Project Management Fundamentals

Project Management

Project Management is the process of governing and guiding people who have a direct or indirect contribution to make to the project. Project Managers must achieve the objective and make it a success within the given constraints. The constraints in every project are different, but time, scope and budget are the primary constraints in every project. Executing a project within the given constraints can be done if we have a promising knowledge of the project fundamentals. Project management is a prosperous profession in the present time.

 

7 Project Management Fundamentals

 There are seven fundamentals of project planning and management.

1. Process Groups

The project management life cycle consists of five process groups or phases (Initiation, Planning, Execution,  Monitoring & Closure). Each project management process group represents one phase of the project.

2. Cost Management

In cost management, the project managers deal with the budget. The budgeting of any project is one of the primary constraints. Without cost management, no project can stay within the budget. Cost management involves cost planning, cost estimation, cost budgeting, and cost control.

3. Risk Management

Risk Management is one of one most crucial fundamentals of project management. The steps of risk management include Identifying risks, Analyzing risks, Assigning ownership of risks to team members, Prioritizing project risk, Planning response to project risk, Monitoring risk and Curating risk management strategies

 

4. Task Management

Task management is the essence of project management. Project managers need to ensure that all the tasks are completed within a specified time and budget. Task management involves identifying the task, monitoring the execution of the task and orchestrating the tasks.

5. Project Constraints

Constraints are an inevitable part of project management. No project doesn't have any constraints. Every project has three primary constraints, that are time, scope and cost. These three make the project management triangle, they are unavoidable. The cost constraint forces you to manage the budget of the project and keep it between predetermined financial restrictions. The time constraint involves planning, monitoring and executing the project schedule. And lastly, the scope constraint requires the project managers to define the scope at the beginning of the project.

6. Project Communication Management 

In project management, there is simultaneous two-way communication between the stakeholders and the project managers. The project managers communicate on behalf of their team members. The relationship between stakeholders and project managers is mostly formal, so there are proper steps in project communication management. 

7. Change Management 

As the famous saying goes, change is the only constant. Change Management is a blessing in disguise for project management. Change Management comes into play when there is an alteration in the predetermined factors. It is a crucial aspect of the fundamentals of software project management.