Project Financial Management – 5 Key Steps to simplify Your Business
Sunday, February 7th, 2010Project Financial Management – 5 Key Steps to simplify Your Business
In the financial atmosphere we are in, where budgets and costs are being minimized, you need to ensure that the project at last budget, costs and profits are holistically evaluated.
Using the Pathfinder Project Management Methodology as a basis, here are the 5 main steps to successful project financial management
(1) On new projects – invest time creating perfect viability research and business cases, if this is a hasty job – in the end the results will deliver overspends.
(2) Assess your project portfolio – are you executing the correct projects, are they fine to have, are they done for internal political gain you need to ensure every business case is robust and Cadds value to the future of the enterprise – spend time using previous skilled persons to evaluate and re-review the business case.
(3) Focus evaluations just as hard on the benefits as the cost. In 80% of projects, once they are in, nobody wants to go back and review if they delivered as promised. So you have to make sure from the beginning of the project you incessantly check that over and above costs being on budget, those changes to your project have not changed your benefits.
(4) Cost cutting is not going to be the answer for ever allot resource to “added value” projects – in today’s world cutting heads is a simple short -term fix, dont throw out the baby with the bath water and leave the enterprises with projects in-flight without experience to deliver them. Instead review your project spend and as in (2) concentrate on adding value.
(5) Employees development – upgrade their financial management knowledge, develop staff in leadership quality, wellbeing and security, inspiration etc so when you appoint a non-finance manager in charge of a large project, is it not about time they were provided the financial know-how. DO not leave financial management to chance – develop your staff.