Why Is Project Management Important and Its Benefits

Project management doesn’t seem important when you evaluate it on paper, but it directly correlates with business growth. 

You enjoy amazing brand equity and economic benefits when you manage in-house or clients’ projects appropriately. 

Turns out that Abraham Lincoln was right when he said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

What does that imply for project management?

For a successful project to unfold, spending an appropriate amount of time on project planning is essential. How well you plan the project will dictate how well the project flows throughout its execution.

The most sought-after reason SMEs are skeptical about the importance of project management is that they have yet to confront major challenges. Usually, they have fewer and small projects; therefore, they sail through the development process smoothly. But it is significant to understand that project management challenges increase with business expansion, so the habit of taking things lightly will cause trouble later on.

Thus, it is essential for organizations to embrace project management to support growth and continue to scale.

In this blog, we’ll explore the importance of project management and why you need to prioritize it in your organization in detail.

What is Project Management?

Project management refers to managing a project’s tasks, activities, budget, deadlines, and much more. It involves overseeing everything, right from the project’s initiation to its closure. So, project management incorporates it all, whether it’s assigning tasks, controlling the budget, or handling scope creep.

Why Is Project Management Important & Its Benefits?

Project management. As simple as the term looks, its implication is not as easy as a pie. It entails several elements of the project’s life cycle that influence the overall project delivery. The most crucial ones are – ‘Scope,’ ‘Time,’ and ‘Budget’, which are collectively known as the project triangle.

In short, project management aims to keep all elements under control to avoid any success gaps.

Here, we will look at key benefits associated with project management. Let’s get started.

1. Effective Project Planning

To run business projects flawlessly, you must have a well-developed plan in place. Neglecting a well-defined plan and jumping straight into project execution can cost your business a fortune, with problems such as frequent budget overruns and delayed deadlines becoming the norm.

Project management is essential to execute a smooth-running project. With proper project management, you can set appropriate budget estimates and delivery timelines.

Needless to say, when you have a clear project baseline, the odds of success will be in your favor. Besides continuous business growth, you will enjoy strong client relationships and a happier workforce.

Moreover, creating a business contingency plan as part of project management is always a good idea. It comes in handy in case the project runs amok. Businesses need to be certain and to determine the sureness along with project planning, businesses can use a sample business plan to manage it better.

2. Clarity on Focus and Objectives

Having a clear vision is instrumental for executing projects successfully. Project management gives you clarity of objectives, which directs your efforts towards a predefined business outcome. It leads to a smooth project development process, resulting in quality deliverables.

Undeniably, your focus shifts to realistic objectives when you implement the project management process.

3. Strategic Alignment

“Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan.”                                                                                                                                                               — Katherine Tate

Aligning your project goals with business strategy is the key to project success. And the project management process is what you need to adopt to achieve your strategic goals.

With proper strategic alignment, you meet the project’s goals and milestones in such a way that delights clients. In addition, you eliminate potential change requests, which means faster project closure.

4. Helps to Become a Better Leader

A project team without an adept leader is like a car without a steering wheel. Without it, the team moves with no direction, control, and purpose. And when this happens, your project is doomed to fail.

Moreover, project-based work will be on a whole different level in 2027, revealed by the reports of Bain & company. It clearly depicts that the importance of project management in organizations will touch new heights sooner rather than later.

The project management process can aid in honing leadership qualities as you learn how to handle bottlenecks and keep deadlines in check. Overall, project managers can easily stick to the baseline and handle queries of higher-ups if they follow this process for managing project tasks and activities.

5. Effortless Quality Control 

Client-centric businesses put their best foot forward to control time and budget while working on projects. These factors are important by all means, but the most crucial one is ‘Quality’.

The quality of projects gets compromised due to shoddy execution, which, in turn, leads to more rework. All of this makes certain that the project is off track and service level agreements are compromised. Eventually, clients lose their trust in you and spread the negative word in the business world.   

But you can avoid all of this by incorporating a project management process. This can help keep things under control during each phase of the project (initiation, planning, execution, and closure).

All in all, project management is the key to quality control and assurance.

6. Flawless Risk Management 

Risks are part and parcel of projects. And when they occur, all your project processes are likely to suffer. Due to these unforeseen risks, you encounter problems like compromised deadlines, cost overrun, etc. Consequently, this brings your business’s credibility into question and results in project failure.

All things considered, risk management is a crucial aspect of a project’s life cycle. Sweeping common project risks under the carpet and hoping for the best will only escalate problems for your business. Hidden risks will affect the functioning of the project and hit your brand image like a wave in the long run.

So, instead of jeopardizing businesses processes and your brand image, integrate the project management process to mitigate risks during each stage of the development process.

7. Continuous Project Oversight

Keeping a close eye on the project’s progress is essential to deliver the pre-defined deliverables. Most often, projects are generally one mistake away from going off track. Therefore, ensuring that your project team adheres to the project plan is imperative.

