7 Project Management Tips for Non-Project Managers

Project Management is required for professionals to improve work efficiency and organize the projects at hand. The job of project management consists of tasks like assembling a project team, monitoring project budget and resources, ensuring everything’s on track, establishing timelines, managing the deliverables, and conversing with collaborators.

For a Non-Project Manager or a newbie, the complexities of this job may rough upon you whether it’s a small project or a million-dollar one. Each project requires its attention and absolute dedication. So, to make certain that you don’t get crushed by the burden of the project, we have laid out 7 tips every new project manager needs to follow to be a success in project management.

1. Know Your Project

Knowing your project means gathering a strong foundation for your project, knowing your stakeholders, reviewing the budget to plan accordingly. Most importantly, before starting your project you should arrange a realistic layout for your employers and establish their expectations of how the project is going to turn out.

You need to form a substantial plan in which you may establish everyone’s respective tasks and responsibilities according to their skills. Define the goals and organize them to a better understanding and design a proper schedule.

An effective project manager forms a clear manner, with attainable deadlines, that empowers everyone within the project team to work within reasonable means, and not thoughtless expectations.

2. Define Significant Milestones

The success of a project depends upon the recognition of the delineating points throughout the project. Whatever project you work on, you’re certainly going to face obstacles but after some flexible practices, you achieve your desired goal. And the execution of every project you manage consists of major steps and secondary steps.

The main steps to take towards managing a project consist of the initiation of the project which is then followed by planning, execution, and completion of the project. Then, the sub-steps are the inside work, the little task you discuss with your team, discussing the client’s needs, making phone calls and all this combined makes a project complete.

Pen down every little accomplishment, so you can keep check of where you are in terms of achieving your goal.

3. Uphold Communication

To complete a project without any uncertainties, you should interact with everyone included. Make sure you know about everyone’s responsibilities and their job. That way it’s easy to engage with them to filter out any errors. Here are a few tips to maintain communication:

• Keep everyone on the same page about any new developments.
• Make your staff feel free to ask any questions from you.
• Hold communication meetings with everyone at the same time, and go over the achieved tasks and the plans up ahead.

A qualified project manager is one who pulls out all the stops to get things done. A project manager should be persuasive enough to demand a reasonable deadline from the stakeholder or perhaps anything necessary for that matter if it means the completion of the project up to his standards.

4. Bring Out the Best in Your Team

“Teamwork makes the Dreamwork”. Remember, a project is only created with the help of the whole team and not just one individual. So, it’s your job as a manager to keep the team in check and evaluate everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. Then allot them their tasks appropriately. Engage with your employees as it helps with understanding their work strengths as well as what they are not so good at, and also maintains a healthy work environment.

Everyone is going to showcase their strengths and hide their weaknesses. You must observe them thoroughly and assign tasks accordingly, and then you’ll get the best results they can offer. If you believe someone can do a certain task fast, hand them that work. Make sure not to make the mistake of judging an elephant by its ability to climb a tree.

Once you’ve tapped into the strength of your team, you’ll notice better time management and task completion. And most importantly everyone would enjoy doing their job.

5. Use Project Management Softwares

There is so many project management software out there to choose from. If you just search for them all by yourself, you may just end up scratching your head without really finding one suitable for you.

We can’t exactly tell you which tool you should go for, because each tool has its unique qualities. The best project management software for you depends on your demands, the complexity of your project, the number of team members you have, and the features you require.

The key is to keep your end goal in mind and decide which parts of the process you’d like to automate partially or completely. Believe it or not, there’s likely a project management software for every task you can think of automating. You just need to consider all your options to choose the right ones for your project.

6. Manage Risks

Managing/Handling risks is a very essential part of project management nowadays which drives to successful completion. Risks cause a likely threat to your project that may sneak up anytime and can destroy the whole development achieved or even the whole thing.

So, to make sure everything goes as planned you need to classify all the probable risks beforehand and come up with a risk response strategy, so that when the need arises you may use it to prevent anything bad from happening. After some experience, it will be typical practice for you to calculate the risks before and have a solution ready at all times.

7. Review the Project

After completion, review the project thoroughly. As a matter of fact, you should be reviewing your project not only just after completing it, you must also evaluate the progress at every step along the way. Then make sure all your requirements are met including the expenditure of budget and every goal you set, and do a start to finish analysis of the project.

By doing so you’ll be able to measure your success in the project, and it will also help you understand what went wrong and what’s the best course of action to take for every step in the coming future.

Well, there you have it! The seven best tips for you to start your career as a project manager. If you have anything to add to this list, let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear from you!