Question

Imagine that you have recently finished your MBA and have a company that has entered the arena of Project Management. During your interview, you are told that project management is not something that the company has always done. In fact, the company began as a retail software design company. As the company grew from small to medium-sized, it became apparent that they needed to employ Project Managers to help their clients rollout the use of their software and not leave the PM to the client. As their newest hire, you have been asked to create a proposal for the management team to consider the installation of a bonafide Project Management Department. Your duty is to prepare a concise (about 2-pages) proposal addressing the value of robust project management approach will bring to the company. Be as concise as possible and ensure that at least three key benefits are clearly emphasized.

Answer 1

Leading organizations across sectors and geographic borders have been steadily embracing project management as a way to control spending and improve project results. Executives discovered that adhering to project management methods and strategies reduced risks, cut costs and improved success rates vital to surviving the economic crisis. Running projects without good project management is a false economy. It’s often thought to be an unnecessary burden on the budget, and there’s no doubt it can be expensive, as much as 20% of the overall project budget.

An efficient Project Management team is certainly a competitive advantage to the company It helps in creating a strategic value chain that gives the company an edge over the competitors. Good project management ensures that the goals of projects closely align with the strategic goals of the business. Successful completion of project within the stipulated time and budget determines the chances of the company to get even more projects. A strong project management discipline brings exceptional value to the business. To keep that competitive edge, companies need to align their project management strategies directly with their strategic business goals. Project management team can serve as a powerful bridge in creating and managing the link between strategy and results

An effective Project management is important as it brings leadership and directions to project. Leadership in project management enables teams to do their best work, it provides vision, motivation, coaching and removing barriers. It inspires all team members for the best achievements. The project managers add value to their organisations by focussing on customer needs, delegating duties and responsibilities, by building a compatible team and successfully delivering on their promises.

Proper project management ensures quality and proper planning. It ensures proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much.

Without proper project management, budget estimates and project delivery timelines will not be set correctly. Ultimately this means without good project management, projects get delivered late, and exceeds the estimated and agreed budget.

Effective project managers should be able to negotiate reasonable and achievable deadlines and milestones across stakeholders, teams, and management. Too often, the urgency on delivery of projects compromises the quality of the project’s outcome. A perfect Project Management team abolishes all these limits and ensures quality and conduct necessary test to measure the quality at all steps of the project.

A good project manager creates a clear process, with achievable deadlines, that enables everyone within the project team to work within reasonable limits.