5 Ways How Time Management Can Help in Successful Project Delivery

“Lost time is never found again.”  

This proverb applies to every aspect of our lives. It is also true for project-based organizations since finishing every task on time is critical for sustaining year-on-year growth, gaining the client’s trust, and maintaining the firm’s reputation.  

If not, it results in client dissatisfaction, billable losses, compromised project quality, unprecedented delays, etc. 

To overcome these challenges and ensure timely project delivery, organizations must implement a robust time management method that entails planning, scheduling, tracking, and managing all operations from start to finish. 

This article discusses effective time management strategies for successful project delivery and how Saviom can help streamline it. 

So, let’s begin.  

Significance of time management in project delivery 

Time management can be defined as managing the time spent on a project to ensure it adheres to its predetermined deadline.  

Traditionally, the company and client sign an agreement with all the terms and conditions laid down for the project. Once signed, these contractual commitments are rigid, making it vital for project managers to ensure project delivery. Failure to effectively manage a project’s timeline can result in missed deadlines, increased expenses, and serious consequences such as project cancellations or legal penalties.  

Therefore, time management is critical for time-bound and budget-bound undertakings. Effective time management assists in balancing the scope, quality, and budget of a project. Managers can use a planned timetable to prioritize tasks, manage interdependencies, and monitor if team members spend adequate time on all project activities per regulatory compliance standards. With a proper time-management system, employees can complete their tasks on time and manage their time efficiently. 

Now that the significance of time management in project delivery is clear, here is what one can do. 

Best Strategies for Time Management 

Below are some of the effective time management strategies for project managers: 

Formulate a detailed project plan 

The foundation of effective time management is formulating a detailed plan that defines all milestones, deliverables, and contingency plans. It also includes components such as the costs, risks, resources, and timelines for implementing the project successfully.  

This will provide an official reference point for the project team, the departments, and the stakeholders. In addition, it helps them be better prepared to deal with unprecedented obstacles such as resource shortage, last-minute hiring, and other factors that can affect the quality of tasks or even halt the entire project. 

Estimate and initiate resource requisitions timely 

The project manager is responsible for estimating the required resources based on the suitable skill set, role, resource cost, and other parameters to get the right talent for the job. Often, they send resource requisitions at the eleventh hour to the resource manager, resulting in last-minute wrongful hiring/firing cycles and delivery delays.  

Therefore, they should accurately estimate and initiate resource requisitions on time to overcome this. It will give the resource manager enough lead time to assess skill requirements and identify the best-fit resources for the projects. This will also help mitigate resource shortages by implementing initiatives such as upskilling or training programs and employing a permanent or contingent resource. 

Ensure competent resource allocation 

Resource managers require a sufficient lead time to assess skill requirements with suitable expertise and competencies. This will help them allocate the best-fit resources to the project at the right time and directly contribute to successful project delivery.  

A resource management tool will enable managers to identify competent resources using advanced filters and enterprise-wide visibility. This prevents allocating under/over skilled resources to projects. In addition, it also allows them to identify cost-effective global resources and minimize resourcing costs. 

Delegate and outsource work when required 

While creating a project plan, managers can also create a contingency plan to prepare for unanticipated events such as unplanned attrition and client change requests that can cause project delays. Although project-specific hiring might help to handle resource absences and attrition, it can also increase project costs.  

Therefore, managers can delegate or outsource resources to save hiring costs for one-time needs. In addition, they can outsource resources for non-critical tasks instead of allocating critical permanent staff. This saves time and allows you to focus on high-priority, complex activities, preventing delays and keeping the project on track. 

Ensure real-time tracking and timely communication at every stage 

During execution, project managers may fail to monitor project workflow and anticipate potential complications. This jeopardizes the entire project causing an overall delay in meeting deliverables. To avoid this, managers can use real-time tracking to mitigate potential risks and guarantee that deliverables are completed on time.   

Project managers can track all the tasks, milestones, and so on to see if things are proceeding as planned, gain complete visibility into potential issues, and make critical and informed decisions.  

Now that the strategies for effective time management are clear let’s see how a resource management tool can assist in timely project delivery.  

How can a resource management tool help? 

Saviom’s resource management software enables organizations to deliver projects on schedule. 

• The tool provides 360-degree visibility of resources, their schedules, and current and future allocations. Using that, the manager can identify the resources with matching skill sets for every project. 
• They can expedite their search further by filtering the resources by parameters such as cost rate, charge out rate, expertise level, location, etc. It also prevents over-and under-allocation of resources, which saves time and money on project costs. 
• The capacity-vs-demand report forecasts resource excesses or shortages and employs appropriate internal or external channels to fill the gaps. It can assist in eliminating resource shortage delays and ensure timely project completion 

• The Forecast vs. Actuals report assists in determining the actual time spent compared to the estimations and encourages better adherence to deadlines.  
• It also provides an overview of the utilization levels of the project team members so that suitable measures can be taken to optimize their billable and effective usage for on-time project completion within the budget. 

Conclusion 

A successful time management strategy can help you efficiently schedule, allocate, and execute project tasks. Thus, contributing toward meeting all project deadlines while staying within the estimated budget. When combined with an appropriate tool, the proven strategies discussed above can help ensure timely and successful project delivery.