There are two basic kinds of management: project management and standard management. Project management is the act of managing different projects at a business. Oftentimes, companies will run projects that are different from their standard business. For example, if you are at a company that sells trainers, your standard business ventures will be selling trainers. If you decide that you want to run a holiday special in which you also sell running shorts, you could run it as a project. If you do run it as a project, you will likely need a project manager. The project manager will control that aspect of the business for a limited amount of time.
What Is a Project?
In the business world, a project is a type of task that your business performs that is slightly different from your day-to-day operations. The project will be a limited amount of time. It typically has a specific objective; the project will also have a determined beginning and end. The beginning and end of a project can be based on time or objectives. For example, a Christmas season project might run just for the month of December. Alternately, a project selling running shorts might run until you sell a certain number of shorts. Both of these options are viable and often used in business projects. To run them effectively, though, you need a project manager.
A project management course can teach you how to be a more effective project manager in the workplace. There are tasks in project management that are unique to the project.
Project Management Tasks
When you are running a project at a business, it will begin with putting together the project pitch. The pitch is what you will offer to investors so that they will be enticed to help fund the venture. There are two different kinds of pitches: internal pitches and external pitches. The external pitch is to investors who you might need to help fund your project. Also, the external pitch can be to short-term employees you might need to add. The internal pitch will be to people within the company who will likely be reassigned to the project for a certain amount of time. You will learn to write pitches when you take management courses.
After the pitch, you will need to put together the project plan. The project plan will define exactly how you intend to accomplish whatever it is you set out to accomplish with your project. It will also set the funding levels and the timeframe for the project. Once you have that in order, it is time to actually execute the project. If you have done your planning and your hiring properly, the execution is actually the easiest part. Picking the right team and putting it together the right way will make execution simple. Once you have executed the project, you will need to write a summary of the project for your investors and for the other people in your company. These are all skills you learn when you take a project management training course.
