Everybody is exerting intense effort to make their project a huge success. The project is what determines the company’s success. However, there is always a chance of failure, no matter how much effort you put into making something work. Projects are like crimes: rarely perfect. When planning in project management, you must always expect misfortunes, misjudgments, wrong calculations, hidden costs, unexpected delays, external factors, bizarre work abnormalities, collaboration issues even butterfly effects.

Suppose you are someone who is working on a project; everything has been planned, your SWOT analysis is complete, and the project’s success has been estimated. What if something goes wrong during the process and the project gets messed up? Do you have a fix or a fallback strategy in case something goes wrong? 

In such scenarios, you must be prepared with your plan B, right? If we talk about plan B, it should be about calculating the cost and factoring it into your spending plan. Bear in mind that this expense is a contingency for your project and that you will (partially) use it. Project contingency is most important in this situation. Today, we’ll give a clear explanation of project contingency, including its significance and all of its details. 

What is Exactly the Meaning of Project Contingency?

If you’re the project’s senior manager, you’ve probably estimated or forecasted the cost of the work in terms of both money and time. A strategy known as contingency planning is made specifically for unforeseen future events. In order to make sure that operations run as smoothly as possible, a proactive approach is taken. If a threat arises, the situation can be managed, or recovery strategies can be used. To put it simply, contingency planning is a backup plan or plan B to the main plan. 

Contingency planning entails numerous steps and involves numerous parties, much like developing the primary plan for a project. Here are the main components that contingency planning needs. 

Components of Project Contingency Planning

• Risk evaluation: All potential risks are anticipated and evaluated in advance of a project. 
• External variables: These are the circumstances that can arise as a result of environmental change and have an impact on business, including changes to market policy, changes to the law, an unexpected emergency like a pandemic, a political situation, and an economic downturn, etc. 
• Circumstances: Following risk analysis, various scenarios that might happen and harm the project are evaluated. These scenarios are ranked according to their significance and potential harm. 
• Solutions: Every conceivable circumstance has a solution. The goal is to carry on with the operations and minimize further damage. 
• Those who should be aware of the emergency: It is crucial to determine who should be informed and who is capable of handling an emergency. Senior leadership, management, and staff are primarily responsible for keeping everyone informed of the situation and handling any impending emergencies. 
• Build a timeline: It’s crucial to create a schedule and calculate how long damage control will take. Creating a timeline facilitates the process and keeps all parties informed of the status. 

The Importance of Having a Plan B

1. Limit Losses

For this benefit, we will take the most common example of machine failure.  How do you ensure project contingency?

Contingency ->You had already signed a 5-year replacement warranty contract with the machine vendor. It cost a bit in the beginning, but you keep up with your Gantt chart, regardless of possible failures.

2. Keep the Project Going on

An example of taking into consideration this is that it is necessary for a key member of your project to take a lengthy leave of absence. 

Contingency -> You had prepared a list of stand-ins and trained them appropriately. Although there was an additional HR expense, the project is still moving forward. 

 3. Elasticity

Case to consider: Gas prices rose as a result of an unexpected economic crisis. Costs associated with project transportation went up by 5%. 

Contingency -> With the cash flow from your contingency, you can easily respond to the changes without delaying the project’s milestones. 

4. Improved project comprehension

Case: Your business intelligence tools demonstrate that all of your unforeseen expenses come exclusively from the Procurement Department during the monthly “project clinic” session. 

Contingency -> You reschedule tasks and work packages in order to increase productivity and efficiency because you recognize that there is a bottleneck in that department. 

5. Project Accountability

Example for your consideration: Although shareholders prefer calculated risk, they accept risk. 

Contingency -> They will be a little upset by your backup plan, but they will accept that you are responsible and realistic. In the end, they will stand by your side. 

