Project management for beginners

The ability to steer projects to success – on time, within budget, and in sync with business objectives – is absolutely essential for project-driven companies. Let’s have a look at this guide of project management for beginners where we’ll cover all basics.

What’s a project?

Before getting into project management basics, let’ start by defining what exactly a “project” is. A project is a sequence of tasks and subtasks that must be completed to achieve a deliverable within a defined timeframe, and budget. The resulting deliverable could be a unique product or a service, for example.

Thus, it’s important to highlight that projects are temporary, and aim to produce deliverables. A goood example of a project would be the building of a house.

What’s project management?

In that sense, project management aims at accomplishing the deliverables more efficiently, and at a higher value. To this effect, project management involves proper planning, execution, and monitoring so that the chances of achieving the pre-set objectives increase.

It’s mainly about completing the project on time and withing budget applying specific knowledge, techniques, and tools.

Project management in short

Essentially, project management ensures the accurate definition of scope, budget, and processes for a project.

The main phases of a project

Regardless of their nature, a project tipically consists of 5 phases:

Initiation

The project and its objectives need to be defined.

Planning

The actual roadmap before project execution. It’s important to break down the tasks into smaller and more manageable activities for a more effective management.

Resource allocation plays a key role when planning a project.

Execution

It’s time to start completing tasks that will take the team closer to producing the deliverable.

Monitoring

Controlling the process should be an ongoing task throughout the project life cycle. This will allow to make adjustments when needed to keep the projec ton track.

Closure

All good things come to an end, and so do projects.

What does a project manager do?

In the broadest sense, project managers organise, plan, and execute projects up to their completion. Let’s look deeper into the main responsibilities of project managers:

developing the project plan, which includes project scope, timeline, and budget.
finding the right team of experts for each task.
assigning tasks to both internal and external resources.
monitoring the progress by keeping an eye on deadlines and costs. In other words: manage both budget and timelines.
project accounting which includes the financial activities involved in operating a project, such as costs, invoicing, and revenue.
communicating with stakeholders.

Now that you’ve acquainted yourself with the fundamentals through this concise guide on project management for beginners, you’ve likely recognised that project managers juggle a multitude of responsibilities. That’s why software for project management becomes an essential puzzle key to streamline project-related processes such as resource allocation.

Project management and project accounting on Business Central

Gain full visibility into your project operations, and turn your projects into profits with Advanced projects.

Manage your projects directly from Business Central.

Book a demo