3 Key Steps to a Successful Project Management Operation

Every project goes through the 3 key steps: Planning, Execution and Tracking

Project management is an integral part of any business, no matter what its size is. In order for the project to meet the deadline it is very important to create a detailed plan. The next step is to ensure a flawless workflow of your whole team, as any problem can cause a serious delay, turning a project into a failure that involves a substantial time and money loss.

Luckily, all these problems can be easily avoided by using any of a variety of existing project planning tools that can help with every step of the project management operation. With that in mind, let’s take a more detailed look at how project management software can improve the three key steps in project management.

Project planning

Starting a new project requires you to think about a lot of details, so it is very important to establish a plan that will meet the deadline, yet ensure a stable workflow. The best way to approach project planning is to:

• Be specific – create a list of goals that have to be achieved in order to complete the project. Be specific with tasks, as it is going to make it easier for your team to complete them.
  

• Be realistic – setting realistic goals is very important in all spheres of life, and business is no different. Setting an unrealistic task for your team is something that can severely harm the project, as your team members are going to spend an incredible amount of time on it without getting any results.
  

• Set attainable goals – setting attainable goals includes creating goals which are going to be achievable within a particular time frame. Majority of goals that you are going to create are realistic, but when you take into consideration the time needed for it, not every one of them is going to be attainable.
  

• Find a way to measure – establishing a pattern that will allow you to measure performance and progress is also important, as it is going to allow you to change tasks and assignments on the go according to the acquired data.

Taking all these steps is essential for establishing a project that is going to meet a desired deadline. This is where project management software comes in handy, as it is much easier to get a picture of how the project is going to evolve. Additionally, managing tasks and assignments is now easier than ever.

This software tool is also equipped with a variety of additional data you can add, for example, task due dates, notes including details and further reading material. This is why all of the modern companies are shifting to cloud-based project management tools, and it is also much easier to manage bigger teams.

Project execution

The execution phase requires a lot of collaboration, as there are a number of different working on the project simultaneously. Let’s take a look at the processes performed in the execution part of the project management phase:

• Selecting the team – picking the right team of people is essential if you want to get the project complete in the right time frame. During this process, a cloud based project management tool is very useful as it also provides information about the past performance of all the team members, which makes the process much faster and easier to complete.
  

• Managing assignments and milestones – every project consists of countless smaller tasks which have to be finished simultaneously in order to keep keep the workflow smooth. Project management tools make it possible for team leaders to change assignments with only a couple of clicks, and they provide a clear overview of who is responsible for which task.
  Constantly shifting assignments once certain milestones are completed is essential for creating a workflow in which all of the team members are constantly working on variety of tasks, so make sure to organize this part of the execution, as you don’t want to have team members who are idle.
  

• Follow progress – following progress will help project managers determine whether their initial plan is going well and all of the tasks are being completed on time. This process is made much easier, as acquiring this data is quite easy with a simple project management software.
  

• Status updates and changes – there is no such thing as a simple project that was completed without changes. All team managers create plans which have to be modified at some point, because of the unexpected problems that might occur. This makes updates and changes necessary.
  
  Cloud-based project management software turns this process into an easy task, as all the team members are instantly notified about all of the bigger changes that occur. This instantaneous update system makes the whole team significantly more productive.

These are the elements that occur in the execution phase of the project. Project management tools makes this whole process much faster.

Project tracking

Tracking project progress is of great importance, as it ensures several different things:

• Schedule and budget – a time frame needs to be respected for every project, mainly due to the fact that it is related to the dedicated budget. It is crucial to avoid breaching timeframes, as it can cause serious problems with stakeholders.
  

• Project costs – every project is limited with a certain budget. This makes it significantly important to track the costs of every step taken.
  

• Performance values – usually, different types of unexpected issues come up in every project. Some of them are minor, whereas others can cause significant performance issues. Monitoring these changes is essential to keep the project completed within a required timeframe.

During the tracking period, using project management software can greatly improve the amount of data that you can follow. Comparing current progress plan to the previously created one is an easy task, enabling the project manager to quickly adjust the workflow to meet all the requirements.

These three important tasks are something every project manager has to face in order to create flawless projects that always meet deadlines. Relying on a software tool is necessary, as it allows for simultaneous handling of several different projects as the company grows. On the other hand, this software will also give you an idea of how effective your workforce is, making it easier to create a dream team for the most demanding tasks within a company.

Carefully going through every step is absolutely necessary. It will save you and your company, money, time and keep the productivity at optimum levels at all times.