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Why a CPM project schedule is developed?

Project Management Scheduling

In construction project management, planning holds vital significance.

Planning is one of those activities that is ubiquitous to construction. Knowingly or unknowingly, planning is a part of our psyche, as we are always looking ahead.

The success and the failure of any given project can be attributable to a successful plan and its subsequent implementation. A good plan is detailed and comprehensive, citing all the possibilities that could occur on the ground as well as having some contingencies for when things go wrong.

What is Project Schedule?

TO understand the nature of a CPM schedule, first, we need to delve into what a project schedule indicates. Scheduling is part of the planning process, and a project schedule is the result of this activity. Successful scheduling requires the scope of the project, duration of activities, and their interdependencies.

Once the interdependencies between the activities have been noted, you can input these into a planning software such as Primavera P6. Now, based on these interdependencies and the duration of the individual activities, you will get the longest paths and the shortest paths for project completion.

What is the Critical Path Method?

The critical path is usually referred to as the shortest path to achieve project completion. It means that this path cannot be squeezed any further in a bid to shorter the completion time of the project even further.

Once this path has been calculated, project managers get to know the milestones and the key activities that they need to focus on for project completion. For example, project activities falling on this critical path must be done in the allocated time; otherwise, the project schedule will slip further forward.

Why is the CPM Schedule Important?

The importance of the CPM schedule stems from the scheduling activity itself, which is a lynchpin of planning. A good plan results in an excellent schedule that is realistic and easy to implement. Moreover, it has contingencies and overlaps non-dependent activities for quicker project completion.

The CPM schedule offers insight into those activities that must be completed on time; otherwise, the project will be delayed. It also tells us the activities that need the project manager’s complete attention to the project’s overall success.

Use of Software and Resource Constraints

Another aspect of a project schedule is the resources needed to complete the project. In a typical plan for smaller projects, resource constraints are usually ignored. However, they are an essential part of scheduling and sometimes can become the limiting factor in a schedule.

The resource constraints can be added in project scheduling software which can result in slightly different schedules. The new CPM path will tell the project mangers the bottlenecks created from the limited resources they have.

The CPM schedule is an important tool for the successful completion of a project and the best friend of a project manager who, if adheres to this plan can steer the project towards completion in the given time.

PSG Primavera Consultants
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Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM

What is the importance and usage of Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management?

It is the utmost dominant however a convenient solution for worldwide listing, managing, planning, and a further project, programs, and portfolios execution. Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management is a cohesive project portfolio management (EPPM) solution that embraces the detailed role functionality on behalf of the gratification of every team member’s accountabilities, needs, and skills. It delivers a solitary solution to accomplish the projects of several sizes, adapts to numerous stages of difficulties contained by the project, and perceptively scales to encounter the essentials of several functions, roles, or levels of skills in the organization and on the team of the project.  

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM

permits determined project organizations to attain a viable lead over Enterprise Project Portfolio Management. Organizations will be capable to restored implementation among the monetary ambiguity along with answer rapidly to unpredicted variations and produce significance for the stakeholders and organization with the Portfolio management (Pro sight) thoroughly operative optimization and supervision of programs, projects, people, and portfolios. 

Because of Primavera, the organization has the assurance regarding the achievement of strategic obligations as they can certainly access and arrange ingenuities for the resource optimization and adjustment of risk creation and supplies of project. 

What are the features of Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management?

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM supports to choose the accurate strategic combination of projects. It reliefs to execute policies, schedule, and regulate enormous scale programs alongside distinct projects. 

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM balances the capacity of resources by allocating the fine resource and progress tracking. It screens and visualizes the performance of the project as opposed to the plan. It also delivers the infinite hierarchical structures of coding for classifying and federation of projects, programs, and activities. 

What are the benefits of Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management?

Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM delivers the projects on time as well as inside the budget. It gets precise and well-timed data for the finest makers of the decision. EPPM can access evidence anytime and anywhere. 

