Project management is a highly sought-after skill by many employers around the world.
With a fluctuation of projects to deliver to clients every month, businesses worldwide have started seeking out employees who have what it takes to be great team leaders so they can take projects from start to finish.
MANCOSA offers a wide range of online short-learning project management courses to help you upskill.
This article will explain what project management is, why it’s vital for all businesses, explain who a project management course is perfect for, and more so you can decide if it’s the right course for you.
What is project management?
Project management is the process of leading a team and a set of tasks or activities to hit goals within a specific timeframe. This means that project managers are responsible for many tasks to bring the project to fruition. These include tasks such as:
- Coordinating cross-functional work
- Managing processes
- Centralising project plans, data, and feedback
- Improving team performance and collaboration
- Ensuring equipment is working effectively
- Sharing project status with stakeholders
- Keeping work and goals organised
- Eliminating confusion to increase efficiency
- Aligning departmental communication
For example, a project manager at a marketing agency might be responsible for developing an app for a client. As a result, they’ll have to manage the team and process to take the app from concept to reality.
When managing a project, the project manager needs to keep several factors in mind, including, but not limited to:
● Budget: How much the client is willing to spend.
● Deliverables: The assets, products, or files that’ll be finished at the end of the project’s timeline.
● Dependencies: The order in which tasks must be completed since some tasks can’t start until others are completed.
● Milestones: The checkpoints that signify when one part of the project is completed.
● Project risks: Anything that might go wrong in the project.
How can project management improve operations?
Here are some main benefits of project management and how it can increase business operations and performance.
1. Creates clear objectives
A lack of clear goals can have a severe negative impact on a project. Teams don’t know what they’re working towards without them and end up grasping at straws. As a result, the entire project is put in jeopardy.
The Pulse of the Profession 2020 Report showed that as high as 114% of investment is wasted due to poor project performance.
Effective project management will prevent this from happening by setting clear goals with milestones along the way.
2. Ensures strategic alignment
Projects need to be aligned with the business and its goals. Otherwise, what’s the point of doing the project in the first place?
As a result, project management is the driver of organisational strategy and will help businesses move towards their overall vision. It’ll help the business move forward and grow into something bigger.
3. Guarantees quality
In a competitive world, quality has become one of the driving forces behind customer purchases. Effective project management will help the company deliver exceptional products or services to the client.
Project managers will not only ensure that project deadlines are met, but they’ll also keep an eye on how well the project is being executed. All this will result in far better deliverables — and more profit for the company.
4. Reduces costs
Without project management, businesses risk losing money due to unnecessary project mistakes or confusion.
Project management reduces the project’s cost by improving efficiency, optimising resources, and reducing risks. Even with the added cost of hiring a project manager, businesses stand to gain far more than their initial investment.
Who should get project management training?
Project management training isn’t just for project managers. All business professionals who deal with projects in some form or another will find this type of training very rewarding and valuable. It’s perfect for someone who wants to:
Learn how to communicate effectively
Verbal and non-verbal communication are essential skills to have in today’s ever-evolving digital world. You need excellent communication capabilities when you’re talking to customers, team members, or suppliers. Project management training will help you achieve this.
Take on a leadership role
Project management training is ideal for someone who wants to take on a leadership role within a company. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they want to be the project manager, but instead want to be a team leader or someone that the rest of the team looks up to.
Learn to prioritise
To bring a project to fruition, you must know how to prioritise tasks. Whether from most to least essential or according to dependencies, you need to know what should be done first. Project management training will teach you this critical skill that can be used in all business areas.
Improve teamwork capabilities
Regardless of their industries, all businesses rely on different sets of teams to get projects done. This means that they need employees who are good team players. Project management training will teach you how to work in a team so you can bring forth the best results.
Discover new tools
Project management training will teach you how to use different project management and organisation tools. You’ll then be able to use these tools to improve your work schedule, deliverables, and overall productivity.
Improve employability
As a result of all the added skills you’ll gain from project management training, you’ll become a more desirable employee — meaning more companies will want to hire you. This opens many doors for you and creates excellent career advancement opportunities.
Project management courses online
SkillMe offers numerous online project management courses to help you upskill and become more desirable.
These include different aspects of project management, such as courses for:
● Project Management Fundamentals: This teaches you the basics of project management. It gives you the skills, tools, and techniques needed to plan, communicate, and manage projects.
● Project Management Beyond the Fundamentals: This teaches you how to manage project management cycles, how to implement projects, team leadership and performance skills, and much more.
Study project management online with MANCOSA
A project management online training course might be the ideal choice if you’re interested in becoming a better leader, improving your teamwork capabilities, and improving your employability. MANCOSA offers numerous short online learning project management programmes. Register your interest by contacting us today.