I train people on Project
Management and sometimes I am asked “Who should get Project Management
Knowledge / Training”?
Really every adult as defined
in the constitutions of most countries is eligible to get a Project Management
training.
Let me try and explain it
under the following sub headings hoping that it will make sense that way. I
hope you get what I mean.
We will work with these two
simple definitions.
A Project is a any piece is
work that has a start date and an end date and at least a goal.
Project Management is the way
a person or a company organizes and manages resources that are necessary to
complete a project.
1.
Corporate Employees
These
are people that work for a medium to large scale organisation. They could be
engaged in different functions such as Human Resources, Sales and Business
Development, Operations, Finance, Corporate Communication, Administration, Technology,
etc. Each of these employees should understand the fundamentals of project
management because all the projects executed in an organisation is localized in
one of these functions. Despite the organizational structure (Function,
Projectized, Strong matrix, Weak Matrix or Balanced Matrix) of a company, the
employees need to understand project management to ensure smooth , effective
and efficient project execution and success.
2.
Family / Private Individuals
Husbands,
wives, private individuals have different projects such as buildings, events,
etc. to execute at one time or another. Therefore, they need to understand how
to manage a project. Even if they have to hire professional project managers, a
good understanding of project management will help them improve supervision and
financing for the project. Ultimately it will also lead to efficient
maintenance of the project during operation and make the project long lasting.
3.
Students
This
is an interesting category of people that should know project management. Every
year we have final year students of institutions writing projects in final
fulfilment for the award of their certificate. I too wrote my project in the
university. However, it is noteworthy that none of these projects follow the
project management principle. With benefit of hindsight I will recommend that
at the level of final year project, project management training should be
included as part of their curriculum before or during their final year. This
will help the students to manage their projects professionally and graduate
well equipped with the capability to manage projects.
4.
Entrepreneurs / Business owners
Farmers,
Traders, Small Business owners such as Event Management and servicing companies,
etc. all should learn project management because of the type of projects which
they implement. Event managers in particular should learn project management
because each event is a project with a definite start date, end date and a
goal.
5.
Religious Leaders / Workers
Churches
engage in a lot of projects that requires experience in project management to
handle. Yes, many of these projects get completed somehow but how efficient it
is executed cannot not exactly be measured because it was not managed following
laid down project management procedures.
6.
Government / Public sector Professionals
These
set of people are crucial and should be made to mandatorily undergo project
management training because of the high rate of failure of public sector
projects. There are many abandoned projects by the different level of
government. This is a reflection of the lack of project management skills.
Proper project supervision should expose the inadequacies of a project during
project review/kill point meetings and professionally determine if a project
should proceed or not
7.
Job Seekers / Applicants
These
are prime targets for project management training. Acquiring the project
management skill will help them in three ways.
ü Become
a High Income Professional: Project Management is a high-income
Profession so if a job seeker acquires this skill, they are well positioned to
earn high income.
ü Get a
High-Income Job: A knowledge of project management can enable
the job seeker to get a high-income job in a multinational, oil company,
Technology firm, etc.
ü Get a
High-income skill: You can acquire Project management skill
though training or university education depending on which one is accessible to
you. The fact remains that one can acquire Project Management skills within a
short time frame through training.
8.
Social Workers / NGOs
Social
workers and Non-Governmental Organisations require project management knowledge
to support them in the various projects they execute.
9.
Private Professionals
These
categories of people include partnership firms like architects, accountants,
Hospitals, Hotels and Hospitality industry organizations, Engineers, etc. These
are professionals heavily engaged in projects such as road constructions,
Electrification projects, Building construction, Process optimization projects,
etc. They should know how to professionally manage a project. This is to avoid
the failed project syndrome.
Summary
Acquiring
the project management knowledge through training does not only help the
recipient to manage the project effectively and efficiently. It should also be established
here that since a project is a temporary endeavour, after completion, it will
be handed over to operations to run.
The
success of the operations depends very much on the quality of project
implementation. Proper project management ensures that the right documentations
are provided for suitable operations and maintenance.
When
project management is not properly done, despite delivering the goal of the
project, continuous operations of the project becomes problematic when there
are maintenance issues. One thing that can lead to this kind of problem is the
absence of a documentation manual. This will gradually lead to operational
failure and the project will not meet the objectives over the long run.
Bottomline
is project management is a skill that should be acquired by anybody who is
engaged in any form of project of another.
Thanks
for your attention
I am
Emeka
Achebe-Okosieme
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