EPPM answers in an actual stint to altering the circumstances with the collaboration of a substitute team. It also incorporates ERP financial management systems along with further systems in the enterprise. 

Through Primavera Enterprise Project Portfolio Management EPPM, organizations increase incomparable visibility levels and business portfolios control, permitting the organization to create statistic grounded speculation decisions and eventually decide where to assign the treasured capitals of the organization. Oracle Primavera consents the planning of portfolios to the organizations from the approach of top-down or bottom-up. Along the preconfigured gratified by the competences of robust configuration, organizations can quite smoothly increase the perceptibility into their creativities to support determination present and future provision and decisions.   

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How to boost the Human Capital of the Organization?

Employees are the assets of any organization. Without human capital, an organization cannot sustain on a long scale or we can say the productivity of the organization is exceedingly depending on the employees through which they can get success. Employees in an organization, work according to their expertise which they get from learning, training, and experience. Such expertise makes them proficient in their work and benefits the organization by achieving the required task/goal. 

It is crucial to understand the importance of human capital in any organization. Organizations devote money to train their new employees so in return; they can work hard and assist to attain the organizational goal. But the motivation of employees is another important responsibility of the organization otherwise employees may lose their concentration from the organization which can reduce productivity at work. 

Here are some ways which can help to boost the human capital in any organization.

Train Frequently: 

Here is no doubt that the development of the organization depends on its employees. 

That’s why the recruitment of the right employee at the right place is a vital responsibility of human resource experts for the organization. In case of a mismatch for the required job can lead to a reduction in production as well as the waste of many other resources. It doesn’t mean that an organization can neglect fresh candidates for the job. It requires a suitable induction program that ought to be specially designed for new employees rather than boring manuals and static work roadmap. After that, the organization can provide its employees with frequent training which will help to upgrade their skills and help them to cope with upcoming challenges. 

Well-Defined Work Responsibilities: 

It must be defined to all employees that who are responsible for which work especially the key areas of the required task which should be defined according to the employees’ expertise otherwise it would only waste the time of both employee and organization with zero outcomes. The organization can also define milestones to keep everyone’s task on the track.

Monitor the Performance: 

The performance of the employees must be monitored by the managers or senior authorities of the specific department because it can increase the human capital. Performance can be monitored through employees’ weekly reports which are an easy and effective way to track the progress of employees. It will help the managers to keep updated along their employees as well as weekly feedback will assist them to identify the queries which employees face during their job performance so they could cope with that.

Communicate Directly:

The approach of Hitler cannot work in this era of corporate. No matter what is the position whether junior or senior, every employee should have the right to enter into the office of HOD (Head of Department) or manager to discuss any query or task. Direct communication is the bridge between problems and solutions among the employees and senior authorities. Every employee should allow giving his idea, suggestion, and feedback regarding any matter or project. It won’t only help to bring up new ideas but also create a sense of attachment in employees which will boost their confidence and motivate them.

Motivation: 

The motivation of employees is one of the important responsibilities of any organization to keep itself productive. It is the psychological fact, without the feeling of attachment no one can stay with you for a longer period. It is important to motivate the human workforce from time to time in various ways. It could be monthly meetings on employees’ general issues, appreciation in the form of incentives or awarding them as the Employee of the Month/ Organizations should not wait for the yearly promotions, small encouragements can give big rewards as well.

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5 Incredible Benefits of Remotely Business

Before COVID-19, many companies were not in the favor of remote business, or in other words, we can say they had some fence regarding work from homes. Though the current situation is quite challenging for them to make a strategic plan to carry out their business remotely it will provide them some unrevealing advantages for their business. 

If you are thinking to adopt remote working for your business or want to bounce a quick startup, these benefits of remotely business will going to help you to reveal the hidden benefits of modern technology. 

Decrease the Expenses of Business: 

Many companies can decrease their business expenses which are related to the routine operations through remote working which is also smartly increasing their profit on the other side. It is not only reducing the expenses of the business but also beneficial for employees by cutting the traveling, lunch, and attire cost. According to the Analytics of Global Workplace, by practicing remotely businesses, companies can save up to 11 thousand dollars annually per employee. Considering the size of the company, it can significantly beneficial for the companies. 

