9 Steps to effective project management

Project management involves using specific knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to improve a product, service or operation. There's no escaping it: developments in the business world are increasingly leading to the organization of work around a variety of projects. Let's take a look at how to structure, manage and optimize a well-run project.

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What is a project ?

In the business world, a project is defined as a precise, planned, temporary operation. A project must have a reason, be budgeted, have a start and end date, generate a result and obey a project management process. It therefore follows several phases, which are generally: project start-up, planning, implementation, control and closure. A company's projects may be internal, administrative or functional. Managers, for example, design corporate projects that can be as varied as changing offices, introducing new procedures, thinking about a new service or updating a product. A project must always be unique (it must meet one and only one objective), quantifiable (it must be measurable and know when it has been completed), achievable (it must be based on concrete, attainable objectives) and relevant (it must improve the company in some way).

What is project management ?

Project management is the set of tools, methods and resources used to ensure that a project runs smoothly from inception to completion. Project management has long been practiced instinctively. It was formalized over the course of the last century, as increasingly complex projects emerged in the aerospace, engineering, health and telecommunications sectors. 

Unlike management, which is a continuous process, project management is always temporary and unique. It is usually overseen by a manager (the project leader) who provides strategic direction, and managed by a team that depends on the business area to which project management is applied.

Project management can be structured around the "4Ps", which enable us to analyze the feasibility of a project and estimate its chances of success or failure :

• People: This is the human factor, i.e. all the people (both members of the project team and end-users) likely to influence the project.
• To fill: It is essential from the outset of the project to identify the decision-makers who will provide leadership to the project whenever a decision needs to be made and implemented. 
• Process: The notion of process enables the various stages of the project to be framed by defining the means to be deployed at the start of the project, and then the method to be applied to bring the final project (which may be a product, a service, an improvement, etc.) to fruition.
• Plan: Defined at the outset of the project, the plan defines the mission that mobilizes the team and specifies the objectives to be achieved.

9 Steps to effective project management

• Step 1: Understanding your needs

To be successful, every project must be well defined. It's essential to target objectives and get to the heart of the matter, especially when dealing with complex business issues. Formalize your project tracking by writing down your objectives, any milestones to be reached and the resources involved.

• Step 2: Involve stakeholders

Stakeholders are not only the people in charge of the project, but also all those who will be affected by it, who may belong to other departments within the company, for example. It's important to talk to them to understand their expectations and get them involved, by presenting the project's objectives, budget and different planning phases.

• Step 3: Define objectives

Set and prioritize your objectives precisely, describing the benefits you hope to derive from them. This will make it easier for you to communicate about your project's progress at every stage.

• Step 4: Establish measurable success criteria

Establishing intermediate success criteria helps you measure the progress of your project, so you can determine whether you're staying on track or deviating from the project's objectives.

• Step 5: Assign responsibilities

Gather your team members together and make sure that everyone's skills match your needs. Assigning the wrong person to a task will reduce your chances of success before the project even starts.

• Step 6: Create the project schedule

Examine each deliverable and define the series of tasks to be carried out for each one. For each task, determine the time it will take, the resources required and who will be responsible for carrying it out. Then identify dependencies: do some tasks need to be completed before others can begin?

• Step 7: Perform a risk assessment

No project is without risk! You need to carefully consider all the issues you are aware of at the outset that could affect your project. Think about the measures you could take to prevent certain risks or limit their negative impact.

• Step 8: Test deliverables

Deliverables must be tested at every critical stage, and the final product must meet project requirements. You must systematically ensure that everything goes according to plan before moving on to the next phase. Organize interim meetings with everyone involved to review progress and correct any problems to avoid delays.

• Step 9: Evaluate project results

Write a report at the end of the project, identifying positive results and any problems encountered, to determine what could have been done differently and establish best practices for future projects.

The benefits of good project management

Project management is a powerful tool that can offer many benefits to companies of all sizes. The ultimate goal of project management is always efficiency. Project management improves your chances of achieving the desired result, cuts costs and reduces workload. It helps create an optimized methodology, which can then be reused to save time. Project management improves collaboration between team members, who learn to work together towards a common goal. That's why it's essential to define everyone's role precisely, and to communicate regularly throughout the project. Project management helps you to measure your performance, making it easier to improve. To this end, the use of a project management tool greatly facilitates the management, monitoring and reporting of projects and tasks. Finally, good project management can ensure that a product is designed to the desired quality, while reducing the risk of failure.

What's the best project management tool ?

There are many project management tools available, designed to handle the simplest tasks or help you solve complex problems. So it's hard to pick the best tool: it's best to try out several and choose the one best suited to your needs. Teamwork (freemium) :A project tracking and management tool that enhances productivity by providing an overview of project progress. monday.com (payant) : A highly visual task management tool for organizing team work using tables, diagrams or timelines. Trello (freemium) : A simple, intuitive management tool for organizing projects in tabular form. Todoist (freemium) : A benchmark tool with a host of features for sorting and organizing projects. Asana (freemium) : A tool more specifically dedicated to collaborative project management. Frido (gratuit) : A very simple mobile application, completely free of charge, available on iOS only. Wrike (freemium) : A comprehensive and secure collaborative project management software designed for team use. ClickUp, Zoho Projects, Paymo, Templo, Smartsheet... there's no shortage of choice!