Successful Project Management: All the Little Things

Fernando Smye has been working in program and project management for over 10 years in International and UK Corporate Banking. He runs his own project management firm, Cosmo FS Ltd.

  Communications Management   Governance   Lessons Learned   Requirements Management   Risk Management  

Over the years, we have all read articles, blogs and forum discussions that share things like the importance of cost, time and quality management; ten steps to successful project management; why a business case and business requirements are important; and so on.

The aim of this article is not to go over this same old ground, but to shed light on some of the less-discussed aspects of successful project management. Of course a solid business case, a well-thought-out plan and fit-for-purpose business requirements are important; however, there is already plenty of material out there on these subjects. The aim here is to help us think about "all the little things" that we do each and every day, things that--when added together--help create the recipe for successful projects and programs.

Beginnings
The most successful project I ever managed was just under nine years ago. It was a complex technology project where the financial institution in question (a bank) was carrying out a multi-million pound improvement program to its payments technology architecture.

I was one of three business project managers hired, and each of us was given a slice of high-value, high-volume payment feeds, which needed to be transferred from an antiquated system to the new, singing and dancing 21st century system. System A had a couple of …

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