Key Takeaways
- There are 7 main types of project management. Each one provides it’s own plan of action for how to approach a project.
- Factors that influence which project management style you use are business needs, budget, and length of the project.
- The two main project management methods that are used in North America are Agile and Waterfall
- Kanban is a style popularized by the Japanese car manufacturer, Toyota
Leading a team of employees to get results and achieve goals can be a hard task. This is why people need to have special skills, experience, and education to do so. However, like any employment position, people have many ways of approaching tasks. Therefore, it is only natural for there to be various types of project management.
Therefore, if you want to learn more about the types of project management, keep reading.
What is Project Management?
As said above, project management uses skills, information, systems, and methods that are used to achieve project goals. Every project a company takes on has different needs and limitations. Therefore, a project manager must bring results within a budget and timeframe limits.
Without the proper project management strategy, a project can:
- Run into many problems
- Be slow to start
- Fail to be completed on time
- Have problems with employee expectations
- Never finish at all
Thus, it is essential to make sure project managers use the right project management methods to be successful.
The 7 Types of Project Management
(Credit:https://www.knowledgehut.com/blog/project-management/how-to-become-a-project-manager-ultimate-guide)
While every project management process tries to finish a project, each method approaches jobs a different way. Even though there are many methods to project management, some are more popular than others. Therefore, here are seven primary project management methods you can use to reach your goals.
1. The Agile Project Management Method
One of the first types of project management processes is known as Agile project management. Agile project management uses a step-by-step plan to achieve a project. Rather than waiting until the end to give results, this approach offers benefits throughout the entire process.
This approach includes principles like:
- Breaking project needs into smaller parts and prioritizing them
- Promotes working with other employees
- Starts with large ideas, learns, and changes to situations to give results.
2. The Waterfall Project Management Method
The following method of project management is more traditional than others. The waterfall project management method finishes in stages to fulfill a result at the end of the project. This type of project is planned at the beginning and then performed in a direct style with the hope that nothing will change.
The Waterfall project management follows these steps:
- Requirements: Finds out what the business needs and what the result of the project needs to achieve.
- Design: The project manager designs the workflow of the project.
- Implementation: the project begins, and the team starts working.
- Testing: Each task is tested to make sure it works properly.
- Delivery: the service or product launches to customers.
- Maintenance: The team maintains the results.
3. The Kanban Project Management Method
Next, there is Kanban project management that encourages lesser changes to a project.
The core elements of Kanban project management are:
- To visualize the workflow of the entire project
- Put deadlines on the amount of work that needs to get done at each stage of the project
- Tracks achievement of the project jobs over time
- Review steps within the project workflow to make sure employees stay on top of tasks
- Identify any problems and gives feedback throughout the project to ensure the best possible results
4. The Scrum Project Management Method
Another one of the types of project management approach is the Scrum method. This methodology is based on letting teams work together as much as possible. It achieves small pieces of a project each month, much like a sprint to finish an entire project. All teams meet on a daily basis to go over any problems and give feedback on how the task is going. This method uses fast development and testing to produce results as quickly as possible without making mistakes.
5. The Six Sigma Project Management Method
Next on the list of the types of project management, is Six Sigma method. This method focuses on improving the quality of project completion. A team will classify any problems and then remove them along the project process. The goal is to do so without increasing waste. This type of project management features quantifiable results. It works to achieve high financial returns. It also focuses on improving customer satisfaction by using data analysis.
6. The Lean Project Management Method
The Lean project management method is very similar to the Kanban method. This method mainly centers on the mindset of the customer. It then uses plans to achieve the best results while being affordable. Additionally, this method tries to deliver results as quickly as possible. However, it tries to complete the project without any problems along the way. The lean method also focuses on providing results with a minimal number of materials, employees, and supplies.
7. The PRINCE2 Project Management Method
The last popular type of project management is the PRINCE2 method. The government mainly uses this method. It focuses on giving efficient results while reducing any and all risks. The PRINCE2 way separates the project up into smaller jobs you can finish one at a time. This makes sure that the job finishes correctly, without any mistakes happening.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, the types of project management methods give a different plan of action. Therefore, it is up to the project manager to choose the best one for the job. While it can be hard to choose the right method for your project, you should assess what your business needs. You should also determine what the budget it, and what they need along the way. This will help you narrow down how each project management method can help you. It will also help your team stay on track to deliver results.
Related Readings
Professional Leadership Institute (PLI) is an educational website providing professionals from all types of businesses with practical education in entrepreneurial leadership. To keep evolving your leadership toolkit, additional PLI resources below will be helpful:
