Project Management: A Pathway to Success

Introduction
Effective project management is more important today than it ever was, given the speed at which business gets done. Be it a small team or a large enterprise, effective project management may spell the difference between delivering on goals with speed, budget, and quality. The rest of this blog post discusses everything from the key elements of project management to some practical tips on how to make such initiatives work.

The Project Management Lifecycle

Projects usually undergo a five-phase life cycle of:
Initiation: This is the stage that comprises the identification of the project scope, objectives, and deliverables. A feasibility study needs to be done, and all the necessary approvals are required.
Initiation: This is the stage that comprises the identification of the project scope, objectives, and deliverables. A feasibility study needs to be done, and all the necessary approvals are required.
Planning: The project team will come up with a detailed plan of the project. Such a detailed plan includes work structuring, scheduling, budgeting resources, and resource allocation.
Implementation: carrying out the planned activities, and manage the project team. This stage involves much communication and collaboration occur in this stage.
Monitoring and Controlling: The progress of a project is monitored and followed up. The project manager imposes necessary corrective actions arising out of risk identification during the course of the project execution.
Executing: The project manager conducts a final review upon project completion to measure indeed if the project is a success and will document lessons learned.

Fundamentals of a Project Management
Successful project management combines some key skills and tools such as leadership, communication, problem-solving, risk management, scheduling, budgeting, resource management and quality management.
The leaders inspire and motivate their teams, while clear communications ensure everyone is channeled in the right direction. A well-planned schedule helps to make sure the work is completed on time, while effective budgeting maintains project costs. This includes efficiency in the allocation and management of resources while ensuring that the level of deliverables will always meet the standards of quality.

Successful Project Management Tips
Following are some guidelines on effective project management:
• Setting clear goals and objectives-This will help the entire team to have a full understanding of the idea of the venture including the aims.
• Develop a detailed project plan: An effective project plan is the route to the project.
• Communication: be open and sincere regarding your expectations with all parties concerned.
• Risk management: It involves proactive management of risks by the identification of potential risks and strategies to mitigate them.
• Follow-up progress in detail: Regular follow-up on the progress development in the projects and adjust accordingly.
• Learn from your mistakes: Record lessons learned from past projects and make use of them in future ventures.

Examples of Successful Project Management
While there are numerous successful projects, here are a few that make quite a statement about effective project management:

International Space Station - ISS
Overview: Space station that will be inhabited, to be built in low Earth orbit by many countries jointly.
Challenges include coordinating numerous international teams, complex technology development, and the extreme environment of space.
Success: For over twenty years, the ISS has continuously remained at work-a platform for performing scientific experiments and displaying international cooperation.

The Panama Canal Expansion
Scope: A huge project of Panama Canal widening and deepening in order to enable the passing of bigger-size ships.
A challenge: The environment, engineering marvels, and completing the work in time.
Success: The expansion project was completed on schedule and within budget, greatly increasing the capacity of the canal and therefore promoting global trade.

Sydney Opera House
General scope: A singularly unique, iconic architectural masterpiece by Danish architect Jørn Utzon.
Problems: Delays in design, delay in the construction of the building, inappropriate budgeting.
Success: The Sydney Opera House was finally completed after many setbacks and has now become an internationally known landmark.

Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
Scope: It is the world's largest particle accelerator intended for studying the basic building blocks of the universe.
Challenges include complex engineering, international cooperation, and high financial expenditure.
Success: This discovery, along with the confirmation of the Higgs boson particle, was able to be made at the LHC.