In the last decade, corporations have increasingly focused on quality project management in an organization, thanks to which most organizations achieve their original goals. Currently, project management plays a particularly important role. This article describes the methodology for managing IT projects.
1. Introduction
To date, for every enterprise, a relevant topic is effective management. Successful completion of the project depends on the effectiveness of the project management methodology, their ability to adapt to external changes. Project management is an effective means to achieve the desired result. Regardless of the complexity of the project, it must be manageable.
2. Project management
A project is a unique set of processes consisting of coordinated and manageable tasks with start and end dates, undertaken to achieve the goal [1].
The project is characterized by the following features:
– the goal is to obtain the expected result;
— deadline — a certain date of the beginning of the workflow and the end date;
– resources – labor, technical, material, financial and informational [2].
Characteristics of the project
Any project should have a clearly defined, specific goal. Defining the goal of the project is the very first and most important stage of the project. The task of defining a goal can be difficult, because it is important not only to determine the goal, but also to outline ways to achieve the goal. Any, even the smallest project, is developed to achieve some result. And if a project doesn't have a clear and specific goal, it can't be a project.
It is worth noting that projects can be unique, but can also be repeated. Despite their similarities, we can find many differences between them. For example, take a project that is created for the construction of a new house. The main goal of this project is to build a house. But here we can find uniqueness even in similar projects, in the construction technology by which it will be built or in the materials that will be used in the construction of the house.
Each project has a specific deadline, start and end of the project. A project can take several days, weeks, or years to complete, but each project has a deadline. A project is considered completed if the goal has been achieved or if it turns out that it is impossible to achieve the set goals in any way.
Each project is allocated a certain budget, and the implementation of the project must first of all be carried out within this budget. Also, do not forget about the limited human and material resources.
Project Management – as defined by PMBOK – is an application of knowledge, skills, tools and methods to the work of a project to meet the requirements of a project. This is an area of activity in which clear project objectives are defined and achieved while balancing the scope of work, resources, time, quality and risks [2].
Project management involves three main activities:
1. Planning
- – Determination of the desired results of the project.
- — Development of a schedule for the implementation of work.
- – Calculation of the number of required resources.
Organization
– Distribution of roles and responsibilities.
Management
- – Redistribution of works and assignments.
- – Supervision of works and control of results.
- – Solving emerging problems.
- – Exchange of information with interested parties.
Project Lifecycle
Each project has its own life cycle, i.e. stages of project implementation from the beginning to the end of the project. Thanks to the life cycle, management and managers can effectively monitor the progress of the project: in what stage it is now and what should be done at this stage for further successful completion.
According to PMI surveys, on average, organizations lose almost 10% of their investment due to poor performance. Each of the 31% of the project does not achieve its goals, 43% of projects exceed the originally set budget and 48% do not complete on time.
PMI Statistics
Despite these statistics, almost 85% of managers believe that their organization is working at full strength and fulfilling all the tasks assigned, as indicated in the initial stage of the project. For these reasons, many businesses around the world face significant financial losses.
The project life cycle helps to manage and eliminate risks, improve team attitudes and be sure that the goal is achieved according to the original plan.
1. Initiation is getting started, preparing for planning, and implementing. First you need to determine what task is in front of you and the usefulness of your ideas in solving problems. If you have decided on a solution, then it's time to start looking for partners, writing the concept of the project and the economic part.
There is a lot of discussion, research and analysis in this phase. The priority is to find out the desires of partners and their expectation. An important task of this phase is to determine the common goals that will lead the parties to the desired result.
After the agreement, it is important to note the main arrangements in the project charter. A charter is a short document that describes a project. The charter is used at the stage of the entire life cycle and with the help of it it is possible to resolve all disagreements of the parties.
2. Planning – if all conditions and documents are approved, the planning phase begins.
In this phase, the manager is engaged in the creation of a specific plan according to which the project will be developed. Here, the manager divides the project into small tasks and distributes the roles, determines the sequence of tasks and sets deadlines for their implementation. The manager then holds a meeting where he introduces the team to the project, discussing further plans for their action. It introduces the team to the tools that the team will use as it works. Each team member should have a clear idea of the project and its implementation after the meeting. Also, each of the team members should have access to the project plan, in order to be aware of the changes made during the workflow.
