Starting or managing a business requires a lot of study and relying on the tools used by . In this post we are going to talk about a concept that will help you a lot in this task: project management. Read to the end!
With project management you will be able to design your own “instruction manual” to fulfill all your and personal. Let us begin!
What is a project?
A project is nothing more than a set of repeated efforts made temporarily with the aim of a service or achieve a goal.
The most relevant characteristics of a project are its temporary condition and being made up of stages that require planning, organization, execution and control following the established parameters and allocated resources.
But, projects are not only used in the professional sphere, they are also implemented in various situations in personal life, such as, for example, buy a home or go on vacation to a special place.
If you are thinking of starting a business, you have a great project in mind. Therefore, we are going to help you manage it in the best possible way so that you increase your chances of success.
And we are going to do it by explaining to you right now what project management consists of, what its benefits are and how you can apply it.
What is project management?
Starting from the definition of project that we mentioned earlier and the meaning of the verb to manage, we can think that project management is nothing more than the administration and organization of this type of activity.
If that’s what came to mind, you’re not too far from reality. Project management refers to all those actions, and planning carried out to make it possible for a project to develop and meet its objectives.
Creating a business requires going through several stages to get the idea off paper and transform it into a product or service ready to sell. Therefore, managing them correctly is essential to preserve the investment made and take advantage of all possible opportunities.
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Now that you have understood what project management refers to, we are going to show you some of its main benefits.
1. Improves the operational capacity of the project
Any task that is carried out in a disorganized way and without control of the stages is doomed to failure. For this reason, project management contributes to improving the operation, performance and in each phase, allowing the project to be executed more successfully.
2. Makes coordination of available resources possible
For a project to reach the end and meet its objectives, it is essential with which it counts. Otherwise, there is a risk of not acquiring essential tools or materials for its execution.
Imagine, for example, that you want to start a business in the gastronomy niche. You is to prepare dishes for special occasions and deliver them at home. At a minimum, you will need to buy kitchen utensils, a means of transportation and allocate a part of your capital to the ingredients for your menu.
What would happen if you spent it all on pots and pans? Or in ingredients? Surely, you could not afford essential elements for your project of and you would not meet your goals.
And it is exactly to avoid situations like this that project management is important.
3. Give an overview of the business or the idea
Sometimes one of the main challenges of executing a project is to connect all its stages and arrive at a coherent result.
Using project management, it is possible to understand what you are proposing in its entirety, find effective strategies, carry it out and identify flaws and points for improvement.
4. Allows you to react faster to changing demands
When creating a project, whether personal or professional, we can get frustrated when things don’t turn out the way we expected. This can have a negative impact, not only because it forces us to deal with this feeling, but also because it can paralyze us and prevent us from being able to solve the unforeseen events that arise.
With project management, which allows you to have everything organized, it is easier to make adaptations to unexpected situations. This generates peace of mind and, consequently, more chances of success.
5 phases of project management
Surely, you have ever started a project and the amount of work has seemed overwhelming. If so, we have excellent news for you: organizing your project in stages can help you manage it more easily.
So that you can successfully fulfill all your tasks and objectives, we recommend that you follow these steps or phases:
Phase 1: The beginning of the project
The first phase of a project begins with evaluating the value, feasibility and profitability of the plan. This stage involves analyzing all the details of your idea or business, such as, for example, associated costs, possible risks, available initial investment, among others.
If you are about to start a new business, we advise you to compile all this information in a document where you explain your idea. But, don’t keep it in a drawer, commit to working on it and acquiring knowledge to undertake in the safest way possible.
Phase 2: Project Planning
This phase is very necessary. When a business strategy is misunderstood or important issues such as costs, licenses or permits required to sell a product, for example, are ignored, the project could result in commercial failure.
The main objective of this stage is to provide a complete action plan to formulate the business. To do this, you need:
- Analyze in detail the scope of the project.
- Make estimates of investment of time and money, as well as the knowledge necessary to start the project.
- Define a plan applying the or quantitative (as convenient)
Phase 3: Project execution
Here all the “know how” of the project is displayed. In other words, all the techniques, ways of managing the resources and tools to manage the processes are established.
In this stage, the workflow is defined, the tasks necessary for the operation are assigned and executed and, in addition, the activities that are not convenient for the project are corrected.
Phase 4: Monitoring and control of the project
Although this is almost the last stage, it is also very important to develop a successful project, because it is where compliance with what was planned is verified. Here, changes and modifications or new ideas that may arise can also be applied.
Phase 5: Closure of the project
A project is concluded when an outcome is obtained, which can be the success or achievement of the objective, failure or when the needs that gave rise to it have ceased to exist or have become irrelevant.
In this phase, the work carried out is evaluated and a new project can be opened. For example, suppose a manages to launch a channel . This would be his first project, the second could be to produce the contents and increase the dissemination in the .
At first glance, project management may seem like something very complicated that only great professionals or companies can execute, but when you divide it into these five steps, the work becomes much more bearable.
To help you put project management into practice in the creation of your business, we are going to present you with 4 methodologies that you could lean on to measure your results effectively and safely.
Methodologies for project management
1.Agile methodology
This is a method that consists of dividing the project into small phases or cycles and is highly recommended for those who are starting to shape their business. By using this methodology, you work in a more thorough and dynamic way, making the work much more and easy for everyone.
As its name indicates, it seeks agility in the process. Because it is not a strict method, it allows the people who use it to change the direction of their project as they obtain results in each cycle.
2. Traditional sequence methodology
It is a set of traditional methods whose premise is that in a project one phase must be completed before moving on to the next. With this methodology, you can check if you have developed and completed each stage correctly.
The most positive thing about this method is that it allows you to have strict and total control of the project from the first moment. However, this could also cause problems in its execution.
Being such strict and static methodologies, if you need to change something in your project, you will have to go back to the beginning and start from scratch, losing several important resources.
The most common traditional methodologies are Waterfall, CPM (Critical Path Method) and CCPM (Critical Change Project Management).
3. Kanban board
We could say that the Kanban methodology is a type of “Agile” method because it uses more or less the same principles, but in a very particular way.
The Kanban board is applied by preparing a board where you can see the project workflow, that is, all the pending activities. This board is divided into categories: activities to do, activities in progress, and activities completed.
As the project progresses and tasks are accomplished, you can add more categories as needed. In addition, you must record each completed task with a “Kanban card” that you must move from one column to another until the project is completed.
4. Scrum Methodology
The last methodology that we recommend is Scrum project management, a very agile method that is based on the incremental approach to work with a single objective: to finish the project quickly.
Scrum uses sprints to execute tasks. A sprint is the parts, with a fixed and repeatable duration of time, in which a project can be divided. In general, they are mini-projects of no more than a month with a very well-structured definition and planning.
Take these methodologies into account when developing and launching your it can help pave the way and bring you a little closer to the success you so desire.
Remember that it is not necessary to apply all these methodologies or use only one. Your decision depends on your context and your goals. You must have them very well established, as well as the way you want to develop your project.
In addition to methodologies, there are tools that can help you manage your project. Some are simple as the or the. But there are other more complex ones that will lead you to obtain better results. We’ll show them to you right away!
4 project management tools
Organization and collaboration is key to successfully executing projects. Even if you start your business without help, you will probably need the support of other people to accomplish the tasks of the project.
Fortunately, today we have tools to manage multiple projects at the same time, delegate tasks and work in , even remotely.
To manage your project,…
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