Project management best practices PDF

Project management best practices PDF

Project management processes and techniques are used to coordinate resources to achieve predictable results. All projects need some level of project management. The question is whether the project will be managed reactively or proactively or in a structured, disciplined manner. Consider these questions:

• All technology migrations encounter unexpected problems, also known as issues. Do you resolve the problems proactively using a predefined process, or do you hesitate when the problems arise—not knowing exactly who to seek or how to resolve them?
• Infrastructure projects, such as a migration from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000, can touch everyone. There is always some cloud of uncertainty or risk that events will not occur as they are planned. Do you proactively manage the risks to resolve them before they happen, or do you wait until the problems arise and deal with the consequences?
• There can be many stakeholders in technology migrations, each of whom may have benefits they would like to see fulfilled by this project. Are you going to manage scope aggressively and proactively or wait until you are hopelessly over budget and past your deadline before you realize that you’re doing work that was not in your original project scope?

Studies prove that most projects, especially large ones, do not end successfully. Given the odds, you might think that companies would be happy to just have their project finish with some degree of success. However, in spite of the odds, organizations also expect projects to be completed faster, cheaper, and with higher quality.

The only way that these objectives can be met is through the use of effective project management processes and techniques. Consider the size, complexity, and other characteristics of your project, and build the right project management processes to effectively manage and control your project.

Free Online Course Google Project Management (DE) Professional Certificate

There’s a common saying among project managers: Plan the work and work the plan. In essence, that is the key to successful project management. You must first plan out the project and then monitor and control the execution of the program work.

What follows is a step-by-step best practices guide, which uses a migration from Microsoft Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 as an example.