Project Management In A Week

How To Manage A Project In Seven Simple Steps

Martin Manser

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781473610262
• eBook ISBN: 9781444159752
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

Managing projects just got easier
This book will help you come to grips with the basics of project management in a week. By the end of the week you will know your way through the process more clearly. For a start, you will have to consult your end users to work out their precise requirements. You will then need to work out the best way to deliver the required outputs, consider the size of the team you will need to meet those requirements and prepare a schedule for the project. Most importantly, you will need to firm up costs, work out a budget and develop monitoring procedures to keep to the agreed costs. You will learn tips for communicating well, especially when dealing with unexpected problems that may arise.Each day of the week covers a different area and the material is structured for ease of reference. An introduction gives you a 'heads-up' as to what the day is about. The main material then explains the key lessons to be learned. Important principles are clarified and backed up by case studies, quotations and tables. Each day concludes with a summary, next steps and multiple-choice questions, to reinforce the learning points.Sunday: Think clearly. Lay firm foundations for your project as you clarify and set parameters for the project.
Monday: Plan your project carefully. Begin to make detailed arrangements for the various stages of the project.
Tuesday: Cost your project wisely in the planning stage and ensure that you have rigorous controls in place to monitor costs and quality as you implement the project.
Wednesday: Implement your project successfully. After all your planning and preparation, you are now ready to put the project into practice.
Thursday: Communicate effectively. Good communication with all the colleagues involved in your project is vital to ensure that the team works successfully.
Friday: Deal with change constructively. Here we look at why some projects go off track and how to manage changes.
Saturday: Conclude and evaluate your project positively. How do you complete all the final stages of your project? What lessons can you learn as you evaluate the success of your project?

You have now completed all your preparation and planning. Your project has been costed as accurately as you think possible and you are putting it into practice. How do you do this? You communicate with others: with your team, your project sponsor and your key stakeholders.

This may sound easy, but failures to communicate well are a significant reason why projects fail. Roles and responsibilities cross over and you spend a lot of time sorting out who should be doing what, when it would have been better if all that had been clarified earlier. When colleagues are not kept informed, and the cry goes up, ‘You’ve not told us anything about this – it’s the first we’ve heard about it,’ this is the moment when you realize that communication should have been better planned and carried out.

Today we will stand back and consider the different ways in which you should communicate in a project, through listening, delegating, use of email, telephone, meetings, progress reports, effective leadership, good teamwork, resolving conflict and negotiating.

Listening

Listening may seem a strange place to start, but as is often stated, ‘God gave us two ears and one mouth,’ so before we are tempted to speak it is wise to listen.

You need to listen at every stage of the project:

1 In the preparatory stage of thinking, you need to listen to your customers’ or users’ needs so that the contents of your project match their requirements.

2 In the planning and costing stages as you continue to lay a strong foundation, check that the colleagues you work with understand you and one another.

3 In the implementation stage, you need to listen to your customers or users in case they want changes to the project, and to colleagues as they work out their roles. Are they struggling to understand the brief you have given them? Shouting more loudly at them won’t help – you need to listen.

Some effects of listening

Listening:

• focuses on the other person. Often when someone else is talking, we are focusing on thinking about what we are going to say as a reply. Stop and really listen to what the other person is saying. Make eye contact with them. Rephrase what they have said in your own way to help you clarify the meaning in your own mind (for example, ‘So what you’re really saying is that the whole process needs to be looked at again’); this process is called ‘reflective listening’

• values the person you are listening to as an individual in their own right, so that you understand ‘where they’re coming from’, why they are working or speaking as they are

• means that you do not listen only to the words a colleague is speaking: you can perceive their response to what you are saying by being sensitive to their body language and tone of voice

• allows you to ‘listen between the lines’, to become aware of any underlying messages – your response could be, for example, ‘So I guess what you’re saying is that you need someone else to help you complete this task on time’

• builds trust between people: you show that you are genuinely interested in them. This forms the basis to help you work well with them.

Case study: Susie was angry

Susie was angry. She worked late every evening to complete her tasks in the project but she felt her work was not appreciated or valued. It was only when a new colleague, Jan, started to work alongside her that something happened. Jan was not concerned only about herself and her own work (which she did well), but also cared enough about her colleague to stop and listen to her. Susie was in tears as she poured out her heart to Jan, and at the end of their conversation Susie told Jan, ‘Thanks for listening. You’re the first person I’ve been able to talk to about these things.’

The basics of communication

In the seminars I lead, I discuss the basics of communication under the headings A I R:

• Audience: we adapt what to communicate according to our audience, so, for example, an email to a colleague at the next desk to us will be written in a different tone from one to the company’s managing director

• Intention: what exactly are you trying to communi...

Table of contents

• Cover 
• Title
• About the Author
• Contents 
• Introduction
• Sunday: Think clearly
• Monday: Plan your project carefully
• Tuesday: Cost your project wisely
• Wednesday: Implement your project successfully
• Thursday: Communicate effectively
• Friday: Deal with change constructively
• Saturday: Conclude and evaluate your project positively
• 7 × 7
• Answers
• Copyright