Benefits of Project Contingency Planning for Businesses

1. Preparation 

A business or organization must have a contingency plan because it aids in preparing for unforeseen circumstances. It is wise for a business to be ready for anything, even if there isn’t a sudden change in the plan or the impact of an external factor. Last but not least, if a contingency plan has already been created, there is no need to start over and carry out plan B or a backup plan.  

2. Boosts Adaptability 

Contingency planning aids the organization in achieving adaptability and flexibility in daily operations rather than just preparing it for unforeseen circumstances. In light of the shifting market trends and needs, this is a necessary skill. Organizations learn to use alternative methods to carry on with operations rather than abandoning a project due to a minor obstacle. In other words, contingency planning is the same as altering a company’s course to increase profits or avoid a significant loss. 

 3. Saves Time

The timeline is impacted when an unforeseen circumstance happens while a business is conducting its regular business. The timeline must be extended further when the plans are modified or abandoned, and new ones are created. The company might suffer losses as a result of this. Therefore, businesses should prioritize contingency planning in order to save time and money. 

4. Offers Possibilities 

The value of contingency planning extends beyond averting unforeseen events and minimizing loss. It also enables the company to investigate new areas and seize opportunities as they present themselves. The chance to examine industry and market trends presents itself while creating a contingency plan. If you are an expert, you can spot these changes and take advantage of them. It aids in the timely identification of advantageous opportunities for the business. 

 5. Avoids Damage 

These days, every business needs contingency planning to keep operations going and avoid catastrophic losses. While it is impossible for a business to always be profitable, there are things that can be done to lessen a loss. Because of this, a backup plan is always created to stop significant harm from happening and destroying the entire organization. 

 6. Improves the Reputation of the Company 

A business may be a big loss for someone because of the stakes that investors, shareholders, customers, employees, and management have in it. When a business fails, all the investors who provided the business with funding are also impacted in addition to the business owner. However, by having a backup strategy, business managers or owners can persuade various parties.

Conclusion 

This article demonstrates why it’s important to take contingency planning seriously. It can shield the company from significant losses and damages. The business can make a profit from every situation with the aid of a contingency plan if it is created with utmost care and if the circumstances are favorable to the business market. 

Project management software is an online collaborative app used by businesses of every size in any industry for project planning, resource availability analysis, and scheduling. If you’re working on a project, you can log in and get informed on what has been already done, what you should be doing, and when. The most important benefit of Project Management software is that it keeps organizations from wasting time on updating spreadsheets. It also saves the time spent participating in weekly update meetings.  

In the past, organizations only needed to have a whiteboard, a marker, and an idea of a manager to run projects. With the innovations in technology, how projects get managed has evolved. Organizations now want to do less manually yet gain more. They want efficient and affordable automation tools.

Project Management software can be integrated with association management systems, too. The AMS provides organizations with an excellent platform to manage data. This way, an organization doesn’t have to jump from system to system to get things done. With the technical features of PMS and AMS, organizations can continuously look after the progress of projects. As a result, projects can get completed efficiently while producing quality results. 

In this article, you’ll understand the reasons why organizations need Project Management software (PMS). Following are the benefits of Project Management:

1. Effective Customer Communication  

Maintaining regular and effective customer communication and experience during a project life cycle is important. There’s always a likelihood of friction creeping into projects. This happens mostly if multiple teams work remotely from different locations. A good example is in situations where a conference call gets delayed. Sometimes a conference room is not available for a meeting. This can leave people wondering if the meeting is necessary in the first place. That’s where Project Management software comes in. 

It ensures that collaboration with clients gets streamlined through timely communication. It also helps to ensure faster approvals and transparent project tracking. A PMS enables access to project dashboards, helping clients to track progress. They can also give prompt approvals and make decisions without delays. 

2. Risk Management

Identifying potential risks during the project planning stage helps to eliminate them. But, sometimes people forget until it’s too late. Project Management software, though not a replacement for a good project manager, helps in sorting that out. It helps in planning and tracking project risks in good time. 

