What are Project Management Techniques?
Project management techniques take basic project management skills and apply them to the system to make completion more accessible, more achievable, and genuine—reason for them as your roadmap or game plan. You have a finished goal, and project management techniques will help you achieve it.
Like any card or strategy, there are always multiple ways to do something. For this reason, multiple project planning gears can be applied to different projects.
To regulate which method is suitable for your project, you must first set the target and variables of your project. It can include finish date, industry, budget, project schedule, number of teams, project lifecycle, etc. Once you have made your conclusion, you can evaluate different methodologies to see how well the existing variables fit into the method.
The World Of Project Management Is Huge
It covers many industries and requires a variety of skills. But the common thread that ties these different disciplines together is the methods that project managers use to get the job done.
Project management techniques simplify and improve the efficiency of project planning and management. They can be practical in any project, regardless of area or sector. And when used in conjunction with project management software, they help in saving time and reduce prices.
Project Management Techniques To Choose From
Here are five of the best things every project manager should know to track their projects and lead them to successful results.
1. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
At first glance, projects large and small can seem overwhelming. There is so much to do. The idea of jumping and learning to swim is how projects drown in wasted time and cost. As any seasoned project manager knows, everything needs to be planned before starting work.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a method to break work down into smaller, more controllable pieces. According to (PMBOK) the Project Management Body of Knowledge, the WBS is “a result-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work done by a team.”
It means that the WBS is a graphical representation of every activity in the project. At the highest in the final product, a line running down the page to the frame (s) represents the larger tasks leading to the completed project. Then, strings are attached to each of these rectangles that go below it for smaller tasks.
Divide and Rule
Using a hierarchical work structure allows you to divide the project’s scope into smaller parts that the project team can work on. As the levels move down the WBS, more definitions and details emerge. It is a kind of activity map for the project.
The entire team creates the WBS, which defines the main deliverables and breaks them down into smaller and smaller intermediate results. This process continues until the group reaches the point at which the task can be completed, and the team receives the task.
The WBS defines and organizes the project, but it can also break down more than just tasks. Budgets can be calculated based on sharing schedules and even risk when a branch is not clearly defined. Get started with the free WBS template.
After you have collected all the project activities, use the ProjectManager to organize them and start working more productively. Our to-do list is more than just a glorified to-do list like other apps. You can prioritize, customize tags, and even track completion percentages for each item on your list. Our cloud-based software allows all members of the project team to stay connected. Team members can comment at the activity level and receive real-time responses. They can even tag anyone on the project for feedback. Stay organized and connected with our free trial today.
2. Gantt Chart
The Gantt chart is another visual project management method, but it still has more project manager apps. Creating a Gantt chart is one technique. Use it with the Gantt Chart tool to make this technique easier to accomplish.
Gantt charts can help with more than just planning and scheduling tasks for one or more projects. You can also propose and design entire projects, design sprints and milestones, schedule teams, and compare planned and actual timelines in your project.
If you use the Gantt chart online in ProjectManager, you have the freedom to adjust schedules as needed and even link dependent tasks by simply clicking and dragging. You can use Task dependencies when there are incomplete responsibilities. You cannot start another until the first is complete. They can be linked in the ProjectManager so that there is no downtime or blockage of team associates.
Allocation of each task to individual team members, and then project managers can mechanize notifications of upcoming deadlines so that the project is not lost. When a team updates its status, this information is instantly reflected in the ProjectManager, so everyone is always on the same page.
3. Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
It is a project management method that helps with timing. Of course, planning is necessary to get the project done on time, but also budget. The extended you work, the more you pay.
So how does PERT work? He manages odds using a variety of simple statistical techniques. PERT breaks down activities into detailed activities using the WBS described above, then adds them to the Gantt chart to identify those activities that are interdependent. From this data, you create an illustrative map of the network of actions and their interdependencies.
Node signifies an event on the map, and arrows represent the actions leading from one event to the following order. Based on this, you can calculate the first time (TE) and the last time (TL) for each activity and free time.
4. Critical Path Method (CPM)
The Critical Path Method (CPM) is the cornerstone of project management techniques. CPM requires you to create a project template that includes a list of all activities or WBSs, the duration of each exercise, what dependencies, if any, link activities and endpoints, such as indicators and deliverables, for the mission.
With this info, you can calculate the longest path from scheduled tasks to completion, including the earliest and latest times when jobs can start and finish without affecting project planning. Now you know which activities are critical to the project and which ones can be postponed or postponed without increasing the project deadline.
So, as a project management method, CPM is a sequence of activities that add up to the maximum total duration, regardless of whether there is a mobile position. With this information, you will determine the shortest time needed to complete the project.
Not all project management tools can automatically filter the critical path. You have to do the math yourself. But ProjectManager finds the essential way with one click on our Gantt view, saving you valuable time. Once your schedule is in place, set up a baseline on your Gantt chart. It allows you to compare your actual progress against the planned effort, which helps you stay on track.
Critical Path Improves Prioritization And Decision Making
CPM is truly an algorithm that aids decision-making. Considering specific data (start time, duration, end time), determine which activities are most critical to the project’s success.
As for the unforeseen circumstances always around the corner in any project, CPM has quick tracking. It is the process of running multiple tasks in parallel on a critical path. It reduces the overall project time. And also, it works if the business is independent. But this requires additional resources and can affect quality.
Overall, CPM helps reduce latency by optimizing performance in the critical path. CPM improves organization by breaking results into sequences. It can also view dependencies, which allows you to prioritize tasks. It increases efficiency and helps calculate the mobile location for better resource allocation.
5. Kanban
Kanban is utilized in lean manufacturing and looks like a series of cards on a whiteboard that visualizes a plan. It might be used as a project management method to help monitor and manage projects, emphasizing continuous delivery without placing an undue burden on the team. Kanban helps the project team work together more effectively.
The project management software program takes kanban to the next level. The ProjectManager has a tabbed view that syncs with all other project views, allowing teams to work the way they wish. The tool replicates all the updates. Teams love how they can accomplish their backlog and plan sprints. Managers gain the transparency they want in potential blockages and quickly reallocate resources to keep production running smoothly.
The project board helps team members imagine what they need to do today by seeing their tasks in the broader context of others. It bounds the amount of work in progress (WIP) and balances the workflow not to overwhelm the team. Since the cards on the board can take precedence, the workflow has improved. When the task completes, the tab moves to the next column, and the team member starts from the tab at the top of the task column.