Benefits Of PRINCE2 And Other Project Management Templates

The Prince2 project is a form of a project management template program to help reduce the workload of employees. It is an integrated program that is divided into 45 different sub-processes that help to manage a project effectively and in a timely manner. The 45 sub-processes are mainly categorized into eight divisions that make up the entire template. These divisions are SU, PL, IP, DP, CS, MP, SB and CP stages. These are the Start Up, Planning, Initiating Project, Controlling Stage, Manage Project, manage Stage Boundaries and Closing Project stages respectively. Each of these stages helps to keep a desired project on track and help the employees to give quality work with comparatively less stress.

The benefits of using Project  management templates are many and thereby using such a template helps a lot. The main feature is that it helps give clarity and structure. Basically when working with too many projects at once you might not be able to give all the projects the same amount of attention. This can greatly affect your work. Also there are times when you might just completely forget about a project altogether. But by using a template you can easily keep track of all your assigned projects and the clarity achieved from that can help you figure out how much time will be required for each one giving you a sense of structure.

These can also hugely assist in the decision making process of any project. The templates, when finished, give a clear view of all the work done. Thus with everything clear and simple and all the data being in front of you, you are better equipped to make an informed decision. They also help to build self-confidence and morale. To see all the work finished in the assigned time frame helps the employee to feel that he or she is easily capable of doing all the work assigned. Also since the quality of the work is really good it further improves their feelings of self worth. When the employers see the work not only done but done well, their confidence in their employees increases substantially thus they are able to delegate better improving the quality of the overall output of the company.

The excess amount of work you have the more the pressure on you builds. In a high pressure situation you are more likely to make terrible mistakes. These errors can really hurt the project. But by using templates you are able to find a way to reasonably manage your time so that you are not stretched too thin yet you are able to give your 100% to all the projects.

We offer 184 Project Management Templates to Download & Free Samples. Visit the Offer Here

How Does & Why Does a Project Fail?

Generally the projects taken up by IT industries that are not as well established as the banking and insurance industries fail due to certain reasons. And in general the project manager is to blame for this failure of the project. The PM who may be in charge of the project may be responsible in one or the other way, but the whole blame cannot be put on the PM. There are other reasons too for an Information Technology sectors project failure. Moreover every project has its pros and cons, the PM has to take up the project that is allotted to him by his superiors, if the actual base of the project is not good and the project fails, then how is the PM who is under the orders of his superior to be responsible for the whole failure. The PM can do everything in his power to avoid failure by taking care of a certain steps and keep the project safe.

These few steps that should be taken care by the manager are as follows; the PM should take care that there is proper user involvement in the project, because in general if there is no user involvement in the project then the management lacks the commitment toward the project, in this case the PM can be blamed. If the project has long or unrealistic time lines then the management has to see to that the project does not become obsolete or unusable for the company or the client. The PM's main aim should be to finish the possible as early as possible.

If the client does not specify any requirements then the project management just assumes what are the necessities of the project and also of the client and do something of their own, in such cases the client will reject the project as it may have not been what he expected. Under this kind of circumstances the PM and the management together should put various ideas in front of the client, make several brain storming sessions along with them, then select the ideal that is better for the client and implement that idea so that when the end result comes the both the management of project and the client are satisfied by the outcome of the project.

The project fails if the management cannot accept change and cannot implement the change. The PM has to see to that the project has a proper change management system that will allow the project to make changes according to the will and wish of the client. The testing group in the project or the developers should make a lot of testing on the process of the project, or the market reach of the project, to ensure that the project once it is in the market will be readily acceptable and will make the right impression that it was supposed to make. If the PM does not implement these simple rules then the project is sure to be a failure.

We offer 184 Project Management Templates to Download & Free Samples. Visit the Offer Here

How Project Management Templates Help A Project Manager

When you adopt a new project it's possible you could enter that project at any stage. Be it startup, initiate, closure or anything in between you'll want to prove that you're a capable Project Manager as fast as possible.

When you get down to business and start working on project documentation and related material, one of the most common things you'll eventually ask will be "So, what template do you guys use for project stage xyz".

Unfortunately, you'll often be surprised at the answer. "Here are some templates we have used in the past".

What happens next is horrifying.

It's a terrible half finished template that's missing critical components of the project stage.