Enhance the Satisfaction and Retention of Employees:

Remote working of businesses is the most preferred offer which employers can prolong to applicants. According to the online survey of Mom corps, it is quite surprising that despite the great rate of unemployment, people are ready to cut their salaries up to 10 percent to accomplish the job with flexible remote working. In the survey of Owl Labs 2019, it is proved that employees who work remotely stay on their jobs over a prolonged period are increasing the chances of up to 13 percent. 

The better way to hire the Candidates: 

Remote businesses make the workplace more diverse which means more chances to get the right applicant for the position because there is no more hiring border geographically which confines the businesses. With the help of modern technology, Human resource managers can select the candidates, conduct the interview, select and screen them and done further evaluation remotely and cut the extensive process of applying to hire the candidate with a fence. 

Improved overall Productivity:

Some professionals perceive that remote working makes the employees lazy and least focused to achieve the task because of flexibility which is further proved as a myth. Remote businesses attested more productive as compared to the physical office-based businesses. The work efficiency of the employees is associated with the independence of work, enjoyment, flexibility, and comfort in terms of office noise and pressure. 

According to the survey report of Airtasker 2020, because of remotely working, employees work with breaks which makes them more focused on work tasks.

More Alert towards upcoming Challenges:

Coronavirus is an immense challenge for the whole world. It has made the world more alert towards the upcoming challenges in the next period. Many giants in the corporate world have already formulated a contingency plan to work remotely in the incident of any emergency, natural disaster, or pandemic disease. In fact, during the period of crises or bankruptcy, companies can sustain their businesses through remote working. Temporary shifted remote businesses can also get a big exposure in this current pandemic which is and will be beneficial for them. 

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How Human Resource Is Beneficial For the Business Growth

The human resource department has crucial importance in any business or organization. They have a varied role which included employees hiring, rotation, training, promotion, motivation, and so forth. It has included staff hiring and dealing from hourly wages based workers to salaried officers and managers even in specific cases a c-level executive. Although employees do not have to report to the Human resource department it is HR’s responsibility to deal with employees’ queries and satisfy them, do check and balance of employees’ safety in all departments and communicate the news of the company with them. 

It would be challenging if a company has to manage simultaneously recruitment, acquisition, training, and motivation management, developing a healthy environment among employees with multiple other queries. That’s why a company cannot neglect the significance of the human resource department. If a company starts doing all these things without the HR department, the company may lose its core purpose. The expansion and growth of any company are mainly depending on the well-rounded human resource department to be successful.

Some of the influential ways that Human Resource department performs to expand and grow the business:

Help To Maintain Healthy Environment among Employees

Employees are the major assets of any company. Without them, a company can never be successful. A company has performed other several tasks such as inclusive strategies, decision making, and business development but these tasks need talented employees who are recruit and retain by the Human Resource department. It is one of the essential tasks other than rest because it must be accomplished with remarkable results to hire the right employee for the right position for the company’s goal and vision. To be successful, a company must hire the best.

It Helps To Resolve the Queries of Employees

The Human resource department works as a bridge between the employees and the higher authorities. Just think for a moment, an employee is harassed or bullied by the other employee. Higher authorities will have enough time to find the reason behind this and rove it who’s wrong? Obviously not and it can create such serious disputes between the employees or sometimes even the different departments. In this case, the HR department handles all these queries and conflicts of employees which could be related to any concern. They listen to them, deeply analyze the situation, and then serve a decision to the higher authorities for the approval. If the HR department doesn’t exist in the organization, employees can separate themselves into the rival groups which could create an immense problem for the organization.

It Sets Benchmarks and Reviews the Performance of Employees

The Human resources department not only hire the employees but they review them while assigning multiple task and rotation that they are capable enough for a certain position or where they are best suited for. In any organization, HR has the responsibility to set benchmarks and review the performance of employees accordingly. It helps them to identify the talented employees and understand their strengths and weaknesses so they can retain them according to while focusing on employees’ expectations towards the organization.

