Project management is just one of a million things on the to-do list of a growing business, so it tends to fall by the wayside. Your time and energy are pulled in so many directions, making it all too easy to focus purely on immediate needs. However, project management can help you plan for the future and keep things running (and growing) smoothly in the long run. After all, one of the biggest challenges of growing a business is handling the increasing numbers of customers, employees, leads, and more.
By learning about the purpose of project management, as well as best practices, you can start dealing with these challenges more efficiently and overcome the roadblocks and challenges that face every growing business.
What Is Project Management?
If you are wondering, “What is project management?” the short answer is that it is a way to organize teams and track their progress on projects and tasks. Project management benefits include completing a project on time, on budget, and of the preferred quality.
The following are some of the most common uses of project management, although this list is far from conclusive:
- Define project goals
- Set project time frames
- Plan project components
- Issue quality control metrics
Importantly, you can find project management examples in nearly every industry and organization. While it is most commonly discussed for architecture, construction, and engineering, most businesses can easily apply the same principles, regardless of their sector. From marketing projects to offices to disaster relief, the advantages of project management are universal.
Part of understanding the uses of project management is clarifying the difference between it and other types of management. Most importantly, general management has a wider scope and timeline, while project management has a small scope and a very specific time frame. On top of that, every project to be managed will be slightly different. This requires adaptable strategies that can easily accommodate new goals.
13 Benefits & Advantages of Project Management
Project management benefits apply across industries and organization types, but what are those advantages? The following are some of the most notable.
1. Clearly Defines Employee Roles
Part of the importance of project managers is their ability to clearly define employee roles. This helps keep everyone on track and accountable. It also helps with collaboration and ensures that all team members are clear on their responsibilities.
2. Improves Team Collaboration
Clearly defining employee roles improves teamwork. It does so by ensuring that everyone understands their role in the team. Team members can see their overall contribution and know the importance of their work, giving them a sense of purpose on the team.
3. Improves Goal Setting
A key part of project management is setting goals and milestones. Experienced project managers know that the best goals are measurable. With clear goals in place, employees know what they are working toward. It also becomes possible to track progress, especially if you set measurable goals.
4. Eliminates Confusion
The combination of setting goals and defining employee roles also eliminates confusion. Everyone knows what needs to be done as well as when it needs to be done and by whom. The messaging can also be consistent across the company. This prevents any confusion about tasks, timelines, and goals and the challenges associated with that confusion.
After all, confusion can lead to delays as people try to figure out if they have to complete a certain task. They may even interrupt other team members’ work trying to figure it out. The lack of confusion also prevents tasks from being completely overlooked or miscommunications about deadlines.
5. Increases Productivity
Project management initiatives work to define goals and optimize workflows to reach them. This improves productivity by providing the team with a clear roadmap.
Improved productivity also comes from the reduction of delays. Project managers can predict roadblocks or bottlenecks and then take steps to avoid them. The result is the ability to bring a product to market more quickly.
6. Increases Quality of Product
The same clearly defined workflows and goals that improve productivity also increase the quality of the finished product or work. This is a direct result of team members knowing what is expected of them, as that transparency lets them ensure the quality of their work.
7. Allows to Manage Budgets and Timelines
Most projects have strict budgets and timelines, both of which make it incredibly challenging to achieve your project goals. To make it more complicated, any changes to timelines can affect the budget and vice versa.
But managing projects can include creating a timeline and budget that supports the priorities of the project. Further importance of project managers comes from their ability to effectively oversee employees and allocate supplies and resources. That ability helps the project stick to both the timeline and budget.
8. Mitigates Project Risks
Risks such as cost, performance, and schedules come with every single project. One purpose of project management is to analyze, communicate, and prioritize these risks. This process mitigates those risks, preventing them from ever delaying or causing other problems for your project.
9. Increases Customer Satisfaction
No matter your projects, the ultimate goal is customer satisfaction. Your project needs to meet the needs of your consumer. By providing all the other project management benefits mentioned, such as risk management and delivering a high-quality product on time, project management ensures that this is the case.
Marketing teams can also use project management to better understand their customers. This makes it much easier to meet the needs of those customers and boosts their satisfaction.