After the panic has subsided it's usually our resourcefulness that ends up saving the day. Be it project initiation or risk management, usually all PM's have a suite of project management templates in their kit bag. Some even carry them from job to job!

This template kit bag usually consists of a full set of proven project templates from budgeting through to closure. Personally having a kit bag like this has saved my bacon on several occasions.

But hold on I hear you say, I'm a new PM and I haven't yet built up a repository of proven collateral yet?

That's where you can cheat by getting a decent set of project management templates from the Internet! There are lots of resources on the Internet check out a few and start building your kit bag!

If the company you work for has rubbish templates, think of the value you'll provide if you start introducing relevant, targeted professional templates and get the work done in half the time.

We offer 184 Project Management Templates to Download & Free Samples. Visit the Offer Here

Three Basic Project Management Tools

The three basic tools we have as Project Managers to accomplish our project time, cost and objectives are Planning, Scheduling and Controlling.

While all are used in each phase of the Project Management Lifecycle, there are different degrees of intensity of each tool in each phase.

Project Planning begins the moment someone has a vision of your project. This could be yesterday by someone you know, or a team five years ago you have never met.

This then makes project management planning a touchy subject in many circles. Some say it's all about the task management after you get the project, and some say it's about how you go about your project management business.

I say all of the above, but let's also add that project planning has to include the documentation, communication and organization of how you need to manage a project within the culture of your organization.

It seems every organization has a business process that is considered a project management process by the senior management, but in fact, it's a business process that is designed as a vehicle for senior management to make decisions and follow your project's status.

That means that when the project is assigned to the Project Manager, the job is to implement the decisions of management within the time and cost given.

I have no problem with this kind of assignment, as long as management allows the Project Manager to take a few steps back and understand what had been decided and how the decisions were made. Fat chance though, if committees and matrix are part of the organization - and which organizations today are exempt from these resident evils to all projects!

Ok then Project Managers, we have to realize that a ton of planning has been done to our project prior to us getting it and we simply are not privy to all of the information. This then makes it imperative that our project management planning includes discovering what has been planned, who has planned it, why decisions were made and (with any luck) what politics were involved.

The first thing we must do is define who our Project Customer is, and as you know, that is the person (singular) who is accountable to the organization for our project and agrees with us to all time cost and objective issues.

This makes the Project Customer the owner of our project so that we can own the work of managing their project.

Now we must plan and execute an "understanding" meeting with our Project Customer to unearth all we can about the project.

Some questions to ask and get answered:

- Who's vision was the project? 

- Who's objectives are the project? 

- Is the time strategic, or has it been well defined? 

- Is the budget strategic, or has it been well defined? 

- Which of the three scope constraints (time, cost, objectives) is considered a variable? 

- What is the re-agreement process as objectives change? 

- Etc.

All these questions (and anything else you can think of) are fair game to the Project Customer as you strategically plan your Phase One - Concept/Feasibility.

After you get a better "understanding" of the project, your planning needs to move toward the functional team you have been assigned.

One-on-one meetings with all team members are mandatory because you will need to begin building a relationship of some trust with each member. Don't just rely on the fact that they have been assigned to your team to insure they will follow through with their tasks.

Plan on asking each of them the follow questions:

- Do you have time to be on this project? 

- Are you able to prioritize this project as asked? 

- Do you feel you have the skills necessary to accomplish your tasks? 

- Are you willing to be honest to your progress on your tasks? 

- Will you let me know immediately if your commitment to this project changes?

As a Project Manager, we must realize that our team members are more important than their tasks. Simply, if they don't do the task, for any reason, the task won't get done and the project will be late. The time you spend up front individually with each of the team members, involves each member into the decision making process and in turn creates commitment.

Now our planning calls for some objective definition.

Set a meeting with your Project Customer and your Project Team together and begin the discussion that will lead to your project's deliverables.

Poor communication is the number one reason projects fail, and can be the number one reason projects succeed. This is where it all begins, long before we start the execution phase.

What we have discussed today is how project planning has to include how we are going about our project management business. Many people argue that project planning is only about the tasks. I absolutely disagree.

A solid project management foundation will steer the project through a process that includes documentation, communication and organization that compliments any organizational business process.

It just takes a bit more planning on the Project Managers part to make it all work together.

We offer 184 Project Management Templates to Download & Free Samples. Visit the Offer Here