Are You Ready for Your Next Project?
From the Thoughts on Project Management Blog
by Gina Abudi
Articles will focus on the the people-side of project management - team leadership, communication, virtual teams, change management and cultural diversity.
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Date
Before you officially kick off your next project, consider whether you can answer the following questions:
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Are you aware of why the project is being launched? If not, find out! Ask the project sponsor why this particular project is being launched? What is the goal of the project? To what strategic organizational goal is the project aligned? This information enables you to understand the priority level of the project as well as have information that enables for securing resources and “selling” the project to team members and stakeholders.
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Do you have the knowledge to run the project? What are your strengths and weaknesses regarding the project? When you understand areas that you are not as knowledgeable as you might be or may have limited skills, you can use that knowledge to ensure you recruit team members who can help fill in the gaps. You don’t need to be an expert in every area of the project, others will have expertise you do not. Rely on their expertise to ensure a successful project.
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How do stakeholders feel about the project? Are they champions of the project? Are they against it? How do you know? If you don’t know, find out! Ask stakeholders their opinion about the project. Are they excited about it or worried? If worried, dive deeper to understand why so that you can address those concerns and get stakeholders on board with the project.
- Can the project be implemented as is? If it is a large, complex initiative, you might consider breaking down the project into smaller components to be more easily managed and to enable for quicker successes.
- How will the project “stick” when complete? What reinforcements will be put in place to ensure the project end result “sticks?” Will training be needed? What incentives are necessary? What processes will need to change? Consider what will need to happen to ensure the project sticks so that you can prepare early.
What else do you do to get ready for your projects? Share your best practices in the Comments section.
Posted on: March 13, 2016 06:28 AM |
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Comments (10)
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Great article. I would like to add few point :
1) Get to know the project team
2) Understand the project budget
3) Understand the project timeline
fosco frongia
Senior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUG
Fino Mornasco, Como, Italy
Fine article, thanks Gina.
we can resume it with a gold rule: recollect as many info as you can
Thejassu Raghavan
Engagement Manager in Agile environment| WinWire Technologies Ltd
Bangalore, India
Thanks Gina for the quick and excellent recap.
Gathering info on previous similar projects done will be good. Issues & risks faced and best practices followed will give an initial reference.
In addition to the above, be sure about the correct understanding of the scope of work, scope of facilities, team expertize, ambient risk, ...
regards
Gopal Sahai
Corporate Trainer| Self employed
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Crisp check list. Let me share an ugly experience I had, though an eye opener as I look back.
A few years ago, I was once part of a project where actually I shouldn't have been. I was squeezed into the project from the role of identifying process improvements to implementation of an product engineering software, which was way off my capabilities of that time. Needless to say, my contribution was very limited as I was not able to understand the functional process itself! My role in that project was that of a co-ordinator and scribe and my meeting notes sucked big time.
With repeated miss outs on notes, the need to have a functional engineer was realized for that role and my prayers were heard.
So, despite I was aware why the project was launched, I did not have the knowledge required for the role I was assigned to... a big lesson learnt, by me, and the stakeholders.
Gina Abudi
President| Abudi Consulting LLC
Amherst, Nh, United States
Thanks for thoughts and contributions all. Keep 'em coming. @Gopal - Wow - that is not a great experience. It is often stated that as a project manager you can manage any kind of project, but I do think that sometimes not having the background may put you at a clear disadvantage.
Karthik T
Senior Engineering Manager| Nike
Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Good article, discussions. Thanks for posting.
virendrakumar sinha
Consultant| State water sanitation mission ,uttarakhand,india
Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India
Thanks for sharing.Excellent article.
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