Introduction Every project needs a project budget – an expectation of how much the project will cost. In order to establish the budget, the project manager will evaluate the costs of the work and materials required to complete the project. As part of the budgeting process, the project manager will need to understand the scope […]
Introduction Stakeholders are the people or groups who will be interested in the outcome of our project. They will be present in any project that we undertake. Stakeholders are an important force in project management – they might help us to achieve parts of the project and can become champions for the project. They may […]
Risks will be present on every project. As a project manager, we need to understand what a risk is, what impact it might have on the project and how we can manage it throughout the life cycle of our project. What is a project risk? The APM defines a risk as ‘The potential of a […]
Introduction During the course of a project, we might encounter situations where two parties come into conflict and we need to undertake negotiation to achieve an appropriate outcome. The negotiation might be over the price of materials or the best way to achieve the project’s goals, but can extend to any number of different issues. […]
Introduction Prior to starting our project, we need to set out the project schedule. This is the intended timeline for our project and will include the estimated time it will take us to complete each task and milestones for when key events are expected to occur. The final product of our project schedule is the […]
Change management is arguably one of the most important project management processes. Change is at the heart of every project. All projects seek to bring about positive, measurable changes. In order for these changes to be the most impactful and successful that they can be, it is important to control and manage them. This article […]
Estimating is an essential part of project management planning. Learning how to perform and understand an estimate is a critical skill for a project manager to have. There are a number of estimating techniques that you can use, and we have included four key ones here as a starting point. What are the key estimating […]
Introduction Project quality is a key cornerstone of any project, governing the standards that our project will be measured against. It is important that we understand not only what quality means, but also the different elements that make up quality. As project managers, we need to understand how to measure quality, and how to ensure […]
Introduction The point of undertaking any project is to introduce a change that will have a resulting benefit. A benefit is the positive outcome of the project, or the thing that the project has achieved which provides something new, different or better. Without benefits, what is the point in doing the project? Benefits are the […]
Introduction Project scope can be defined as all of the work that will be undertaken and products that will be produced by our project. There are two aspects to understanding project scope – how to define it within the project and the importance of having a clear understanding of the scope. Defining project scope Project […]
Our project resources are the things that we require to complete the project work. Resources include both physical and human resources. In order to make sure that we can complete the project, we need to have a robust resource management approach. Resource management involves ensuring that the project manager knows what resources are required and […]