Approaches To Project Management And Project Management Salary

If you are looking for a job in the field of project management and hoping for good project management salary, the best way to get it is to start educating yourself about the ins and outs of the discipline and, if possible, get accreditation. Another good way is to get yourself a key role in a team to learn as much as you can about the process and product and earn experience while you're at it.

When you are responsible for the completion of a project and the coordination of a lot of people around you, you can't just wing it. You need a good background of technical expertise in order to make sound decisions when determining the project's scope, quantifying the needed resources and ensuring you can get everything done on time while minimizing the cost.

Of course, apart from this, you need to be able to lead and direct people as you will be assigning tasks and responsibilities, keeping track of performances and progress and ensuring deadlines are met. You will need a knack for organizing, lots of creativity and a great degree of flexibility as well as very good communication skills to maintain clarity regarding the expectations of your clients and provide accurate information to your team. Here is a quick run through on some common project management methods and information about current Project management salary standards.

The Traditional Approach

This follows a set of steps. The five components in the development of a project include initiation, planning and design, executing, monitoring and controlling and lastly, closing. Some projects can loop within the middle three steps before reaching a condition fit for closing. In software development, this generally linear approach is called the waterfall model. This works well for small projects with set limitations and expectations as opposed to large projects with needs that are continuously changing.

Critical Chain Project Management

This a method which focuses on the both human and material resources which applies the Theory of Constraints. There is a need to ensure that the resources are ready for the execution of the critical chain of tasks defined as the longest series of tasks that have limitations on resources.

Extreme Project Management

This approach works well for simultaneous small projects spanning a few weeks. Extreme Programming, Agile Project Management and Scrum techniques fall under this category. These call for human interaction management and process modeling combined. Importance is placed on the recognition of spontaneity and freedom of movement and decision-making among the members of the team. Constant communication and collaboration is key. This usually yields fast results and simultaneous and sporadic development across different project components. Flexibility is the essential component, as there is more focus on attaining the end objective rather than following a rigid linear development process.

PRINCE2

On the contrary,this approach is structured, giving a project management method within a well defined framework. It describes how coordination among people is to be done, how the design and supervising will be carried out and how to adjust if things don't go as planned. Key inputs and outputs for each task are specified and a common language for all participants is devised. In effect, changes to the plan are controlled and discouraged and this allows close monitoring of performances.

Now that you have gotten a glimpse of what you need for project management here is a taste of what you can gain: Project management salary reports for IBM based on information from a site with anonymous reports as current as March 14 2011 given by employees and employers. For the project manager level, the range is from $58k to $154k, with an average of $92k, based on 105 sources. For senior project managers, 65 sources give a range of $84k to $156k, with the average falling at the high mark of $113k. For associate project managers, however, the minimum is $55k and the maximum is $95k as stated by 31 references. The average salary for this level is almost $73k.