Apart from tracking tasks, a PMS gives a complete overview of the project. As a result, you’re able to identify potential obstacles and risks. That way, they can be evaded with ease. 

3. Better Scheduling

Tracking milestones in a project can get very problematic. That’s because every team member wants to know what needs to be completed and by when. The right Project Management software helps to employ clear and easy-to-follow Gantt charts of timelines. The software also allows project managers to update the Gantt chart. This is important in situations where things change at a moment’s notice. 

Collaborative software enables virtual managers to give instructions in an accessible way. They can display individual tasks and let everyone know where they stand. As a result, a poor organization can never be an excuse for missed deadlines.

4. Document Sharing and Access 

Easy control over documents is one of the best benefits of Project Management tools. Project management software allows you to track modifications or submissions. This is aside from the fact that documents can’t get misplaced or lost. It brings about more accountability and transparency. You can tell who changed what in a certain document. It’s also practical. That’s because employees can find documents without trawling through shared drives. It also brings convenience when users are waiting for an updated file version. 

5. Improved Resource Management 

Resource management is critical to every project team. It doesn’t matter that you’re part of an agency or you’re a freelance contractor. Whether you’re in creative marketing or you offer professional services. Whatever you do, you’ll have to track and allocate resources like skilled and unskilled labor. There are also facility budgets, billable and nonbillable clocked time, and a lot more. 

Your team member’s time, capacity, and schedule are some of the most important resources. PMS helps with time management using features for building work calendars. Some features help with tracking the time spent on tasks. These features can also analyze where resources are going. 

6. Easy Collaboration 

Team members are usually assigned individual roles that are part of the project. It’s sometimes hard to track a project’s status to be able to collaborate with colleagues. With the use of a PMS, teams, and managers can collaborate on tasks in real-time and with little effort. That is made easy by discussing tasks, timelines, dependencies, and outstanding tasks. Project management software enables managers to keep everyone together. This way, they’re sure that each member knows what to work on. The software allows them to generate task lists with priorities. Apart from better collaboration, this also reduces re-work. Team members can concentrate on continuous and fast-paced service delivery. 

7. Improved Process Standardization

Operational business processes become more sophisticated as the team grows. That means that employees who were not present as things developed may have it tough catching up. With the adoption of PMS, there will be no such thing as my way or their way. It’s the entire team’s way. 

Workflows and views can get customized. But, naming conventions, populating forms, and everything else becomes standardized. This way processes are teachable whenever someone new comes on board. The software provides various types of documentation and file management systems. This means that you can build, store, and search databases of workflow standards. 

High-level software includes features like customizable project request forms. The features ensure that the right step is taken. That may mean updating dependent task deadlines or requesting more information about tasks. 

Comidor Project Management Software

Failure to have the right Project Management software exposes the organization to chaotic situations. Teams are likely to struggle with unclear goals, projects crossing the budget, and deadlines. But all of this is significantly changing with the involvement of the current Project Management system. So choose wisely. Because successful project management depends on the best Project Management system that will lead your company to meet all your goals with ease!

Comidor Project Management is an enterprise-grade application that helps you streamline projects, manage people and bring your team, projects, sales, and reports in one place. This powerful and feature-rich project management tool is equipped with high-quality task management functionality, real-time collaboration and enterprise document management capabilities, as well as automatic, advanced reports.

Author bio:
Dan has had hands-on experience in digital marketing since 2007. He has been building teams and coaching others to foster innovation and solve real-time problems. Dan also enjoys photography and traveling. 

When it comes to business process management (BPM) and project management (PM), it can sometimes be hard to tell which one is the most useful in your company. Whichever comes first has been a long-time dilemma that all companies must consider at some point in their business journeys.  

But the truth is BPM and PM influence each other. Which one is at the forefront, and which is the driving force, depends on how your company sees the two disciplines. 

In this article, we’ll define BPM and PM, respectively, as two separate disciplines. Then we will look at the relationship between them. 

