What We Got Wrong About Project Management : Issues and Risks
A project is a brief endeavor that exists to create a designed result. Each of these projects have concurred and unique targets just as its own plan, budget, timescale, expectations and errands. A project may likewise involve individuals from different teams within an organisation to achieve a particular objective. So basically, a project is a series of tasks that need to be finished before reaching a certain outcome. Projects can be simple or complex, and can be managed by an individual or a group of individuals. For better efficiency, a project can be divided into individual tasks.
What is Project Management ?
Project management is the process to achieve a specific project objective while staying within the agreed parameters. It can also be defined as the rules that need to be applied to a specific process to plan and execute a certain task within an organisation. So it is the application of skills, tools, and techniques to different activities or projects to meet the requirement.
Below are the key components of Project management:
- Goals
- Timeline
- Budget
- Scope
- Skill set of the team members
- Motivation
- Teamwork
- Leadership
Let’s get an overview of these :
Goals
The first necessary step of a project should be establishing goals. The goal should be based on the desired outcome at the end of the project. It will help determine the quality standards of the completed task.
Timeline
Once the goal of the project is set, the next step is to figure out the time required to achieve that goal. In order to make the goal realistic enough, the project should be completed within a certain time frame. Also, larger goals need to be divided into sub-tasks or micro-goals, so keeping track of time helps to identify milestones along the way.
Budget
Keeping a budget in mind for a project is very important, as good things don’t always come cheap. If you want a task completed with desired end result and within the time frame, there should be a budget in mind to make these things possible.
Scope
After setting a goal, timeline and budget, you can complete the scope for the task. A scope or specification should include tasks, deliverables and resources required to satisfy your goal.
Skill-set of team members
After setting goals, timeline, scope and budget, it’s time to build a team. It requires a skill set to finish the task on time. According to the scope of the project, the team members can be chosen as per their skills and capabilities.
Motivation
The tasks assigned to the team members should be aligned with the goal of the project, this will help motivate them to complete the task within the time frame.
Teamwork
If the team members don’t get along, the task will fail, even if the team has motivated and skilled members. Hence it is very important to have the members help each other and work together.
Leadership
FInally, there should be a capable leader to oversee all the above processes in a project. A leader can bring the project to completion. He/She should inspire the team, communicate and solve if any issues arise.
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Risks in Project Management:
There are risks involved in all kinds of work. In a project risks can be unexpected and affect the task in a worse way. It can affect the people involved along with the flow and technology. Hence before planning the process of a certain project, you need to think of all the things that could go wrong in the activity. This type of thinking can prevent the risks and even if any risks come up, you will have a strategy to tackle it. There are some practical steps to fight these unknown which we will discuss below.
Types of Risks:
These are a few common types of risks that occur in a project.
- Cost Risk
- Performance Risk
- Operational Risk
- Schedule Risk
- Governance Risk
- Market Risk
- Legal Risk
- Strategic Risk
- External Risk
Let’s discuss these risks in brief.
1. Cost Risk
Cost risk is the most common project risk that occurs during a project duration. It is mostly a result of improper financial planning or cost estimation. This causes the project managers to end up spending more money than initially planned. Which can affect the business and lead the project into schedule and performance risk.
2. Performance Risk
Performance risk is the risk that the project won’t produce the results as per the specification of the project. Performance risk can lead the project into cost and schedule risk. It simply means you have lost valuable time and money, but still not able to deliver the desired result.
3. Operational Risk
This is the result of poor implementation problems including purchases, production, and distribution. To put it plainly, this risk is essential for performance risk on the grounds that the normal result doesn’t occur at all or in the manner that the project manager had arranged.
4. Schedule Risk
Schedule risk is the aftereffect of lack of proper planning. It is the risk that the scheduled tasks and assignments will take more time to finish than assessed. It is firmly identified with cost risk on the grounds that any slips in plan frequently increment costs, hinder project advantages, and lose courses of events, which lose any upper hand you might’ve had toward the beginning.
5. Governance Risk
Governance risk is associated with the performance of the board and the executives as to the community, morals, and organization notoriety. This risk ought to be simpler to relieve on the grounds that it relies to a great extent upon the conduct of executives in business. Obviously, this risk is still genuine and ought to be treated appropriately.
