Many organisations believe that project management is the responsibility of select members of staff or a professional hired to manage the project themselves.
In reality, however, is this really the case?
It’s not just Project Managers that manage projects!
Nearly everyone in the workplace will manage a project at some point. Project management comes in many forms. Whether it is organising the company Christmas party or rolling out a new ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, the two would equally benefit from the tools, techniques and templates frequently used by a Project Manager (PM).
Where do you start and what are the key attributes you could adopt today to achieve company-wide success?
Project Scope and Definition
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin
What do you want to achieve? Whether you are in the Marketing team, Risk, Compliance, Accounts, or delivering a service such as a Lawyer would do, don’t forget to scope and define. Engage the team you need, get their input and bring them with you. A common cause for frustration within any project can be that the team are ‘not on the same page’. Therefore engagement is vital. Once onboard, the (project) team will have the opportunity to provide input on the project and buy-in to the process early on. This will ensure that the vision, scope and benefits of the project are understood by all and guarantee that it aligns with the organisation’s strategy. Once this is agreed, the details can be fully documented providing transparency and accountability as a reference guide further down the line. Think of this as the hymn sheet for the whole project team to sing from, thus creating visibility and accountability for the project.
Risk Analysis
What could go wrong? Threats to the success of any project are inevitable. Do we naively hope for the best? No. All good Project Managers will conduct a thorough risk analysis of their project. By doing so, the PM and the team can carefully navigate the risks to account for possible problems and address potential diversions. Surely that’s obvious?! In reality, this is one of the most commonly overlooked practices in organisations of any size.
Lessons Learned
So, how did it go? Many projects have common successes and failures. These could be overspend, time constraints and lack of scope clarity. How often do you take the time to engage your whole project team in an honest debrief to discuss the lessons learned? Once a project is winding down, it is very easy to skip identifying these learnings. Repeating and encouraging positive behaviours and discouraging the negative is imperative for future success.
The above suggestions represent a fraction of the transferable skills for non-project managers. There is still much more to be learned from project management. Engaging employees in company-wide project management training offers the opportunity to enhance their effectiveness, rates of success and drive organisational success. For more information about Project Management training, please contact Esther McMorris estherm@ninefeettall.com.