Business Process Management (BPM)

As it is said, business process management plays a big role in the redesign and management of a company’s internal processes or workflows. BPM is an ongoing initiative that makes sure that a company’s processes are running smoothly to meet its goals. 

With that said, the following personnel can manage the BPM initiatives: 

• Business analysts 
• Business process improvement specialists, or
• Other functional team leads 

Just make sure to maintain a customer-centric approach. As Forrester explains, BPM initiatives should focus on delivering a high customer experience that consequently drives operational excellence. 

Project Management (PM)

Project management is the discipline of bringing together knowledge, skills and the right tools to meet a project’s goals and requirements at a specified time. Thus, project management has a defined start and end; and it doesn’t rely on ongoing stages or components like BPM. Instead, PM relies on objectives set within five unique phases (which act as a timeline):  

• Initiation 
• Planning 
• Execution 
• Monitoring 
• Controlling  

According to Gartner, PM adds value to a business, only when the PM activities are people-oriented and influence the organisational culture.

Which One Do You Need? 

Choosing between business process management and project management depends on what your role is and what your company is like. In other words, you might need BPM for some tasks, while you may only need PM for other things. Also, it is worth mentioning that BPM and process automation can boost project delivery, minimise repetitiveness, and the personnel responsibilities. 

Whether you need BPM or PM depends on a specific task. Consider the following tasks: 

• Interviewing new hires 
• Communicating with new clients 
• Hiring new employees
• Talking to prospective clients 

As you keep these things in mind, determine whether you’ll be needed in those situations or not. The important thing to remember is where you and your role fits in your business’ journey.

Think: Are you needed in a part of the process, or are you needed in just a part of the whole project? 

Understanding The Relationship Between BPM and Project Management

Now that we’ve looked at BPM and project management, it’s clear that a company needs both to achieve organizational success. BPM creates a solid foundation for projects to be executed effectively, while PM creates space for innovation to take place. And once the project is complete, the results will convert back to BPM. So, without one of the two, projects could be unsuccessful.  

Therefore, by understanding the differences between BPM and PM, along with the relationship between them, you can rest assured that your company can always accomplish successful projects. Once your company understands the relationship between BPM and PM and their benefits, it will thrive in the long-run. 

Conclusion 

Although no company is alike, the concept is still the same: managing your processes is important. However, no matter where you are in your company’s lifespan, it’s important to combine process and project management.

At the end of the day, customers rely on you to produce useful and high-quality products or services; and your processes should be able to deliver on those promises. Just remember that although BPM and PM are different from each other, they still directly influence each other. And as your company learns to utilise both, not only will you achieve business success, but you’ll also create an efficient work environment where both disciplines can work together. 

Comidor platform is the answer. Comidor offers the ability to build, run, and monitor projects while at the same time connect the projects’ work packages with processes, offering unlimited collaboration functionalities.

  Author Bio: 

Michael Dehoyos is a writer and editor at Cheap Coursework and Research paper writing services. He is also a contributing writer for online sites and publications, such as Origin Writing. As a content marketer, he helps companies improve their marketing strategies and adopt new concepts.

Automation is a huge blessing, as it leads to increased productivity, lower operating costs, better time management, and faster ROI. That is if you know how to make the most of it. What automation can bring to the table when it comes to project management is a better-organized business and faster project delivery, decreased repetitiveness, and fewer responsibilities on your hands. So, are you up for giving automation a try? 

There are lots of ways in which automation can contribute to project management. You just have to find the best ones. Since we are already on the topic of saving time with the help of technological automation tool, let us save you some time on the search as well. Here is how you can use automation to boost project management. 

Analyze Your Current Processes 

Before you start with the automation, you first need to determine which processes should be automated. Focus your attention on aspects of your project management that could be enhanced with technologies. 

For example, if you send numerous emails daily, you could gain a huge benefit from email automation. Using an automated tool to set up appointments and meetings can save you 80% more time.

