Project management is what? Advantages and disadvantages

Project management is an integral element of the modern management system in Russia. A lot of domestic and foreign companies use project management to improve the quality of products and services, reduce costs, increase profits. What is project management and what are its main advantages?

What is a project?

The concept of "project" can be interpreted in completely different ways. The first option involves the definition of the project as a set of documentation, on which it is possible to erect a building or structure. This article will discuss the second meaning of the word "project".

There are a lot of project definitions, although they all agree on one thing: a project is an idea that assumes the fulfillment of a specific material task in a limited period of time. The main features of the project are:

• Uniqueness (the project is what is created for the first time).
• Time constraints (the project always indicates the time frame for its implementation).
• Purposefulness (the project is always performed to solve specific problems, expressed, as a rule, in quantitative units of measurement).

If all three conditions are met, then the set of actions can be called a project.

Programs and Project Portfolios

Projects are often combined into programs and portfolios. At the same time, programs are called a set of projects that are united by a common goal. For example, a program to improve the quality of education of the population can include projects to increase teachers' salaries by 20%, the construction of 15 new schools, the issuance of 26 new textbooks on basic subjects.

The project portfolio combines projects funded from a single source regardless of their tasks. Thus, the company's portfolio of projects can include charity projects, the construction of a new corporate office, the celebration of the director's anniversary and an increase in annual turnover of 10%.

Projects in portfolios and programs should also have the three main features described above.

Basic principles of project management

In view of the dynamically developing market of technologies designed to facilitate the management process, it is difficult to name specific methods that completely describe the project management.

Project management includes many approaches and tools and is based on the following basic principles:

• Orientation to the result. This principle is determined by the meaning of the term "project". Project management is not just a quality management, it is a purposeful set of interrelated actions.
• The principle of the "project triangle". When managing a project, one should be guided by the interdependencies between: timing, budget, project quality. Changing one of the factors leads to a change in the others, which makes them appear to be sides of one triangle.
• Accounting for the life cycle of the project. The life cycle of a project begins with the formation of the very idea of creating a project and ends when the time period specified in the project expires. The life cycle of the project, as a rule, is completed at the beginning of the life cycle of the product created as a result of the project.
• Process approach to management. This principle assumes the evaluation of the project as a set of processes that are interrelated and end in intermediate results in the form of semi-finished products or important documents. This approach makes it possible to monitor the implementation of the project without the so-called "blind zones".

Methods of stimulating project participants

Stimulation of project participants is usually given special attention when project management is selected for specific tasks. Project management usually includes material and non-material motivational mechanisms.

For material incentives include bonuses, fines, surcharges for the early completion of intermediate tasks.

Intangible methods of motivation include letters and disciplinary gifts in the form of compensatory time offs, as well as the deployment of competition among the project participants in the competitive competition.

Main stages of project management

Project management takes place through the stages of the life cycle of the project and the phases of the complexity of management. The relationship between the phases and phases is given in the table below.

Thus, the areas of project management include financial, personnel, structural areas of the organization.

Fields of application of project management

The project management structure includes the division of all the work of the organization into projects that are limited in terms of time and target indicators. At the same time, a team of each project and a team of project managers are formed, who report to the head about the progress of their project.

In this regard, project management is used, as a rule, in organizations of various industries and sizes, with a wide range of simultaneously executed orders. However, in small business, it applies project management to solve specific tasks for the modernization of production or, for example, the introduction of a new product.

Project management in the construction industry

In the construction industry, the application of project management methodology is especially relevant. In companies that carry out the functions of the customer or contractor, project management uses the natural division of works into projects (on the basis of the product principle, that is, the erection of each building is a separate project), and the structure of top management practically does not require a serious reorganization.

Management of the project organization is also often carried out on a project basis, successfully using the already established teams of designers as a project team.

Project management in state structures

Project management in government is quite a new trend of modernity. The program-target management method, which has been developing since the Soviet period, has now taken the form of project management across the country. Now, to solve strategically important tasks for the state, programs are used that include individual projects with targets and timelines for implementation. However, the methodology of management of such programs is still far from ideal and requires modernization and updating.

Experience in implementing project management in the Belgorod region

Project public administration has proved itself well around the world. In Russia, there is an experience of using this technology in the Belgorod region.

This large-scale experiment has affected almost all aspects of the civil service in the Belgorod region. Among the main elements are: Training in project management, organizational and methodological support, Field inspections, motivation, evaluation of employees' competencies, expert commissions for review of projects.

Project management of the Belgorod region now includes collegiate bodies of project management:

• Interdepartmental commission, which manages project activities.
• Industry expert commissions that decide on the opening / closing of projects.
• Regional project office, which controls compliance with the methodology of project management.

The principle of "one window"

It was within the framework of the transition to project management that the Belgorod Region in 2010 switched to the coordination of investment projects through the "one window" system, well known now in Moscow. The role of this window is just fulfilled by one of the newly introduced services - the regional project office. Now, exactly one month after contacting the project office, the business entity receives a document on approval.

Automated information system "Project management"

Information and technical support for project management in the Belgorod region is carried out through the automated information system (AIS) "Project management". This is a web application that does not require the installation of additional software and performs the following functions for projects, portfolios and programs:

• Keeping a register (database).
• Scheduling.
• Budgeting.
• Monitoring implementation at the regional and municipal levels.
• Distribution of authority and responsibility of the team.
• Making changes to the content.
• System of alerts about upcoming and oncoming events for projects.
• Workflow.
• Automated analytical reporting.
• Integration with the electronic government of the Belgorod region.

Advantages and disadvantages of project management

The described experience of implementing project management in the Belgorod region turned out to be successful. The effect of these changes was primarily in increasing the growth rate of the gross regional product by 0.1% (more than 3 billion rubles), reducing the time spent on reconciling projects (by 2 months for each project) and increasing the rate of development of investments in the region by 23 %. However, the most important result is the formation of project thinking among employees who actively analyze and try to solve the problem, sometimes even by non-standard, innovative methods.

Motivation and restructuring of the administrative structure allowed to get a positive effect not only for the civil service but also for business, forming a favorable investment climate and eliminating barriers to entrepreneurship.

The population of the region now takes an active part in the selection and control of the implementation of important strategic projects. For people, project management is an opportunity to use services of high quality and high mobility.

However, despite all the advantages of the project management structure, there are also drawbacks to this approach.

First of all, the transition period. It takes some time for the project team to work together and perform their functions as a coherent mechanism.

Secondly, when implementing project management in the enterprise, the search for a good project manager can be delayed. To the personal and professional qualities of the project manager are very high requirements: comprehensive qualification, full immersion in the project, experience in managing projects of the required specifics.

The third drawback of project management can be considered the need to split the company's resources between the projects. In "poor" firms, this may not be possible at all. Project managers will have to "fight" for funding and personnel, which is unacceptable in the conditions of total control of all stages of the life cycle of the project.

One of the most important drawbacks of the project management path in an organization is the employment of project team members and the project manager upon completion. Loading the team is known to be the most important rule of successful business, and in the case of project work there are regularly "hanging in the air" groups of specialists who are simultaneously deprived of a constant load.

Summarizing the above, it can be concluded that project management is an integral part of modern business space, and the study of its foundations is simply necessary for competent management decisions both at the state level and within the framework of a single business.