6. Market Risk
Market risk incorporates chances presented from rivalry, product markets, loan costs, foreign trade, and liquidity and credit chances. This risk is more flighty and hard to anticipate, yet there are manners by which project managers can protect their business from this.
7. Legal Risk
Legitimate risk can be eccentric and may emerge from lawful and administrative obligations. These incorporate agreement risks, suits brought against the business or association, and inner legitimate issues.
Risk Management:
Risk management in a project is the process of recognizing, assessing, and forestalling or alleviating dangers to a project that can possibly affect the ideal results. Project supervisors are ordinarily answerable for regulating the risk management process all through the term of a given task.
To oversee risks, project managers should have a reasonable comprehension of their targets so they can recognize any potential obstructions that could affect the team’s capability to deliver results. The kinds of occasions or situations that fall under the classification of risk can be wide and sometimes confounded. While project managers or those entrusted with supervising a task might be slanted to see risks solely as dangers, this isn’t generally the situation.
To secure a project from impromptu danger, project supervisors generally follow a continuous risk management process which helps them distinguish, comprehend, and react to dangers. Prior to starting this cycle, notwithstanding, completely comprehend your association’s practices and how you will direct your risk work for that task. Below are the steps derived from this plan:
Analyze
Break down each risk to completely comprehend the driving variables included and likely effects. Be sure to consider the expansiveness and profundity of every danger at this stage to assess the seriousness of each risk with regards to the overall project.
Issues in Project Management
In the duration of any task, there will quite often be unforeseen issues and questions that yield up. At the point when these issues emerge, you must be prepared to manage them – or they can conceivably influence the task’s result.
Issue management is the way toward distinguishing and settling issues. Issues with staff or providers, technical failures, material deficiencies – these might all contrarily affect your task. In the event that the issue goes unresolved, you risk making pointless struggles, delays, or even inability to create your deliverable.
Issue Management
An issue is certainly not a likely problem, unlike risk. An issue occurs in the present time and place.
Overseeing issues is the same as dealing with a project in that it requires a process and an arrangement to execute the strategy. These means will assist you with having a structure to control issues as they emerge in your task.
1. Document
The best way to begin is by distinguishing issues and gathering them in a report, so you can begin to react and follow progress settling them or you can create a collective document on the web. Similarly risk management, you need to oversee issues by following them in a log or register. Without a cycle or an instrument to provide details regarding the issue, it’ll be misplaced in the general chaos of the project. You need to write about issues and inform others, so others can confirm if the issue still exists.
2. Prompt Reporting
Timing is important. If you delay reporting the issue, it will be too large to resolve later. Also communication is of the utmost importance and channels should be available to get that data out to the ideal individuals as quickly as could be expected. In case you’re announcing promptly, you better resolve quickly. Sitting on a realized issue is requesting inconvenience.
3. Logs
Ensure individuals realize who can log issues and that they do as such. You need to keep a nitty gritty record of the project. There isn’t anything excessively little. It may appear to be immaterial to you, yet it could hold the way to opening the answer for the issue. Also, a log gives a chronicled device to future use.
4. Assignment of Actions
Put a name next to an activity, as well, so there is clear duty characterized. When there is clear ownership and someone is responsible for identifying, tracking, and fixing the problem, the problem can be resolved. You need to have a go-to person who is entrusted with everything identified with that issue and doesn’t continue ahead from it until the issue is shut. Responsibility is basic in issue management.
5. Monitoring Progress
Everyone should follow up their action items and validate statuses regularly. Everyone should be informed frequently so that there will be complete transparency.
6. Impact Assessment
Ensure the actions taken are being estimated. In any case, heighten fittingly. You would prefer not to toss every one of your assets where just some are required. All things considered, you likewise don’t have any desire to make any superfluous barricades to slow down a fast recuperation.
7. Resolution Approval
Double check the issues after they are resolved. While there is a proprietor to the issue, there should be somebody who is dealing with the cycle, so they can check the work and ensure it lines up the organisation.
8. Close
That is the point at which we go to our last advance. Shutting the issue. Get settled issues off the rundown.
Issues vs Risks
Issues and risks are not exactly the same thing. Be that as it may, the specific idea of both is to a great extent obscure before you start. With risks, you normally have an overall thought ahead of time that there’s a reason for concern. An issue will in general be less unsurprising; it can emerge with no notice.
