Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Soon the emphasis will be on getting a life instead of a career, and work will be viewed
as a series of gigs or projects. Jonas Ridderstrle
control so that they stay focused and achieve what timescales and budgets) with senior decision-makers
theyre supposed to. This is where the project manager motivate with integrity, sensitivity, and imagination
comes in! build excellent team relationships
The whole project management process revolves communicate clearly and unambiguously with everyone
around three main areas:
1 Business. Projects must support your organisations Understand the project lifecycle
business strategy. If they dont, they shouldnt be started Any project has a natural progression, following a series
in the first place. To work out whether a project is a good of different stages from when it is first established to
idea or not, there has to be agreement from everyone when it is finished and the benefits are seen. This is 831
involved or affected about known as the project lifecycle.
ACTIONLIST
what the project is Depending on their complexity, some projects will
what its targets are need more stages than others. Having said that, the same
the benets to the business steps can generally be applied to any sort of objective:
Its the project managers job to make sure the project has Evaluate ideas. This stage establishes the business
been properly defined and planned from the outset. need for the project; documents the initial idea(s); as-
2 People. Projects revolve around people, and, if the sesses the benets; identies risks which might threat-
project manager isnt managing the team doing the work en the success of the project; and outlines how it is going
and all the other stakeholders, he or she isnt managing to be done, how long it will take, what it will cost, and
the project. Identifying or appointing certain people is whose authority will be needed to proceed.
also key, such as the project sponsor (the person whos Dene and design. Now youre into the detail. How will
requested the projectusually the one who is paying for you run the project? Who will be needed to do it? How will
it) and champions who can support and promote the you divide up the responsibilities? What key measures
different areas of the work. and milestones will you use to monitor progress? To
3 Control. As soon as authorisation is received to start make sure things dont get missed out, think in terms of
work, the project manager must plan the route of the what your business/team needs, what customers need,
project, assess what risks are involved, identify what and what your competitors are up to. Do they have any
skills and resources are required, then constantly check new initiatives that you need to improve on, for example?
progress and adjust its course to make sure the targets are Build and test. With all your plans and designs in place
reached successfully. and agreed, you nd and build all the new processes,
places, and people involved in the project. At every
Know what skills are required stage, you test to make sure that everything works as
The project manager is often seen as a juggler, the person its meant to.
who has to keep all the balls in the air at onceplans, Implement, pilot, and launch. Here you pilot the project,
budgets, people, communications, and so on, as well as evaluate how its gone so far, and rene as necessary.
keeping the balance between the three parameters of Then you nalise the full-scale launch, prepare the pro-
time, cost, and quality mentioned above. Project man- cesses and systems that will be required, and provide
agers therefore need to have a good level of know-how in any necessary training. This is the last point at which
whatever field their project is in (such as IT or manu- your project sponsor(s) can make a nal decision on
facturing expertise, for example), as well as sufficient whether or not to go ahead.
clout to have influence with senior decision-makers. Evaluate and monitor. Following the launch, you make
All these requirements can be split into two different sure that the project has delivered the expected bene-
areas of skills: business and interpersonal. ts. You also record any learning points so that you can
Business manage things more effectively next timethings are
The project manager should be able to: bound to go wrong along the way but, if you learn from
plan all aspects of the project them, youll start your next project much better
monitor costs, efciency, and quality without generating equipped.
unnecessary extra work for others Bear in mind that this process doesnt necessarily flow
use both technical and general management skills to through in one smooth sequence, as you will need to
control the project keep evaluating and monitoring plans, budgets, sched-
make sure that the whole team takes part in decision- ules, and so on throughout the life of the project. How-
making, which boosts trust and productivity ever it does act as a good road map, and none of the
get things done right rst time without being a slave stages should be left out, even if your project is a small
driver one.
get the right people for the right task at the right time
see clear-sightedly through tangled issues COMMON MISTAKES
keep focused on results You dont do enough planning
demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills Once the go-ahead has been given for a new project, its
Interpersonal tempting to get over-excited and rush into a frenzy of
He or she also needs to: activity. All projects stand or fall on how well theyve
lead both by example and by taking a back seat when been planned and researched from the outset, though, so
appropriate the early stages of any project (the evaluate ideas and
negotiate any project requirements (such as suitable define and design steps described above) are by far the
The desire for order is the only order in the world. Georges Duhamel
most important, and its essential that you place high fluence the process and clashing with each other, so be
emphasis on them. In fact, between 30% and 50% of the prepared for that too.
entire project lifecycle ought to be devoted to investiga-
tion before you even think about building or producing You get too involved in the nitty-gritty
any products or processes. With so much going on around you, its all too easy to get
Research has shown clearly that time spent on these distracted by details of each individual activity in a
stages is valuable in several important ways. project. Its vital that someone stays in the driving seat
It signicantly decreases the time to completion, and and keeps all the activities together and on course,
832 can cut costs dramatically. though, and as the project manager, thats your job. Dont
It results in clearer objectives and plans, which are more be tempted to get in there and get your hands dirtyyou
ACTIONLIST