Setting up Project Management
Setting up Project Management is one of the most crucial stages of a project.
The success or failure of the project will depend on project management.
Therefore, we must pay careful attention to this phase of setting up project management
and it should be handled by an experienced project manager.
For setting up project management successfully for a project, we should have
all the information needed before we start. We should have clearly specified
goals of the project. Setting up of project management is not possible without
having clear project specifications at hand. Many a times project management fails
because of lack of clarity in this first phase of setting up project management. The
team fails to get clear specifications document or the project commences with vague
specifications or requirements. If you want your project to see successful completion
without any time delays, you must draw up a clear specifications document. In most cases, the
specifications documents are provided by the client and if the client is not sure of the
specifications or requirements, the service provider in discussion with the client can draw up the
specifications document and get the approval from the client. In either case, the starting point is the
project specifications document.
Some professionals would argue that drawing up of project specifications is part
of setting up project management. Whereas good number of professionals consider drawing up of specifications document
as one-step ahead of setting up project management.
Secondly, as part of setting up project management, we should have all the
stakeholders in the project clearly listed and each one's role well defined.
The scope of each stakeholder should be clearly stated so that there are no confusions at a later stage.
It is not enough to define the role and scope of each stakeholder, but they should also be made aware of their roles.
Thirdly, when you are setting up project management you should also have
substitute plans to handle possible risks that may delay the project deployment.
It is best to convene a project management meeting with all the stakeholders so that
everyone is clear of the goals and targets of a particular project at hand. The entire process
should be documented and while setting up project management you should have the format for documentation ready.
As the project progresses, the stakeholders only need to complete the
documentation by filling in the necessary details in the preset format.
While setting up project management itself you should have substitute stakeholders
in place if one or more of them are to be replaced or relieved so that you are prepared
for all possible unforeseen events during the deployment stage. At times, both setting up
of project management and deployment of the project is handled by the same person. If both
aspects are to be handed by the same person then the launching of the project will be a smooth one.
In case if these two phases are handled by different individuals, then high level of coordination
between these two stakeholders is crucial.
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