Project management - what is it? Pros and cons

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-17 18:37

Project management is an integral element of the modern management system in Russia. Many domestic and foreign companies use project management to improve the quality of products and services, reduce costs, increase profits. What is project management and what are its main benefits?

What is a project?

The concept of "project" can be interpreted in completely different ways. The first option involves the definition of the project as a set of documentation, according to which the construction of a building or structure is possible. This article will discuss the second meaning of the word "project".

There are a lot of definitions of a project, although they all agree on one thing: a project is an idea that involves the implementation of a specific material task in a limited period of time. At the same time, the main features of the project are called:

• Uniqueness (a project is something that is created for the first time).
• Time limited (a project always has a deadline for its implementation).
• Purposefulness (the project is always carried out to solve specific problems, expressed, as a rule, in quantitative unitsmeasurements).

If all three conditions are met, then the set of activities can be called a project.

Programs and portfolios

Projects are often grouped into programs and portfolios. At the same time, programs are a set of projects that are united by a common goal. For example, a program to improve the quality of education for the population may include projects to increase the salaries of teachers by 20%, the construction of 15 new schools, the release of 26 new textbooks in basic subjects.

A project portfolio brings together projects funded from a single source, regardless of their objectives. For example, Company N's portfolio of projects may include projects for charity, the construction of a new corporate office, the celebration of the anniversary of the director and an increase in annual turnover by 10%.

Projects in portfolios and programs should also have the three main features described above.

Basic principles of project management

In view of the dynamically developing market for technologies designed to facilitate the management process, it is difficult to name specific methods that fully describe project management.

Project management includes many approaches and tools and is based on the following basic principles:

• Result-oriented. This principle is determined by the meaning of the term "project". Project management is not just quality management, it is a purposeful set of interrelated actions.
• Principle of the "design triangle". Atproject management should be guided by the interdependencies between: timing, budget, project quality. A change in one of the factors leads to a change in the others, which makes them, as it were, sides of the same triangle.



• Accounting for the life cycle of the project. The life cycle of a project begins with the formation of the very idea of creating a project and ends at the expiration of the time period specified in the project. The life cycle of a project, as a rule, ends at the moment the product life cycle, created as a result of the project, begins.
• Process approach to management. This principle involves the evaluation of the project as a set of processes that are interconnected and culminate in intermediate results in the form of semi-finished products or important documents. This approach allows you to control the project without the so-called "blind zones".

Methods of encouraging project participants

Incentivizing project participants is usually given special attention when project management is selected to perform specific tasks. Project management usually includes tangible and intangible motivational mechanisms.

Material incentives include bonuses, fines, additional payments for early completion of intermediate tasks.

Intangible methods of motivation include certificates and disciplinary gifts in the form of time off, as well as the deployment of competition among project participants as part of a competitive competition.

Main stages of project management

Project management occurs in stages of the project life cycle and phases of management complexity. The relationship between stages and phases is shown in the table below.

PHASES:	Cost Management	Due management	Content Management	Risk management
STAGES:	1	2	3	4
Initiation	Preliminary funding estimate	Preliminary estimate of project timeline	Definition of key tasks	Preliminary analysis of possible negative factors
Planning	Calculation of the budget and search for funding sources	Project schedule calculation	Calculation of project targets	Calculation of risk adjustment
Implementation	Stage-by-stage financing of the project	Monitoring the implementation of the schedule	Monitoring the achievement of intermediate indicators	Monitoring changes in key drivers
Closing	Estimate profit/loss	Leg/lead score	Assessment of completion/failure of project objectives	Analysismistakes made

Thus, the areas of project management include financial, personnel, structural areas of the organization.

Scope of project management

The project management structure includes the division of all the work of the organization into projects that are limited in terms of time and targets. At the same time, a team of each project and a team of project managers are formed, who report to the manager on the progress of their project.

In this regard, project management is used, as a rule, in organizations of various industries and sizes, with a wide range of simultaneously executed orders. However, in small businesses, he also uses project management to solve specific problems of modernizing production or, for example, introducing a new product.

