Stanley E. Portny

Because of the ever-growing array of huge, complex, and technically challenging projects in today's world, effective project managers are in higher demand than ever before.People need the tools, techniques, and knowledge to handle their project management assignments, such as confirming a project's justification, developing project objectives and schedules, maintaining commitment for a project, holding people accountable, and avoiding common project pitfalls.

You want to be a better project manager, right? Well, before you really jump in, do a quick self-evaluation to see what your strengths and weaknesses are. By answering the following ten questions, you can get an idea of what subjects you need to spend more time on so you can be as effective as possible. Good luck!

A project Communications Management Plan is essential with the diversity of audiences that will be looking for information about your project and the array of data you’ll be collecting. This plan helps you to avoid duplication of effort and to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. A project Communications Management Plan is a document that specifies all project communications generated throughout the project, their target audiences, their information content, and their frequency.

You can get a sense of the power you have over someone by taking note of the willingness with which she agrees to do what you need for the project and then does what you request. If you already get all the cooperation from others that you need, just keep doing what you’re doing. However, if you feel frustrated by people’s resistance and lack of cooperation when you ask for their help, take steps to improve the power you have over them.

Following your project all the way through to completion helps ensure that everyone gets the maximum benefits from your project’s results. You also get the chance to compare your project’s benefits with the costs incurred, confirm the company’s return on investment, and validate its process for selecting projects.

As part of successfully finishing your own project, you need to help your team members complete their project responsibilities and move on to their next assignments. Handling this transition in an orderly and agreed-upon fashion allows people to focus their energies on completing their tasks on your project instead of wondering where and when their next assignments will be.

Before you rush out and buy any project-management software, plan how to maximize its capabilities and avoid associated pitfalls. Do the following to help you select and install your software: Be sure you have a firm grasp of project-planning and control approaches before you consider any software. See what software other groups in your organization are using or have used; find out what they like, what they don’t like, and why.