Falling trend in stalled projects continues

The refreshing findings of the 68^th Survey of Projects Investment in India, conducted by Projects Today, saw a sharp fall in the projex stalled. The latest quarter ended September 2017 saw 113 projects worth Rs 69,032 crore being stalled. This was the lowest stalled projex figure in the last six quarters.

When compared with the previous quarter’s statistics, it indicates a fall of 64.7 percent. And when compared with the stalled projex of a year ago, it indicates a fall of 9.8 percent.

A similar trend was seen in the private sector too. In the latest quarter ending September 2017, 23 projects worth Rs 51,025 crore were stalled as against 14 projects worth Rs 47,169 crore stalled in the same quarter last year. In the preceding quarter, 48 projects worth Rs 1,26,043 crore were stalled.

The government sector, which has taken the mantle of keeping the projex cycle moving, saw 30 projects worth Rs 18,006 crore being put on the back burner as against 67 projects worth Rs 69,300 crore in the preceding quarter.

The three major projects stalled during the last quarter were HSMC India’s semiconductor unit at Prantij in Sabar Kantha district, worth Rs 29,013 crore, due to lack of funds; a Rs 10,900 crore Chandigarh Metro Rail Project as it was not found feasible for a short distance; and Tata Power’s 3×660 MW coal-based power unit at Tiruldih in Saraikela Kharsawan district of Jharkhand, due to coal linkage issues.

Among the states, Gujarat was the biggest loser with projex worth Rs 29,467 crore vanishing in the form of nine projects. The state accounted for 43 percent of the total projects stalled during the last quarter, followed by Chandigarh with projex worth Rs 10,900 crore in the form of a single project. In Karnataka, 16 projects worth Rs 3,114 crore got shelved during the last quarter.

5 Essential Skills Of A Functional Project Manager

For effective management, there are some skills that a project manager needs to possess. Without a doubt, the role of a project manager is a tough one. Not only do you need to make sure that you look after your team, you need to be sure that your interests align with those of the superior management.

Below are the 5 most important skills to have in order to be a successful project manager.

 

Planning

Project planning is a critical stage of any project, and a project manager should be highly skilled in scheduling in order to create a workable project plan. Sometimes this may feel like crystal ball territory, as you’ll be estimating timescales for much of the planning, but with experience, you’ll get better at this. Much as an excellent cook will be able to time all the elements of a Sunday roast to perfection, so the best project managers are the ones who are able to see which tasks need to be done first and how to get everything to come together by the end of the project.

Risk management

This refers to risks associated with a project. These include things like the final product going out of date, another company releasing the product before you do, going over budget or not being able to solve a specific problem. Your role will be to identify and control or mitigate these risks from actually happening.

Communication and influence

Project managers need to be able to communicate in all directions with optimum effectiveness. From customers to the senior management, from the public to experts in the industry, you’ll need to be able to speak with authority and influence at all levels. Also, you will need to be able to figure out who needs information from you and when, as well as how. Improving project communication also means facilitating effective communications between members of the same project team and it is an essential project management skill.

Resource management

In the world of project management, resource allocation might well involve sharing physical resources to make sure everyone has what they need, but more important than this will be the sharing of the people resources to get your project done. You will need to be able to match the right people to the tasks in your project schedule at the right time in order to keep everything flowing smoothly and to make the most of the resources that are available.

Budget management

This means being able to list down and cost the budget for all of the necessities of your project for the successful completion and delivery. From this, you will be able to form a forecast, and present your investors with a schedule of the budget detailing what payments you need and when. For bigger projects, you might even be appointed a financial analyst to take care of this for you, but you’ll need to at least have a grasp of financial terminology so you can understand what they are reporting.

Although managing is a tough task, you can master the skills above in order to make a difference and be a successful project manager.

3 Necessary Factors Of A Successful Project

Why bother on a project if its successful completion doesn’t bring benefits for your organization? The ultimate goal of undertaking a project is to benefit from it. Indicators that determine the level of success of your projects are usually increased customer satisfaction, more profits, higher conversion rate or some other essential indicators of performance

 

A project will undoubtedly involve many individuals of different areas of expertise working together on a single goal to lift the organization to greater heights. However, most projects fail when problems arise in terms of costs, delays, etc. This causes stress and frustration for everyone working on the project. A project that looked so promising during the planning stages then collapses. So, how do you get around this? The three primary factors discussed below are necessary to improve the chances of the successful completion of your project.

