I am a student who joined a degree program at the age of 23, which is quite above in age comparing to others.
So basically I was the oldest student at the institution, I studied business management.
It's a bachelor's degree in business management from University College of Dublin, Ireland affiliated with the semi-governmental institute NIBM (National Institute of Business Management) and NSBM (National School of Business Management) of Sri Lanka.
In the third year, I was exposed to an interesting module during the study where many of its learnings were used in practical life at a career in the workplace in 2016 [KPMG: Sri Lanka].
This module was "Project management: The managerial process".
Now why project management became a special reference as a learning tool in the career for me?
In the year 2016 there were many goal attainment objectives (personal, academic and professional) and to achieve them step by step I used and required a methodical guideline.
For this, several simple project management theories were helpful for me during my studies at work.
The definition of a "Project" is as follows,
A project is complex by time, budget, resources and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs.
The definition of a "Program" is as follows,
A program is a series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time and are intended to achieve a goal.
Now as an external auditor a series of many sub-function are involved in completing a financial statement audit. (FSA)
And project management came along just fine in the future as my auditing career progresses.
It is because of the following characteristics,
There is a specific period to finalize an audit and therefore as a business management student use of project management in the relevant auditing functions is highly required. But since I'm in the trainee level, my level of audit planning work is extremely low and therefore only thing I was supposed to do was to complete my assigned audit procedures and relevant workings before the deadline as per the instructions of the supervisor.
But I used project management in achieving the strategy. Strategy linked to projects. These projects are my academic and personal life.
Many of my academic life achievements like in the degree program and banking was made through planning facing the exams systematically through studying and preparing.
As I discussed above the definition of a project can be used to imply in the scenario of project management, this provides people with a powerful set of tools that improves their ability to plan, implement, and manage activities to accomplish specific organizational objectives.
But project management is more than just a set of tools, it is a results-oriented management style that places a premium on building a collaborative relationship among a diverse cast of characters.
Though doing some exams alone without colleagues like CIMA and IBSL: IABF. Doing the degree program was a collective effort. These required a high level of basic project management. It was mostly based on experience rather than theoretical practice.
Now one of my previous articles with the abbreviation BMYM ( Link -> https://businessstudentbs.blogspot.com/2017/01/business-management-your-mind-bmym.html) discussed aspects like implementing business management theories in exam preparation.
But concepts in project management can be also discussed in these aspects with reference to exam preparation in a more deeper sense with more application and user-friendly nature with an elaborated guideline.
To understand this the definition of the project life cycle and its steps are given.
The project life cycle is one aspect where we can pre-plan our goals and objectives of project achievements.
01. Defining
02. Planning
03. Executing
04. Closure
Now every time I worked in projects, I role-played a project manager in repetitive activities I was assigned and frequently acts independently and study my growth against the previous audits.
Project Management as a subject is a diverse area and many of its metrics and other aspects should not be considered in this analysis due to the primary level of application.
I'm also hoping to do my industry level research of my current audit firm and is planning to use project management as my core study area in order to establish a deeper study into theory and practical implementation.
And personally, I was able to learn many team building skills during audits through studying concepts like Management By Wandering Around (MBWA).
So overall the purpose of this simple article is to establish the importance of theoretical subjects like project management in Business management in order to expand into better quality work and results in academic, professional and personal life.
References
Images
· Project Management (2017). Title: (Jpg.). Available at : https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/project-management-ideas-development-graph-concept-380671153?src=C9nSBmCDYRJy4Xci-903nQ-1-6 (Accessed date : 2017/02/26)
Pdf
· Humphreys, P. (2016). Title: Project Management (BMGT2003L) – Study guide. Publisher: University College of Dublin – External courses, Pages: 50 pages. Available at : https://elearning.ucd.ie/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_558037_1&content_id=_924051_1&mode=reset (Accessed date : 2017/02/26)
Presentations
· McGraw-Hill/Irvine (2011). Title: Project Management – The Managerial Process
