Project Management – The game changer for your business

The demand for project management has never been higher! Project Management is now one of the fastest growing careers globally to the tune of 1.5 million new jobs being added annually. You may be asking what is project management or why does my business need it? Well the answer is simple; as a business you are constantly expected to innovate, attract new customers, sustain existing customers all while keeping your costs down. This is no easy feat. Time and experience has proven that if a business doesn’t have someone or a team dedicated to making this all happen, you are bound to fail.

Project managers are there to ensure projects are a viable undertaking for your business. PM’s, as they are affectionately called, are the new wave of game changers. They are put in place in any business to help assess the risk of any undertaking, help to manage and control that risk as well as oversee the execution of that project.

To put it lightly PM’s are priceless! They ensure that your project doesn’t get out of control that things stay on track, that you hit your milestones and goals, within budget and at the highest quality. Most of all PM’s keep stakeholders and project sponsors pleased and well informed on the status of any project.

The biggest asset of any PM is communication as they literally speak to every area involved in the project and ensure things all work together for the good of the project.

Some businesses still ask “why do we need a project manager? Can’t we just brief our teams and run the project ourselves?” Why sure you can but what result are you looking for? The truth is lots of businesses are already stretched human resource wise. So depending on the scope of the project most businesses find it difficult and even frustrating to ask existing staff with established job descriptions to run a medium-large project from beginning to end. This may be possible for smaller projects but for medium-larger projects companies need accountability, they need someone responsible for holding things together and ensuring that what they set out to do is achieved. This is where companies find that the work of a dedicated PM is truly invaluable. PMs not only lead in accountability for a project but they play a major role in uniting a company’s clients and teams. Assigning a PM to a special project demonstrates to clients that you value their business so much so you are willing to dedicate a resource(s) to ensure they are satisfied. The type of confidence this gives clients is what secures clients for long-term business.

We’ve been saying Project Management is important but here are some functions of a project manager this will help you better understand the scope of some of what they do:

• Project Assessment – They assess your project to define the scope and timeline your project will require.
• Project costing – They help cost your project and develop your budget.
• Project Stakeholder management – They identify any impacted stakeholders and ensure complete approval/project buy in for each project. They also train stakeholders on new processes or systems.
• Project Planning – They develop and implement your company’s project management plan. This plan includes integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communication, risk, procurement and stakeholder management.
• Project direction – They lead and direct all aspects of the project including team members, employees and vendors.
• Project Procurement – They help your company procure any necessary materials for your project.
• Project budget management – They ensure the project stays on budget and meets your company’s timeline/deadline
• Project Quality Control – They oversee quality management of your company’s projects from conception to completion to ensure the highest standard in delivery.
• Project Communication – They develop and execute your company’s project communication plan to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and ultimate disposition of all project information.
• Project roadmap – They design and execute your company’s project roadmap. This provides a strategic overview of the major elements your project and includes objectives, milestones, deliverables, resources and planned timeline.
• Project monitoring – They monitor and report back on project progress and KPIs.
• Project Closure – No project is complete until it’s closed. So PM’s official close out all their projects and always provide a final report.

As a marketing professional who also works in the project management field I can attest to the fact that project management completely revolutionized the way I worked. It provided our business with a new mindset and a new way of thinking. I found that our business became more strategically aligned and it brought more leadership and direction to the way we operated. It also provided us with clearer focus and objectives for every project we have embarked on. I’ve personally found that I started to tackle everything in my personal and professional life as a project and it’s worked! My favourite phrase is now – “Project Management is a game changer! When you know! You know!”

My advice to any business if you are making a sizeable investment in any project, it is absolutely worth it to dedicate from 5-20% of that project cost t(depending on the scope of project) to hiring a not only certified but an experienced project manager to lead your project. I promise you will not regret it.