In our last installment of the project management guide, Laying the Foundations, we looked at putting together the project management team. The most important task for this group now is to expand on the project mandate or idea that has started this whole process. They need to make the business case for the project.

So what is the business case? It explains the purpose of the project, the aim that it has, and importantly, why the project is a good thing for the organisation to do. Let’s look at an example.

Wally’s Widgets is a firm on the up. It is currently based in a single floor office above a store in a suburb. However, things are getting a bit cramped. The firm has recently taken on a few new staff, and it’s getting hard to fit everyone in. In addition, their landlord has recently put up the rent for the space. So Wally’s Widgets has decided to move to a better location.

The project management team have come together to write the business case for the relocation project. Now, some of this is simple to write. What the business wants to get out of this project is obvious – more space, and hopefully paying less rent. But we need to drill down to show why the business wants these things. Firstly, the business wants more space to provide a better working environment for staff, and to provide the possibility of future expansion. Secondly, the business wants to reduce rent as this has a direct impact on the bottom line!

It is important to realise that these reasons need to be put down, because the business case should be revisited often throughout the project. This is because it is important to continue to check that the project is still relevant. For example, Wally’s Widgets could hit a bad patch, and have to lay off some staff. Then the need for extra space is lost.

The need for a strong business case for a project is particularly acute in times of economic stress. As you can see in “Recession may put short-term IT projects on hold” and “Surviving IT Project Management Complexity”, the business case becomes vital for deciding which projects survive, and which projects can be cut. You must always make sure your business case is as strong as possible – and, if the situation changes around you, examine it with an open mind to see if the project should be stopped.

(Image courtesy of Jacob Bøtter. Some rights reserved.)

Just a quick one from Project Management Guide today, to point you at a great video on the ZDNet Between The Lines blog – “The top five reasons why project management fails”.

Notice how important it is to make sure the organisation as a whole is committed to project management.  Too often, appointing a project manager completes the tick-box of project management.  In reality, project management is something that must be bought into by everyone connected with the project – from your sponsor down.  You need to make sure everyone has the discipline to follow the project management steps, leading to a more successful project.

Right, we now have our project’s reason for being, its purpose in life.  We’re all ready to rush off and jump right into doing some nice, meaty work, really getting our hands dirty to move the project along.

Of course, if you do this, you’re going to waste time, money, and risk having the project fail.

Now we have the project idea, it is time to do some homework to make sure we put the project on the best footing we can, to give it as much chance of success as possible.  And because all projects are going to be done within an organisation, the first thing we need to do is make sure that our project has the right person at the top.  This person needs to be of enough stature within the organisation to make sure the project can get what it needs to get to success.  This role is known by a variety of names, such as Project Sponsor, Executive Sponsor, Project Champion, or simply Executive.

We also need to find some people to support the Executive.  While the Executive holds a position of authority in the project, they will also need help in examining the project’s progress.  To this end, there are a couple of useful roles.  Firstly, there needs to be someone who represents those delivering the project, the people doing the building, coding, writing, etc.  Secondly, there needs to be someone who represents the end users of the project, the customers, be they internal or external.

We’ll come back to all of these roles in a later post, but hopefully you’ll already be able to see why we need them, and how they fit together.

You may also want to pencil in some names to be part of your project team, but you may have to wait until you are further down the track to do this.

Oh, and naturally, there also needs to be a project manager!

All these people need to get together to help expand on the original idea that was passed to them.  This is the first chance they get to really dig down into the idea, and see how good an idea it really is.  This is the point when the business reason for doing the project needs to be clearly and explicitly set out – this will help us to nail down what we expect the outputs of the project to be, what quality these need to have, and why these outputs are a good idea.  Essentially, we want to get down:

• a business case for doing the project
• what we want the project to produce
• what quality these products need to have

In essence, we want to know why we’re doing the project, and how we’ll know when we’ve finished!  Getting this information down enables your Executive to make the decision as to whether it is a good idea to go ahead with the project or not.  Only once this information is available to them, and they have agreed to it, can we get cracking on getting the project under way.

I hope you’ve found this post in our project management guide useful – next time, we start to get our hands dirty!

(Image courtesy of The Lebers.  Some rights reserved.)

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.