Project management does not exist in a vacuum. We have embraced the various new methods of communication to encourage better collaboration and team-work. It is now practically inconceivable for a project not to be using email, tele-conferences, even video-conferencing to maintain contact with the participants.

But are we embracing the new technologies available now? Are we making best use of the tools we now have? With project teams becoming even more spread out over the globe, are we making best use of our new communication methods?

This series will look at the various new social media tools available to us, and how we can start to use them in our projects. Some of you will already be using some of these tools. I’d love to hear your stories about how they have worked for you – many of the uses are only now developing, so I’d love to hear your best practices!

This week I’m going to take a look at Twitter. Twitter is a relatively new social networking and ‘micro-blogging’ service, based on the exchange of 140 character messages.

That perfectly explains what Twitter is, while also completely missing the point. Twitter is about keeping in touch with people, in a simple way. You can update people with a light touch, on a frequent basis. These are the kind of small interactions that help to build a community, or a team.

In Twitter, you choose who you want to hear from by selecting who you would like to ‘follow’. In turn, others can choose to follow you. If you want to, you can also make your account protected – this means only the people you allow to can see what you say.

Obviously this has possible applications for a project manager. Twitter enables you to keep your team members updated on a regular basis. For example, you could ‘tweet’ whenever there is an update of the blog you set up for the project. If the account you are using is protected, you can also tweet about the project status, questions you may have, and answers too.

Because Twitter isn’t one way, you can also follow your team members. This enables you to build a network within your team, with short and frequent contacts – especially useful if the team is scattered around the country or even the world.

The best way to learn about Twitter is to actually start using it. To get you started after you have created your account, you can start following a few useful project management people. Try Project Shrink, PM Tips and PM Opinions to get you started. You might also like to try following Josh Nankivel and, of course, Cornelius Fichtner, who is responsible for the great PM Prepcast.

Oh, and you can follow me too! Just click on the follow button after you have logged in.

Once you see how you can use Twitter, you’ll begin to see all sorts of ways it can be useful in your business. I’ll see you there! Next week, we’ll be looking at another social media tool, one which helps bring together all the other tools out there.

What about you? Are you already using Twitter? Who do you find most useful to follow? Or do you think it’s just a waste of time? Let me know!

Part of The Social Media Project Manager Series.

OK, so we now know what a project is, and what project management is.  Now it is time to get to grips with an actual project.  It would be good to start from the very beginning.  Unfortunately, you actually have to start before that.

What is the start of a project?  Most people would say the start of the project is when you have your team in place, a plan ready, and start working to achieve the success criteria.  However, there are some very important things that need to happen before you get to this stage, before you actually start the project.

To me, the work begins with that initial twinkling in the eye, the first gem of an idea that kicks something off in somebody’s mind.  But, of course, you can’t be the project manager of this – the idea of what to do is, not surprisingly a pre-requisite for getting a project manager in!

So, what will happen here?  Well, let’s think about what we would want in an ideal world.  In this fantasy land, someone in the organisation, Bob, has an idea, an inkling that something could be done to help the organisation meet its goals.  He immediately scribbles this down on the back of a napkin (did I mention he was at a coffee shop?) and hurries back to the office.

Back at the office, Bob speaks to his boss, Alice.  Alice likes the idea too, and thinks it could help the organisation if this were done.  So she goes to speak to the head of the project management office, Carl.  Carl, worried by the creeping alphabetisation, asks Susan, a project manager, to help Bob and Alice to see if the idea is really a good one for a project.

The important thing that has happened here is the engagement of Susan into the progress.  The idea, the kernel of a project, that has been passed to her is the reason for the project.  In PRINCE2, it is called the Project Mandate – it is this that triggers the next step, that of starting up the project.  We’ll talk about that in the next post of this project management guide.

(Image courtesy of Sol Young.  Some rights reserved.)

Something a bit different today for Project Management Guide, looking at a couple of related project management blog postings out there.

Firstly, Ron Holohan at pm411.org has another great post and podcast, 5 tips to manage your manager:

I am not talking about manipulating your manager, but rather making sure you are successful in meeting her expectations. We usually know what we need to do to get our job done as a project manager, but do we know our manager’s needs? How can we insure that we are meeting her needs?

This is a very important part of what we do. We must be aware of what our manager is trying to achieve, and they are likely to be a stakeholder in our projects. Not knowing what they need to get out of your work is going to cause you a problem, just as not defining what your project needs to achieve will.

Backing this up is a post by Robert McIlree, The Most Critical P-Word Of All:

We focus primarily on what I call P-words: People, Process, Projects, Programs…and yet, there is one P-word missing; and it’s the one that trumps all of the others almost every time:

Politics.

Absolutely true. I remember one project I worked on, when I was instructed to amend a risk report because the person responsible (through inaction) for one of the high impact, high probability risk would “be embarrassed” by it! This was all due to the complicated politics going on at the time (a number of organisations were merging into one).

Politics within the project, and within the organisation, can have a major impact on your project, and it is important you are aware of it. Hopefully this will mean you are able to accurately gauge the various risks associated with it!

