Project management is the management of a project using various methods and processes with skills to fulfill the goals and objectives.
The business process is the process adopted by stakeholders to meet business goals, and project management and operations in business are not correlated.
But when you fuse the two different approaches, it is an excellent strategy for an organization. After understanding the concept of project management and business process individually, you can find out how they are different but still help an organization.
Project and Project Management Process
The project management approach includes dividing processes into different stages adopting the breakdown structure. The starting and ending of a process ensure that each step is complete and ensures project success.
Each project has its scope, scale, and resources. A PMI professional helps project managers in handling projects. For evaluating the quality of output of a project, it is necessary to look after each process in the project development lifecycle. The five crucial processes or stages in project management are:
1. Initiation of Project
The initiation of a project is the first step of the project management process to improvise each step continuously. This project process includes defining and knowing the goals and objectives for the project’s starting.
When business case formation occurs, the project charter formally provides authority to the project manager and team. This phase includes recognizing the stakeholders that take part in the whole project.
2. Planning
The second stage is explaining the scope and drafting a project plan. The planning includes figuring out project goals and adopting methodologies like agile or waterfall with management skills. Developing the schedule for the project is another work in the planning stage.
Goal setting is more straightforward via SMART goals referring to goals that are strategic and specific, easy to attain, real and attainable in a particular time. Another method is a CLEAR method in which the goals are collaborative, emotional, refinable, and palpable.
3. Execution
Execution is the phase where the project members begin the actual work. As the employees start working, project managers look after the individual assignments and find ways to increase productivity within the project management institute.
The execution stage is related to the stakeholders and their consistency, remaining unaffected and avoiding scope creep. Project management tools with time tracking tools like timeTracko are handy for time tracking and measuring productivity.
4. Monitoring and Controlling
Monitoring and controlling of the project are possible after executing some tasks. The monitoring phase is vital to determine if the project is running according to the plan. The constant monitoring of different processes helps in deriving outputs and successful project management.
Controlling includes limiting and providing enough resources and cost with budget and risk management with management skills. Sometimes, conflict scenarios exist in the project teams, and conflict resolution is essential.
5. End of Project
Project closing is the last stage of the project management process. The project’s overall work comes to an end, and it is time to review and compare the results. The project members have to check if the project objectives meet.
The project deliverables need checking, and you hand over deliverables and terminate if you have temporary members in the project. After the closing, the team members can sit together and hold meetings to reflect upon the project process and goals.
Benefits of Project Management Processes
Project management tools help in systematically maintaining more excellent workflows. Most businesses adopt project processes and manage them. Some benefits of project management processes are:
Cross-Functional Work
With many members in a team, the members with their own skill sets take part in the team activities and give results for the organizational goals. Project scheduling and assigning tasks to each member play a significant role in projects objectives.
Effective Teams
Effective team building is possible in the project management process when planning is proper and early. The project planning includes drafting work by setting the priority of the tasks. The project process is under tracking by the project managers with tracking options to follow the project’s schedule.
Better Communication
Communication is vital in project management and its methodologies to know the progress. For solving the daily problems, communication is critical among the project members, and communication with stakeholders is equally essential with honest feedback.
Clear Goals
The project management process includes clear goals and objectives. With more precise goals, the roles and duties of each member are well defined. When employees have a clear vision of their task, they are engaged and perform their best for the team.
Higher Efficiency
Groups for project management have resources and tools to boost productivity. The project processes strengthen the good qualities of every member in a team, and each member contributes the best, leading to higher efficiency with monitoring and control.
Business and Business Process Management
The processes are refined and improved with execution and monitoring in businesses. Strategy in the industry is necessary for meeting organizational goals. Managing operations demands to be re-engineered and last for a longer time.
The new process includes many tasks and workflow variations. Business management demands the improvement of different approaches to business. The additional steps of business process management are:
- Designing and analyzing the previous processes adopted for business is the first step. Automation of repetitive processes with standard rules and regulations is the first part of process management.
- The division of models is how the processes are necessary for different situations.
- The implementation phase is the actual working phase in which you apply automation and new ideas to run businesses.
- Monitoring involves tracking users’ performance and checking how well the modifications to business methods are working.
- Optimization refers to the improvement in the process for business, looking back for improving the business process.
Benefits of Business Process Management
Business process management helps increase productivity and ensure policy stability with fewer errors. Process management in a business has a lot of benefits, and some of them are:
- Processes, when managed, require the analysis of techniques that need documentation, corrected, and monitored constantly. The processes are changed when necessary, and team members work efficiently.
- For agile offices, processes regarding business allow flexibility and give a clear vision of organizational goals. It helps in strengthening the team spirit and better team collaboration. When there are changes in operation, the precious processes must remain unaffected.
- With stakeholders at every step, the errors are less in processes relating to business. In each stage, there are members responsible for a task. When processes need management, the simple mistakes are minor, and new errors reduce concerning older ones.
- Micromanagement elimination is possible in the process adopted for business as the leaders optimize the processes themselves and ensure that the employees are happy and engaged. With a good business management process, the team members remain active.
- The rules and regulations with policies in process within the business are strict and internal, with external policies needing regard from office members. The employer and employees both fall under organizational policy and culture.
- Different resources are necessary to meet the goals of an organization. Processes need to ensure that the correct authority gets accurate data and information. The confidential information must remain hidden, and it’s necessary to control data access to random members.
Do Business Project Processes and Project Management Differ?
In a business organization, different scenarios demand different methods. The trick lies in finding when to use processes in a business and project processes at what time and conditions.
Conditions to Use Business Process
- When you are ready with a proper plan for meeting goals, the business process provides flexibility for repeating the processes after mending without affecting past or future strategies.
- If you wish to speed up a team or organization’s work with accurate organizational results, it’s essential to follow processes in business.
- Process for business and their management is suitable when you have to track the performance of employees and have a set of data for allowing stakeholders to analyze and derive conclusions from data.
- The documentation drifting is vital as a process for business requires proper documentation and writing.
Conditions to Use Project Management Processes
- When the draft of requirements is not ready, you start everything from the beginning without a proper process guide.
- You experiment with processes and come out with discoveries.
- The team you are working with contains talents of multiple fields and is a cross-functional team. Each member contributes the best for better project results and takes responsibility for assigned jobs.
- Support and input from each team member are mandatory at every step and require full attention from each member.
Combining Project Management and New Business Process
A business sustains the process for business and the functioning of an organization with its ways of conducting work. Any method, either business or project management processes, a company has supporting processes with major processes and unique processes for management.
All the processes need definition properly; otherwise, there is confusion in conducting tasks. In lack of clarity of operations, the whole business chain, including the general management, marketing department with finance and human resource department, are affected. You may not handle your customers in a good way.
By using new processes in your business with project management processes, the organization is growing. The correct strategy and scope management with project charter help complete organizational tasks.
Conclusion
Project management focuses on the continuous improvement of the project process. Some of the professionals are PMI Agile certified. Also, the scrum masters conduct boot camps and help you maintain your certificates.
The process for the business is another way to handle an organization. The management plan is necessary for the management institute to meet companies’ goals. A breakdown structure is essential for overall process management in business.
