Top 5 project management tips

Discover 5 top tips to help you succeed as a project manager.

As organisations globally face more complex business needs and customer demands, project management has a crucial role to play in the ongoing success of a business. 

What is project management? 

Effective project management isn’t just as simple as delivering a project – it involves careful and thorough planning and execution, and often iterations along the way. 

Project management is the entire process of managing a project – from ideation and planning through to delivery and evaluation. 

Project managers need to be well-equipped with the specialist knowledge and skills to confidently and successfully manage projects from start to finish.  

They also need to be able to deliver business goals while at the same time address complex global challenges in areas such as global supply chains, sustainability, and cultural and geographical barriers. 

Here are our top 5 project management tips to help ensure your success as a project manager: 

1. Set clear and measurable goals 

Any project that’s delivered successfully starts with having a clear and measurable goal in place. 

Be clear on what you’re trying to achieve and set a goal at the very start of your project, before you’ve even started any practical work on delivering the project. Make sure your project team and any other stakeholders involved are also clear on this goal from the outset. 

Also, set milestones with deadlines so that you can break down this goal into smaller tasks and measure progress along the way. 

The SMART framework is an excellent guide for setting goals for your project – use this to make sure your goals are: 

• Specific 

• Measurable 

• Achievable 

• Relevant; and 

• Time-bound 

Once you’ve determined your goals and milestones, you can use project management tools such as Gantt charts and kanban boards to help you and your team track progress towards them. 

2. Encourage communication and collaboration 

A successful project also requires clear and strong communication and collaboration among project team members and other stakeholders. 

Without these, projects are at great risk of failing, as project team members and other stakeholders may lack clarity on project goals and processes. 

Utilise your strong leadership skills to encourage communication and collaboration among your project team members and other stakeholders. This can include organising daily stand-ups to share among the team progress, learnings and any challenges that may have arisen. 

3. Identify and maximise strengths 

Individuals within your project team will have different strengths – identify these early on so that you can harness these strengths to deliver a high-quality result faster. 

You can do this by getting to know your team members individually before work kicks off on your project – talk to them about what motivates them and what their skills and strengths are. 

This will help you to allocate resources more effectively and also help to boost motivation among your team. 

4. Identify and manage risks effectively 

Projects often come with risks, and some of these can be anticipated in advance, while others can take project teams completely by unwelcome surprise. 

As a project manager, one of the core skills you need to have is in effective risk management – as this is vital to a project’s success. Risks can pose serious threats to the successful completion of your project, and therefore to your team’s and your success.  

It’s imperative that you identify potential risks early on in the project – ideally at planning phase – so that you can put early plans in place for mitigating those risks and execute those plans at any stage of the project if the need arises. 

Strong project managers who have had considerable experience in managing a range of projects would have usually developed the foresight to identify when a risk is imminent, and also the decision-making skills to decide when mitigation measures need to be taken.  

5. Evaluate success 

Each and every project is a learning experience for a project manager and their team.  

Once you’ve delivered a project, it’s just as important to evaluate its success before you take on a new project.  

Organise a retrospective meeting with your team to discuss what went well and what didn’t, and make sure you take notes and keep them recorded so that you can use the learnings to inform and improve future projects. 

Evaluating success will not only help to boost the success of your future projects, but also the morale of your project team – all contributing to a more positive outcome for your organisation, your team, and yourself in the future. 

How can an MSc help you succeed as a project manager? 

An MSc in Project Management can take your success as a project manager to new heights. It will equip you with the advanced-level knowledge, skills and expertise you need to confidently and effectively master these 5 tips for success in project management and harness them in your work. 

Equipped with a strong knowledge base and skillset in project management from your MSc studies, you’ll be empowered to successfully lead teams to solve complex problems and deliver world-class results for your organisation and other potential employers. 

Discover how Cambridge Education Group's online MSc Project Management (validated by London South Bank University) can position yourself as a highly-skilled project manager in today’s global job market: