Projects are the set of defined activities and tasks undertaken to achieve the specified goals in allotted period of time. Large business organizations generally have a number of projects underway at the same time and the success of entire business depends on the effective implementation and completion of projects. For many years, IT industries and business organizations have been struggling to deliver the projects on time. In order to execute the projects in a systematic way, they need the assistance of an expert professional or manager who will follow a unique approach for planning, executing, organizing, motivating and controlling the resources.

Ensuring that all the business is managed in a controlled way

Project Management Officers are the backbone of business organization as they underpin the project delivery mechanism by ensuring that all the business is managed in a controlled way. The exact role of Project Management Officer will depend on needs of the business organization. Different PMO’s perform different functions within the organization but all have to focus on the business development and project outcomes. Generally, PMO will distinguish the characteristics of project management in order to establish a solid foundation of available project information prior to the rolling up business enterprise level information.

Follow a common set of principles

Project Management Officer involves common set of principles, templates and practices for managing projects. He maintains standards for projects as per the client’s requirement. Creating project management templates will also implement standard components that can be reused to save time and money. It is the responsibility of the PMO’s to ensure that the project management standards are followed by regular performing assessments or not. Moreover, this process will also produce feedback on a regular basis.  For all business projects, he tracks the status of projects with regular updates from the team leaders and associated members. He will compile the collected information and report this to the management. Generally, the normal way of presenting the project reports and related information is using project dashboards that provide a transparent and clear way to track each and every activity of the projects.

Provide guidance for better understanding

PMO’s tend to develop a centre of excellence for the project management and they also assist the associated team and project managers by providing guidance so that they will be able to understand how the management process goes on. In many IT industries and business organizations, PMO plays a key role in assisting the teams and leaders by explaining the project execution process. He also manages and facilitates the portfolio management process by implemented a unique and standard approach. This process includes various management tasks like capturing the project requests for every division or team and ensuring that there is complete information for assessing projects or not, maintaining up-to-date reports of projects, implementing prioritisation models and scores to help assess for the request approval, managing a resource forecast or resource capacity plan in order to understand availability of resources for the projects.

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While planning for getting into the field of project management, you might be wondering that whether you are suitable for this role or not. In the business processing life cycle, project management is playing a key role. To manage every project efficiently, it is essential to learn every basic step related to the project management if you are a beginner. Well, if you want to start your every business project at right time and in the right manner, then always make sure that you are equipped with necessary knowledge and tools with advanced features that make your project management process more efficient and convenient.

Keep you clients happy

To keep your clients happy, it is important having an ability to keep a realistic timeline for your project. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed by the number of projects; which can cause disasters due to workload. Therefore, you need to develop a realistic approach to get the things done in an appropriate manner. Having an effective project management methodology, an organization can gain good reputation as well as more clients.

Novice project mangers always look for the guidance of their masters, who have expertise and wealth of knowledge to manage the business projects confidently. Most of the times, you find yourself in a situation where you stuck in the details, and it becomes difficult for you to make progress towards your goals.

Not only it is required by big projects, small projects can also get benefitted from the highly advanced PRINCE2 terminology. This has common language, structured framework and framework all over the world. Numbers of tips are provided by various websites online that are of paramount importance for the starters:

• Firstly, you must be aware about the in and out of the project requirements. Which technology is to be used is another important factor which you need to take care of.
• Make sure that your projects should be error free, because one silly mistake can lead to the downfall of the project.
• Always find the guidance of the one who can teach you in a right manner to get better jobs as a global professional.
• Prepare yourself for the steep learning curve, to facilitate effective and efficient working within the team.
• The most important part which you cannot ignore is, to know when and how to communicate with your clients and what you can do at your best to satiate their business needs.

Well, to strategize your business project management plans, you need to have proper planning and tools to ensure that it runs smoothly.

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Strategy and Tactics = PMO Success
By Lindsey Marymont
Planning is often an overwhelming yet exciting time as you are mapping out the road ahead. Having a good sense of what you would like to get done over the year, recalling how far you were able to come, and forecasting on paper (or in the cloud) the […]

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10 Signs Your Employees Are Unhappy
By Cheryl Cran
In these busy times leaders and teams are so focused on getting through myriads of tasks and projects that often signs of discontent can be missed or ignored.
Leaders that focus on employee ‘happiness’ in addition to productivity and bottom line results have a greater competitive advantage. Happy employees […]

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Manage your stakeholders well and in return you will have a well-managed project.

Time, Cost and Quality are not as important as…

Stakeholder management when it comes down to delivering a successful project. With delivering projects the Time, Cost and Quality aspect of the project can be flexed, bent or extended (but never removed) depending on the needs of the project. One aspect that is non-negotiable is stakeholder management. As long as stakeholder management is continuous and relevant the project increases its chances of delivering a successful project.

