Project Management Explained

What is a project?

Projects are about making change happen – within your organisation projects are used to create new or revised procedures, systems, marketing and advertising campaigns etc. Projects are also the way in which new products and services are developed for customers. Projects are a popular way of organising work, because they have an easy to understand structure – time, cost and quality. There is a deadline by when the project must deliver (time), there is a budget of how much money can be spent (cost) and there is an agreement about the requirements that the deliverables from the project must meet to be acceptable to the users or customers (quality)

Projects can involve huge teams of people (the 2012 Olympics) or just you – creating a new piece of work to a deadline set by your manager.

How do I know if I am working on a project?

• Go to the Maven questionnaire to compare your work against the project criteria in our quick project test.
• Go to job descriptions to compare your role against example job descriptions

What is project management?

There are 3 tasks in project management:

1. Planning the work – identifying all of the activities needed to create the new product, service or system.
2. Organising who will do the work, where it will be done and agreeing what equipment is required.
3. Managing the resources – people, equipment, time and money.

To do each of these tasks well you need to:

• Coordinate all of the resources and all of the work so that there are no duplications, ensure that work is done in the right order, that any inter-dependencies with other work are taken into account.
• Communicate what needs to be done, the progress that is being made, the benefits of doing the work, the problems that have been identified and how they are being solved.

How much can I earn?

Project management is recognised as an important skill and therefore, salaries can be very high. A quick comparison against job sites indicates that the salaries for a range of jobs are:

• Project Manager - £44,000 (but add on at least £15,000 if this is an IT project manager)
• Marketing Manager - £41,000
• HR Manager - £35,000
• Customer Services Manager - £30,000

What qualifications should I have?

PRINCE2® project management is regarded as best practice – it’s a methodology so it tells you what project management tasks to do, what documents to create, what decisions to take and when during the life of the project you need to do these things. There are two levels of examination: PRINCE2® Foundation and PRINCE2® Practitioner. If you are new to project management, take the Foundation and then when you have more experience, take the Practitioner.

APMP project management training is the qualification from the Association of Project Management (APM) and explains how to define the scope of the project, how to create the project plan, how to control risks and issues and how to set up contracts with suppliers. If you are new to project management, take the PRINCE2® Foundation or the APM Introductory Certificate before taking the APMP.

How can I develop my project management experience?

• Map your current skills against those of a project manager and identify your areas for development
• Assess your current workload for project opportunities and treat each piece of work as a separate project
• Volunteer for project work or offer to work on a project that is being managed by a colleague
• Use our Action Plan to document your project experience and plan your next steps
• Find an experienced project manager to act as your mentor
  Book yourself on some project management training courses

Do qualifications matter?

A project management qualification is demanded in nearly 90% of all project management roles.
Other applicants will have a project management qualification – remember that over 450,000 people have a PRINCE2® project management qualification.

A qualification is evidence of your continued professional development and makes you a less risky hire than someone who performs well at an interview but does not have any formal project management qualifications.

Qualifications mean you have mastered the basics and provide you with the right information to be able to develop your experience in managing projects.