What is Project Management
In the case of families all important decisions are taken by the elders and they overlook all the major things, however sometimes youngsters are given responsibility for doing particular task or project, in the case of companies also top management overlook all major things but small projects are entrusted to middle-level managers. Project management as the name suggests refers to the management of particular or specific project which is undertaken by the company to accomplish the specific objective. Hence in a way project management is for shorter duration and ends with completion of the project under consideration, in order to understand this concept better let’s look at advantages and disadvantages of project management –
Advantages of Project Management
- The first and foremost advantage of project management is that since the project is separated from overall activities of the company it is good that a particular project is handled by separate project manager as he or she will concentrate only on that particular project which is not possible if top management tries to control all the activities including the projects themselves. In simple words, a dedicated project manager is more likely to achieve success for the project than top management overseeing the project.
- Another pro of project management is that it helps the company in achieving efficiency when it comes to capital, labor, and other operational related expenses as it keeps a close watch on all the activities of the project which in turn helps the management in identifying the areas which are revenue leaking and helps the company in saving lot of capital.
- It helps the company in developing managerial qualities in talented people by assigning them first small projects and then big projects which in turn create a favorable atmosphere in the company where people know that there is ample scope for growth if they work sincerely which in itself leads to the good working atmosphere in the company.
Disadvantages of Project Management
- The biggest disadvantage of project management is that sometimes it leads to overlapping of authority and responsibility between the top management and project management where the top management has different plans in mind and the project manager has the different plan in mind which leads to confusion among the team members of project which ultimately leads to project under consideration suffering.
- Another con of project management is that it may be possible that there is no competent staff to carry the responsibility of project manager and if management selects incompetent staff then project will be a failure leading to losses for the company. Hence the selection of right project manager is important because no matter how much planning and resources are put into a project if the project manager is incompetent than the project is bound to fail.
- Another limitation of project management is that suppose the company is working on 10 projects simultaneously then it will require 10 project managers to handle those projects which is not possible if the company is small and ultimately all projects are handled by either single project manager or top management itself and thus limiting the use of project management.
As one can see from the above that project management has pros as well as cons and any company thinking of implementing project management should carefully analyze above points and then take the decision whether it wants to implement it or not.