Any Project Manager will believe that they are only as good as the plans that they make. They seem to live by the motto “he who fails to plan – plans to fail”.  This is, of course, a piece of advice that any manager would do well to heed, not just Project Managers. However, if asked to show a plan of how a Project Manager envisions the work progressing they will invariably produce a schedule, probably using a Gantt Chart, as they simply don’t understand the difference between a plan and the schedule they’re working to.

The difference between a schedule and a plan.

Round the world sailing - would she need a plan or just a schedule?

Useful and essential as a schedule is, it will ‘only’ set out the jobs to be done and the timelines in which to achieve them. This is, of course, an invaluable check-list to help keep things on track, but it by no means covers all of the tasks/events that the Project Manager needs to be aware of or control. These other things all come together to form the plan and will need to include things as basic as the aims and objectives of the project through to definitions of roles and responsibilities of the personnel, quality assurance procedures and the required resources etc. To make sure you create an effective plan, ahead of the schedule, consider the following aspects of developing a comprehensive plan.

The 5 elements of planning.

First of all make sure you clearly understand the project’s objectives by writing them down clearly and concisely in a way that everyone involved in the project will both understand and relate to. Secondly, to avoid the project being extended into developments beyond it’s scope, or that would delay the delivery of your schedule; be very clear in defining what the project won’t be doing. This ‘scope definition’ will help to ensure your sponsors don’t try to encourage project creep making the project a never ending task. Thirdly, have the deliverables defined. If your project is to install a new network make sure the deliverables will cover the objectives. It would be no use having all the hardware, software and network cabling sorted out, only to start the job and realize you need to improve the power supply! Number four follows on from this – make the resources you order realistic in quantity and quality. You’ll be under constant pressure to minimize costs, so planning the resources correctly from the outset will reduce the chances that you’ll have to buy inferior products if you later on realize that something is missing. Finally, make sure the schedule is achievable. Obvious, you might well think and yet so many Project Managers end up with projects that over-run! To ensure your project is achievable make sure the schedule covers the whole project, clearly identifies the key deliverable target dates of individual components/stages and make the tracking of the project and reporting on it as easy as possible.

Plan Or Schedule is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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In the beginning was the project – and then came the Project Manager! If you’re not already aware – becoming a Project Manager does not necessarily mean being involved with a project from its inception. Invariably Project Managers are brought in to take control of a project after it has begun. This can be due to several factors ranging from the company/people who instigated the project suddenly realizing they can’t add the workload of project management to their existing commitments, through to a more serious and potentially dangerous situation for the Project Manager to inherit where the project has descended into chaos! Whatever the reason – going into a new Project Management situation your first job is to establish a credible plan.

You need a plan.

Any Project Manager that is truly worth their pay check knows that the foundation for all of their ensuing work is the plan they put into operation. It will be a very rare occurrence that the plan, if a plan exists at all; that you inherit from the project instigators will be anything like realistic or achievable. Having said that, this is of course the whole reason why you put yourself forward to manage the project – you are a high achiever that not only gets things done, but gets them done right and on time and on budget. How are you going to do that? That’s right – by developing the plan that will rescue the project.

An ultimate project manager - the great US General said “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow”.

Making that killer plan.

So your planning skills are required from the start of your commission, although planning skills are often acquired through experience and even common sense, there are some project planning basics that can be applied to any initial Project Management plan. The first thing to remember is that a plan is not a schedule but a concise document expressing what you are required to do and how you will achieve those things. The plan not only serves to list the objectives, resources and timescales, inspiring the confidence of all that read it – but it will also serve as a useful health check on what preceded your appointment helping you to identify problems and address them.

PM – In The Beginning is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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As a busy project manager the last thing you need to happen is being involved in meetings that are unsuccessful to you, in terms of their outcomes. Going in to any meeting you have to know exactly what you need to achieve in it, and take away from it, in order for it to be a successful meeting. So, what can you do to ensure that you achieve your meetings objectives?

Personal skills.

Preparation is key to successful meetings.

Inter-personal skills.