The point of automation isn’t to lessen the number of team members. The goal is to take from your hands, repetitive tasks, and leave you more room for creative and intellectual processes.  

Define the operations that you should automate by focusing on questions such as: 

• Which processes can be automated within our company? 
• Which processes take most of our time? 
• Will automating those processes improve the project’s success? 
• What are our priorities when it comes to automation? 
• Can our software support the requirements of automated technologies? 

Aside from analysing what could be automated, you also need to think about which processes allow for automation. Defining the automation solutions that are applicable to your project, and your company is the first step towards automation.    

Select the Automation Tools 

After you’ve established what needs to be automated, the next step is to choose the appropriate technologies. This is a big responsibility because the tools you pick will affect the outcome of the automation.   

If you research the available automation tools, you’ll realize that the choices are endless. The reason why is, that automation has become essential in project management, and the demand for automation tools is consistently increasing. Consequently, innovative minds respond to that demand with automation products. 

What you should pay attention to when choosing automation tools are their reviews. Look into the type of companies that use those tools and how do they fit into your niche. Lots of automation tools offer free trials, so you should give them a try before you make a final decision. What Comidor does, is to offer a free POC development based on organisations’ customised needs and business challenges. 

To give you a place to start, Comidor is a digital automation platform with project management functionalities such as KanBan boards and Gannt chart. Comidor’s project management tool enables users to plan and execute projects, and monitor the performance baselines during the whole project life cycle.

Help Your Team Understand the Benefits and Ways of Automation  

Automation can only reach its full potential if you have your team members on board. That’s why training your team to use automation tools is a big part of boosting your project management processes.  

Start by explaining how automation can improve your success. Emphasize that they can get more done in less time and reduce pressure by decreasing the chances of human errors. Instead of focusing on numerous tasks at once, automation will help them prioritize their obligations and get organized. 

People often believe in the misconception that multitasking is great for productivity. The fact is that multitasking can cost teams 40% of productivity because of the consistent switching between tasks. Explain to your team that automation tools will help you bring that productivity level to maximum. 

The crucial part is that you properly educate and train employees to use automation tools. If you throw the new technologies at them, you can create an even bigger mess. 

What would be of great help for your employees is to provide them with proper training in how to use the new automation tools. This is why you need to count in the training time in your schedule before the automation tools become a regular part of your workdays. 

Automation – the Present and Future of Project Management 

As project managers have realized the benefits of automation, it is slowly becoming an essential element of project management. Automation is only getting more prominent, so the sooner you get on board, the better.  

However, using the wrong project management tools for automation can lose you some valuable time (not to mention money). That’s why these tips on how to boost project management with automation can give you proper direction. Simply choose the automation methods and tools that would work best for your project and let it make your life much easier.  

Author Bio:

Donald Fomby is a Digital Marketing Specialist with a Master’s degree in Advertisement. At a relatively young age, he has already amassed impressive experience as a project manager and freelance writer. Currently, he is a valued member of the writing team at ClassyEsssay, where he is responsible for delegating and organizing new writing projects. He partakes in different projects that allow them to grow his list of experiences and expand his interests.  

In today’s business environments, project management is essential for the success of any organization over a wide range of products and industries. Everything from building projects to software development to music and film releases, project management plays an integral part. A project manager must be able to research, plan, organize, maintain, and manage the time, budget, and resources necessary to reach a project’s goals and project milestones to completion. It also falls within the scope of the project manager to avoid risks that might derail the project. 

Automation for Project Managers

Project managers now have at their disposal many tools that can help them manage tasks they didn’t have even a few years ago.

Today’s project managers have access to various technologies on a computer or through smartphone apps, including those which use artificial intelligence. These technologies help project managers perform repetitive tasks without having to dedicate more time and resources to them. The result is a systematic way to keep projects organised, and on track.

