10 Simple Suggestions for Managing a Project

You may not want to read this if you feel a natural resistance to the relevance of Project Management (PM) method in your context. In a small or medium enterprise (SME), or in the “softer” disciplines, such as my own background in HR, it’s easy to relax with assumptions about formality, technicality and time constraints. On the other hand, you may share a sneaky suspicion that there might be something in it which could bring your own project-work under greater control.

I use the PRINCE2 principle of “tailoring” to suggest a straight-forward and light-touch approach to explain how to get the best out of formal PM concepts, and I hope you can enjoy those too. Aim to achieve momentum, enablement and control, which is just what PM is all for.

Here are 10 ways – with a full explanation in the next article:

1. Define Roles – who is doing what and what are they doing for the project
2. Structure Time – make PM time to save time
3. Remember 6 Project Elements – cost, time, scope, quality, risk and benefit
4. Manage Risk – devise easy-to-use risk measures and alerts
5. Control Change – formality of change control doesn’t need to be “technical”
6. Report – regularly! I suggest a “highlight” report
7. Keep a Log – be accountable to yourself and have a second memory
8. Document the Business Case – and not just at the beginning
9. Start and End your Projects – make the most of their temporary nature
10. Manage in Stages – agree and plan only in so far as you can

For more, watch out for our White Paper “Cutting your cloth – Project Management in the SME Environment”.

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