Knowledge in management
Understanding competencies and having the relevant knowledge in management is the basis of all management practices. Managers with a clear vision board, have better leadership skills and apply their knowledge to steer an organization toward achieving its objectives. None elements prove the efficacy of all project management practices.
Defined Life Cycle and Milestones: this means companies need to map critical milestones for a particular project into three phases; concept, planning, implementation, and closure. When well-defined, all theses phases offer crisis control and timelines for finishing the project, making it easy t follow up and mitigate any unprecedented occurrences (Ingason, 2015). How a company maps up its stages may differ, but the underlying factor is planning and scheduling deadlines for projects.
Stable Requirements and Scope: projects need a scope of documentation and stability if they are to work. The project’s success is pivoted by the project team’s ability to keep a record on the progress that is referred to once in a while to gauge its efficiency. This practice ensures the project covers as much ground as possible before starting.
Defined Organization roles and systems: every project has people working on it that need to be specified on what their part is. Defined roles for project managers, accountants, functional managers, and other team members outline responsibilities for members, thus preventing a gap in the project (Ingason, 2015). Effective communication in this kind of setup is essential to keep the project going while sharing ideas or identify any challenges arising along the process.
Quality Assurance: quality assurance means ensuring all protocols and standards are followed. It starts by outlining the standards expected by the team and cuts across the project to provide quality products that are used, and no corners are cut in a bid to hasten the project.
Planned Commitments: any plans made concerning any project should be made within the capabilities of the said organization. It is common to see organizations take up projects above their abilities building upon a house of cards and ending up with incomplete projects. An assessment of the organization’s capabilities allows it to embark on projects it can achieve and cuts down the risk of wasting resources. Budgeting is a critical management function that requires vital analysis before any project is undertaken.
Tracking and Variance Analysis: any project should have an exception process where any deviation or change of plan is reported and dealt with. Proper management of projects allows team members to make regular reports of the project to identify when things go astray quickly. Situations like cost overruns, scheduling problems, and new risks call for reevaluation but should not throw a project off balance. A good project manager should have room to wiggle when thins do not go as textbook as expected.
Corrective action decisions refer to the assumption that when variance happens at any stage of the project implementation, it will work to resolve it. Therefore, there is a need for a clear action plan on how to go about these changes as any misstep could cascade into multiple unexpected outcomes. Decisions on what trade-offs to be made, increased and decreased timelines, cost-cutting, and targets can be altered, and it is the work of the project manager to make the best decisions based on the situation.
Escalation and issue management: every organization has its chain of command. A project is no different.issues should be worked from the ground, up meaning dealing with issues from the lowest appropriate level (Kerzner, 2018, Muszynska, et al. 2015). When the puzzle is unsolvable at that level, it is elevated to the next one and so forth until a solution is established. There needs to be such a formal process in any project to avoid overburdening the project manager and allowing the team members to be decision-makers on the project, making them own it.
Work authorization and change control: Kerzner (2018) supports the argument that there must be a formal system of change and monitoring to avoid last-minute changes to the project. Unless under new circumstances or unavoidable ones, it is best to stick to the details of the projects as discussed before starting it. Changes not planned for can cause problems. An effective project manager knows when to exercise restraints and accept changes. Muszynska et al. (2015) add that the team’s constant communication anchors all these steps.
Following the right project practices are one way to attain the success of a project, but to the guarantee of it lies in the type of leaders the project has. Teamwork thrives on well-structured leadership that is inclusive, understanding of human nature, and encourages participation. It is holistic leaders who encompass the project team they have responsibility for (Novo et al. 2017). Without guidance, there would be no teamwork. Leadership is the decisive factor that establishes the improvement or success rates of any project. There are simple leadership principles that build up better teams and path the way to the success of a project. In this unit, I have picked up on these principles and called them my influential leadership pyramid. They are; vision building, collaborative, promotes performance, cultivates teaching, and is result-oriented result-oriented.
Vision- a leader and his team, shares the same project goals, and strive to find a better understanding of the processes needed to accomplish the mission. Setting SMART goals is the first way to build the vision (Sohmen, 2013). The leader directs the team on what is expected, and together, they come up with a list of objectives, activities, and set the overall picture for the project.
Nurturing collaboration: A leader identifies the strengths and weaknesses of his team leaders and enhances their strengths. He gives room for cooperation between the team members, where they share ideas on how to succeed in the project. The success of a project is not about individual performances, but a collective effort form the team. Project leaders understand the importance of teamwork hence nurture every member of the team to attain their maximum potential. Effective communication among all working on the project allows the free flow of information, and when team members know what they are devoting their time to is motivation.
Promoting performance: Every leader wants a team that performs, and as such, they create an environment in which every player gets to shine. This entails listening and using those ideas from the group as opposed to being dictatorial. It also means understanding the performance levels of all members of the team. A thriving environment is where a leader is a role model, takes time to find out what motivates his team members, empowers the team, and allows productive competition in terms of small motivations and incentives to solutions and results approaches.
Another fundamental relational principle is cultivating a learning culture for every member of the team. Each stage in a project implementation process creates a learning experience. As human mistakes happen, but this should not deter learning as learning is a continuous activity. An effective leader highlights every team member’s expectations and creates opportunities for them to learn how to meet these expectations (Sohmen, 2013). Such lessons can only be given by leaders who spend enough time with their colleagues and are keen on improving their potential. They look at their past performance and establish what knowledge or skill would be most useful to learn or adjust.
Finally, at the base of my leadership pyramid is result-oriented. Delivering results is a prerequisite and an outcome on any effective team leader. As projects are team efforts, leadership ensures everyone delivers, and the best way to do that is to apply the leadership principles. Results at every stage of the project cumulatively add to the final project’s success. Small results like meeting deadlines, checking in, and finding alternatives to problems are as important as the major ones.
From the essay above, some things stand ou on how to enhance success rates of a project. First, planning and planning with precision without overlooking any parameter. The adage, failing to plan is planning to fail, as cliche, as it is, is a fundamental management principle. The difference comes in preparing for unforeseen circumstances. An effective leader anticipates changes and plans on possible mitigation measures. The more proactive a solution is, the higher the chances of success as opposed to being reactive.
Secondly, a reprieve to the success of a project is flexibility, even in planning. There will always be something not anticipated in the project, and having that room adjust will facilitate success. A rigid plan makes it difficult to make impromptu changes (Anantatmula, 2015). Such flexibility includes adding in ideas that crop up along the way. It means reevaluating the objectives and aligning news developments to see whether the project’s aim is being met even with the new changes.
An important factor is a technology. Technology enhances success in that it makes work easier. It offers easier or simpler alternatives for action. It is wise to adopt technologies that are in line with a project and use them to their advantage while looking at other ways to simplify projects. Technology can be used in all phases of a project or can only be applied at specific stages.
References
Anantatmula, V. S. (2015). Strategies for enhancing project performance. Journal of Management in Engineering, 31(6), 04015013.
Ingason, H. T. (2015). Best project management practices in the implementation of an ISO 9001 quality management system. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 194(3), 192-200.
Kerzner, H. (2018). Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley & Sons.
Muszynska, K., Dermol, K., Trunk, V., Ðakovic, A., & Smrkolj, G. (2015, May). Communication management in project teams–practices and patterns. In Joint International Conference (pp. 1359-1566).
Novo, B., Landis, E. A., & Haley, M. L. (2017). Leadership and its role in the success of project management. Journal of Leadership, Accountability, and Ethics, 14(1).
Sohmen, V. S. (2013). Leadership and teamwork: Two sides of the same coin. Journal of IT and Economic Development, 4(2), 1-18.