Title: Best Practices in Project Management
Course: MAN 2582 Intro to Project Management > Section: Module 8

Introduction

According to Wikipedia, the definition of best practices is “The most efficient and effective way of encompassing the task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time per large number of people.”

It is impossible in one brief lifetime to commit all the errors necessary to learn project management well. Learning from the successes and mistakes of others is essential to growing in the science of project management. One of the purposes of this course is to give you an opportunity to actually go through the process of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing a project. Once that process is under your belt, you're able to then go back and look at how you would do it differently were you to do it again.

Modifying techniques, using two or three of the tools simultaneously, finding out what's important and what's not, and modifying the methodologies and techniques that you use are a big part of becoming a successful project manager. Many times, you learn through your own experience but most of the time you learn through the experience of others. This cooperative kind of learning is what the Project Management Institute affords. Their libraries of lessons learned and research constitute the cumulative best practices of the industry.

This last chapter of the book will just begin to touch on those essential resources that will make every project you manage better than the last one.

Objectives

Upon completion of this module, the student will be able to:

- Define best practices in general and best practices in project management for organizations
- Summarize best practices in project management for individuals
- Explain how improving project management maturity can improve project and organizational performance
- Describe research on project management maturity

Readings & Resources

An Introduction to Project Management, 4th Edition

- Chapter 9