Introducing: 15 Tips for Successful Project Management

Introducing: 15 Tips for Successful Project Management

TOC: 1 Set SMART Goals 3 Deal with Difficult Team Members 6 Have an Implementation Strategy 8 Eliminate Project Scope Creep 10 Know the Basics 12 Start Managing Project Requests 16 Start Evolve is Key to Change 19 Plan & Setup a Project 23 Choose the Right Software 26 Understand the Characteristics of a Project 29 Manage Your Email to Save Time 33 Use Email to Improve Project Clarity 36 Use a Time Management Process 39 Get Users to Fall in Love With Your PM Solution 41 Become a Master Using the REP Process

1 Tip 1: Set SMART Goals

2 SMART Goals Goal setting is key to project management and will ensure you are kept on track at all times. So when you are setting your goals, make sure that they are SMART, as in Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time-related, and you will be well on your way to project success!

3 Tip 2: Deal With Difficult Team Members

Difficult Team Members 4 There are very few of us who can say that we ve never clashed heads with another team member during a project, but how do we deal with this type of situation when it arises? Well, there are a number of strategies you can use and they include:

Difficult Team Members 5 Approaching the team member with empathy Building rapport with the person Only saying positive things to the team member Offering help if necessary As a last resort, and only if needed, reporting them to the powers that be

6 Tip 3: Have an Implementation Strategy

Implementation Strategy 7 All project management key activities and processes are interrelated and must be managed together for effective project integration, and as a result; a successful project outcome. There are a number of key activities to consider here, including the scope of the project, its schedule, budget, quality and available resources.

8 Tip 4: Eliminate Project Scope Creep

Scope Creep 9 For those of you who don t know, project scope creep is when a project manager allows small changes to a project and before they know it, they have actually changed the plan completely compared to the original! In order to prevent such unexpected changes, you need to take a look at the project management triple constraint, which is made up of time, cost and scope.

10 Tip 5: Know the Basics

The Basics 11 First thing s first when it comes to project management: make sure you know the basics! There are 4 major areas that you should focus on here and they include: 1 2 3 4 Asking the right questions Establishing the success criteria Producing project artefacts Scheduling health checks

12 Tip 6: Start Managing Project Requests

Project Request Management 13 Project request management is about picking the projects that deliver the most value. Simple, right?! How hard can that be? Turns out it can be pretty difficult. For instance, where do the project ideas come from? How do you decide which to consider? How do you rank them? How do you select the right ones? How do you manage the whole process? Where do you even begin?!

Project Request Management 14 Well, here are a couple of tips that will help you get this process up and running. Start simple Tip 1 is to start simple, and you do this by simply capturing project requests. It could be something as straightforward as an Excel or a SharePoint list, but once you start collecting the requests, you can then begin to compare and make decisions.

Project Request Management 15 Take your time My second tip is to take your time. When a project request rolls in, you don t have to make a decision right away! Look at the current crop of project requests periodically and then decide. You could end up doing weekly reviews right up to annual reviews. Something more in the middle is best, be it monthly or quarterly.

16 Tip 7: Start Evolve is Key to Change

Start Evolve 17 Some people find it hard to make changes they fall into this trap of doing a little bit and having great success and then stopping and starting. They get stuck in a rut, but there s no need. So the questions then become, how do you get out of it? How do you move? How do you change? The answer to this question is simple, Start, Evolve.

Start Evolve 18 So what you want to do is just make a start. Get some momentum and keep going because, as we all know, you have to do something to learn. The BrightWork philosophy of Start Evolve is a pragmatic way of going about life and implementing collaborative project management.

19 Tip 8: Plan & Setup a Project

Plan & Setup 20 So you re starting a project and you need to develop a plan, but how exactly do you do this? At BrightWork, we like to break up project planning into 3 steps: 1 2 3 Create the project plan Review the project plan Inform the team of their responsibilities

Plan & Setup 21 1 Create the project plan To create your project plan, at a minimum, you ll need to do 3 things: 1 2 3 Complete the project statement Create and assisgn tasks Add any other project artifacts needed 2 Review the project plan Now that you have created lots of tasks and artifacts, you should look at the entire project in a Gantt chart. You ll likely see some adjustments you should make before the plan goes live.

Plan & Setup 22 3 Inform team of responsibilities Finally, you ll need to make team members aware of their responsibilities. Effective communication throughout the project will increase your chance of success! Remember it s create the plan; review and make any necessary adjustments and inform the team of their responsibilities!

23 Tip 9: Choose the Right Software

Choosing Software 24 Managing projects using only tools such as email and excel can be difficult for project team members, so it s often a very good idea to use a piece of software that can make the process that bit smoother. But how do you choose the right one? At BrightWork we know exactly what to look out for and we believe there are 4 major areas you should assess.

Choosing Software 25 You should evaluate how a given tool supports: 1 2 3 4 Portfolio management Project Management Work Management Organisational project management

26 Tip 10: Understand the Characteristics of a Project

Project Charasteristics 27 At BrightWork, we see a lot of project managers by accident. But how do you know when you ve got a project on your hands? Well, here are the 6 characteristics of a project you should know: 1 2 A project is typically for a customer. A project is temporary in nature. It will usually have a defined start and end point. Or at least it will have an ideal or target end point.

Project Charasteristics 28 3 It will have a unique set of requirements that need to be delivered within the boundaries of the project. 4 A project will usually be a once off endeavor 5 A project is not business as usual, which is more akin to a process. 6 Finally: a project can often be crossfunctional, or indeed crossorganization.

29 Tip 11: Manage Your Email to Save Time

Manage Your Email 30 Did you know that wasting 10 minutes a day at work results in you losing one working week a year? Efficient email management is one of the places where you can regain those 10 minutes. To help you manage your email effectively, here are 6 simple tips to get your inbox under control! 1 Set special time aside each day to manage your emails so that you are not sitting in your inbox all day!

Manage Your Email 31 2 Our second tip is: clear your inbox. Try to do this once a day, or at least once a week if possible 3 Don t create lots and lots of folders to file away emails. Simply use one archive folder and use your email client s search feature to find important emails 4 Create an email template that you can re-use when needed

Manage Your Email 32 5 Never answer an email when angry or give bad news via email! It s always better to discuss sensitive topics in person, and it will save you spending time dealing with the fallout. 6 Have a systematic approach to your email management, so that you know how to process emails as they arrive especially if it s outside your time set aside for email management!

33 Tip 12: Use Email to Improve Project Clarity

Improve Project Clarity 34 A major form of communication as part of project and portfolio management is the ability to create and send out reports quickly to those who need them. For example, project stakeholders might like to receive project status reports on a weekly basis. What better way to do this than with email? Here are some examples of how you can improve project clarity with

Improve Project Clarity 35 emailed reports: 1 Send ad-hoc reports to people looking for once-off information 2 If your project management software allows it, send out scheduled emails on a regular basis 3 Send out information about a series of reports contained in a dashboard. This is also dependent on your project management software s capabilities

36 Tip 13: Use a Time Management Process

Time Management 37 Time is one of the most valuable resources in project management and in life! To be a successful project manager or project team member, you must be able to manage your time well. At BrightWork, we have an approach to time management and it consists of 5 simple steps: 1 2 3 Set personal and professional goals Create a generic weekly schedule Use your generic weekly schedule to plan each week as it arrives

Time Management 38 4 5 Work the week Review your progress periodically, maybe once or twice a year Click Here for Free Time Management Training

39 Tip 14: Get Users to Fall in Love With Your PM Solution

Tool Adoption 40 It is vital that those who are using the project management solution in your organisation not only like it, but love it! In order for this to happen you should: 1 Make sure that the tool is easy to use and understand 2 Have a champion who can teach others about the tool 3 Provide training 4 Get tons of feedback!

41 Tip 15: Become a Master Using the REP Process

42 REP People often fall into this trap of doing a little bit of something and having great success, then stopping and starting and eventually finding themselves stuck in a rut. The problem with picking up a new piece of information is that, unless you do something with it, you lose it quickly. The REP process is a way to master a particular aspect of your life and it stands for Research, Execute and Post-Mortem.

43 REP Research You re going to learn about your chosen area, and have fun doing so! You gather all the best-practices you can find and then decide which of those practices you are going to try out. Execute Moving on to the Execute phase, you ll put your learnings into practice do the work!

44 REP Post-Mortem And then in the Post-Mortem phase, you re going to reflect on your work and determine what went well, and what didn t go so well, and go back to that list of best practices from the Research phase and choose a couple more to Execute. Once you ve completed the 3 steps, do it all again! And keep repeating this process until you become a master in whatever area you are trying to change! Be intentional with the process and REP your way to success.

More Tips! 45 If you'd like more project management tips, why not check out our free video series? Click here for more project management tips

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