It is impossible to neglect that the Human Resource department is the backbone of any organization. They help the companies to recruit the best-suited employee for the required position as well as the retention of talented employees, manage the inter-organizational conflicts between employees, their motivation and success review, and rewards. No matter what, the HR department is one of the most essential and powerful departments in any organization/company.

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Tips to Manage Your Project with Remote Team in this Lockdown


COVID-19 has devastated impact all over the world and it is affecting many companies and businesses around the globe. To maintain social distancing and avoid the spreading of coronavirus, many companies have started remote working. But now the question arises that how can we accomplish our project goal while working from home? How can we keep our staff in sync while they are working from home? Here are some tips which can make your project management team in sync in this COVID-19 and help to achieve your project goal in this lockdown.
Trust-Building with Team Members:
In remote working, project managers need to understand that it is essential to develop the trust factor among the team members because you are not meeting with each other in-person. It might be difficult for those project managers, who have never managed the remote team before. You have to build up the trust in their capabilities and allow the team members to do their work complete in their way so they can enjoy the work from home even in this COVID-19 breakout.

Clear Communication:
The key to keep the remote team in sync is clear and timely communication. It is the responsibility of the project manager to communicate with each team member to track multiple tasks of the project and identify the problem on time if there is any.
Make Policies for Remote team members:
Companies/Project management offices must need to make proper work policies for remotely working team because any issue can create a problem for the company. They have must need to address the common issues which are expected to face in remote working. In policies, it includes communication gateways, workflows, and general security issues
Project-cooperation Tools:
Project Management companies need to provide various cloud-based tools to stay in touch with online team members as COVID-19 is a threat for everyone and you cannot do an in-person meeting with them. Here are some tools mentioned which can help the project managers and team members in project management, work-cooperation and conferencing.
Video Conference and Online meetings: Video conference tools help the project manager and remotely working members to stay communicated with each other. They cannot only discuss the project; in fact, they can discuss the other official stuff and the current situation which can help to reduce the boredom of work from home. There are many tools available that offer video conference chat, private chat, screen-sharing calls and presentation streaming to make the work easy like Zoom Meetings, Cisco WebEx and Go-to Meeting.
Synchronization and sharing of documents/files:

With the help of some tools it has become possible for team members to share the files just in seconds around the globe. It includes Google’s G Suite, OneDrive, Box, Samepage, Wimi, Dropbox and NextCloud where your team can easily access, collaborate, message and do the trial audit. The plus point is, some of these tools are also providing search filters, workflow management, and encryption. That’s how project management becoming smart while working from home in COVID-19.

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Contact Management System

For a company, it starts with initiating contact with a leader who takes an interest in its products. It should be noted that a lead is not a potential customer but is the one who shows interest and has the potential to purchase the company’s products. As the business grows, more leads are generated, which creates a complicated situation which if not appropriately managed results in leads leakage. A lead is converted into contact when it establishes direct two-way communication with the company. Hence, to turn lead into a contact, it is essential to manage leads properly.
In current competitive markets, many business ventures are in continuous practice of growing their potential customers, and it leads to a stage where it becomes difficult to keep track of every customer, and thus it leads to the customer’s leakage, missed follow-ups and no customer commitment. Subsequently, it has been reported that an average business organization tends to lose 50% of its customers within a business cycle of five years. Thus, it has become a necessity to keep track of all customers and their needs which changes from time to time; however, it is a complex task to manage a large number of customers while also maintaining records. Hence, it creates a need for an automated system which timely keeps and updates customer records, and these automated systems are termed as Contact Management System.
Contact Management System provides a stable environment to keep track and update all customer information in its database. Contact Management System, or CMS allows the organization to retrieve data of particular customer at any time while also updating it timely. Furthermore, this database helps the company to strategically design their policies and keep themselves up with customer requirements. Secondly, the organization can also search for possibilities to review its sales strategy by examining the present position of the customer by handling connections. In this way, the business achieves a two-part goal by doing so.
The benefits of having contact management systems are;
• Maintaining more efficient and less overhead customer records and using them for maximum customer satisfaction.
• With many clients and candidates, the company has long-term relationships. A company needs a running history of with whom the company is dealing with because of the long-term nature of recruiting communications. Thus, Contact Management Systems helps to look over past communication resulting in more strengthening mutual relationship.
• CMS helps to assess company records and customer approaches which allows the company to promote new offers, resulting increase in sells.
• Alongside keeping track of customer data, CMS can also work as a feedback system, allowing customers to give their input about its products which helps the company to evaluate itself,

