Project Management Principles - 7 Basic Principles of Project Management - AIMS Education

Summary

The video script outlines seven key principles of project management crucial for organizational success. It emphasizes focusing on customer needs, ensuring business justification, defining roles and responsibilities, managing by exception, breaking projects into stages, learning from experience, and tailoring the approach to the project's unique environment. These principles guide teams to achieve goals within predefined constraints, such as time, quality, budget, and scope.

Takeaways

• 📈 Focus on Products: Ensure that clients have a clear understanding of their requirements and expectations for the project's deliverables.
• 💼 Continued Business Justification: Every project should be justified by a return on investment, and be reassessed if market conditions change.
• 👷 Define Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly define each team member's role and responsibilities to avoid chaos and ensure accountability.
• 🔍 Managed by Exception: Allow managers to operate within set constraints, with issues only being escalated to sponsors when critical.
• 📉 Managed by Stages: Break the project into smaller stages, making critical decisions at the end of each to determine the next steps.
• 🔁 Learn from Experience: Analyze past projects to learn from mistakes and avoid repeating them in future project planning.
• 🌐 Tailor to the Environment: Customize project management methodologies to fit the specific requirements and environment of the project.
• ⏱ Time Constraints: Consider the project's timeline when selecting a management methodology, as different timeframes may require different approaches.
• 🔑 Success Criteria: Establish clear success criteria at the outset to guide the project's planning and execution.

Q & A

What is project management defined as in the provided script?

Project management is defined as the practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria at the specified time.

What is the biggest challenge in project management?

The biggest challenge in project management is ensuring that all goals and objectives are achieved while considering predefined constraints such as time, quality, budgets, and scope.

Why is it important for the client to have a clear idea of their requirements in project management?

When the client has a clear idea of their requirements and expectations, it makes the project easier to manage, as the project team knows exactly what is needed, reducing confusion and miscommunication.

What does 'continued business justification' mean in project management?

Continued business justification means that every project should provide a decent return on investment. If circumstances change during the project lifecycle, a decision must be made whether to continue the project based on its potential ROI.

Why is it important to define roles and responsibilities in a project?

Defining roles and responsibilities ensures that every person involved knows what they should be doing, who they report to, and what they are accountable for. This prevents confusion and promotes proactive problem-solving instead of blame-shifting.

What does the principle 'manage by exception' entail?

'Manage by exception' means that the project sponsor or company owner should not micromanage the project but allow managers to make decisions within predetermined constraints. Only critical issues should be escalated to higher management.

How should a project be managed according to the 'managed by stages' principle?

The project should be broken down into smaller stages, with a decision made at the end of each stage on how to proceed. This allows for more controlled and manageable progress.

Why is learning from experience critical in project management?

Learning from experience helps managers and project teams avoid repeating past mistakes. By analyzing what went wrong in previous projects, they can apply those lessons to improve future planning and execution.

What does the principle 'tailor to the environment' refer to in project management?

The 'tailor to the environment' principle refers to adapting project management methodologies to fit the specific requirements of the project, such as its time frame, complexity, and environment. A one-size-fits-all approach should be avoided.

What are the seven key project management principles mentioned in the script?

The seven key project management principles are: 1) Focus on products, 2) Continued business justification, 3) Define roles and responsibilities, 4) Manage by exception, 5) Manage by stages, 6) Learn from experience, and 7) Tailor to the environment.