"Project managers function as bandleaders who pull together their players each a specialist with individual score and internal rhythm. Under the leader's direction, they all respond to the same beat."
~L.R. Sayles
"Plans A through Q have this deal going through"
~Michael Sabia, CEO of BCE., when questioned if there was a plan B should his proposal not go through. It didn't and there wasn't.
"Plans are nothing; planning is everything"
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
Whenever we examine any project before us, we usually identify what the obstacles are exactly, and identify that they need to be overcome. But that's only the most basic step. What is missing is a detailed analysis of not only what needs to be done, but how, why and when.
In this first part, I have written down these basic project management steps below as a guide through the process of managing any project that should help you set up the markers you will need to start.
Here's How:
The first, and most important, step in any project is defining the scope of the project. What is it you are supposed to accomplish by managing this project? What is the project objective?
Equally important is defining what is not included in the scope of your project. This is an often overlooked definition. If you don't get enough definition from your boss, clarify the scope yourself and send it back upstairs for confirmation.
2. Determine Available Resources
What people, equipment, and funds will you have available to you to achieve the project objectives? As a project manager, you usually will not have direct control of these resources, but will have to manage them through matrix managing (where there are 2 different superiors you report to; one is operational in nature and the other is functional). Find out how easy or difficult that will be to do.
3. Check the Timeline
When does the project have to be completed? As you develop your project plan you may have some flexibility in how you use time during the project, but deadlines usually are fixed. If you decide to use overtime hours to meet the schedule, you must weigh that against the limitations of your budget.
4. Assemble Your Project Team
Get the people on your team together and start a dialog. They are the experts. That's why their functional supervisor assigned them to the project. If you don't have any experts you can rely on, request the right people be assigned to you, or request permission to go and get them. Your job isn't to be the expert. Your job is to manage the experts.
5. List the Big Steps
What are the major pieces of the project? If you don't know, start by asking your team. It is a good idea to list the steps in chronological order but don't obsess about it; you can always change the order later.
6. List the Smaller Steps
List the smaller steps in each of the larger steps. Again, it usually helps you remember all the steps if you list them in chronological order. How many levels deep you go of more and more detailed steps depends on the size and complexity of your project.
7. Develop a Preliminary Plan
Assemble all your steps into a plan. What happens first? What is the next step? Which steps can go on at the same time with different resources? Who is going to do each step? How long will it take? There are many excellent software packages available that can automate a lot of this detail for you. Ask others in similar positions what they use.
8. Create Your Baseline Plan
Get feedback on your preliminary plan from your team and from any other stakeholders. Adjust your timeline and work schedules to fit the project into the available time. Make any necessary adjustments to the preliminary plan to produce a baseline plan.
9. Hope is not a Plan. Hope is not a Strategy
I have often asked my direct reports to memorize this mantra and to teach their teams the same. I can't tell you how many times I have heard the most detailed and exhaustive plans rely on uncontrollable variables that are assumed to be, wondrously enough, all in their favor. Analyze your plan impartially. Are there any variables that are beyond your direct control or influence? And if so, have you accounted for all the possible outcomes? If not, you need to keep these back up plans as viable alternatives to your primary plans, and allocate for the possibility that you may have to bring them from the background to the foreground at any time as the project progresses.
9. Request Project Adjustments
There is almost never enough time, money or talent assigned to a project. Your job is to do more with the limited resources than people expect. However, there are sometimes limits placed on a project that are simply unrealistic. You need to make your case and present it to your boss and request these unrealistic limits be changed. Ask for the changes at the beginning of the project. Don't wait until it's in trouble to ask for the changes you need.
10. Work Your Plan, But Don't Die For It
Robert Burns wrote about "The best laid schemes of mice and men....", but whereas he was apologizing to the mouse who's nest he upturned, the meaning of his poem was poignant to Project Managers: The most carefully prepared plans may (some say will) go wrong.
Making the plan is important, but the plan can be changed. You have a plan for driving to work every morning. If one intersection is blocked by an accident, you change your plan and go a different way. Do the same with your project plans. Change them as needed, but always keep the scope and resources in mind
11. Monitor Your Team's Progress
Never confuse effort with results. You will make little progress at the beginning of the project, but you should have started by then to monitor what everyone is doing anyway. That will make it easier to catch issues or failures before they become problems and threaten to derail the results.
12. Document Everything
Keep records. Every time you change from your baseline plan, write down what the change was and why it was necessary. Every time a new requirement is added to the project write down where the requirement came from and how the timeline or budget was adjusted because of it. You can't remember everything, so write them down so you'll be able to look them up at the end-of-project review and learn from them.
13. Keep Everyone Informed
Keep all the project stakeholders informed of progress all along. Let them know of your success as you complete each milestone, but also inform them of problems as soon as they come up. Also keep you team informed. If changes are being considered, tell the team about them as far ahead as you can. Make sure everyone on the team is aware of what everyone else is doing.
In part 2, we will examine different Project Management styles, and what situations are appropriate for them. You can link directly to it here.
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If you have any suggestions or topics you'd like to see covered, or if you'd like help with an issue you're currently experiencing, please drop me a line at gbossinakis@live.com.
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