3. Execution – when the team is formed and all tasks are divided among the team members, the project moves to the execution phase. The main task of the manager at this stage is to monitor the progress of work and the synchronicity of the start of all distributed tasks.
4. Control – to achieve the set interests of both parties and for the successful completion of the project, it is not enough to start the workflow. It is important for management to constantly monitor the progress of the workflow so that the entire team follows the originally set plan.
At the control stage, the manager focuses on the timely completion of tasks, promptly making changes and amendments to the project plan in case of unforeseen situations.
The flexibility of the plan plays a positive role in eliminating the identified problems. The faster the identified problem is eliminated, the less further risks there are. At the same time, we should not forget that innovations should always be agreed with the customer. It is important to hold timely meetings to resolve controversial issues - with the help of joint discussions, a more effective solution to problem situations is possible.
5. Completion is the final phase of the life cycle. At this stage, it is important to pay attention to working on errors.
4 . Problems in project management
The main problem in project management is agreements and mutually beneficial cooperation. Each organization strives to develop a unique product, the production of which is always associated with innovative ideas.
The main source of conflict is the different goals of each participant in this project. For example, the purpose of the guide is to implement the project according to the contract. The goal of contractors is to get paid. Some departments of the organization try to save resources by not bringing the project to the desired state, and therefore conflicts within the organization are possible.
Also, one of the main problems is to increase the complexity of the project. Teams have to change the workflow plan and quickly adapt to new changes in the plan, which takes up both human and material resources.
In addition, you can note the mutual understanding between the customer and the organization, because business analysts do not always understand the language of technical specialists. There are times when the customer requires tasks that cannot be implemented technically. To solve such problems, you need a competent intermediary between the customer and the organization, who is freely oriented in both areas .
Sometimes there are moments in the development of IT projects when an organization needs to move to new modifications to the tools they use. After all, the IT sphere does not stand still, every year there are new packages of updates, innovations. It also happens that the tools do not correspond to modern ideologies that customers require. This is another problem that requires a time resource.
5. Overview of Project Management Services
In most cases, Jira uses IT-related teams to plan projects and track bugs. Despite the fact that Jira is intended for technical organizations, it can be used by organizations that are not related to development. Jira can easily be adapted to your organization. Another plus of this program is the variety of extensions, for this reason it can be integrated with other tools.
If Jira in most cases is intended for technical organizations related to the IT sphere, then Trello can be used for organizations that are engaged in marketing, i.e. those that are engaged not only in development. Trello is convenient not only for planning, but also for communication between workers in a team while working.
Cost of services
What is a KANBAN board? KANBAN whiteboard is a project management tool with which you can present tasks, limit the amount of unfinished work, thereby increasing the efficiency of project execution. Thanks to the KANBAN board, teams can understand how much work needs to be done and in what time frame. THE KANBAN board consists of cards and columns along which the tasks set by the manager move and the fulfillment of tasks is tracked.
On the columns from left to right, the tasks are moved, their status changes. Drag-and-drop technology is used to move the cards. Column names vary depending on the projects, the main thing is to keep them consistent.
Conclusion
The main difference between project management and management is that the project is a unique one-time enterprise of the company, which is not included in the list of its daily operations, and which is designed to provide such conditions and such organization of work in which deadlines, budget and achievement of tasks are observed.
The choice of approach for management directly depends on the type of project, key resources, duration, etc. Based on these aspects, you can choose the appropriate, most appropriate project management approach.
Thus, the article discusses the necessary stages of project management, presents the basic principles and provisions, as well as problems arising in the management of the project, provides a comparative analysis of existing approaches to project management, provides a scheme for launching a new product / project. The project has a complex structure, each section of which requires careful consideration. For the successful completion of the project, management includes the management of project cost, quality, stages of work and resources, risks, as well as general monitoring of the project.
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