In order for businesses to successfully initiate, develop and complete projects, they need to recruit, hire and train people with solid project management skills. The business world is speeding up and product lifecycles are much shorter. This is forcing organizations to start new projects at an increasing rate. However, as projects become more complex, project failures, delays, and missed deadlines are becoming increasingly common.
One of the main factors leading to the increasing complexity of projects is the rise of globalization. It is a challenging task for organizations to operate and coordinate projects in different countries around the world due to differences in time zones, language, culture, distributed teams, and distance. For instance, if project teams are located in different geographies, communication must happen through conference calls at times that work for everyone. This slows down the process of communication, as issues cannot always be resolved immediately as they arise in person. Communication can also become muddled when people are using a language that is not their native tongue. For instance, it is easy to misinterpret colloquialisms that can be very specific to a culture. It is key to have a leader who can coordinate and convey ideas despite these differences.
Another challenge that organizations face is a lack of clearly defined project goals. This challenge requires project leaders who can ask the right questions to establish and communicate clear goals from the outset. Not having clear goals from the beginning of a project can also impact the scope of a project later; effects on budget and deadlines will need to be communicated to all team members. Successful managers need the knowledge and experience to evaluate each change request and decide how and if to implement it. It can be extremely difficult to find the right leader to handle making decisions and communicating them well to the team.
The Value of Project Management Training and Certification
Project management is a problem-driven discipline. In order to be effective, a Project manager needs to possess a wide range of competencies, be able to meet challenges and solve problems in many areas.
For example, a particular project might require skills that the individual members of the team lack. Project management training can help a project leader determine which competencies are needed, assess the available workers and recommend training, outsourcing or hiring additional staff. The right training and certification is an essential step for managing the unexpected obstacles project managers can face on a daily basis.
Project management training teaches leaders how to mitigate risk, plan for the unexpected and reduce ambiguity. Risk tolerance is desirable in an effective project manager because projects rarely go exactly according to plan. Knowing which parts of a project are most likely to cause problems and put the results in jeopardy is an important skill for a project manager to have. This is also applicable in dealing with ambiguity. If options are not identified and clarified, the entire project can be delayed by unexpected problems. Project managers provide direction at every stage and then clearly communicate it, so each team member is aware of how to proceed. Proper training can increase communication skills and awareness of risks.How Organizations Can Overcome Project Management Challenges
With the increased need for project managers, certified professionals are in great demand. Project Management Professional (PMP)® certification is the global gold standard of project management offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI). Certified PMPs lead projects around the world and, unlike other certifications that focus on a particular geography or domain, the PMP® is truly global. As previously mentioned, businesses are becoming increasingly globalized, so having a certification that matches this trend and enables one to work anywhere is a wise investment.
