As we all know nothing impresses any project owner like seeing his/her project get completed on time not forgetting keeping the budget on toes. Therefore the project managers have the responsibility to ensure that project stakeholders and staff are happy and here and the top five most important goals project managers should hold themselves to.
Goal 1: Finish on Time No doubt that finishing a project on time is the oldest but trickiest project management goal in the book. Most project managers have it in mind but they Clearly fail do deliver due to various reasons that are often given by them. To accomplish this goal, you need to manage your scope very carefully. Implement a change control process so that any changes to the scope are properly managed. Always keep your plan up to date, recording actual vs. planned progress. Identify any deviations from plan and fix them quickly.
Goal 2: Finish under Budget To make sure that your project costs don’t spiral, you need to set a project budget at the start to compare against. Include in this budget all of the project costs that will accrue, whether they have to do with people, equipment, suppliers or materials. Then work out how much each task in your plan is going to cost to complete, and track any deviations from this plan. Make sure that if you over-spend on some tasks, that you under-spend on others. In this way, you can control your spend and deliver under budget (or at least meet it).
Goal 3: Meet Requirements Whether the requirements for your project were to install a new IT system, refresh a website or consolidate data centers, your project needs to produce solutions which meet these requirements 100 percent. The trick here is to make sure that you have a detailed enough set of requirements at the beginning. If the requirements are ambiguous in any way, then what was initially seen as a small piece of work could become huge, taking up valuable time and resources to complete.
Goal 4: Keep Customers Happy You could finish your project on time, under budget and have met 100 percent of the requirements, but still have unhappy customers. This is usually because their expectations have changed since the project started and have not been properly managed. To ensure that your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders are happy at the end of your project, you need to manage their expectations carefully. Make sure you always keep them properly informed of progress. “Keep it real” by giving them a crystal clear view of progress to date. Let them voice their concerns or ideas regularly. Tell them upfront when you can’t deliver on time, or when a change needs to be made. Openness and honesty are always the best tools for setting customer expectations.
Goal 5: Keep Team Members Happy If you can meet all four previous goals with a happy team, then you’ll be more than willing to do it all again for the next project. And that’s how your staff will feel, too. Staff satisfaction is critical to your project’s success.
So keep your team happy by rewarding and recognizing them for their successes. Assign them work that complements their strengths and conduct team building exercises to boost morale. With a happy, motivated team, you can achieve anything.
Extract from constructionreviewonline.com
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