The Purpose of Project Management and Setting Objective

The Purpose of Project Management and Setting Objective

Product management is the process of managing your products throughout their life cycle. Product managers have to meet a number of general objectives, including developing a product plan in line with your corporate strategy, maximizing revenue, profit and customer satisfaction, delivering new products on time and on budget, and achieving product quality levels.

Project Management has developed in order to plan, co-ordinate and control the complex and diverse activities of modern industrial and commercial projects. All projects share one common characteristic - the projection of ideas and activities into new endeavours.

The purpose of project management is to foresee or predict as many dangers and problems as possible; and to plan, organise and control activities so that the project is completed as successfully as possible in spite of all the risks. The ever-present element of risk and uncertainty means that events and tasks leading to completion can never be foretold with absolute accuracy. For some complex or advanced projects, even the possibility of successful completion might be of serious doubt.

Project management can involve the following activities: planning - deciding what is to be done; organising - making arrangements; staffing - selecting the right people for the job; directing - giving instructions; monitoring - checking on progress; controlling - taking action to remedy hold ups; innovation - coming up with new solutions; representing - liaising with users.

Setting Objectives

Effective objectives in project management are specific. A specific objective increases the chances of leading to a specific outcome. Therefore objectives shouldn't be vague, such as "to improve customer relations," because they are not measurable. Objectives should show how successful a project has been, for example "to reduce customer complaints by 50%" would be a good objective. The measure can be, in some cases, a simple yes or no answer, for example, "did we reduce the number of customer complaints by 50%?"

While there may be one major project objective, in pursuing it there may be interim project objectives. In lots of instances, project teams are tasked with achieving a series of objectives in pursuit of the final objective. In many cases, teams can only proceed in a stair step fashion to achieve the desired outcome. If they were to proceed in any other manner, they may not be able to develop the skills or insights along the way that will enable them to progress in a productive manner.

Objectives can often be set under three headings:

Plan

A key objective for product management is planning and developing the specifications for a range of products or a product portfolio that meets your long-term strategic plan. The strategic plan may require development of new products to meet the needs of new market sectors or improvements and extensions to the current product range to increase share in your existing sectors.

Customers

Product managers must ensure that products meet or exceed customer needs. According to Pragmatic Marketing, enhancing user experience is an important objective for product management. That means working with your customers and utilizing their feedback to ensure that your products are easy to use, simple to maintain and capable of delivering value to your customers. Enhancing the user experience helps product managers to meet the important objective of maximizing customer satisfaction.

Success

The ultimate measure of product management is commercial success, according to Innovation Process Management. Although product managers may not have specific profit and loss responsibility, they must recognize the importance of financial results. To achieve commercial success, they need to coordinate the activities of other specialists in your company who contribute to the product's performance in the marketplace, including product development teams, marketing executives, quality managers and sales representatives.

Delivery

Product managers have to meet time and budget objectives. To meet the demands of the market and counter competitive pressures, they must be able to conclude product development programs on time and on budget. That enables your company to reduce the time to bring new or improved products to market and stay ahead of your competitors.

Marketing

Product management and marketing management share similar objectives, which are to maximize revenue and profit by meeting customer needs. Some companies combine the role of product manager and marketing manager. In others, product managers work closely with marketing managers, using research from the marketplace to plan and prioritize product development programs, and briefing marketing teams on the benefits of new products so that they can develop effective customer communications.

Performance and Quality

The end result of a project must fit the purpose for which it was intended. At one time, quality was seen as the responsibility of the quality control department. In more recent years the concept of total quality management has come to the fore, with the responsibility for quality shared by all staff from top management downwards.

Budget

The project must be completed without exceeding the authorised expenditure. Financial sources are not always inexhaustible and a project might be abandoned altogether if funds run out before completion. If that was to happen, the money and effort invested in the project would be forfeited and written off. In extreme cases the project contractor could face ruin. There are many projects where there is no direct profit motive, however it is still important to pay proper attention to the cost budgets, and financial management remains essential.

Time to Completion

Actual progress has to match or beat planned progress. All significant stages of the project must take place no later than their specified dates, to result in total completion on or before the planned finish date. The timescale objective is extremely important because late completion of a project is not very likely to please the project purchaser or the sponsor.

Conclusion

Project management has developed over the years, and involves various activities before a project is completed. Objectives should be specific so they are measurable, and although there may be one major project objective, there may be minor objectives throughout the project.

PLC can be applied to:

• product category (Watch)
• product style (Digital)
• a product item/brand (Timex)

Four Stages to the Product Life Cycle:

1. Introduction
2. Growth
3. Maturity
4. Decline

The following material refers to the PLC as far as the product category is concerned unless otherwise stated.

Introduction

Failure rate for new products can range from 60%-90%, depending on the industry. A product does not have to be an entirely new product, can be a new model (car).

Growth

Need to encourage strong brand loyalty, competitors are entering the market place. Profits begin to decline late in the growth stage.
May need to pursue further segmentation.

Maturity

Sales curve peaks-severe competition, consumers are now experienced specialists.

Decline

Sales fall off rapidly. Can be caused by new technology or a social trend.
Can justify continuing with the product as long as it contributes to profits or enhances the effectiveness of the product mix.
Need to decide to eliminate or reposition to extend its life.