Surprisingly, this is a question which isn’t asked enough by aspiring project managers. Everyone thinks they know the answer, but do they really? Let’s look at a few examples:

1. You have just started a new management job. Your company produces a speciality good, and you have to oversee the manufacturing process, and make sure as many are produced as possible.
2. You have just joined a new company. Your first assignment is to ensure every desk in the office gets a new computer on it within 12 months.
3. Your next assignment is to deliver the roll-out of a new communications infrastructure, and maintain it afterwards.

Before we decide, we’ll have a look at a few definitions that are out there. The Project Management Institute says in their guide A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge “a project consists of a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.” The definition used in PRINCE2 (a popular project management methodology in the UK and Europe) says a project “is a management environment that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products according to a specified business case.”

In plain English, a project starts to achieve an aim, and finishes when that aim is achieved. The aim can be creating a new product, delivering a particular item, or even just achieving a particular goal. The important thing to remember is that projects are temporary. They do not consist of the same task done ad infinitum.

Given these definitions, we can now decide which of the examples given above are actually projects.

Number 1 is not a project. You will be managing a process that already exists. However, if, for example, you were tasked with coming up with a way to make the process 25% more efficient, doing that task would be a project.

Number 2 is a project. You can see it has a clear aim – to put a new computer on every desk. In addition, it has a constraint, because it all has to be done within 12 months. We’ll come back to constraints in a later project management guide.

Number 3 is a project – at first. Rolling out the new comms infrastructure is a project, with the aim of delivering that infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure afterwards is not a project. However, you may want to write the procedures and protocols for maintaining the infrastructure in the delivery project, as an additional product.

The third case is a classic example of how project management can come into many jobs. It is easy to imagine, for example, an IT manager having to project manage the roll-out of the infrastructure, in addition to the day job of maintaining it at the end. If you are in this sort of situation, it is important to realise you need to clearly define what is part of your project, and what isn’t – otherwise your precious project resource may start to get pulled onto day to day tasks, instead of being focussed on delivery.

Remember that projects are temporary, with defined goals. I hope you’ve found this project management guide useful!

If you are a project manager, you will know that project management is important. But you will also know that it is too often misunderstood. Here at Project Management Guide website, we try to spread the message about what project management is, why it is important, and how to do it well.

Project management is the science and art of achieving success in your projects. It’s a science because it is possible to set down techniques and methodologies to follow, and an art because you need to have the ability to see which of these to us, and where and when to apply them.

Project management is important because it allows us to tackle projects in a clear, repeatable, and successful manner.  If we approached every project we face with no clear idea of the techniques to use, we’d end up trying to muddle through every time, making the same mistakes over and over again.  This is all avoidable with the proper project management techniques, experience, and knowledge.  This means we have more successful projects, achieved in a shorter time, and at a lower cost.

So what do you need to do in project management?

1. Understand what success is for your project
2. Plan how to get there
3. Find and allocate the resources needed
4. Monitor progress
5. Identify the project risks, and how to avoid them, or how to mitigate the effects if they occur
6. Solve the problems that occur along the way
7. Hand over a successful product at the end
8. Review the project at the end, and learn lessons for next time (for yourself and your organisation)

Notice, though, that none of these imply a particular methodology, a particular set of tools. The right tools to use depend on what job you are trying to do! It would be ludicrous to try and use the same tools for a $500 project that you do for $5,000,000 project! One of the most important things in project management is to know when to use the techniques and methodologies you have at your disposal, to know which of them are right for that particular project.

This project management guide will help you learn the tools, tips and techniques you need to achieve success!

Do you need to know more about project management – fast?
Do you want to know how to make your projects successful?
Do you need help with a project that is in trouble?
Do you want to find out how to reduce the cost of your projects, while getting better results?

We all carry out projects in our lives, whether at work or at home.  From the executive carrying out a massive restructuring of her business, to the secretary planning a business meeting, we all come up against similar challenges.  Knowing how to handle those challenges means the difference between success and failure.

The problem is, sometimes the way we should move forward isn’t clear.  While you could always buy a project management guide, you need to know enough to find the right one for you and your project.  What we need is somewhere we can go to get advice.  Somewhere we can find the information we need.  Somewhere we can learn the techniques to get to success.

This is where ProjectManagementGuide.org comes in.  This resource is written by a successful project manager.  Over the years I have managed projects with budgets ranging from millions of dollars, to just a few hundred. Working with government bodies, major companies, and small businesses, I have created communication infrastructures, set up organisations, started businesses and delivered marketing campaigns – all by following the simple principles set out in this guide.

So keep reading, and you too will learn how to use your knowledge, expertise and experience to tailor your approach to be the perfect fit for your project, and to achieve success.

With this project management guide, you will learn:

• to begin a project – defining what you want to achieve
• to plan how to get to where you want to be
• to recognise when problems are coming – and how to deal with them
• to deal with risks by spotting them early, and taking the right action then – not when it is too late
• to review your project regularly – recognise where you are, what you have achieved, and what there is to do

Taken together, this project management guide will have you delivering on time, on budget, high quality projects, enabling you to save money, time and effort, all to the benefit of your company, and your career.  Let ProjectManagementGuide.org be your guide to project management.