December is traditionally a time to look back over the past year. Can you tick off all these project management activities as things you achieved during 2014?
1. Set a baseline
You can baseline requirements, costs and pretty much anything else on a project but it is most common to think of scheduling when you think about baselines. Baselines help you see what you thought you would do and allow you to compare that to what you actually did.
2. Managed risk
Risk management is a core project management process and if you managed risk successfully this year you should have hit fewer problems and those you did encounter would have been smaller.
3. Logged decisions
Savvy project managers record decisions taken, not just in meeting minutes but also on a separate log. It’s a great quick reference guide when you want to remember why you took a certain path.
4. Held team meetings
Team meetings can be informal or formal, face-to-face or virtual. The most important thing is that you had some!
5. Tracked time
Tracking time is really valuable as it helps you see where most of your effort is going. In turn this can help refine your estimates and make sure that you hit your scheduled dates.
6. Rewarded your team
People work best when they feel that their efforts are recognised, so rewarding your team for a job well done is important to maintain team morale. Taking the time to say thank you over the course of the year is good practice and shows that you value their contributions.
7. Shared the vision
Do you team know why they are working on your project? They will if you told them! Sharing the vision for the project isn’t just something that the sponsor does. You can contribute to this too by reinforcing the ‘why’ behind the project at appropriate opportunities.
8. Created milestones
Milestones help you break up your project schedule into defined chunks and mark key events. Placing milestones throughout your plan also gives a structure to your reporting
9. Tracked requirements
Tracking requirements means that you record the requirement, you manage changes against it and you can go back to the original requests in order to test the scope that was asked for.
10. Emptied your inbox
I hope that your inbox was empty at least once this year! It’s a great feeling to have addressed all outstanding points and managed your inbox to zero.
11. Written reports
Sharing project status reports is a good way to let people know about project progress.
12. Managed your team
Managing your team involves making sure they are on track with their tasks and monitoring progress. You should have kept on top of this during 2014 to ensure that work got delivered as you expected.
13. Managed change
If you managed change effectively this year you wouldn’t have ended up with scope creep or gold plating!
14. Managed issues
Dealing with issues is a common occurrence for project managers, so I expect you had a few to handle this year. Using your issues management process is the best way to do this effectively.
15. Held Steering Groups
Steering groups, or project boards, provide you with management oversight and governance for the project. They also help ensure accountability.
16. Managed your plan
Keeping  your plan up to date is essential if you want to stay on top of the work. If you didn’t achieve this, schedule time in your diary every week to manage your plan going forward.
17. Brainstormed solutions
Whether you needed to find the answer to a project issue or were working with stakeholders to define requirements, online mind mapping is a great way to brainstorm solutions and capture the output.
18. Captured lessons learned
A lessons learned log is easy to set up and really useful. You can capture lessons learned even if your project isn’t yet finished – no excuses!
19. Discussed with your sponsor
You and your sponsor should have had plenty of informal discussions as well as formal meetings like the steering groups. Hopefully you built a good working relationship with him or her.
20. Used collaborative technology
Collaboratively tools come in many forms from online project management software to bespoke social networks for your company. Used well, they can be effective ways of bringing together virtual teams and managing work.
21. Created a work breakdown structure
A work breakdown structure gives you a comprehensive picture of project scope. It’s a useful tool to ensure that you don’t miss anything on the project.
22. Presented it to others
You can present your project to others through your internal magazines, intranet site or by going to other people’s team meetings and talking about what you are working on. This is all part of spreading the message of your project positively.
23. Created estimates
Much of project work is unique and that makes estimating difficult. However, you should have created and recorded formal estimates as these will help you both manage the plan for this project and inform future projects.
24. Completed tasks
I love ticking off things on my To Do list. Completing tasks is the only way to move the project forward.
25. Had fun
I hope you and your team had fun on your projects this year!