With continuous project oversight, you can ensure that your team doesn’t deviate from the intended workflow. What’s more, you can easily develop project status reports to maintain transparency with clients regarding progress.

8. Controlled Money-Flow

One of the major benefits of project management is that you can control unnecessary expenses, ensuring that cost overruns don’t haunt your business.

According to reports of PMI, 9.9% of every invested dollar went in vain in 2018 due to poor project performance. It means $99 million gets wasted for every $1 billion invested. When you lose that much money, your chances of beating business rivals seem bleak. 

Through project management, you can keep project costs in check and use your resources effectively.

9. Subject Matter Expertise

For continued project success, having vast industrial experience under your belt is crucial.

Highly experienced project managers usually have sure-fire strategies and clarity on required systems, possibilities, and limitations, issues, etc. With such in-depth knowledge, they face no difficulty while having discussions with clients and teams. Thanks to a meaningful dialogue, supported with subject matter expertise, projects get delivered on time..

10. Allows learning From Failure

Everybody makes work-related mistakes at some point in time, but what counts is how well you’ve learned from them. One major advantage of project management is that you bring discipline during the process and learn from the struggling phases. 

The last phase of project management – project closure, helps project managers gain an insight into project performance. In this, you compile information on what went well and what went downhill in executing projects. This helps in making foolproof strategies for upcoming projects, which results in future project success.

The significance of documentation shouldn’t be taken for granted. The elaborative list of ‘do’s and don’ts’, avoids making the same mistake in future projects.

11. Promises Apple-pie Order

Project management ensures the right people work on the right things and at the right time. To put it briefly, you maintain the right order throughout the project life cycle.

Generally, organizations have reactive planning processes to cope with project-related problems. However, organizations can enjoy the perks of well-executed projects by following a project management process.

By following the project management process, you can clarify the roles of each individual, streamline work procedures, mitigate risks, and meet deadlines without any hassle. All in all, project management promises apple-pie order and makes managing a project easier.

Read More: Project Management Best Practices for Managers

How to Define the Value of Project Management

It’s not surprising that businesses that have adopted the project management practices for executing projects have 38% more successful projects that met their original goals.

As it happens, the impact of project management cannot be measured. However, its effect can be felt in how smoothly your project progresses from start to finish. It reflects in the way teams collaborate and how tasks are executed throughout the project’s life cycle.

Adopting a project management tool helps you to stay in maximum control of the quality and schedule of your tasks are performed.

With more and more organizations discovering the advantages of good project management software, project managers are better at adapting and responding to real-time project challenges.

Moreover, adopting a project management tool facilitates streamlined processes, which translate to a smooth-flowing project. This further translates to a happier workforce that is content with their workflow, imparting more efficiency and productivity at work.

Should Businesses Invest in Project Management Software?

Giving undivided attention to the iron triangle of cost, time, and scope is significant, as these are the factors that differentiate between success and failure. To manage such project issues, most businesses trust project management software like ProProfs Project. Such software offers a multitude of features, which helps streamline processes and keep projects on track.

A few of its key features include:

• Gantt charts that help you monitor the project’s progress
• Task priorities that help to complete time-sensitive project activities 
• Project templates that aid in handling repetitive tasks
• Time tracking that lets you prevent time sinks
• File sharing that improves team communication

So, yes, businesses must invest in project management software to effortlessly stay ahead of the curve.

Drive Your Business to Success With Robust Project Management

According to a survey conducted by Gartner, the project failure rate is around 50%. The reason behind such an astonishing number is that most projects are exposed to unrealistic planning, poor prioritization, and inaccurate resource allocation. These are common factors contributing to successive project failures. Such factors demand attention in the form of project management that enables smooth-flowing projects.

Solid project management is essential to project success. It ensures that you stay on the right track, defined by a pre-determined project workflow. It boasts several benefits that help streamline project activities, reduce potential risks, and improve project performance.

It allows you to outline who will work on what and when, so factors like scope, budget, and time don’t get jeopardized. Thus, robust project management empowers you to accomplish set goals, achieve higher ROIs, and scale your business effortlessly.

Q. What are the benefits of project management?

Well, we have already illustrated the benefits of project management. So, here’s the quick overview:

• Effective Project Planning
• Alignment. Clarity on Focus and Objectives
• Strategic Alignment 
• Helps to  Become a Better Leader
• Effortless Quality Control 
• Flawless Risk Management plan. 
• Continuous Project Oversight
• Controlled Money-flow
• Subject Matter Expertise
• Gives An Opportunity to Learn From Failure for Success 
• Promises Apple-pie Order

Q. Why is project management training important?

Project management helps you gain the right skills and knowledge so that you manage every new project like a pro. Project management training carries several benefits, such as:

• Improved Efficiency
• Enhanced Confidence
• Consistent Project Delivery 
• High Customer Satisfaction

Q. What is the main objective of project management?

The main objective of project management is to keep the triple constraints of the project unaffected. By means of the PM process, you can stick to the project baseline and make sure that nothing hampers your client relationships.