Raven's Brain: Project Management Tips: Top Ten Keys to Making Projects Successful

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Project Management Tips: Top Ten Keys to Making Projects Successful

Originally published at Raven's Brain v1.0: Project Management Tips: Top Ten Keys to Making Projects Successful

I received the latest newsletter from WIPM SIG and found a link to an interesting article from the PM Insight website- The Top Ten Keys to Making Projects Successful. I'm a fan of tips, checklists and especially top ten lists. This one is great because it talks about things beyond the schedule - feeding guerillas, thinking sideways and looking out for Mr. Murphy. Check it out:

The typical project manager has lots of responsibility and very little authority. To make things even more challenging, the typical project plan bears little resemblance to reality. Achieving successful outcomes under these conditions is not easy.Remember and apply these key reminders and you'll significantly increase your odds for success.

1. Find the deal-breakers up front. Constraints (the deal-breakers) are non-negotiable limits within which the project must be planned and implemented (e.g., no more than $300,000 total budget, Legal must approve all contract wording, etc.). Constraints won't necessarily hurt your project; but finding out about them half way through the project could be deadly.

2. Surface and test assumptions early and often."It ain't what we know that hurts us; it's what we know that just ain't so." Assumptions are a necessary part of any project. Untested assumptions can result in disaster (e.g., "I assumed the client was OK with late deliveries. It wasn't a problem last time."). Build actions into your plan to test all assumptions.

3. Find and feed the gorillas. Strong influence players do no value-added work on a project, but through their influence in the organization, they can make or break your project. Sometimes, they can play a positive role (e.g., champions, sponsors and advocates). In other cases, your failure may be their success. In all cases, find out who they are and what it will take to make them strong supporters or, at least, to neutralize their negative impact. Whenever possible, get them involved, ask their advice and keep them informed.

4. Make the team own the plan. The best plans are the ones that are developed by the whole team. Make it an event—use a special meeting to get the team together to develop a network diagram that shows dependencies between team members. Assign one person to keep it updated.

5. Get everyone on the team to think "sideways". Make sure everyone manages their own hand-offs. Get them to communicate with internal/external suppliers to clarify their needs. And before that, have them communicate with internal/external customers to make sure they understand what is expected of them.