Why are projects needed for businesses?

Lets consider a typical business be it small or big multi-million dollar enterprise. There are lots of ongoing activities. All of them are not projects. The ongoing activities may or may not be projects. Typically tasks that are repetitive in nature, that has no beginning and ending are ongoing processes. These are not projects In contrast project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a end result. The end result can be product, service, result, basis for second project etc. All the activities can be simple processes. So, why is a project needed for businesses? 1) Project creates a end result that is totally new - Lets think of a healthcare application like EHR. The end result in product development is EHR. However, all the activities involved in creation of this product, nature of outcome, experience while working to create a product are all totally new.As a result processes can't be applied for creating a product whereas project with proper project plan, resources in form of manpower, machine, office space, budgeting, timeline in form of schedule, task monitoring and controlling to name a few have been made possible only as a result of project 2) Projects are done at different levels - Say in case of EHR companies if there is a necessity to create ambulatory EHR, this is a separate project one at one level, separate module of EHR is a second project done at second level. Projects can be done at different levels in organizations that make them easy to manage as entities 3) Projects are not routine work - As we mentioned earlier a project will have to produce an outcome meeting deadline. More faster you are in market better are the winning chances. Considering all the above businesses should adopt projects. Once the end result comes to point of repetitive task to maintain the project outcome it becomes a process Prepare for pmp exam with confidence : Prepare for PMP exam with lots of confidence. Hard work has no substitute and certainly pmp exam preparation needs lots of hard work. Smart work does substitute hard work and get ready to plan smart and crack the pmp exam in the first attempt. When you decide on appearing for PMP certification exam make sure you want to pass the exam in first attempt. Please don't look at pmp exam preparation marketing offers that say you are allowed to re-take the courses any number of times. This will have a psychological impact that is not generally positive. Hence, have a determination to clear the exam in first attempt Now, lots look at the pmp exam preparation methodology 1) Prepare for exam each and every day - PMP exam demands learning, understanding plethora of project management concepts. Note that if you clearly understand the concepts you can find the job role of project manager instead of junior project manager with PMP certification and thorough knowledge on project management concepts with full confidence. Each and everyday preparation is essentially important and try to stick onto schedule. It can be as little as 15 mins to upto 1 hour perday with 5 minutes break every 15 minutes 2) PMBOK is the bible - Main problem while preparing on certification exam is choosing on the book to rely on. I've faced this issue myself and here is what I did. Simply follow the PMBOK guide. Read the PMBOK guide again and again. Try to understand the reason behind the concepts. This will help your knowledge easily in real world 3) 35 hours PDU - We offer PMP training with 35 hours PDU that is considered mandate while appearing for PMP exam. Unlike other training providers we provide practical examples to understand the concepts 4) Savings for PMP exam - Unlike other certification program, PMP exam is very expensive. Try to create a saving corpus for pmp exam. On an average if you want to appear after six months start a savings account to pay the exam cost. This will give you psychological commitment to clear the certification exam with full confidence. You will start reading daily without procrastination 5) Avoid procrastination - Procrastination is not good for projects as well as prospective project managers. Stick to timeline, read on, meet the deadlines. You PMP exam preparation itself is a project. IF you are able to accomplish this successfully, you will definitely pass PMP exam in first attempt. Though PMP exam might sound like a tough nut to crack it is not so difficult with proper planning, perfect preparation Use projects to achieve organizational strategy: Organization is the top most entity under whose umbrella the entire business operates. As such the success of an organization and the business it supports depends upon proper strategy that an organization adapts to achieve success. Organizational strategy again is broad in itself and can be achieved by series of projects that are related or un-related. To accomplish the vision of a business, strategic planning and implementation of the same via projects that directly and indirectly impact the strategy is the way to go. For proper success of a strategic plan, projects are needed. All these projects should fit into organizational strategy. They impact the strategy, achieving business objectives and henceforth the business in direct or indirect ways. In any organization when a project is approved the team does make sure that the project does fit into organizational strategy. Here are some considerations that does come into picture while approving projects to make sure they do fit into organizational strategy: 1) Market demand - Market demand is the key to initiation of any project. Some very good example include development of mobile app for any associated business. With current growth of mobile space ever since the advent of smartphones, the market demand for a mobile app has become inevitable 2) Business need (or) Strategic application - In current decade, information is the king. This market demand did lead to approval of many big data projects. Organizations want to mine the existing information, pull out valuable information for planning next strategic steps needed for business success 3) Social Need - A project aligned towards people and the society they live in directly does come into picture. Some typical examples include construction of infrastructure facilities for public sanitation, water system, sewage system projects etc 4) Environmental Consideration - Automobile firms do play major role in keeping pollution under control. Projects undertaken to reduce lead emission, design systems to keep pollution under control does fit in this category 5) Customer Request - In case of construction projects there may be a demand to install power plants to serve the industrial parks. This is based on customer request 6) Technology advancement - Typical in an electronic manufacturer. When a competitor does come with product enhancements, they need to produce similar product to keep up with technological advancement 7) Legal requirement - Typical example would be sensitive industries like leather, textile, chemical plants that do need proper infrastructure support for proper disposal of toxic waste Can projects intersect with operations? This is a tricky question on pmp. What do you think about intersection of project and operation? In the very beginning as soon as we started learning project management, we have been told that project has definite beginning and end. Operation is a task or set of processes that happen on an ongoing basis. So, what is the need for a project to intersect with operations? Consider a startup firm looking to hire project managers. They aim to launch a new product. The goal will be to launch a new product at an affordable price. As such there is a need to set up service and support department. It can be in same location or could be outsourced to save money and avail tax benefit. These scenarios demand change in existing business operations. Say when a new product is launched, new service and support department is setup in a startup or a well established enterprise there comes a need to initiate a project to support the change in business operations. To change pattern of current business operation we should first learn what the current ongoing operation is like. This needs to be modified in accordance with scope of new product or organizational change. These changes will not impact ongoing current operations. However, the changed business operations that needs to be implemented via projects do depend on current operations and the scope of the new projects is focused on new business operations. Now comes intersection of project management onto operations. It should be noted that current operations are not impacted but implementation of new business operations project may or may not depend on current operations. The intersections comes into picture when current operational practices are taken as basis, common things exist between operations etc. Where does the intersection typically happen? Intersection of new business operations implementation projects intersect projects with operations in one or more of the product lifecycle phases: 1) Product closing phase 2) Product development phase 3) Product upgrade phase 4) Output expansion phase of product 5) While improving product development 6) While improving operations needed for product development 7) End of product lifecycle