Stakeholder management ultimately breaks down into the following 3 key elements, which are best referred to as the Stakeholder ACE principle:

• Stakeholder Appreciation
• Stakeholder Communication
• Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder Appreciation

Only by appreciating the stakeholders you will aim to understand and comprehend what the stakeholder offers to the project. Ignoring stakeholders at any stage of the project can result in irreversible damage to the company, project and project manager. Appreciating stakeholders involves:

• It is important to treat each stakeholder with respect and trust to help build a two way appreciation between the project manager and stakeholder.
• Understand and comprehend the stakeholders past experience to understand the stakeholder
• Do not underestimate the ability of a stakeholder to provide the answer or direction required, whether they are a director or a system user.
• Making sure the stakeholders are acknowledged for the responsibilities they have and decisions they need to make.
• Show interest in the information and respond to the information in a proactive and positive manner. Challenging stakeholders in a positive manner will demonstrate interest and dedication to the project.
• Do not disregard the information coming from the stakeholder. The information being shared by the stakeholder might not always be relevant but as a project manager you should assess the information and manage the use of that information in line with the project.

Stakeholder Communication

Keeping the flow of communication open between the project manager and stakeholders in the project is very important to maintain engagement and involvement by stakeholders. Using various mediums and resources as ones disposal will aid in the communication process. A vital aspect of communication is to never let it go stale or become irrelevant to the audience it is intended for.

Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement is about enabling stakeholders to take responsibility, get involved and developing a sense of ownership in the project.

• Build integrity and trust by being open and honest with stakeholder
• Be proactive with information and risk management to foresee issues
• Deliver bad news early as possible but be proactive with the bad news
• Engage stakeholders and get the stakeholder to take responsibility and ownership

Summary

By keeping Stakeholders at the forefront of any project you will be sure to have the most effective foundation to deliver a successful project. Remember to always lead by Appreciation, Communication and Engagement.

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7 Reliable Ways to Improve Project Estimates
By Harry Hall
Once upon a time, I sat in the office of a CEO as he described ten years of late and grossly over-budget Information Technology projects. He was more frustrated than a New York Mets fan losing another New York Yankees game. He asked why IT continued to […]

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A business invoicing process can become complicated if not taken seriously. As the business grows, it becomes really important to streamline other processes as well. The invoicing process is one such process which is crucial for every business. This is especially so, because invoicing helps in converting revenue into cash flow. If a business does not realize payments on time, it will fail to sustain itself in the long run.

Here are some tips to simplify the invoice process:

1. Standardization

Sending out professional invoices to clients is the first step towards creating a smooth invoicing process. One has to choose an invoice template that carries all the necessary details. These details include the company name and contact details, company logo, product description, rate of the product being sold, quantity of the product being sold, purchase order number, invoice number, notes, terms and conditions, taxes, discounts and the due date of the invoice. The next step is to train an employee to fill in the correct details in this format and send it out to the client in a timely manner.

2. Invoice Tracking

With a large number of invoices being sent out, it is very important to track each and every invoice periodically. Cloud based invoicing solutions help business owners to track the status on invoices by simply logging in anytime, anywhere. Knowing whether an invoice has been paid for or pending from the client’s end, helps in following up for payments at the right time. This also helps in tracking the invoices which have become overdue and need urgent action. Invoice tracking helps in resolving queries or disputes pertaining to a particular invoice.

3. Reducing Errors and Disputes

Invoicing is a process fraught with errors, and this may lead to invoice exceptions and disputes. To reduce these, one must ensure that each invoice is preceded by an estimate which is duly approved by the client. This must be followed by a purchase order from the client’s end which further ensures that the client agrees to the pricing and the terms and conditions mentioned on the invoice. Using an automated solution to send out invoices and other documents ensures that the chances of an error on the invoice are minimum.

4. Getting Paid on Time

Once a system of sending out documents is in place one must ensure that the payments flow in timely as well.  For receiving timely payments, one must ensure that invoices are sent out to the client, on time as well. There are invoicing tools that help in scheduling invoices for sending them out on the desired date, despite lack of time and resources. Besides that, a system of online payments ensures that the client can pay the invoice as soon as it reaches his inbox. A late fee is another useful way of penalizing late paying clients and preventing delayed payments. Automatic payment reminders also ensure the clients make payments in a timely manner, without the hassle of too many payment follow-ups.

5. Customized Invoicing

Large enterprises with complex processes and invoicing requirements, can opt for customized invoicing solutions. These solutions ensure that the invoicing system integrates with the existing ERP or CRM systems. Customizing the invoicing process ensures that it is free from errors and also improves the productivity of business processes in a big way. A customized invoicing process has got features like automated invoice verification, approvals and payments, completely simplifying the invoicing process for large enterprises.

