Project Management

Free Project management , NNothing is difficult once you have learned it

It was just a few decades ago, in the 1950s, that modern project management was first seen as an individual subject within the area of economic sciences. Centuries back, so-called “projects” were finished successfully, e.g. the building of the aqueducts in Roman times or the construction of the Great Wall in China, but these projects were managed more on an ad-hoc basis mostly using informal techniques and tools.

Project management nowadays is regarded as a very high priority as all companies or organisations, whether small or large, are at one time or another involved in implementing new undertakings, innovations and changes etc. – projects! These projects may be individually diverse, however over time, some tools, management techniques and problem-solving approaches have proven themselves to be more rewarding than others in bringing projects to a successful end.

The development of project management has always been in parallel to the development of general trends in worldwide economics. The 1990s were all about globalisation; the 2000s are about velocity and close to the edge of a new decade in which the world maybe has to face an economic recession. Nowadays, almost more than ever, everybody asks for “projects” to return the world economy to its former speed. This also underlines the importance of continuous learning and development of project management capabilities in organisations to allow corporate teams in a fast changing world to work collaboratively in defining plans and managing complex projects by synchronising team-oriented tasks, schedules, and resource allocations.

However, gaining and sharing project information is not the only key to success. Today’s information technologies allow project managers to practise and work with their teams in a real-time environment. As a consequence of this potential, project team members are able to concurrently view, act and react to the same updated information immediately.

Additionally to external challenges, project teams are forced on a macro level to deliver satisfying results for internal or external customers and stay within the restrictions of budget, time and resources (quality and quantity). In parallel to these deliverables, executives are also asking the project management on a micro level to ensure the use of modern management tools, such as (1) customising the project organisation to fit the operational style of the project teams and respective team members, (2) informing the executive management about the project’s progress on a real-time basis, (3) ensuring that critical task deadlines are met and (4) ensuring that project team members know about and monitor project risk and share accurate, meaningful and timely project documents.

As a result, the thrilling and demanding position of a project manager not only requires a particular set of skills – how to communicate, to control and to motivate people, but also the specific knowledge about tools and techniques required to run a project successfully.