How to effectively manage projects in 2022?

Project management is a difficult task, and the manager must fulfill several different roles to effectively manage projects. All project managers strive for the most effective enterprise project management and accomplishment of goals with the concurrent minimization of risk. You have to be someone who will meet the project assumptions and requirements of its sponsor while at the same time guaranteeing good communication with the effective project team and ensuring they perform the entrusted tasks reliably. We would like to devote today's post to 10 tips regarding effective management.

1. To manage projects effectively a precise definition of the project's goal is needed.

To begin with, all employees must know and understand the goal of the project, including you. To effectively and reliably communicate what needs to be done to your team, you must first understand the sponsor's expectations of you and the impact the completed campaign will have. The important thing is that you make sure that all participants know the project goals and assumptions. This is the foundation of good cooperation in enterprise project management. Remember, however, it is not only about everybody knowing what they have to do individually. The group must also understand the impact of your collective work, as well as the outcomes of your project. Otherwise, everybody will focus only on their tasks, and you can forget about cooperation.

2. Obtain the appropriate project management software.

Good project management software is the basis for the contemporary management of complex projects. Starting anything without it is not even worth trying. Thanks to the software, you will not have to remember everything yourself; all deadlines and other important information will be recorded there. Its advantages also include automation of some of the processes, allowing you to save the time there is always not enough of. There are many examples of project management software, including IC Project, featuring all the crucial functionalities useful in project management. If you want to, you can also use foreign, well-developed project management software, such as MS Project or Jira.

3. Provide appropriate tools to all participants.

Remember, you are not the only one in need of necessary tools. All project participants must have everything necessary to implement your project. Try learning who will need what at the very beginning. Unfortunately, it is not always possible to know exactly what the performance of a given task will require when starting it. Sometimes, the need for certain materials arises only when the task is already in progress. This is why the needs of the project participants must be met on a current basis. Let everybody know at the very beginning that they should come to you if they need anything. Not everybody is open enough to willingly say what they need. Some need this form of encouragement.

4. Setting a realistic deadline

This issue seems simple and yet insufficient for short project implementation times as assumed way too often. Instead of approaching the issue realistically and trying to set the time frame based on reality, we keep trying to adapt the entire execution process exclusively to a specific deadline. Unfortunately, this rarely ends well for the entire project. Studies carried out by KMPG show that setting a project execution time limit shorter than one year results in 60% of them failing.

Too short deadlines can cause the inaccurate performance of duties by the particular participants as they are afraid of not making it on time with the tasks they were entrusted with. This, in turn, leads to mistakes affecting the whole. This is why you have to analyze thoroughly all the actions needed in project execution and set a realistic deadline and not an ultra-optimistic schedule. The Gantt chart is a great aid in planning the timeliness of the entire project. If you are looking for the right project management software, remember that the Gantt chart provides great added value.

5. Maintain team motivation.

Only a motivated team can perform the tasks effectively. This is why every participant must have comfortable work conditions ensured: from a good wage, through proper tools to work on the project, to an environment with a positive attitude. An example of a stimulus that increases the willingness to work may be allowing people to start work at a fixed time or allowing them to perform certain tasks in a remote mode. The satisfaction of employees has a great effect on the effectiveness of their work. An unsatisfied person working 10 hours a day may be less effective than if they worked 6 hours.

6. Make a plan for various scenarios.

Some of the negative events that may occur during project implementation can be predicted. Therefore, it is important to prepare a contingency plan. Provide such instructions to all the participants. This will allow us to mitigate the negative consequences of such situations and will facilitate and streamline controlling them. Even if you cannot predict the given event, plans prepared for other circumstances will help you deal with this crisis.

7. Maintain effective team communication.

At all stages of the project, it is important that the participants not only know their roles but can communicate with one another freely. Deficient information exchange translates into cooperation failure. All participants must be able to contact you as the project manager to have everything explained. Do not wait idly for others to ask your questions. Ask your co-workers questions and encourage them to share their work progress, doubts, and ideas. Quick sending of instructions and information can be supported by an internal messenger or notification system, ensuring an ongoing flow of information in the company without any delays. All this can be found, for example, in the tool "IC Project".

8. Plan meetings and ensure accurate reporting

All meetings that are not an effect of any sudden situation must be planned. This allows us to guarantee that all meeting participants can plan it in their calendars and the entire team can participate in it. It is also preferable to set specific deadlines for all tasks leading to project finalization. No doubt, all project participants will have to submit reports on the performed work. It is recommended to set the deadlines for such reports in advance and enter them in a calendar available in the project management software. Thanks to this, all participants will know when specific actions and reports are required from them and you will not have to remind them about it.

9. Monitor the project participants

Every project manager has to supervise the work of all its participants and if a failure to perform the duties is found about any of them, communicate it properly. The criticism must be constructive. This is why, before you reprimand somebody, you have to know what the purpose of the criticism is and prepare yourself to convey the message well. The criticized person has to receive the information without any room for guesses or unclear situations. They have to know that it is not critical for the sake of criticism but aims at yielding a specific effect.

10. Minimise the number of meetings

Many meetings taking place during work on any project could be easily replaced with the exchange of several meetings. Verizon Conferencing carried out studies showing that only 22% of meetings are considered extremely productive and 44% are very productive. Concurrently, the productivity of the meeting increases along with its duration—up to 80% of meetings lasting longer than 5 hours are considered productive. This means that reducing the number of meetings and, at the same time, extending their duration is worth it. This way, everybody can get more from them. Before the meeting, set the time it is supposed to last and prepare an agenda that will streamline its course.

We hope that these 10 tips regarding project management will help you act more effectively to manage projects and find your role more rewarding.