Project management: what? who? when? how?
Put simply, project management means carrying out a project through planning, directing resources and organising. It is an activity aimed at reaching a specific goal within a limited time and with limited resources. By applying project management principles you can make your company faster and more flexible, which in turn is an advantage over so-called everyday management.
Project management assumes there is a project. Projects are a popular way of working precisely because they have a clear beginning and end, which makes it easier to focus on solving a specific task and reaching the goal.
For you as a business owner, developing a project management methodology in your company is useful because it benefits both your clients and the people doing the work. As the leader, you influence the success of every project. A common mistake in managing projects, however, is trying to do everything yourself. In reality, successful project management is built on dividing the work and delegating. Before you can divide the work, it helps to understand what a project actually consists of, so you know what to hand over and to whom.
Starting the project
This stage is quite literally about getting things going: defining in broad terms what you want to achieve and to what extent it is achievable.
Planning
In this stage you look for answers to the questions: what? who? when? how? It is also the time to put together the team, draw up the budget and prepare the project’s action plan and schedule.
Execution
This phase is mainly about managing the action plan and the budget, and monitoring how the project is progressing. It includes leading people and keeping activities and resources under control.
Closing
The final phase means wrapping up the activities, handing over and accepting the work, preparing the final report and assessing the overall success of the project.
Why delegate?
Project management is not a one-person job. The project manager is officially the person appointed to lead the process, but behind every successful project there is good teamwork. Successful project management is based on delegation and coordination: dividing tasks and responsibilities correctly leads to the results you want.
It can easily happen that your team lacks a person who could take on a certain task. This is where the virtual assistant steps in. In today’s business world the key words are productivity and efficiency, and no one can afford to waste resources on disorganisation. Delegate your project management tasks to a virtual assistant and focus calmly on the work that helps your company carry out a successful project.
Setting up the project management system
The VA helps you set up an ideal project management system that keeps everything in view: Initiation, Planning, Preparation, Execution, Closing.
Managing team calendars (time off, birthdays and more)
For projects run by a bigger team, it pays to keep an eye on the things outside the project that concern the team members, such as birthdays. We help you organise your team members’ birthdays.
Communicating with team members: answering questions, reviewing progress and more
After every stage of the project there should be feedback and an assessment of the stage that just ended. We ask the team members about the process and analyse the progress to secure a higher-quality end result. We check whether there have been deviations or external changes and, if so, what their impact on the overall progress is.
Making sure every part of the project is completed on time
The VA makes sure all parts of the project are completed on time and with the best possible result.
Handing project components over to the next responsible team member
Once we are confident that all components are ready on time, it is important to hand them over to the next responsible team members. The virtual assistant makes sure this happens on schedule.
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