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5 Effective Ways to Manage a Project from Start to Finish

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A successful project meets all the business requirements, is delivered within the agreed timeframe, and maintains the set budget. Discover five effective ways to manage a project from start to finish here below.

1. Set Relevant Goals

Setting the relevant goals for your project is an excellent place to start. Even though you will need to break down the project into multiple tasks, you must ensure that everyone stays on track to meet specific goals. Clearer goals mean better productivity, which is critical as projects become increasingly complicated. Ensure you have cemented these vital elements before the project starts:

  • Realistic, relevant goals
  • Clear timelines
  • Smaller actionable goals or milestones across the project
  • Specific, measurable metrics
  • A clear outline of the project’s ROI

2. Enhance Workforce Management

Workforce management involves proper staff scheduling to maximise productivity across all levels. Using the right workforce management software can ensure your staff are working on duties where they most excel, thus boosting operational efficiencies. Some benefits of using workforce management programs include:

  • Manual task automation to remove bottlenecks, reduce errors and save time
  • Promote better employee satisfaction
  • Enhance payroll accuracy
  • Proactively identify and resolve scheduling problems in advance
  • Optimise customer experience by matching clients with the relevant experts

3. Encourage Transparency

Most projects feature limited access to information, which can cause resentment and distrust among the team. Providing deeper visibility will make your staff feel and work better, as they can see how the project is performing. Improving transparency is essential for establishing expectations, building trust, improving focus, identifying errors, enhancing customer satisfaction and fostering better collaboration. Here’s how to encourage project transparency:

  • Evaluate the current level of transparency within your team and make the necessary improvements
  • Explain to team members the importance of transparency
  • Outline workflows and establish personal roles
  • Ask staff to make regular updates
  • Model transparent and accountable behaviour as a leader

4. Use Skills Matrix Software

A skills matrix software can help map the qualifications and skills of employees against the desired skill sets for a specific project. The software visualises the crucial skills needed for the job, the skills currently available in your team, and any skills your staff is missing. Here are the benefits of capitalising on skills matrix programs to track staff skills:

  • Bring awareness and visibility to current employee skills
  • Set team expectations by outlining the core skills required to complete a specific project
  • Show where improvements or new employees might be necessary to ensure effective project delivery

5. Promote Effective Communication

Open communication is necessary to manage a successful project since it ensures maximum stakeholder cooperation. Even the latest project management tools are ineffective when an organisation doesn’t have clear communication. Better communication promotes engagement, keeps the conversations sane and creates a more collaborative environment. Here are a few ways to promote effective communication:

  • Hold regular team meetings to confirm all stakeholders are on track with project deliverables and share any ideas or concerns.
  • Create and send regular project reports to key personnel to inform them of new developments or project changes.
  • Consider multiple viewpoints when engaging personnel.

The tips above should help you execute successful projects from start to finish. Proper project management enables motivated, happy teams to do excellent work and deliver projects on budget and time.