Saturday, June 30, 2012

Ensuring Strong Monitoring and Its Necessity in Project Management

Project monitoring is absolutely a crucial component in project management process. Without a regular and effective monitoring system, no project can ever become successful. That is why, the project manager must always be careful about monitoring the project activities properly and in time.
Each project must be included an internal monitoring system so that it is possible to check whether the progress is satisfactory at a certain point of time or not. Again, it is also essential to ensure the perfect achievement of milestones and deliverables, discover the problems in a timely manner, find out the necessity for any sort of changes in the process and ensure the total quality of the project. In short, project monitoring is something that is absolutely a vital ingredient for ensuring the success of the project.
Before starting any project, it is required for a project manager to clearly define the project scope and objectives, as well as to ensure that the necessary resources, both human and non-human, are allocated properly to complete the project activities. If the project manager, in this situation, delegates the tasks to the team members and sits idly thinking that everything will go on smoothly and according to the plan, it will be the biggest mistake for him/her. Rather, he/she should be proactive and be always alert to check whether the project related jobs are being done properly or not.Without perfect monitoring, there are every chance that situations may arise which will lead to the last-minute surprise and ultimate failure of the project.
As far as the project manager is concerned, he/she should always be strict enough to ensure the proper monitoring of activities related to the project. Proper care must be given about the expenses of all the activities of the project, so that budget is not running down. All of the team members should always be alert about the expenses and must give warning to the project manager about the potential financial crisis. The project manager is required to make some bold steps in this regard and to find out the best possible solution.
The project manager must also be careful about assessing the schedule of completing all the activities related to the project. He/she should monitor the project progress in a timely manner, and find out the activity that is running behind the schedule. Necessary corrective measures must be taken as soon as any sort of discrepancies are identified.
The project manager must know the art of monitoring the project in a perfect manner. Before starting the monitoring process, he/she should make a clear-cut plan, and keep it in black and white. There are many ways of monitoring, e.g., communicating with the team members through regular meetings, analyzing all the reports in a perfect manner, on-site monitoring, etc. The project manager may also use the tool called ‘Logical Framework Approach’ (LFA) for monitoring project activities. By following these procedures, it becomes easier for the project manager to identify any sort of irregularities going on in project activities.
In my project management career, I always maintain a work diary, which really helps me to monitor the project works. It also provides guidelines about the works that has been started, their expected outcomes, deadline for finishing those jobs, the use of funds, and helps me to identify any sort of loopholes in the entire process. The information that I receive while monitoring project activities always helps me to ensure that the things will be finished within the deadline set previously, budget will not run down, and it also assists me to plan for further initiatives or corrective measures, when necessary. I always trust my team members, but also inform them that the monitoring activities are just part of my job, so that they have total confidence on me.
Hence, it can be concluded by saying that monitoring the project activities in an appropriate manner is a vital component to ensure the success of the project. The top management and project sponsors heavily rely on the project manager to successfully monitor all sorts of project-related activities. It is necessary for the project manager to prepare a report on his/her findings while monitoring the project and take corrective measures in a proper and timely manner. Without being sincere and careful about monitoring the project progress, the project will fail inevitably. That is why, the project manager should always try to give his/her 100% effort to ensure the successful monitoring of the project.

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