Focusing on the core business is the priority for every business owner. But, one must ensure that the invoice process is standardized and simplified appropriately as well. This is essential for realizing payments on time and maintaining healthy client relationships. These are two very important pillars for a growing business enterprise.

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Regardless of what industry you work in, the end of the year, and the festive season in general can be a stressful time for you and your staff. Projects will either be reaching completion as the year draws to an end, or you’ll be striving to resume regular working hours all while we all have a million other things on our mind. You’ll also have to contend with staff hours becoming less consistent, and not forgetting the all-important and unnegotiable national bank holidays.

In short, during this demanding period in both your personal and professional life, most of us say a farewell to sanity during the holiday season. Endless 12+ hour working days seem inevitable- but most of us realise that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Your business and respective projects do not have to sacrificed over the festive period, and nor does your personal life. It’s all about adopting the right attitude.

Keeping the following in mind could help you keep everything streamlined during this hectic festive period…

Don’t Feel Guilty about Saying No

Firstly, don’t forget it is more than okay to say no. Of course, none of us are fans of turning down business, and most of us jump at the opportunity to take a lead with a new and exciting project to prove self-worth in the work place, or to develop future career prospects.  With all that said, turning down work can seem like a step in the wrong direction. In reality however, adding an extra assignment to your work schedule can reduce the quality of the rest of your work, and put a strain on the rest of your team too.

This is something you want to avoid during the Christmas period. With a shorter month already, you don’t want to kick your team while they are down, so to speak. Company and team morale are essential at this time of the year, so make sure you try to nurture your in-house environment as much as possible.

Low team morale during the festive season will make your team feel like they are underappreciated during this family-orientated time of the year, and as a result you may experience resentment, for just needing to show up when their mind and heart is elsewhere.

In short, before you agree to new business, think about postponing it until the New Year. Your potential new client will respect your honesty and professionalism for being forward-thinking.

Manage Client Expectations

On the topic of clients, you must take them into consideration too. The festive season is a busy time for us all, and our clients are no different. In demanding times such as these, client communication is put under strain. With so many other things to take into consideration, subconsciously, you prioritise completing work for your client, rather than communicating your progress to them.

Communicating the small things to your client can prevent further frustration between you and them during the manic period. Also, as mentioned above, a vast majority of your clients will be celebrating in a similar way too. Likelihood is that if you pre-warn them of any delays, they will be more accepting of any minor delays in delivery.

Keeping your clients in the loop of how you are going to manage their projects will automatically put their minds at ease, creating a positive work relationship right from the beginning of the project.

Temporary Staff

Due to how demanding the Christmas period can be, and depending on the nature of your industry, additional work may even be mandatory around this time of year. Festive marketing or advertising campaigns, or holiday opening hours may all require additional or temporary staff to keep up with the demand. Temporary staff can be invaluable, so try not to get frustrated with their lack of knowledge of the business or the specific project you may need them to help out with. They can be wondrous for picking up the slack that comes with inconsistent working hours in the week, they can also help you keep up with the additional work which may come in the festive period. Often they are on a lower wage than permanent staff, and have obviously had less experience than you and the rest of the team with the work at hand. Try and be patient to continue the positive working environment required for a healthy and happy holiday working period.

Schedule Website Content & Social Media in Advance

This is the period where you need to automate as much as humanly possible in order to free up as much time for the things computers cannot do. Keeping your social media accounts as updated as possible could shave off some valuable time where you would be answering enquiries over the phone. If you have any last minute changes to your opening hours, or how clients can contact you directly, put it online, to avoid/eliminate any potential confusion.

Christmas Spirit + Stay motivated

As project manager, it is up to you to keep morale high during this hectic period. When staff are feeling frustrated about missing out on Christmas shopping time, or stressful families over Christmas, you want to make their workplace as less of a burden as possible. A little can go a long way, so granting slightly longer lunch breaks or implementing a flex-time system can really make all the difference to morale.

Your staff will repay you for it I’m sure.

The post How to Maintain Control over your Projects during the Festive Period appeared first on Project-Management.com.

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Top Five Project Management Pitfalls
By Petros Rigas
Project Management is one significant underestimated area that often goes unnoticed across many industries. Many companies introduce it as a process for compliance purposes only. It is also primarily introduced to make the “company” look good and attractive to investors – nothing more and nothing less. Few companies, however, […]

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Functional and Non-Functional Requirements: A Primer
By Ben Snyder, CEO of Systemation
What does it do and how does it work?
These two questions should be top of mind for every business analyst embarking on a new project. That’s because, at a very basic level, these two questions will guide you towards the functional and non-functional requirements that […]

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