Project Management Made Simple

Article by Herb Rubenstein

Introduction

Project management is not simple. At is basic level, it is the identification and listing of all of the tasks thought necessary to achieve a goal, the allocation of those tasks to people, the setting of a schedule for each task, the development of a system to supervise and monitor each task (usually a spreadsheet at a minimum and feedback system), a budget (usually another spreadsheet), and the development of a system to keep project related documents, written resources, data, house a data analytic framework, and regulate the access (those who can enter the information and those who can read it) to this knowledge management system.

Not simple. However, this article, which could be called “Project Management for Dummies” (but that name is already taken), gives you just enough information so that you can better manage projects.

Ten Key Steps in Project Management

This article assumes a project has been identified. That is the goal, benefits of the project, timeline for completion, how to measure results of the project, and preliminary budget has already been set. Now, someone or group needs to figure out how to achieve the goal. They need to manage the project

STEP ONE – DETERMINE THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT AND PROJECT GOVERNANCE (DECISION) MAKING SYSTEM.

This is actually three distinct steps. Determine what is within the scope of the project AND determine what is NOT WITHIN THE SCOPE OF THE PROJECT. This limits SCOPE CREEP (which can almost never completely be avoided - like that just paint one wall in the room project!) After these two steps are completed, develop a project charter and governance system to determine who makes what decisions, using what information, and at what times during the project will the expected decision be made. (This alerts decision makers to be ready for incoming information and the duty to make a decision, thus reducing delays and bottlenecks due to people taking a long time to make a decision).

STEP TWO – IDENTIFY HOW THIS PROJECT WILL IMPACT OTHER PROJECTS IN THE ORGANIZATION AND THE OVERALL ORGANIZATION

This may be the most overlooked step in all of project management. If you fail to undertake this step, you will fail to identify all stakeholders (who can either really support or really do your project in). In addition you will fail to identify many of the otherwise foreseeable causes of deadlines being missed, feathers being ruffled, relationships in the organization being hurt, budgets being exceeded, and desired results not being achieved.

STEP THREE: IDENTIFY THE STAGES OF THE PROJECT

Every sizable project has more than one stage. You need to define the beginning and the end of a stage based on some milestone being reached (or failure achieved) or some other criteria. Usually, when one stage is concluded, some decision has to be made either to go forward as planned, make some changes, or abandon the project. The transition from one stage to another is called the “stage gate.” A meeting should take place at each stage gate situation, with proper minutes and documented reasons for making the decision. If no meeting is needed, a memo to file will suffice.

STEP FOUR: IDENTIFY THE TEAM AND TASKS, INCLUDING ALL STAKEHOLDERS, SUPPLY CHAIN ELEMENTS, THE ORDER OF THE PERFORMANCE OF THE TASKS, THE OBJECTIVES OF EACH TASK AND RESEARCH NECESSARY TO PERFORM THE TASK WELL.

This needs no explanation, except, it is an art to putting the right people on the right task. This should always be based on the D’Anjou maxim:

Don’t put talent where it cannot get out.

There is also an art in knowing what order or sequence the tasks should be performed in. Maybe, like in agile software development, many tasks are performed at the same time and assembled all at once based on a rigorous (and often missed) schedule. For projects where the tasks are done sequentially, if a task requires a predecessor task to be completed before it can be started or before it can be completed, this must be noted in the project management plan. For each significant task, all research necessary for the performance of that task in the most efficient and effective manner possible must be identified in the project management plan.

STEP FIVE: FIGURE OUT THE SCHEDULE

Create a timeline for the overall project, each stage, and each task in each stage.

This is not the “optimal schedule” but a realistic schedule. Anticipate implementation problems (and their probabilities), supply chain, human performance, technical difficulties, regulatory hurdles, if any, and all foreseeable delaying possibilities and factoring in their probabilities, allocate time in the right places to anticipated or possible delays.

STEP SIX: DEVELOP YOUR FEEDBACK SYSTEM TO MONITOR EXECUTION AND INFORM YOU IF SOMETHING IS WORKING ON TIME ON BUDGET OR NOT

This will require you to develop a data collection and data analysis plan to insure that you know how execution of the project is going. In manufacturing, the internet of things (IoT) is able to give thousands of data points (big data) per second on the performance of manufacturing machines and processes so that machine learning can comprehend second by second not only whether something is working, but why it is not working (diagnosis) and prescribe how to fix the problem.

STEP SEVEN: DEVELOP YOUR RISK ASSESSMENT SYSTEM

That will inform you of risks at each stage and during each stage, its leading indicators that the risk level is rising so you can head it off at the pass, and your plans to deal if a negative risk comes into fruition.

STEP EIGHT: DEVELOP YOUR CRITERIA FOR ABANDONING, CHANGING, OR EXPANDING THE PROJECT

This is related to step six. This will require your data collection and analysis plan, plus will require you to keep abreast of how the external conditions that led to the creation of the project in the first place may have changed in a way that now requires the project to be changed to meet these changes in the external conditions. For example the interest rate may have changed some other aspect of the external marketplace requiring you to abandon, change or expand the project. Similarly, you will need to monitor the internal conditions, the organization’s capacity, the success or lack of success of execution, etc. as this will impact your decision to change the project in some way.

STEP NINE: DEVELOP YOUR COMMUNICATION PLAN(S)

Identify who gets notified of what, when and how you will plan on notifying them and how you plan to respond to their responses to the notification. Included in your communication plan is your acknowledgement, awards, performance appraisal (if any), and celebration plan throughout the project.

STEP TEN: REVIEW YOUR PROJECT PLAN TO MAKE SURE IT DOES NOT HAVE OPTIMISM BIAS, PESSIMISM BIAS, WILL NOT BURN PEOPLE OUT, AND WILL LEAD NOT ONLY TO GREAT RESULTS BUT WILL BUILD THE CAPACITY OF YOUR ORGANIZATION

This is the “FFA” final feasibility analysis, plus it is the planning for post project activities including:

1. Writing, storing, and dissemination of lessons learned. This might include creating videos on these or inputting them into future training.

2. Writing, storing, and dissemination of best practices identified or refined. This might also include creating videos on these or inputting them into future training.

3. Implementing the final stages of your acknowledgement plan and celebration plan.

4. Institutionalizing the organizational capacity that was built during implementation.

5. Completing documentation of the project, including writing its history in a very interesting manner.

6. Exploiting all of the benefits of the project and taking care of or minimizing any long lasting negative impacts of the project on the organization or those who worked on it.

Conclusion

While the concepts in this article are simple, actually doing each one of these is very difficult. The key for successful project management is not to do every one of these steps perfectly, whatever that means. The key for successful project management is not to leave out any of these steps.

You will over time add many more steps to your project management conceptual approach. You will refine your technical approach to project management as software improves especially in the data collection and analytics, scheduling, resource allocation, and monitoring of execution arenas. Who would have thought even ten years ago that Step Six – MONTORING EXECUTION – could be performed by drones, yet that is exactly how we monitor execution of may projects that take place outdoors.

You might want to study or take courses on the art and science in project management and maybe get certified in this field. As the world and projects get more complex, project management skills will be more and more important to get projects done on time and on budget and produce the desired results.

These ten steps of project management are, of course, not just done in the beginning of the project. They are done and redone hundreds, and sometimes thousands of times, during a project. Project management is an everyday job, from conception of the project well beyond its conclusion. Step ten includes some of the most overlooked steps in all of project management. Don’t miss out on the great benefits from doing Step Ten brilliantly.