The Two Key Ingredients to Ensure Effective Project Management

I was recently speaking with a friend who works as a drug trial manager for a major pharmaceutical firm. He was saying how his job was extremely stressful this time of year because among other things, a competitor was testing a similar drug and was rushing to get it to the FDA for approval.

As a result, the higher-ups at my friend’s firm were encouraging him to accelerate the approval process to beat the other drug to market.

It is an extreme example, but it underscores how important new products and services are to a company’s bottom line. This, of course, isn’t news to startups and the brunt of this pressure often falls on the project management office.

A delay in project delivery can be costly and project managers are certainly not immune to the pressures of the marketplace. But rushing a project can prove even more expensive.

All of these considerations underscore the importance of an intelligent project prioritization process, wherein certain projects are given greater attention and resources over others due to their ability to deliver business value. Similarly, this process must acknowledge project risk; specifically, risk posed to a tangible business asset.

These two inputs are critical in ensuring effective project delivery time.

A piece published in Harvard Business Review listed down the reasons why even good projects fail at an astonishing rate and explains how companies can reduce the risk of failure by taking different project management approaches that are practiced by the most successful enterprises in the world.

The article emphasizes the importance of project planning and project prioritization and how these are the two key features of effective project management.

Tags | harvard business review, project delivery, project management, project prioritization