Concluding all, it has become an utmost necessity for a company to build a strong relationship with customers which cannot be done efficiently without having an automated system like contact management system. Meeting with customer needs should be the top priority of a company thus it is highly encouraged for a company to maintain an automated contact management system which in turn helps to gain customer support and increases chances of the company’s growth.


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Customer v/s Customer Service

Customer v/s Customer The most valuable investment a company can do is to purchase the loyalty of their customers by providing the best customer service. Nothing is more valuable than a satisfied, happy and most importantly a loyal customer. It is considered as the most powerful marketing tool. Companies mostly focus on the product’s quality and quantity but they should also equally emphasis on their customer service too.

The term ‘customer service’ stimulates different thought processes in people’s mind depending on their experiences. To some people, it reminds of pleasant and unforgettable memories in a positive way and to some, it is just the opposite. Prioritizing customers first is very necessary for a business if it needs to prosper because loyal customers bring trustworthiness and also bring in more clients and business.

There are some methods through which great customer services can be given:

· Product Knowledge:

Before sharing any fact or replying to the customer it is necessary for the representative to have complete knowledge about the company’s products and services. Once you said anything to the customer it needs to be fulfilled because customer service is all about word of mouth.

· Looking through customer’s eye:

It is very necessary to think and to keep yourself at the customer’s place once you receive any complaint from them. Never ignore and always try to listen to them by keeping yourself at their place.

· Every Gesture Speaks:

It is important for a company’s employee to learn to respond in a polite way to the customers because your actions play an important role while you deliver dialogues. It is really important to work on the body language and choice of words while you speak to your customer.

· Be Courteous & Polite:

The small greetings and gratitude change the mood of a customer. If a representative has a soft tone and welcoming way of talking it automatically solves almost 25% to 30% of a customer’s problem and complaint.

· Respect & Responsiveness:

The staff of customer services should be given proper training on how to respect and be responsive to customers. They should be taught controlling their emotions of anger or irritation. While controlling the emotions it is necessary to also solve customer’s issue with full dedication so that they do feel the responsiveness they received.

· Accommodating Customers:

Never disappoint a customer due to some minor issues that can be resolved on the spot. Customers are potential brand ambassadors and it is necessary to fulfill their requirements and if needed go an extra mile to provide them the best services.

· Trust Building:

Providing influential customer service and correct information to your clients builds the trust between the consumers and the company. It is important to share and provide correct information to your customers so that the relationship last long.

· Customer Follow-up & Feedback:

This is the most important factor to be considered while working on customer service. One needs to keep a check on the complaints of the customer that whether it has resolved or not and most importantly is your customer satisfied because the feedback helps in improving the services.

The feedback is the most important part and it helps you discover where you need improvement in your business.

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Secret Lies in Collaborative Work Spaces

You often wonder how crucial is the environment of the office? The answer lies in observations and countless statistics that prove the importance of a balanced and positive environment in the success of businesses, be it small or large. The fact is that the office environment speaks for itself.

When it comes to project management, an environment that is collaborative and enthusiastic keeps the team aligned to its goals and tasks which eventually leads to successful delivery of outcome.

The reinforcement and impact of such an environment are often underestimated in project management. Below is a set of strategies that a project manager should implement to ensure that the environment at work maximizes productivity and success.

