Project Management for Professionals from Other Areas: What It Is, How to Start, What to Focus On, and How to Succeed

Project management is often perceived as a specialised discipline, yet its principles are essential for anyone tasked with delivering novel outcomes within defined constraints. For professionals transitioning from operational roles, understanding the core structure is the key to success.

What Project Management Is

A project is fundamentally different from the normal operation of the organisation ("business as usual"). While operations are ongoing and routine, projects are temporary, set up for a specific duration, and designed to:

• Deliver new benefits and outcomes required by stakeholders.

• Create new outputs or deliverables that enable benefits to be realised.

• Introduce significant changes to the way the business operates.

A successful project must deliver outcomes and benefits, create deliverables that meet requirements, stay within time targets and financial budgets, and manage risks.

How to Start: Embracing the Project Lifecycle

The foundation of effective project management is the project lifecycle, which typically involves five steps: Starting up a Project, Initiating a Project, Running a Project, Closing the Project, and Benefits Realisation.

The most significant contribution to project success comes from the care and effort devoted to the Start-up and Initiation phases.

1. Define the Project Brief (The 'Why' and 'What'): At the start-up stage, the project must be defined in terms of its purpose and objectives. The Project Brief is the initial view of what the project must achieve and sets the stage for moving forward to detailed planning. Key elements include defining the reasons for the project, desired benefits, known risks, and constraints.

2. Set SMART Objectives (The 'How to Measure'): Clear, measurable goals are crucial. Objectives must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound. Ambiguous objectives lead to insufficient information for planning, wasted effort, and potential rejection of deliverables.

What to Focus On: Developing Strategic Acumen

Professionals entering project management must focus on developing a strategic, holistic mindset. This involves seeing beyond daily tasks to understand how the project impacts the larger organisation and its goals.

• Become the Internal Analyst: Success requires continuously reviewing data to identify trends, recommend improvements, and track performance. In many professional roles, the function performed is often that of an internal business analyst or consultant, which involves market research, evaluating competitors, and preparing strategies for future products and services.

• Embrace Compartmentalisation and Ambiguity: Projects are rife with uncertainty and stress. Developing the ability to easily compartmentalise complex projects and thrive in chaos is invaluable. When facing deadlines and resource constraints, becoming more organised, blocking time for deep work, and delegating less important tasks is a successful coping mechanism. This aptitude allows professionals to embrace roles with ambiguity and a lack of routine, where creativity and unusual approaches are needed.

How to Succeed: Control and Continuous Improvement

A project rarely runs precisely according to the initial plan. Success relies on having a robust control mechanism that frequently cycles through Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation, and Taking corrective action, and reporting.

Effective control means identifying and managing risks proactively. Good risk management focuses on reducing the likelihood and impact of threats, as well as capitalising on opportunities. By adopting structured planning processes and maintaining vigilance over risks, new project managers can ensure that the project follows a route that is affordable and delivers the intended outcome.