Learn to be a Better Project Manager
- Develop your professional skills for improved work or business opportunities.
- Learn to be more thorough and systematic in how you plan and implement projects.
- Retrain for a new career as a project manager.
- Course Duration: 600 hours of self paced studies.
ACS offer you flexibilty, support and unlimited tutor access:
Flexibility - you can start the course at any time and progress at a pace that suits you.
Support - this isn't just about the course, we provide new students with an orientation video which will inform you of all sorts of services to support your study.
Unlimited tutor access - you can contact our tutors by telephone or email. They are there to support and guide you in your studies. The support is available for the whole time you are studying and is not time limited.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management is a broad discipline, it can include anything from a change in a work procedures e.g. for health and safety, a new IT system, providing a new service, developing a product, undertaking research through to the construction of a new building, a park, or even the way in which a company or instrumentality (e.g. railway) is run.
MANAGING A PROJECT
There are four vital processes to ensuring the success of a task or project:
- Applying standards
- Monitoring performance
- Evaluating performance
- Regulating progress.
Applying Standards
When a task or project begins, it is important to set the criteria or standards against which work progress can be measured. These criteria enable the supervisor and others to determine whether a work is progressing satisfactorily,
or to identify emerging problems. They also ensure consistency: each person involved in the tasks is working to the same criteria, and each product or outcome will be of consistent quality. If these criteria are not established at the
beginning, and continually reinforced as project standards, the outcomes can be inconsistent, or of inferior quality, or the project could fail.
Monitoring Performance
Monitoring performance ensures that the project goal and objectives set out during the Project Implementation phase are being achieved during its implementation. Monitoring will measure the progress of a project as it is implemented,
and it provides an early warning to management about potential or developing problems.
Monitoring therefore confirms the satisfactory progress of a job. In order to avoid unrealistic or inadequate measures which may slow or halt the project altogether, keep monitoring as simple as possible, as with the other stages of the
project implementation phase.
Evaluating Performance
Evaluation complements monitoring, for here, we reassess the performance, the criteria and time frame that we have already established, as the project progresses. Where necessary, a project’s objectives can be modified if an evaluation indicates that the existing objectives are inadequate or inappropriate. This does not mean that a project will have to be stopped, but rather that the alternatives will have to be considered so that the original intended goal is ultimately achieved.
Unfortunately, monitoring and evaluation are often seen as administrative tasks that simply become an information gathering exercise. If this data is not understood, it becomes too complicated or is irrelevant -and the evaluation can become a waste of time. Poor evaluations lead to ill preparation, which can result in a project’s failure. To avoid this, project management should be prepared, and consider measures for regulating a project’s progress.
Regulating Progress
At the outset it is useful to remember that projects frequently run slightly outside of schedule, and budget. They rarely conform exactly to set standards. A well-planned and implemented project, however, depends upon a number of
"regulatory conditions" or measures, in case of unexpected conditions. These measures should ensure the project has the best possible opportunity to succeed. Subsequently when regulating a project, a number of conditions should be
kept in mind, namely:
The applied monitoring and evaluation techniques should be as simple as possible, and have commitment from all those involved in the project.
The important or relevant types of data required are clearly identified beforehand, and closely correlated with the task objectives defined in the Project Identification stage.
The collection and evaluation of such information is not excessive in terms of financial costs and time.
In the course of regulating a jobs progress however, issues specific to the planning elements of the project implementation phase may need to be considered; namely quality, time or cost issues.
Examples of how to regulate these conditions are as follows:
Regulating a Quality Issue
If quality standards drop, consider whether to:
- Continue with the project or not.
- Accept available alternatives (e.g. different materials).
- Consider how any change may affect the final outcome of the project.
Regulating a Time Issue
If the project falls behind schedule, you may need to consider:
- To provide additional incentives such as higher wages for shorter task times completed.
- Increase the overall budget so more labour can be hired.
Regulate a Cost Issue
In a case where actual expenses exceed the budget you may need to consider whether to:
- Change objectives that have been set out.
- Include other income sources (e.g. increasing the sale price on the goods being produced in a project).
- Obtain more funding (e.g. loan or investment).
So ...
Where are you heading?
What are your plans for your future career?
- Develop your skills and increase your knowledge to further your career or make your business more successful.
Take the journey with ACS.
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