Project management is often more about knowing what to leave out than anything else. Every project will need a different blend of methods, procedures and processes, and you need to use your judgement to know what to apply.

It’s easy to buy a book on project management which will hand you a set of processes to follow, or rules to obey. These books have their place, and are a valuable resource for those just getting started in project management.

But what these books are providing you with are the raw tools you’ll need. These are, naturally, incredibly useful. But there is no point in having a toolbox brimming with shiny new tools if, when confronted with a problem, we don’t know which one to reach for first.

Working as a project management contractor, I have to go into projects without any prior knowledge of the people I am working with, or the organisation. Sometimes I don’t even know much about the project until I’m sat at a new desk in a new office, trying to get to grips with it!

It would be madness to try to use every single tool I have to hand on every project as soon as I arrive. Some projects need lots of big, formal, prescriptive project management procedures and methods. Thankfully, the vast majority do not – they need bits and pieces, they need the right tools in the right places.

This is what the books of procedures and methods can’t teach you – judgement. I need to look around at the situation I find myself in, at the people around me, at the project itself, and make a judgement about what needs to be in place to give the project the best chance of success.

Sometimes, that will be quite strict project management methods. Sometimes I can be more relaxed. Some people I can happily leave a task and now it will be done, while with others I will need to chase regularly for reports. All of these decisions require me to draw on my judgement – and that judgement comes from experience.

Now, all this could be quite disheartening to someone coming new to project management – but it really shouldn’t be. Experience comes to all of us, eventually, and will come to you. And you won’t go far wrong if you apply strict methods to begin with, and relax from there once you have more understanding of the project and project team.