Using a forceful personality, assertiveness, to effect push something through, should be seen very much as the last resort. If at all possible you need to get others in the meeting agreeing with you and understanding, or at least accepting, that your ideas are the ones needed for the project to progress correctly. (Notwithstanding of course that others may well make helpful contributions that can be incorporated.) To do this you need to ensure that from the outset of the meeting you have established objectives that are mutually agreeable to all around the table, preferably by building a joint agenda. In doing these things you can be confident that there is common ground on which all the participants will be engaged in. Thereafter – you need to present your case with the degree of clarity with which it was prepared, being quite comfortable in maintaining flexibility to any points made about it, being constantly alert to any negative body language or overtones in any responses to your case. Do give time for others to air their views too, but be sure to make your response one that finds common ground between their point and your objectives – in order to promote the sense of everyone benefiting from the outcome you desire.

Successful Meetings is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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If you’re just starting out in your career as a Project Manager or are perhaps working as a Project Manager on a relatively small project, then you’ll invariably find yourself being directly responsible for more and more things, including directly recruiting, managing and trouble-shooting staff yourself. Whilst you will of course want to recruit the best staff and treat them all fairly – are you confident that you know about US employment law and how it could affect your recruitment and managerial procedures and styles?

So what does employment law say?

To answer that question definitively, unfortunately is virtually impossible at any one time – as the law is constantly open to interpretation. That doesn’t mean to say that Project Managers can make their own interpretations of US employment laws, but that as employment law cases are heard by the courts – the subsequent and various rulings can alter the way that US employment law is applied. The result of this is that just reading about US employment law is not enough to keep you abreast of how it is currently being applied. This means that, if you haven’t the time to personally keep track of the latest court rulings; that you can at least refer to an attorney who is an employment law expert.

Where to start with US employment law.

Don’t end up under the judge’s gavel on employment law.

Having said all of that – where should you start your understanding of US employment law? Firstly you need to know that US employment law is enshrined in four main acts: The equal pay act of 1963, The civil rights act of 1964, The age discrimination in employment act of 1967 and the Americans with disabilities act of 1990. These are all federal laws – however, they will all be backed up by local state laws too. As previously mentioned, the wording in all of those original laws will now be open to new and extended interpretations, but the general ethos enshrined in them remains the same. However, say someone with a disability applied for a post with you – you are not restricted to hiring them by anything within the relevant act. What you must do is be confident that, and be able to demonstrate that, you have given them due and equal consideration on their own merit and in relation to other candidates for the post. The simplest way to do this is simply not to ask or say anything that could be taken as being discriminatory. For example – advertizing a job requiring graduate status is fine, advertizing a job suitable for a recent graduate would not be. Why, well quite simply the latter statement implies you’re only looking for young prospective employees.

Know Your Employment Law is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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I already migrated my marketing weblog last week and currently wonder about what aspects, features and goodies you are looking for in addition to the existing ones.

Do you want to have a better way to communicate and discuss ?

• add your own user profile maybe including a picture to the discussion ?
• send private messages to me or other users – asking questions or discussion in private?

Are you interested in contributing?

• do you want to run a joint-venture blog with me? I could setup a project-specific blog for you and/or your colleagues to report about your current project issues… something I thought off as a project webblog three years ago ( man, this sounds so natural, obvious today

• do you want to contibute with a guest article? you could post your bio with the article and/or in your forum and attract possible clients and or hirers

Do you have a specific wish to me for topics to cover ?

Please let me know, if possible TODAY !

What do YOU need? is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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Open Studio is the vision of graphic designer and full-time corporate teleworker Bobby Kellogg. Like many workspace entrepreneurs, Kellogg wanted to create the perfect workspace for himself and share it with his professional community – mainly graphic designers, architects and photographers.

The join together to share a social community as well as a better coffee machine and even a common health insurance plan… Looks like a new contra-trend to the work-at-home movement…

Teleworkers join together at work clubs is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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1. Analysis

Using Project management software will help you to be more efficient at your job.

