Project management is often seen as a luxury expense by SMEs that feel they must focus on the daily grind and worry they don’t have the time or resources to spare. However, overlooking the benefits project management methodologies can bring to your company can severely limit your life cycle growth and prevent your business from maximizing its potential.
Why is project management important for growing SMEs? Here are six reasons why incorporating project management into your methodology or operations may give your company the agile push it needs to take your operation to the next level.
1. Improved Communication
Traditional project management requires delegation of projects to specific employees and clearly outlines the roles of every person involved. This means every action taken will be communicated to the project head and stakeholders, giving someone an overall view of the progress made and an ability to address possible issues while other team members can focus on their individual tasks. This also creates clear accountability and telecommunications if mistakes are made in your small business, making it much easier to correct them on the spot for a higher chance of project success.
2. Attainable Deadlines
Time estimations and deadlines are an integral part of project management and help to set and define clear target times for every step of the project. Large companies or even larger organizations know that no matter how big or small the goal, setting challenging but realistic deadlines can keep everyone moving forward on the project and ensure it is completed in a timely fashion. Hence use of project management becomes entirely necessary even through the process of product development.
3. Resource Conservation
Project management systems rely heavily on allocating the appropriate materials and skill sets to get the job done in an efficient and timely manner. Rather than asking multiple staff members to pool their limited time together to work on various small projects, tailoring team members based on their complementary skills and competencies, ensuring each deliverable is completed by the person best suited to the role. Material needs are discussed and predetermined in the risk management process, reducing the potential for waste due to overestimation.
4. Minimized Costs
Budgets are an important part of project management and contribute greatly to keeping costs reasonable. When a hard budget has been set, the team knows the financial limitations they must work with and will focus on the budgetary items that are absolutely necessary, cutting out luxury expenses and sometimes bringing their own ingenuity into play to keep costs low. As a business owner, you will know the cost of the project at the start and have an understanding of your predicted ROI through your resource management.
5. Opportunity Identification
With a dedicated project manager to see the bigger picture, areas, where efficiency can be improved, are more easily identified. Without the weight of smaller tasks, the project manager is free to focus on the overall operation of the project and see when process flexibility is necessary as well as make it easier for the decision-making process through project management tools.
6. Better Future Planning
By tracking projects and their outcomes, project management for SMEs creates a kind of road map for future successful projects by identifying past issues and highlighting the processes that worked. This leads to improved quality over time and greater overall efficiency for small and medium enterprises.
Whether you have the budget to employ a full-time project manager on your staff or want to check out the numerous software options available, incorporating project management can save your project team time and money. This can also improve your reputation with clients, making you appear more dependable and fostering continued business growth. If you want to learn more about EIRE Systems’ project management support, contact us today.
