Project management made easy here

BANGALORE, INDIA: Project management is not an easy task. Many elements have to be factored in if one has to ensure the smooth flow a project from one stage to the next.

Considering the changed global environment coupled with the ever-increasing importance of the effectiveness of project management, Kirthiga Reddy, VP & GM, FailSafe and Phoenix India, decided to lay her hand on the same topic at the two-day Spark IT 2010, which started here today.

Kirthiga started off the session named ‘Project Management in a Global, Cross-cultural Environment’ by laying the importance on the universal nature of today’s enterprises, and explained how with the increasing globalization every enterprise has touched the aspect of global team.

She covered various aspects like external perspective of project management, understanding the global cross-cultural environment, role of project management and the common challenges.

According to Kirthiga, various drivers of the teams are lower cost structure, expertise, 24/7 consumer service and co-locations. These result in faster time to market, increased response and greater customer satisfaction.

“When the above drives are managed effectively, the result is competitive advantage,” Kirthiga said, adding “There are three pillars in a company namely, project management, engineering management, product management, which usually get overlapped in some areas.”

So, according to her, “Role of a project manager is to define value of the customer, lead the team from concept to application of the idea.”

However, a few project managers become a part of engineering management and product management.

“Project manager’s role could be extended beyond project delivery to beta management, focus group, survey and driving project management from marketing launches,” Kirthiga added.