Why Is Project Management So Essential?

Greg Lyon | Monday, September 21, 2020

Why Is Project Management So Essential?

Assembling a team full of talented employees is the first step toward maximizing your revenue as a business. But hiring the ideal candidates is only half of the equation. Without proper direction, accountability and a way to measure performance, there may be gaps in your company's projects. This is where airtight project management comes in.

Not sure where to start? Don't worry, we’ve got you covered. Let's take a look at everything you need to know about the importance of project management.

Clearly Defined Objectives

As you may expect, one of the most important aspects of integrating proper project management is clearly defining your objectives. You'll have a more solid understanding of your project's timeline, the roles involved and how each team member's contribution affects the project outcome. Without this level of organization, you'll be at risk of missing deadlines, budgeting misalignment and duplicating efforts or spending too much time on certain tasks.

An experienced project manager can lead your team in the right direction and ensure requests, projects and tasks are handled as quickly and appropriately as possible.

Thorough Insight into Progress

The level of transparency project management provides is an invaluable resource when it comes to keeping your work as cohesive as possible. It's also great for team morale, as you'll be able to track and convey how much progress has been made on particularly difficult projects.

In general, having insight into the tasks you've already accomplished and those you still need to work on serves as a great method to help you stay on track. Without sufficient project management in place to help you do so, it's possible that you'll begin to feel overwhelmed or lost as time goes on and projects pile up. 

Having thorough insights and visibility into project progress is conducive for achieving peak performance.

Optimum Efficiency

Achieving the best project outcome(s) also entails performing tasks in the most efficient way possible. Since a project manager can extensively plan your course of action, you'll be able to more easily avoid potential pitfalls that may have otherwise been difficult or tedious to circumvent. This level of strategic planning allows you to complete your projects with fewer complications during each phase (or potentially none at all), and the extra time you save also provides you the opportunity to generate more revenue.

Some businesses forego hiring a project manager due to budget limitations, but the optimum efficiency that comes with a project manager is an essential attribute to keep in mind. Oftentimes, these gains in efficiency and time result in the role paying for itself.

Quality Assurance

No matter how quickly your team is able to complete a given set of tasks (or even an entire project), you won't get the results you want if your quality isn't sufficiently up to standard. This is especially true when presenting deliverables to clients, as poor-quality work can leave them with a bad impression. In some cases, they may refuse to do business with you entirely in the future.

Part of a project manager's role is to ensure each task is properly executed. Not only does this allow them to serve as a gatekeeper for content quality, but it also provides their team with more detailed direction. With properly defined standards, your team will have a better understanding of what high-quality work looks like and how to ensure they’re putting out content that properly, sufficiently and skillfully represents the organizaton.

Alignment With Overall Business Strategy

Taking a step back and looking at the entire purpose of a given project serves as a way to support and advance the overall strategy of a company. Focusing on projects that don't align with this strategy may result in both wasted time and money, and may also lead to miscommunication between internal parties, which can then cause further issues that inhibit productivity.

By capitalizing on the greater initiatives your business seeks, you'll maximize on crucial opportunities to scale your company. In this regard, a project manager can be thought of as an “anchor” that ensures everything is both cohesive and properly aligned with your overall business strategy. 

Seamless Adaptation to Contingencies

Having a proper plan in place allows you to shift gears as soon as you need to, as a dedicated project manager may see problems coming well before they become an issue for your team. This allows you to proactively adapt to a handful of circumstances, such as a shortened deadline, last-minute addition of new tasks or even the absence/departure of an integral member of the team.

The alternative to this is to be entirely reactionary, which can be a chaotic experience for everyone involved. For example, a deadline that's abruptly changed in length from four weeks to two weeks is much more difficult to accommodate without a dedicated project manager. The project manager helps organize each team member's role in the project while simultaneously ensuring the remainder of the project goes as smoothly as possible.

Getting Started With Project Management

With a better understanding of the importance of project management, you'll be well on your way toward making decisions that are best for you, your team and your company. From project-management fundamentals and developing negotiation skills to specific project-management software and a boot camp for Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, ExitCertified has the project-management training you need to start helping your team and business work more efficiently.