Project Management:

Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters.

Steps:

1. Learn where the gaps in your project management knowledge are:

Whatever role you’re currently in — marketer, designer, developer, whatever — you’ve likely been honing your project management skills all along.

According to the Project Management Institute’s Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (or PMBOK Guide), there are 10 key project management “knowledge areas”:

• Risk management
• Cost management
• Scope management
• Quality management
• Resource management
• Schedule management
• Integration management
• Stakeholder management
• Procurement management
• Communications management

Think about the projects you’ve been on lately. Which of these areas have you been involved in?

Maybe you played an integral role in outlining the project plan, timeline, or scope. Maybe you were the one who outlined the budget and were able to stop things going off-track when unexpected costs came up. Maybe you helped to reallocate resources across team members to ensure that no one was over capacity. Those are all project management skills that any great project manager needs to know. On the flipside, maybe you haven’t had much exposure to some of the other knowledge areas, like risk management or stakeholder management. In that case, you know exactly what you need to focus on to gain the experience you need to become a more well-rounded project manager.

2. Get (more) project management experience:

Once you’ve identified where you need to grow, it’s time to start putting your plan into action. (Which is what project managers do every day — double win!) That’s because the #1 thing you can do if you want to become a project manager without experience is start getting that experience. Projects are all around us, so volunteer when you can. Take on extra responsibilities and develop your organizational skills, scheduling skills, people management skills — everything you identified in step one.

3. Learn everything you can about project management:

Always seek out opportunities to develop your project management skills and knowledge. Learn by doing. Learn on the job. Learn from your mistakes. Learn from other project managers (in your company or elsewhere). See if you can find a mentor who’ll teach you their project manager tips. If you want to pursue your project manager education but you don’t yet feel ready to fully commit, take one of the many online project management courses available on platforms like Udemy or Coursera. You can also look for conferences or local networking events that will help you to stay on top of new industry trends and meet people who can help you to navigate the project management career path.

4. Start using the right project management software:

Using a pm tool can help you to develop your project manager experience. It allows you to automate your work, quickly assign tasks to groups of teams, and easily view projects in Gantt charts, as well as being able to manage all of your project resources from one place. Using a flexible and intuitive project management tool like Teamwork to manage your work also means that you can get up and running without needing to spend a ton of time on training or onboarding.

5. Identify which project management certification is right for you:

PMP, PRINCE2, CAPM, PMI-ACP…there’s a whole alphabet of project management degrees. It can be overwhelming. So how do you know which project management certification is right for you? The first step is to check out your options. Which qualification is most common in your industry? Which one do you see listed most in the kind of job descriptions you’re interested in? Which one is best suited to your available time and budget? Which one will better fit the kind of processes your company uses? Where in the world do you want to work?

There’s lots to consider. Here’s an overview of some of the most popular degrees for project managers, to help start your formal project manager education.

1. Agile certifications
2. Project Management Professional (PMP)
3. Certified Associate In Project Management (CAPM)

6. Master the tools of the trade:

As a project manager, you’re always looking for ways to increase efficiency and improve processes. Finding the right project management tool will help you to put everything you’ve learned in your project manager education into practice. It allows you to oversee your projects with more clarity, forecast more accurately, manage your resources more efficiently, and report more precisely. A good project management tool amplifies the work of the project manager: it helps you to take care of the everyday details so you can focus your skills where they’ll have the most impact. It works with you to elevate your best practices and scale your project successes — so learning how to use your PM tool to your advantage is essential, and will save you tons of time and money in the long run. Teamwork was built to support you and your workflow, regardless of which project management methodology you use. Whether you need a Gantt chart or a Kanban board, it has all the features you need to deliver your project, your way.

Conclusion:

Project management helps to detail what tasks will be accomplished, who will be involved in completing the tasks, and when tasks should start and finish. Typically, projects progress in steps or incremental stages; however, other approaches for rapid, interactive project management are also widely used.