Without a doubt, it's extremely important to make accurate and timely decisions, and to communicate the decisions to those affected. This is especially true when managing projects. A project must move forward and all stakeholders need to know where the project is and where it's going. Again, decisions and communication.
The Q&D Method
When managing projects, most people just think about task lists with due dates. This quick and dirty approach usually takes the form as a spreadsheet with a list of the project tasks, due dates and the people assigned to the task. In fact, a lot of small and midsized businesses use only this spreadsheet method to "manage" their projects, or worse, use nothing at all.While spreadsheets may work for small simple projects involving one or two members, they are usually a road to disaster for more complex projects with larger project teams. A spreadsheet just does not provide adequate tools for managing project changes, task dependencies and resource planning.
It's so true that a project's complexity grows exponentially with each stakeholder, resource and task that you add. The biggest challenge of project management is understanding the relationships between various project elements and the affect of changes on these elements. This is were the spreadsheet method falls short.
Charters, Plans and Schedules
Projects with any level of complexity require better management tools. This doesn't mean you need to adopt a full-blown, formal project management methodology. However, some additional structured processes and tools are necessary to reduce reliance on sheer luck and improve the success rate of your projects. These tools include a project charter, project management plan, and project schedule.A project charter is the fundamental document for project management. It defines the foundational aspects of a project such as scope, objectives, stakeholders and resources. The charter also includes plans for managing resources, risks, changes, issues, communication and finances.
A project charter serves as the primary reference document during the project life cycle. When questions, issues or changes occur during the course of a project, the project manager refers back to the charter to determine how to handle the situation and make the right decision.
Project management plans describe how to manage various aspects of a project such as risks, resources and issues. For example, a change management plan describes how changes to the project scope, objectives and deliverables are approved and integrated into the project, and how issues are raised, assigned and resolved.
A communication plan is perhaps the most important project management plan. Communication plans describe how project status and information is communicated to the project team and stakeholders.
The project schedule is the key tool to managing the project work effort. Often mistakenly referred to as the Gantt Chart, the project schedule shows detailed tasks (the work breakdown structure or WBS) with estimated and actual work and duration times. The schedule also shows dependencies between tasks along with resource assignments.
A project schedule is a living document that changes frequently throughout the life of the project. The schedule enables the project manager to determine if the project is on schedule, and to bring the project back on track if necessary.
Closing Thoughts
Using the right project management tools is extremely important to improve the success rate of your projects. These tools help project managers make timely and accurate decisions, and to effectively communicate with the project team.More information on project management solutions are available here. If you have any thoughts, questions or other project management examples, please post your comments.
By Harry Hiles, HBH Technology LLC — 27 Apr 2008
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