, ….
The project planning should include a clear picture of the scope of the project, the timeline of the deliverables, the duration of the project activities, the allocation of resources, the dependencies, tasks management,… Detailed Project Management Plan ensures client expectations are met and resources are utilized more effectively avoiding delays and overruns.
Second: Real Time Project Monitoring
After careful project planning, monitoring of the project should be religiously done. The project plan should continuously be reviewed by the project manager in order to make sure that the tasks are executed appropriately, the budget is checked, and the progress of the project is tracked. More importantly, real time project monitoring can help in identifying the loopholes of the project and the risks are assessed early on.
Third: Adequate Scope Creep Management
Project scope changes almost always affect the time, budget and the required resources to implement it. When not properly addressed, changes are the main reason why most projects are not completed and are doomed to fail.
Before accepting or rejecting any change, the project manager needs to manage the changes’ analysis through a CCB: Change Control Board, and to estimate the impact on all project components: Time, Cost, Quality, Risk, …
It is crucial that an open communication is established if ever changes are deemed necessary and additional tasks are needed.
Additional tip, teamwork makes the dream work. The project manager should be wise in delegating the tasks to the right staff. make sure the people in your team have the drive to complete the project.
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