Time

This refers to the time of completion and delivery of the project. Being able to deliver your project on time is important to both your customer and senior management. This gives you the time to get your resources available and prepared to take on the next project. On time project delivery isn’t that common, but when you are able to pull it off, it’s going to be a nice boost in your career as a project manager.

With regards to the customers, on time delivery could mean success and rewards, it might even get the customer to stick with you on the long run. This will also make your customer happy and you need that for the success of your business.

Budget

Another success factor is finishing the project with or less than the pre-set budget. Doing this is also rarely seen with projects and you give your chance a better chance at a great track record as a project manager. You will make your customer and senior management happy when you can achieve this.

To stay as close to budget as possible, you should pay a good attention to the scope. If you work outside the scope, that ultimately means you are using planned hours on unplanned work, which will probably result to shooting over budget. If there is going to be a creep in the scope, you should bring it to the attention of the official, get the budget increased and then you’d have increased the chances of completing the project on budget.

Customer Satisfaction

The third key factor for the success of a project is the level of customer satisfaction. This is a hard one to achieve but is aided by on time and on budget delivery. Sometimes, the satisfaction of your customers can be out of your control. To be a successful project manager, you need to be able to produce results that will make your customers happy. You can do this by always been there for them, keeping them in the loop with the progress of the project, treat them as an important part of the project and always address their needs on time. Your goal should always be to have a happy customer at the end of the project.

The above factors are essential for the successful completion of the project.

Stress Management Is Not Only Necessary But Essential

The process of project management can be a huge source of stress for the body. This is why it is essential to lean towards proper stress management. It is an essential step for you to take once you have determined that you are facing stressful situations in your life, irrespective of the cause. It’s been said that there are some forms of stress that gears you toward channeling the burst of energy into something that is positive and productive. However, living with stress is not in any way good for the body. If accumulated over a long term period, stress can have negative impacts on your health and it can deteriorate your health at a faster rate than most diseases do.

 

In addition, excessive stress on the body can hinder your ability to function and perform well, either in your personal life or at work. As a result of this, stress is not a thing to bask in. Aside from the negative personal impacts it can have on you, it also influences, in a bad way, how you handle things around you as well as how you interact with people in your live.

Techniques of stress management

Knowing the cause of your stress is the first step to in stress management followed by the effective techniques aimed at stress relief. Unfortunately, when it comes to managing stress, knowing the source isn’t enough, there is a need to keep a stress journal in order to monitor the level of stress and what effect it produces. This is an effective way to determine your level of stress, what triggers it and exactly what cools you off. Knowing this enlightens you about the necessity for effective stress management technique.

When you are able to manage your stress, you stand to regain the control of your life, and you can escape the constant feeling of the amount of stress you had to deal with. One thing to keep in mind however is that, you can’t expect to completely rid yourself of stress. It is a gradual process, the first stage of which is to reduce it before being able to completely escape it. Some ways to go about stress management are discussed below.

Improving time management skills: Most of the stress in life are a result of not been able to balance your plans with the amount of time available to you. Hence, creating a schedule based on priorities will enable you to achieve more in less time.

Study your reaction to stress: This requires you to be honest with yourself. You need to determine if the way you cope with stress is effective or not. If not, then attempt to change your ways.

Take good care of your body: Most of the time, this aspect is neglected. The health status of your body should be the most important consideration in stress management. Get enough rest and eat good food.

Stress-free your mind: Mostly, stress ensues from your mindset. If that happens to be the case with you, then changing your perspective might help you reduce your level of stress.

To sum it up, stress management comes with a lot of benefits, some of it are mentioned below:

• Improves your overall health status;
• More positive outlook and attitude in life;
• Gives you better focus, hence increasing productivity;
• Better control of emotion and response to it; and more importantly
• Reduction and possibly elimination of stress in your life.