Project management in the construction industry

In the construction industry, the use of project management methodology is especially relevant. In companies that perform the functions of a customer or contractor, project management uses a natural division of work into projects (according to the product principle, that is, the construction of each building is a separate project), and the structure of top management practically does not require serious restructuring.

Management of a project organization is also often carried out according to the project principle, successfully using already formed teamsdesigners as a project team.

Project management in state structures

Project management in government is a fairly new trend of our time. The program-target method of management, which has been developing since the Soviet period, has now taken the form of project management throughout the country. Now, to solve strategically important tasks for the state, programs are used that include individual projects with target indicators and implementation deadlines. However, the very methodology for managing such programs is still far from ideal and requires modernization and updating.

Experience in implementing project management in the Belgorod region

Project-based public administration has proven itself all over the world. In Russia, there is experience in applying this technology in the Belgorod region.

This large-scale experiment affected almost all aspects of the civil service in the Belgorod region. Among the main elements are project management training, organizational and methodological support, on-site inspections, motivation, assessment of employees' competencies, expert commissions for project review.

Project management of the Belgorod region now includes collegial bodies of project management:

• Interdepartmental commission managing project activities.
• Sectoral expert commissions that decide on the opening/closing of projects.
• Regional project office that controls compliance with the methodologyproject management.

One stop shop principle

It was within the framework of the transition to project management that the Belgorod Region, back in 2010, switched to coordinating investment projects through the “one window” system, now well known in Moscow. The role of this window is just performed by one of the newly introduced services - the regional project office. Now, exactly one month after applying to the project office, the business entity receives an approval document.

Automated information system "Project management"

Information and technical support for project management in the Belgorod region is carried out through the automated information system (AIS) "Project Management". This is a no-software web application that performs the following functions for projects, portfolios and programs:

• Maintaining the registry (database).
• Scheduling.
• Budgeting.
• Monitoring implementation at the regional and municipal levels.
• Distribution of powers and responsibilities of the team.
• Change content.
• Alert system about upcoming and upcoming events for projects.
• Document flow.
• Automated analytical reporting.
• Integration with the electronic Government of the Belgorod region.

Advantages and disadvantages of project management

The described experience of implementing project management in the Belgorod region turned out to be successful. The effect of these changes was expressed primarily inan increase in the growth rate of the gross regional product by 0.1% (more than 3 billion rubles), a reduction in the time spent on project approval (by 2 months for each project) and an increase in the rate of development of investments in the region by 23%. However, the most important result is the formation of project thinking among employees who actively analyze and try to solve the problem, sometimes even using non-standard, innovative methods.

Motivation and restructuring of the managerial structure made it possible to obtain a positive effect not only for the civil service, but also for business, creating a favorable investment climate and removing barriers to entrepreneurship.

The population of the region now takes an active part in the selection and control of the implementation of important strategic projects. For people, project management is an opportunity to enjoy high quality services and high mobility.

However, despite all the advantages of the project management structure, there are also disadvantages of this approach.

First of all, the transition period. It takes a certain time for the project team to work together and perform their functions as a well-coordinated mechanism.

Secondly, when implementing project management in an enterprise, the search for a good project manager can be delayed. Very high requirements are imposed on the personal and professional qualities of a project manager: comprehensive qualifications, full immersion in the project, project management experience of the required specifics.

The third disadvantage of project management can be considered the needsplitting company resources between projects. In “poor” firms, this may not be feasible at all. Project managers will have to "fight" for funding and personnel, which is unacceptable in conditions of total control of all stages of the project life cycle.

One of the most important disadvantages of the project management path in an organization is the employment of project team members and the project manager after the project is completed. As you know, the workload of the team is the most important rule of a successful business, and in the case of project work, groups of specialists “hanging in the air” regularly appear, which at once lose their constant workload.

Summarizing the above, we can conclude that project management is an integral part of the modern business space, and studying its basics is simply necessary for competent management decision-making both at the state level and within a single business.