Often companies outsource projects from another company or group of people who have expertise in a particular field. These projects are mostly short term. The project management training is sometimes seen as a burden as the clients have to bear the extra costs. But the projects are of no use if they don’t deliver promising results. The consequences can be high costs, low-quality results, conflicts, the inability of the team to align with goals and objectives, lack of achieving results on the established deadlines, etc. So, to make sure these consequences do not occur in a project, project management is important.
The proper management of projects ensures that there is the strategic alignment of goals with that of the team, leadership throughout the project, risk management, realistic establishment of goals and objectives, etc. when all these things are established successfully, the positive results are delivered in a timely manner. Also, as a result, the cost is also managed.
This article lets you understand the responsibilities of a project manager, how does a PMP certification help in this field, and the benefits of taking a PMP course for a project manager.
Who is a Project Manager?
A project manager is an individual responsible for bringing together the strengths of people in order to achieve one common objective. The project manager is responsible for driving his team towards their vision. He is skilled to adapt to the dynamic business environment and make a positive change. Out of complex situations, the project manager takes out the best possible solution.
- Planning
As we know that planning is an important initial step for any project. Poor planning results in poor results. Planning consists of identifying the goals of the project by allocating the means and timeframes to them, for achieving it at a predefined time period. So here, the skilled project manager clearly observes the resources and timelines available to them. And, accordingly, they execute the project. The key here lies in the planning of utilization of resources (human, financial, technical, etc.) in the best possible way, trying not to put up extra costs. (Valium) But, the projects cannot be forecasted completely, so the project manager keeps in mind the possibility of the changes and the measures to be taken in advance.
- Organizing
The next step after planning is organizing. After all the goals have been planned, the project manager allocates the responsibilities to its team members. Depending upon the strengths and weaknesses, the responsibilities are allocated to each team member. In other words, this step is about implementing all the steps defined in the planning stage.
- Budget
One of the important concerns in a project is to stick with the planned budget. The project manager makes sure that the available resources are utilized completely. They need to deliver the solutions to the clients by trying not to run out of the budget. Also, planning the budget realistically will not cause a lot of changes in the budget.
- Monitoring progress
It is important for the project manager to monitor the progress of the project. He can do so by analyzing the progress at each phase of the project. The team should clearly keep in mind what all tasks are achieved on the expected deadlines. If there are any delays or obstacles on the project, it is the responsibility of the manager to get the tasks completed within expected time frames.
- Risk Management
A project always sees obstacles. So the role of the project manager is to identify such possible situations in advance. Thereby, making an action plan to follow in case it occurs. The risk may be of any type such as overuse of costs or maybe a team member leaving the team, etc. all such threats should be effectively managed by the project manager so that all the processes remain aligned towards achieving respective objectives.
- Client Satisfaction
The project manager should regularly keep the clients involved in all the processes of the project. The key lies in negotiating all the processes before continuing it further. One important thing to remember is that the client should be satisfied with the solutions. Regular meetings to stay updated with the tasks is one of the essential ways of updating the clients.
The PMP Certification
The Project Management Professional is a globally recognized certification, from the Project Management Institute, for the project managers who have work experience of leading some projects. It certifies the professionals on the basis of their skills, competency, techniques, and concepts required to manage the projects effectively. Therefore, the certified professionals act as the proficient managers who can be trusted for their abilities to lead the projects and high expectancy on delivering sophisticated solutions.
According to PMI’s A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide), the processes of project management fall into five categories of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing. And project management knowledge draws on ten areas: integration, scope, time, cost, quality, procurement, human resources, communications, risk management, and stakeholder management.
According to PMI, there are more than 1,000,000 PMP certification holders worldwide.
How can a course help in achieving PMP certification?
If you are a project manager and you satisfy the criteria of getting certified in PMP, then you must go for it. Take up a course for PMP certification for project management. This will help you to dig deeper into all the skills required.
It ensures that you are aware of all the responsibilities of ethics, cost management, risk management, social responsibility, client satisfaction, etc., required to fulfill as a project manager. The course will help you to build skills for challenging business situations since the business environment is dynamic which cannot always be predicted. Thus, it will help you become exam ready by which you will be able to clear the exam for PMP certification.
The median salary of PMP certified professionals is 25% more than the non-certified ones in the US, according to PMI’s Project Management salary survey.
Take a step forward and open up the wonderful career opportunities by upgrading your skills and knowledge base in project management.