Project management is an essential component of any organisation. It ensures that all project goals are met correctly and that businesses run smoothly. And when working on a project, it is critical for project managers (PMs) to understand the fundamentals of project management.
In this article, you will learn the seven project management fundamentals that every project manager should know in order to complete the project successfully.
1. Process Groups
There are five process groups or phases in the project management life cycle. And each process group represents a different phase of the project.
- Initiation: In the initiation or introductory phase, managers define the project and turn the client’s or stakeholder’s vision into an achievable goal. Here, PMs and clients discuss expectations, deliverables, time, scope, budget, goals, and other secondary constraints.
- Planning: PMs divide the task in front of the team during the planning phase. They talk about the methodologies, resources and strategies that will be used during execution.
- Execution: The execution phase focuses on completing tasks and bringing the stakeholders’ vision to life. PMs closely monitor each task and assist the team in staying on track. They are also in charge of ensuring two-way communication between stakeholders and team members.
- Monitoring: Project managers concentrate on key performance indicators (KPIs) during this phase. Cost and effort tracking, deliverables and objectives, and performance and progress are all examples of KPIs.
- Closure: This is the final stage of the process groups, in which PMs and team members formally close the project and terminate contracts with external parties. They also review the project, run a final budget check, create a detailed report that covers all completed and unfinished tasks, and present it to the stakeholders.
2. Cost Management
Cost management focuses on the budgeting of the project. One of the primary restrictions of any project is its budget. And, without cost management, no project is likely to stay within its budget. Cost management entails cost planning, estimation, budgeting, and control.
3. Risk Management
Risk management is one of the critical project management fundamentals. Below are the following steps of risk management:
- Identifying risks
- Risk analysis
- Assigning risk ownership to team members
- Prioritising project risk
- Project risk response planning
- Risk monitoring
- Developing risk management strategies
4. Task Management
All projects consist of tasks that the project team must complete in order for the project to succeed. Project managers ensure that all assigned tasks are completed on time and within budget. Task management includes the following steps:
- Identifying the task
- Task execution monitoring
- Coordinating the tasks
5. Project Constraints
In project management, constraints are unavoidable. And every project has three primary constraints, commonly referred to as the project management triangle: time, scope, and cost.
- The cost constraint focuses on budget management and staying within predefined financial limits.
- The time constraint focuses on planning, executing and monitoring the project schedule.
- The scope constraint ensures that project managers define the scope at the start of the project.
6. Project Communication Mangement
Any project can fail due to poor communication. That is why maintaining project communication management is critical. Here, project managers outline how communication will work across teams and develop a communication plan for each message. Standard steps include:
- Purpose: Define the intention of the communication.
- Audience: Specify the list of stakeholders and anyone else with whom PMs want to communicate.
- Message: Determine the message’s content and the components that will be shared
- Channel: Specify the communication channel.
- Timeline: Decide the time frame in which managers will deliver the message.
Communication management ensures that everything runs smoothly, avoiding problems that might delay the project.
7. Change Management
Even perfectly-made plans can go wrong, and this is especially true in project management. And that’s where change management comes into play. It focuses on maintaining control when change occurs and devising solutions to keep the project on track. It also helps managers to predict, respond and introduce changes as the project progresses.
Take Away
Project management fundamentals are critical to the success of any project. And as an aspiring project manager, learning about them is incredibly important to completing projects and succeeding in the role.
So, if you want to learn more about project management fundamentals and other aspects of project management and apply them in business situations, enrol in project management certifications. These advanced online bootcamps will help you gain extensive industry knowledge and advance your career.