  1. Appreciation and positivity:

When a team member performs well at a given task, appreciate. Give appreciation where it’s due even if it’s for something as small as submitting work on time or working overtime to finish work. Appreciation might seem insignificant but in the long-run, it fosters positivity among team members and increases their self-confidence which is vital to producing a better quality of work. Moreover, appreciation pushes team members to do even better next time. However, constructive criticism should also be given where needed without degrading or insulting any of the team members. Lastly, the variety of opinions and think tanks always lead to improved and enhanced results.

  1. Build Rapport and Communication:

There should be a solid and well-built rapport between upper management and the team. The concerns, suggestions etc from the team members should be effectively communicated to the upper management. Also, feedback from the upper management should also be conveyed to the team members so as to ensure a two-way flow between the two units. As the gap between seniors and juniors diminishes, a positive change can be definitely noticed as that makes the team members feel that their opinions and words hold value. Moreover, communication between everyone involved in the project should be constantly using an email or dashboard. Communication gap can be eradicated by giving every member the confidence to share their input and being concise and clear about their thoughts. No office environment can succeed in suffocating conditions where members are not allowed to share or discuss.

  1. Set Realistic Goals and Expectations:

Do not overburden the team with the excessive workload. It’s often assumed that working under pressure yields better results. That is an utter misconception. Working under pressure diminishes the quality of work. The key to brilliant project outcome is assigning tasks to each member with realistic deadlines that give them time to experiment and do as well as possible. However, it cannot be denied setting bars high occasionally helps members grow their skills and come out of their comfort zones to discover their hidden talent.

  1. Follow a set of rules:

Every member of the team, regardless of his/her position, should and must follow the rules made and set. Standard processes and rules regarding every project help the team members stay connected about the project and keep them on the same page.

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An exploration of Project Management office and relationship to project performance

The Project Management Office is a group within a business. It can be a separate department in a time of needs. It helps to maintain the standards of project management within the business or organization. The project management office (PMO) is becoming the central hub of the enterprise. Apart from other tasks, its main task is to directly support the project managers. It is now predicted that in future its focus could also lie on strategic project management. Its vital task is to provide a tool for project portfolio management and resource management. The first and foremost goal of project management is to achieve the benefits through standardizing and by following the project management methods, strategies and also policies. It is now becoming popular as the companies that are connected with PMO are earning a return on investment. Nearly seven out of ten companies now have a PMO. It is responsible for the guidance, documentation, and metrics that are connected practices surrounding the project management and implement the projects within the business organization. This office is responsible to provide accurate reports on the project, project activities, and requirement to executive management as a strategic tool in keeping the implementers and decision makers moving toward consistent business-focused goals and objectives. The enterprise and companies need PMOs when there are many projects that need to be controlled. It helps in the coordination of resources with the different departments, it also help to obtain the current and well founded on which the decision can be made. When the environment is dynamic PMO help to take fast decisions. PMO is responsible to collect and provide precise data as sometimes the requirement might increase as people demand such clear data. It is responsible for controlling the classical project portfolio, it is responsible for training and coaching of project managers as well. PMO maintains the overview of the company projects and know the strategies of the organization and make sure that both go hands in hands. But the specific area of the application may vary from company to company. It is helpful for the company not only to look for the project management but also do side task. It maintains the current employee data especially in term of skills, and allocations. It is helpful in the promotion of information and communication. PMO helps to create a knowledge base with the lesson that needs to be learnt and best practices of past projects so it is ensured that there is no repetition of past errors. PMO is beneficial as it includes a successful project portfolio that is concerned with the available resources and corporate strategy. It is helpful in freeing up the time and energy of the managers and team of the project so that they can focus on the important operational tasks. It optimizes the project efficiency and increases the quality of the project and also minimizes the risk present in the project. The success of PMO is not immediately visible or even measurable but high-functioning PMOs has been confirmed by studies.

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An exploration of Project Management office and relationship to project performance

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