Project Management Success with the Top 7 Best Practices

Managing a project can be daunting. Whether planningprogress. You will need progress reports from
your wedding, developing a new website or buildingproject team members. You should record variations
your dream house by the sea, you need to employbetween the actual and planned cost, schedule and
project management techniques to help you succeed.scope. You should report variations to your manager
I'll summarise the top 7 best practices at the heartand key stakeholders and take corrective actions if
of good project management which can help you tovariations get too large.
achieve project success.You can adjust the plan in many ways to get the
Define the scope and objectivesproject back on track but you will always end up
Firstly, understand the project objectives. Supposejuggling cost, scope and schedule. If the project
your boss asks you to organise a blood donormanager changes one of these, then one or both of
campaign, is the objective to get as much bloodthe other elements will inevitably need changing. It is
donated as possible? Or, is it to raise the localjuggling these three elements - known as the project
company profile? Deciding the real objectives will helptriangle - that typically causes a project manager the
you plan the project.most headaches!
Scope defines the boundary of the project. Is theChange management
organisation of transport to take staff to the bloodStakeholders often change their mind about what
bank within scope? Or, should staff make their ownmust be delivered. Sometimes the business
way there? Deciding what's in or out of scope willenvironment changes after the project starts, so
determine the amount of work which needsassumptions made at the beginning of the project
performing.may no longer be valid. This often means the scope
Understand who the stakeholders are, what theyor deliverables of the project need changing. If a
expect to be delivered and enlist their support. Onceproject manager accepted all changes into the
you've defined the scope and objectives, get theproject, the project would inevitably go over budget,
stakeholders to review and agree to them.be late and might never be completed.
Define the deliverablesBy managing changes, the project manager can
You must define what will be delivered by themake decisions about whether or not to incorporate
project. If your project is an advertising campaign forthe changes immediately or in the future, or to reject
a new chocolate bar, then one deliverable might bethem. This increases the chances of project success
the artwork for an advertisement. So, decide whatbecause the project manager controls how the
tangible things will be delivered and document them inchanges are incorporated, can allocate resources
enough detail to enable someone else to produceaccordingly and can plan when and how the changes
them correctly and effectively.are made. Not managing changes effectively is often
Key stakeholders must review the definition ofa reason why projects fail.
deliverables and must agree they accurately reflectRisk management
what must be delivered.Risks are events which can adversely affect the
Project planningsuccessful outcome of the project. I've worked on
Planning requires that the project manager decidesprojects where risks have included: staff lacking the
which people, resources and budget are required totechnical skills to perform the work, hardware not
complete the project.being delivered on time, the control room at risk of
You must define what activities are required toflooding and many others. Risks will vary for each
produce the deliverables using techniques such asproject but the main risks to a project must be
Work Breakdown Structures. You must estimate theidentified as soon as possible. Plans must be made to
time and effort required for each activity,avoid the risk, or, if the risk cannot be avoided, to
dependencies between activities and decide a realisticmitigate the risk to lessen its impact if it occurs. This
schedule to complete them. Involve the project teamis known as risk management.
in estimating how long activities will take. SetYou don't manage all risks because there could be
milestones which indicate critical dates during thetoo many and not all risks have the same impact. So,
project. Write this into the project plan. Get the keyidentify all risks, estimate the likelihood of each risk
stakeholders to review and agree to the plan.occurring (1 = not likely, 2 = maybe likely, 3 = very
Communicationlikely). Estimate its impact on the project (1 - low, 2 -
Project plans are useless unless they've beenmedium, 3 - high), then multiply the two numbers
communicated effectively to the project team. Everytogether to give the risk factor. High risk factors
team member needs to know their responsibilities. Iindicate the severest risks. Manage the ten with the
once worked on a project where the projecthighest risk factors. Constantly review risks and
manager sat in his office surrounded by huge paperlookout for new ones since they have a habit of
schedules. The problem was, nobody on his teamoccurring at any moment.
knew what the tasks and milestones were becauseNot managing risks effectively is a common reason
he hadn't shared the plan with them. The project hitwhy projects fail.
all kinds of problems with people doing activitiesSummary
which they deemed important rather than doing theFollowing these best practices cannot guarantee a
activities assigned by the project manager.successful project but they will provide a better
Tracking and reporting project progresschance of success. Disregarding these best practices
Once your project is underway you must monitorwill almost certainly lead to project failure.
and compare the actual progress with the planned