Project Management 101

Project Management has really emerged as a discipline in its own right in the last few years. In the UK the Association of Project Managers has just graduated its first cohort of Chartered Project managers, after recently gaining Chartered status. There are now numerous qualifications and frameworks which a beginner or experienced project manager can enrol on to gain qualifications in the PM disciplines. However, as experience grows you understand that many principles are the same and there are a few basic fundamentals which can be applied regardless.

1. What are you trying to do? What is the purpose of the project? Read the contract, what are you being asked to deliver?
2. What is the budget? Which costs are fixed (i.e.salaries, equipment, facilities?) which are variable (contractor resource), how do they need to paid and managed. How are you going to track them?
3. When does the project have to be delivered?
4. Do you have the correct skills on your team, if not how are you going to get them, how will it impact what you’re trying to do?
5. Who are your stakeholders? Budget holders, affected users, interested parties — make sure you’re clear on who you need to talk to, by which means, about what, and when.
6. What is the critical path to the end point? Basically what do you need to do in which order?
7. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. With your team, with your different stakeholders, when things are going well, and doubly so when things are going wrong. Most people are more understanding when they have been kept informed and there are no big surprises.
8. What are your risks? What is the financial/project/resource (etc.) impact if the risks come to pass? What will be your approach to managing the risks?
9. What are your dependencies — make sure you know what things you need in order to progress your project.
10. Make sure you regularly revisit all these points to re-validate — as the project progresses things can and do change completely!
11. Ask the experts. As a PM you should be managing what is happening and when, but you can’t always be the expert in everything. It’s ok to ask and to listen to your colleagues.
12. Learn to trust your team and have them trust you.
13. Again. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate!

Once you have the basics — you can grow and adapt your approaches through the different frameworks and project management styles. However, the most important thing to remember, no matter how new or experienced someone is , and no matter how big or small the project — communication is key. I’m an introvert, and there are days I simply don’t want to talk to people, but I love my work and want to do it well — so I make sure I talk to people!

What else would you include in your PM 101 list?!