10. Improves Sales and Customer Retention
Improved customer retention is a direct result of the increase in customer satisfaction that comes with project management. After all, happy customers are more likely to stay with your company. You will also notice a boost in sales revenue from that satisfaction. A further boost in sales revenue comes from the increase in productivity. On top of that, satisfied customers leave positive reviews, helping you attract new customers.
11. Improves Stakeholder Relationships
Every business wants to ensure its stakeholders are happy, and project management is an important tool for doing so. Specifically, project managers can improve communications with stakeholders, including discussing and managing mutual risks. By acknowledging stakeholders’ needs and goals and working toward them, project management improves the relationships with and satisfaction of stakeholders.
12. Enhances Attracting and Hiring Talent
Agile project management examples even extend to hiring practices. Using project management principles helps you get more applicants for jobs, allowing you to find the right fit for your team. It also leads to improved talent utilization with the clearly defined roles and goals mentioned.
13. Delivers a Competitive Advantage
These advantages of project management combine to give you a competitive edge. An experienced project manager will ensure your company doesn’t make any mistakes that put you at a disadvantage. They will also give you a competitive edge, thanks to their ability to deliver high-quality products and maintain relationships with customers and stakeholders. This also helps you maintain a positive reputation, furthering your competitive edge.
Project Management: 3 Best Practices
More than the benefits of using a project management plan, it is time to explore some of the best practices for putting this plan to good use. The following are some of the most important project management practices to incorporate into your workflow.
1. Define Goals and Objectives Clearly
At the very beginning of the project, take the time to clearly define the goals, objectives, and scope of the project. This will make sure that you have context for everything in the future. It also gives you and your team a reference point if any issues arise.
At the same time, identify the project scope, including the major deliverables and how you will approach or manage the project. As you define these factors, you want to ensure that everyone knows what the project is about and how you will reach your goals. Remember that defining measurable goals also lets you track project success, making it part of good project management.
2. Define Clear Responsibilities
Don’t limit what you define to the project itself; also define what everyone in the project will do. Every single team member should know what role they play in the project, including its importance to the project.
Of course, employees need to have clear responsibilities but don’t forget to also define the responsibilities of users and stakeholders. This is also the time to ensure everyone knows who has the authority to make changes to goals or decisions and the process to follow. Examples of these changes would include changes to timelines, budgets, and deliverables.
There are several useful methods of defining these responsibilities. The most common method is an organization chart that shows responsibilities and team organization. You can also use a RACI chart, which highlights the person Responsible, Accountable, (to be) Consulted, and (to be) Informed for each deliverable. Consider looking into Gantt charts or other templates for project planning and tracking.
3. Plan Realistically
As you plan your project, be realistic with your budgets and timelines. It is incredibly common to underestimate both how long a project will take and how much it will cost to complete. Of course, some delays will happen because of unforeseen circumstances, but a realistic timeline can mitigate that risk.
A good strategy for this is to avoid concrete figures early on in the planning process. Instead, opt for ranges that give you the flexibility to be more realistic. Then, as the project moves along, you can refine the range. Importantly, make sure that those responsible for the work are involved in developing these ranges.
Project Management Alternatives & Complements
Luckily, you don’t have to buy project management software to start enjoying the benefits of project management processes. Instead, you can take other steps to grow your business and implement these strategies. You can also use these strategies to complement project management tools and other types of software like field service management software.
1. Learn How to Use Google Drive
Google Drive is free to use and has numerous useful tools for effective project management. You can use tools like Sheets and Docs to stay organized and track projects. They can also easily be used to assign responsibilities and track task completion for a successful project.
2. Consider Customer Management Tools
Remember that customer satisfaction is an important part of project management. As such, it makes sense to look for tools that give you a customer communication plan, such as a phone system built for modern local businesses. You will have consolidated information as well as insights into your business. By having every customer contact in one platform, you make customer communication easier for everyone.
3. Consider Payment Solutions
Payment tools are another excellent complement to the benefits of project management tools. They will give you another way to stay organized, letting you easily update your budget and view revenue. For example, payment solutions built for Podium users integrate with your CRM and provide necessary income data. You can even get paid faster with text payments.
