The key to prosperous project management is to anticipate the needs and problems of customers and to set accurate and realistic expectations through customer education and communication tactics. “Project management software can help make your business process more efficient and effective”. (Lim, 2012) It takes the guess work out of project management; everything is at your fingertips no matter where you, your team or your customers are located. Utilizing common features like budgeting and costs, document, and collaboration management will allow you to stay on track, on budget and evaluate any risk factors and manage the risk accordingly.
Within in the budgeting and cost management you are able to review earned value, percent-to-complete tracking, project cost, integrate payroll, track time and expenses. These are all important features not being able to gather this information could cost you money. Controlling budget, means that the project needs to adhere to the timeline, including payroll allows you to evaluate if you need additional resources or if you have too many at one time. One of the most important features of a software is the budgeting and cost management; this information vital to your business and profit.
Documentation management captures critical information about the project. Utilizing this feature allows a business to track the project from the beginning to the end and allows you to streamline areas and share vital information with your team. As a project manager if you need to change an order it just takes a few clicks and everyone that needs to know has access to the information immediately.
The ability to a web-based system means that you have access to information from virtually any computer that has ...
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...nformed and put together a plan of action. However, this system does not include invoicing tools.
Project Manager – this is an online system and you can access it from any location. Geographical concerns are no longer a concern. This system provides training for team members and managers. Project Manager has the capabilities of managing numerous numbers of projects, unlimited resources and budgeting. This system does not have invoicing available until the end of quarter 4 in 2013.
EPM Live - this system uses technology that you are already know and understand. It integrates with Microsoft SharePoint and Office to create the complete project management solution. EPM Live provides professional support options. This system is designed to collaborate with SharePoint. If you are not using SharePoint you may want to select another project management software.
Gray, C., Larson, E. (2008). Project Management: The managerial Process. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Project management is a subset of operations management. Project management has a defined beginning and end, and is usually time-constrained (Satterlee, 2013). The stages of project management are the proposal, the initial investigation, a detailed investigation, development and testing, a trial, operation and closure, and the final step of evaluation. Project management and project scheduling are major issues for any organization facing rapid changes in its environment (Demeulemeesre, Kolisch, & Salo, 2012).
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
This paper will examine three websites that I found to provide interesting information on one of the following topics: project management, project management careers, project portfolio management, and IT project management; as well as the Project Management Institute’s Web site. The four websites that will be examined are: CIO – Project Management Definition and Solutions, Project Management Certification, and Wisconsin School of Business – Project Portfolio Management.
Another function the project office can provide is maintaining the “issues'; log. The project manager and possibly functional managers raise issues when changes to the project scope occur, or when changes and problems occur outside the control of the project management team. The project office collects this information and performs various “what if'; scenarios. They then can determine the impact on schedule, resource availability, and budget for that project and the organization as a whole.
The importance of project management lies the foundation in successful completion of the project. There is a great difference between project management and the ordinary management, which is explained in the flow chart in figure 2.
Gray, Clifford F.; Larson, Erik W., Project Management – The Managerial Process, Copyright © 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in 1969 to provide a non-profit organization for project professionals. This global organization offers eight different endorsements to aid project management professionals in acquiring positions with higher wages and career prospects (Learn about PMI, n.d.). The Project Management Institute is the foremost authority in project management (PM) fundamentals and serves as the lead organization for project administration. With organizational groups that extend globally, this institution
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project (PMI 1997). These expectations revolve around the project’s scope, schedule, cost and quality. Project management functions consist of: scope, cost, time, human resources, communications, quality, contract/procurement, risk, and project integration (PMI 1997). This dissertation focuses on the cost control aspect of project management.
A company's budget serves as a guideline in planning and committing costs in order to meet tactical and strategic goals. Tactical goals such as providing budgetary costs for daily operations, and strategic objectives that include R&D, production, marketing, and distribution are all part of the budgeting process. Serving as a guideline rather than being set in stone, the budget is a snapshot of manager's "best thinking at the time it is prepared." (Marshall, 2003, p.496) The budget is a method in which to reign-in discretionary spending, and will likely show variances between what costs have been anticipated and what costs are actually incurred.
Budgeting helps an organization to optimally utilize its resources by ensuring that they are employed in projects generating the highest returns. For instance, the cash budget ensures proper monitoring of cash by prioritizing on its outflow and inflow (Brooks, 2015). It forecast on future cash projection based on the present cash flows in the business.
“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to organisational and project activities to achieve the aims of an organisation through projects” (PMI, 2003).
Project management involves all activities that encompass scheduling, planning, and controlling projects. A successful project manager ensure that an organization’s resources are being used both efficiently and effectively. Most projects need to be uniquely developed require a sense of customization and the ability to adapt to any posed challenges. The scope of effective project management includes defining what the project is and what is being expected to be accomplished. Projects are imposed to fulfill a certain need and project managers must have the ability to create the proper definition. Goals and the means used to attain those goals have to be clearly stated. Project Managers must also have the ability to plan
The importance of project management cannot be overstated. For starters it is important that project management provides a flexibility and structure. Project management creates flexible and well-structured business organizations by combining two organization needs perfectly. The organizational needs are determined by making the organization adaptable due to constant changes in the business, secondly organization is extremely important for creating structure. What is most important is that
Kent Beck, the project leader will find using the WBS to make complex projects more manageable as it is designed to help break down projects into manageable chunks that can be effectively estimated and supervised. By creating a WBS include several benefits. For example it can help assist with accurate project company, helps with assigning responsibilities, shows the control points, project milestones, and allows for more accurate estimation of the triple constraint (cost, risk, and time) therefore helping to explain the project scope to stakeholders.