Making Project Management easy as 1-2-3: once you've mastered these steps, you'll be gliding effortlessly through your next project - Supplier Business: Plante Moran

Automotive Industries,  Dec, 2002  by Jonathan E. Probst

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6. Determine your project budget.

Use the WBS and the project schedule to determine when spending will occur. Set a tolerance band on expenses to flag variances and create actions to address the variance.

7. Record project issues and risks.

Issues and risk will arise throughout the entire project life cycle. Assign individuals to issues with a discrete output, meaning that issues need to be written to identify if the associated task(s) are completed.

8. Capture and document project approval steps.

Add approval steps throughout the process to ensure management support and to capture team member buy-in to the planning process. Capture the approval steps in the project schedule (Step 5 above) to communicate major milestones and reviews. Documented approval steps should include not only the approval to plan the project but also during technical review points throughout the execution of the project

9. Identify steps needed during the project execution phase.

This is a critical step because it measures how accurate the planning was for a given project. This information can be used to increase the accuracy of the next similar project. Various Earned Value methods will provide an estimate of how the project is performing relative to cost and schedule.

10. Institute a continuous improvement process to capture lessons learned.

It is obvious to each of us that documenting lessons learned after and during a project is beneficial. The problem is that many organizations do not capture them and, if they do, they take place in the form of a meeting or discussion around the coffee machine. All potential lessons can be forwarded to the respective process owners, and a proactive approach can be utilized to institute change before the next project begins.

Taking Baby Steps

You're probably thinking that while PM sounds great -- theoretically -- that practical implementation is a whole other baligame. And you're right -- to an extent.

Some companies roll out very comprehensive PM methodologies within divisions and across organizations. They work to create a project and provide reference material that will address almost every situation. Manuals are often thick and training classes, if they exist, can be weeks long. While this may not always be the wrong approach, it is if an organization didn't have many tools in place to begin with. Introducing new protocol has to be manageable and in small enough steps to I encourage acceptance. PM is a living methodology that should be periodically updated to meet the needs of the users.

Therefore, manageable steps are needed to have sustained, proficient success. This is affectionately known as taking "baby steps." Throwing too much at an organization will result in poor acceptance.

The Bottom Line

So what's the bottom line? It's simply this: you don't need to have a large investment to institute an effective PM methodology at your organization. By following the Top 10 tips for effective project management and using very simple tools, that are already present at your company, you can often create an efficient system to manage your product development and service projects. It doesn't have to be difficult, but if you still have questions, it is often beneficial to utilize the support of experts in this area to kick-start your internal efforts and create a systemic approach that can be quickly implemented.

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