Business | Applying project management to your industry

By Anna Malczyk and Alex Trengove Jones

If you are interested in this topic, take a look at our University of Cape Town Project Administration course.

Project management is one of those exciting and useful skills that can be applied to any business context in virtually any industry. Wherever people need to be organised to meet deadlines and accomplish business goals, project management will make the process smoother, quicker, cheaper and more enjoyable for everyone. Here are just three examples of how project management can apply to your job.

1. The personal assistant
A personal assistant or secretary can benefit immensely from having project management skills. Since they are often tasked with arranging events and meetings, doing research, planning schedules and doing other ad hoc tasks, being able to break these jobs down into projects properly is vital for saving money, avoiding problems and being efficient. For example, a personal assistant who must plan the end-of-year office function can break the job down into manageable sections (catering, transport, communicating information to staff, entertainment), plan for risks (inclement weather, the bus breaking down, the speaker not showing up) and make sure that the budget is spent where it is needed.

2. The corporate environment
Project management is absolutely vital in today’s busy and complex corporate environment. It is no wonder that businesses are transforming into project-based organisations. Every department can function effectively on a project-based structure: marketing can create projects for each of the campaigns, human resources can make projects for evaluating and improving staff performance. In addition, projects are the best way to create inter-departmental cooperation. A company that wants to create a new website for itself can start a project that involves the IT department, marketing professionals, sales executives, freelance web designers and so on.

3. The building and construction industry
The construction industry is one of the biggest users of project management skills. Since construction projects always involve hundreds of people, extremely tight deadlines, millions of rands’ worth of equipment and materials. There are also many possible risks involved that must be managed precisely and constantly by a skilled project manager. If a construction project gets delayed because of poor management, it can end up causing the business massive financial losses. Project management is applicable at all stages of construction, from initial zoning and architectural planning, to the physical build, to dealing with transfers, sales and hand-over at the end.

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