Regular emails and communication, for example, can be completely automated. Project meetings can be scheduled with notifications sent out to participants regularly with an email follow-up tool.  Other project management tools can help managers keep track of mileage and overhead expenses by scanning and keeping a running total of receipts, and orders. Automation can also track deliverables such as product procurement statuses and also keep customers, team members, and stakeholders abreast of the project. Moreover, they can inform them of roadblocks and other issues that need tackling.

The following are the five necessary steps in project management:

1. Defining a Project 

The first milestone of project management is to recognize that a project is worth doing and determining the overall project goal. When proposing a project, the stakeholders and the project manager should have a clear idea of:

• The goals and what the project will accomplish
• Determine expectations of customers, management and stakeholders
• Determine the Project Scope

Much of this stage will be between the project manager, stakeholders, and initial members of the project team. This can include brainstorming meetings, conference calls, and emails.

2. Planning a Project 

The next part of project management is to refine further the project scope and how it will be accomplished in terms of necessary tasks, project phases or project milestones, and the activities that are necessary to meet these goals. This is the time in which project managers will:

• Set budgetary considerations in terms of goals, resources, and cost to deliver on time, on budget, and agreed-upon specifications
• Determine the resources necessary to complete the project
• Estimate what it will cost to purchase equipment, materials, as well as hiring and training personnel to work on the project and bring it to a successful conclusion
• Outline considerations such as permits, contracts, the infrastructure needed, risks, and potential issues that could delay your project and estimate the time necessary to address them

There are several software solutions to send out project documents and other necessary communication to appropriate team members. 

3. Procurement of Resources 

Once project managers have approved the budget and allocated the funds, they place the plan into a visual environment such as Comidor. Then, they show to the project team what tasks they need to perform, who and when they are due.

When this part of a project is automated, it can speed the process of approval. Automation can also give everyone involved a clear picture of their role within a project and the processes needed to complete them in a logical and organized way. 

4. Project Execution & Implementation

After launch, it falls to the project manager to keep track of tasks, budgets, and expenses.  The project manager informs the team members, stakeholders, and customers abreast of what’s happening during the life of the project.  Automating these processes makes these tasks more manageable for the project manager.  

For example, you can create email templates to answer questions that arise most often.  Microsoft Excel can calculate costs and track progress in the project. Kanban boards and Gantt charts can be created to help project managers and teams plan, prioritize, and schedule project elements and project milestones. These automated tools usually drag and drop so that different aspects of a project can change as circumstances change.

A project manager can also create task lists for individuals and team members to assign tasks, due dates, and updates. Also, a project manager can track the time spent on specific project elements that can affect budgets and schedules.

If issues do arise, a ticket-based tracking tool can alert team members, customers, and stakeholders about the project progress. 

During this phase, project managers primarily monitor the schedule and other quality assurance (QA) aspects of the project.  If there is a need for any changes, these aspects can be sent out to keep stakeholders, teams, managers, and executives informed about the progress of the project.

5. Closing Down a Project 

According to the Project Management Institute’s Global Standard, as outlined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide, a project comes to a successful conclusion when it meets criteria set out in the initial planning stages. What’s more, it should meet quality controls set out by the project manager and the stakeholders.

The final project milestone, the closing process is a set of tasks performed which complete all activities attached to a project. It’s at this time that a project manager will determine whether the project succeeded or not. Part of this process includes: 

• Conducting a post-project review, including successes, failures, and lessons learned
• Release all relevant project documentation to stakeholders, teams, and customers
• Closeout any procurements

If no further change orders or addendums are required, then the last step can be done. This last step refers to obtaining acceptance by the customer or stakeholder to release the project manager and team. 

These processes can be automated and made available to create a final report by the project manager. Then, the project manager can send out these reports to everyone connected to the project.  This information can also be analyzed and as a reference for any additional projects.

Author Bio:

Micheal Habiger is an experienced content writer and marketer with 6 years of experience. Currently a senior marketing specialist at FollowUpFred.