Project Management

Project management is rapidly becoming a routine part of organisations. It allows organisations to achieve goals more efficiently than by using traditional methods.

A project can be defined as an organisational endeavour with the following characteristics:

• an established objective;

• a defined life span with a beginning and an end;

• it usually involves several departments and professionals;

• it normally is doing something that has never been done before;

• it has specific time, cost and performance requirements.

Why is Good Project Management important?

Good project management is important because so much of what we do today in organisations fits the definition of a project. The characteristics of today’s society demand the development of new methods of management. The forces affecting this are:

• the exponential expansion of human knowledge;

• the growing demand for a broad range of complex, sophisticated, customised goods and services;

• the evolution of the global marketplace;

• compression of the product life cycle;

• corporate downsizing;

• increased customer focus;

• the creation of a multi-project environment comprising largely of small projects has brought with it big problems.

Project management helps to focus responsibility and authority for attaining the organisation’s goals on an individual or small group.

Attributes of a good Project Manager

The successful management of a project requires an individual with specific skills. In addition to good technical skills, a good project manager also requires sound personal and business skills. George Thomas, a former IT project manager who now teaches at George Mason University, stated that a project manager’s responsibilities tend to be more administrative and people-oriented. Not all technical experts have these skills and it is for this reason that many projects are not as successful as they could be.

Our staff at MAS Management Consultancy Services has 15 years experience in project management and have provided instruction on this subject at a tertiary level. We can assist organisations to develop project plans and implement those plans in such as way as to ensure a project’s success.

Project Management links