PROJECT MANAGEMENT

AcumenEdge believes that successful event management hinges on strong project management skills

Projects bring together resources, skills, technology and ideas to deliver business benefits or achieve business objectives. Good project management helps ensure that these benefits or objectives are achieved within budget, within time and to the required quality.

PRINCE2 is a widely used project management method, recognised and used by the UK government and private sector and internationally. Originally designed and created by the Office of Government Commerce, it provides a framework covering the wide variety of disciplines required within a project. The focus of PRINCE2 is on the business case, describing the rationale and business justification for the project. The business case drives all the project management processes from set up to completion. It is a flexible framework of processes which can be tailored to suit the particular requirements of any individual project.

PRINCE2 is a method that is repeatable, builds on and utilises experience, ensures everyone knows what to expect, provides early warning of problems and is proactive, but equally capable of dealing with unexpected events. It also provides controlled management of change and demands the active involvement of stakeholders to ensure that the products will meet business, functional, environmental, service and management requirements.

The methodology of PRINCE2 is to use a “management by exception” approach, where a plan is agreed and then the Project Manager executes the plan unless and until something is forecast to go wrong. The Project Manager keeps all stakeholders informed of the project status without the need for frequent and/or time consuming meetings.

The role of the Project Manager is to act as the driver and co-ordinator of the project, ensuring that all elements of work and production are delivered as defined in the project plan and providing support and backup in the event any of these elements are determined to be going wrong.

It is not necessary and in some cases not even desirable that the Project Manager have specialist knowledge or understanding of the project being undertaken. This permits the Project Manager to assume nothing and challenge paradigms in the development and execution of the Project Plan.

There is no project too small or simple and no project too large or complex to benefit from project management to a successful conclusion.