Project Management Increases Productivity

Written by: Ronda Roberts • Edited by: Jean Scheid
Updated Jul 6, 2011

This article argues that Project Management is important to business because it increases productivity.

Why Should we be Concerned with Productivity?

There are two reasons companies are in business: To produce goods and to make money. The more goods or services a company can provide, the more money they can make, it's that simple. One common complaint of managers is that employees don't make enough strides toward meeting goals on their own, or worse, that the employees lack the initiative to know what needs to be done next. Because of this, companies large and small are always looking for ways to encourage their employees to be more self-motivated and productive. Productivity of employees can make or break a business. Hardy, highly motivated employees can bring a company to new heights whereas employees who never seem to do anything can tumble a business into the ground. Productivity is a vital component of making a business successful.

How Does Project Management Increase Productivity?

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Properly managed projects will assign tasks to every available resource. Project managers don't just assign tasks, they also assign deadlines. Deadlines, unfortunately, are a necessary evil. There's always one or two employees who don't need them, but for the rest of us, deadlines are motivating in and of themselves. Deadlines get things done.

Another reason that project management leads to more productivity is that there is no ambiguity when it comes to what a particular resource should be doing at any given time. This means there is less time for employees to spend hem-hawing over what might need to be done or slacking because they believe they have nothing to do. With clearly defined milestones, deliverables and objectives, there is no room for ambiguity within project management.

There are also a lot of checks in project management. Between resource analysis, the project plan, constant reporting and monitoring from the team and project manager, there are very few surprises in a properly managed project. The project manager will be well-aware when a project is slipping behind schedule, when an important deliverable is missing or when someone has become overwhelmed through overallocation.

For Further Information:

For more information on resource management and productivity in project management, you may wish to read the following articles on BrightHub:

Ronda Roberts' "Key Elements of Resource Management"

Gary's "Employing Effective Resource Management at Your Company"

e. schulze's "Time Wasters Will Drain Project Management"

and

e. schulze's "Can Time Management be Unnecessarily Complicated by the Rigorous Scheduling of a Project Manager?"