More correctly referred to as impact analysis a key skill required toward the final stages of a project is the ability to analyse the impact of changes brought about by the project. Exactly the same as the well known ‘ripple effect‘ you must never underestimate the knock-on changes and effect that a major project can bring about. Being able to analyse and then manage these is yet another skill you need to master. Changes to the specification of a project after it has begun are all too easily overlooked and you will need to constantly revisit your impact analysis to incorporate them. Amongst other things any change to the specification could affect your previous analysis regarding legal, health, safety, and marketing or personnel issues. However, the ultimate reason for doing the analysis is – how the change will affect the end-date for the project? Project management is a complex task and the bigger the project, the more complex it becomes. You must be able to keep track of progress on the project from all the various sections of it that are on-going. This can be done on paper, but in all reality you need to learn and understand how to make the most out of one of the many pieces of project management software that are available. Using an IT based project management system will also help you to adjust timelines and priorities as the project develops.

2. Communication

Effective project planning underpins all project management.

If you can’t communicate, I’m sorry but you’ll never become an effective and successful project management. Any manager, but especially the project manager, has to understand that although you’re charged with ensuring the successful completion of a project – you’ll be dealing with a multiplicity of people and companies that you have to bring together in order to achieve the projects aims and objectives. If you don’t communicate effectively, either in speech, writing or presentations you won’t provide the information that your workers need to fulfill their jobs; be that in sharing knowledge, discussing ideas, providing solutions or making an executive decision.

3. Budgeting

Even if you have a team of accountants looking after the day-to-day running of the projects finances, understanding how to use a budget yourself is another essential project management skill to posses. The three key stages to a budget are preparing it, writing it and monitoring it. whilst your finance department may well be ostensibly charged with doing these things for you – as project manager you have the ultimate responsibility for the budget and need to be able to understand what you are being told about the budget. Unless your own background is in accounting you will feel obliged to accept what you’re told, if you don’t take the time to learn some basic budgeting skills. You will need these as at time you will need to know how to rationally and logically challenge budget over-runs that you become aware of as well as be able to sensibly monitor the budget as the project progresses.

4. Teamwork

Effective teamwork - will help you to manage your project most effectively.

The essence of any good project manager is to be a good team leader and, if necessary, be a good team player. Whilst decisions will remain your responsibility, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t encourage input from others or be prepared to work with them to help them achieve their goals too. Furthermore, by building a culture of teamwork into all aspects of the project, you will engender high self-esteem within all of the workers, meaning that they feel personally involved in ensuring the success of the project.

5. Intelligence

This doesn’t mean to say that you have to have a string of letters after your name as intelligence isn’t something you can learn. However, intelligence is something you can improve on and develop, so the more you study the chances are the more you’ll increase your intelligence. In the context of project management intelligence can be considered to be your ability to have a clear vision of all aspects of the project whilst at any one time being able to keenly focus onto a specific aspect of it. Put another way, just having the big picture will not help when you have a decision to make on a specific matter. You won’t always have the time to spend hours researching and re-reading material in order to make the decision at the time it is needed.

6. Calmness

It is almost inevitable that at times your job will be stressful, if not highly stressful. Being able to work calmly under such conditions is an absolute pre-requisite for a successful project manager. A key point to reducing your stress levels is your ability to move on from a setback. If something goes wrong or not according to plan, don’t waste time worrying about who’s fault it might have been or get involved in a cycle of what could have been different, that can come later in your project evaluation. Instead, move swiftly on to solving the problem or rectifying the situation.

7. Time

The Project Management Life Cycle.

Quite simply – are you a good time manager? Understanding the life-cycle for project management will help you to understand how to apply the key skill of time management to it. Your time management and you ability to organize yourself and others are vitally important. Time management is much more than simply allocating portions of time to certain jobs. You need to analyze exactly what it is you’re spending your time on and how important are those tasks and portions of time to the successful completion of the project. For example, you could easily spend up to an hour a day just reading emails. This is a task you can delegate to your PA, get them to be the person that sorts the important from the not so important, telling you what needs dealing with immediate and what can be left until later. That hour you’ve saved – you can use inspecting a part of the project checking on progress or quality etc. You should apply this time management philosophy to most things you do; do I need to attend that meeting or can I delegate someone else? Remember, you are the project manager, you are primarily there to do the strategic planning, overall monitoring and be creative and innovative in solving problems – not micro-manage everything.

7 key skills of a project manager is a post from: Enterprise Project Management

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