A well organised project should accurately respond to the needs of the company, have a clear start and end, have a clear and achievable goal, have minimal risks and effective risk management, and should be performed by a team of individuals whose skills complement each other’s and are relevant to the tasks they are assigned within the project.
Projects that don’t have a manager don’t often have all of these attributes, which means that they can often lack in efficiency. The project might get side-tracked, delayed, or veered completely off course without a mediator present to ensure that everyone contributing is fully aware of what their responsibilities are. This is where project management comes in.
Effective project management can be utilised in all business, no matter how big or small they are. While some professionals may be under the impression that project management is ineffective in small operations or, under certain circumstances can actually disrupt progress, that is not always the case.
While no two business have the same working methods, many instances of disruptive or ineffective project management within SMEs are very likely to have stemmed from project managers treating projects within large and small businesses as being similar, and so believing that large and small teams require similar management styles.
When the teams are smaller the project manager tends to have more responsibilities and will face more challenges than they would in a large team. With a small work force, team members can end up overloaded with responsibilities, overwhelmed by looming deadlines, or become distracted by the task they are working on and detach the project from corporate objectives.
Pressure can be added on top of existing pressure within the team when a business is not stable enough or financial prepared to recover from an unsuccessful project. Managing a smaller team can often be more difficult than managing a large team. This is why it is important for project managers within SMEs to undergo the appropriate training in order to adapt and apply different project management methods in order to suit the working methods of the team.
PRINCE2, for example, is a qualification that is often spoken of highly in a range of industries that require efficient project management. There is a reason why PRINCE2 courses have achieved worldwide popularity and why, despite it being possibly the oldest project management methodology, it is still highly sought after and used today within almost all industries.
PRINCE2 provides project managers with vital tools that can be easily adapted to a range of different project types within a range of different industries and business types, including SME projects. Rather than teach project managers step how to successfully manage and motivate their team, the PRINCE2 qualification provides project managers with a set of principles and guidelines that they can use to make their own decisions and tailor their management style to the team that they are working with.
One of the most important priorities for SMEs should be to continuously train and grow their employees. As opposed to outsourcing project management or hiring externally, a more economical and a more successful option would be provide project management training to someone within the company.
This individual’s experience should indicate that they are aware of the dynamics of your business and the conditions in which teams work best, which is why, with the right tools provided by a PRINCE2 qualification, they will be able to effectively apply their learned project management methodology and improve your SME’s success.
