Q1. Can you share some highlights from your role as a Project Management Consultant at PS DIGITECH-HR? What are some of the key projects you’ve worked on during your time there?

As a project management consultant, we have numerous within the sphere of influence with capabilities & are representative  of the values & contributions to project management profession.Some of them are as below:-

1. Leading the team to meet the project’s objectives & Stakeholder’s expectations.
2. Balancing the competing constraints on the project with the resources available.
3. Communication roles between project sponsor, team members & other stakeholders.
4. Stay informed about the latest & emerging technologies that will be helping the project in a significant way.
5. Work with the sponsors, team members & subject matter experts to develop an appropriate plan for project deliverables.
6. Maintain Stakeholder analysis reports 
7. Maintain risk response and risk mitigation reports with their detailed analysis.
8. Implementing the strategy that maximizes the project business value.
9. Having knowledge for alignment & ensuring the deliverables as per business goals, objectives, strategies, priorities, tactics & products & services.

Key projects I have worked on are Refinery extension projects related to DM water, polymer extension project, recently assigned on construction of  cement projects.

Q2. You have an extensive background in SAP PS and Primevera P6. How have these technical skills influenced your approach to project management, and can you provide an example of how they’ve been beneficial in your career?

Primevera P6 & SAP PS are project management tools for monitoring progress w.r.t timeline or cost consumed w.r.t planned or assigned baseline/proposed timeline or budget. Where we are in the project at a particular period of timeline or cost consumption w.r.t planned one.

It greatly helps in forecasting, looking ahead works of project, getting the delay analysis done & various project monitoring & controlling, mitigation reports.

As as example:-

Following information can be generated from this tool:

1. Project portfolio management
2. Scheduling and critical path analysis
3. Project risk management and analysis
4. Resource management and optimization, resource allocation and capacity planning
5. Project budget and cost management
6. Advanced reporting features and analytics
7. Project controls

Q3. You’ve been with Primetals Technologies India Private Limited & PS digitech Hr Pvt Ltd. for nearly a decade. Could you discuss your journey there and how your responsibilities and projects evolved over those years?

The journey of a decade, it was quite a busy time and I couldn’t count how time flies at such a fast pace. It was a busy schedule with work and my work. If I get time from work I generally engage myself in academics, learning new things and work going around latest. I have always been a busy person with company or work of new learnings for myself. Time passed and I got new things to learn. Overall, the work environment was very good and encouraging.

Q4. Hybrid work environments have become increasingly prevalent. How have you managed and adapted to the hybrid work setting in both Delhi and Kolkata during your tenure at these companies?

At current times, the most important thing I have learned is the information you have. With the advancement of computer technology and growing need for control and monitoring in the real time based with help of technologies available it is not a difficult task today for monitoring, controlling, evaluating the project works sitting at one end of the earth. But the most vital part is having the information related to each bit & nuts of the project. If one has such quality & experience of grasping, accumulating, evaluation, of project information, then it becomes easier.

Q5. Your education includes an MBA in Marketing & Strategic Management. How has this additional degree complemented your project management expertise, and how do you apply marketing and strategic management concepts in your role?

I see each vertical of knowledge combining at the top. There are various branches and expertise of each subject matter but at the top these all are merging to achieve the common goal and have the same thought process and philosophy for achieving the common objective. Whether it be marketing, project management or strategic management all are working in their spheres to achieve the common goal or objective. 

When I Study strategic management the thought process of marketing is aligned with it, same is with project management. We have some objectives to achieve out of projects, projects are aligned with strategic planning of the company, and marketing is done before the project starts about the market demand, resource availability, future  demand based on the demand/feasibility study/ market study we design the capacity of the plant.

So, I view all these as a combined process and without the knowledge of management I could not have gained or understood this all.

Regarding application : Marketing is required as I elaborated before before the start and end of the project for production and after production distribution and sale of product to consumers.

Similarly strategic management has different spheres of work such as in market competition, getting edge over competitors. There are different thought processes for the application of strategic management. It depends upon how we see the situation and on what situation we apply the strategy to get what objective we desire to achieve.

Q6. You received Lead Auditor Training from BSI in 2017. How has this certification influenced your approach to project management, particularly in terms of quality assurance and compliance?

Lead auditor training helped me look at the quality aspects of the project, As quality management is one of the key dimensions of project management. ISO 9001 2015 Helped me look at the project on the lens of quality aspects.

Q7. Can you share some insights or tips for aspiring project managers looking to excel in their careers, especially in the fields of SAP PS and Primavera P6? What advice would you give to those aiming to follow a similar career path?

My advice for the aspiring project managers would be following:

1. Work on continuous improvement of learning, one having the hunger of learning will grasp any of the upcoming technologies in this very dynamic and fragile environment where we have to be very competitive and at the top of cutting edge technology.
2. I don’t think for good learners there is any limitation or barrier of not knowing any technology.
3. SAP & Primavera P6 are very useful tools for project management purposes. This could be the starting phase of having an understanding of how the monitoring, evaluation, control, and risks are avoided using the tool. But there are more things to learn.