PM Tips is designed to be a discussion area and information source for both the experienced project manager and project managers with little to no experience. For PMs with a significant amount of experience, many of the things that are generally considered ‘best practices’ are things, hopefully, that we do without even thinking.

 

 

 

 

For the new PM, however, these concepts can not be taken lightly as they may not be intuitive yet and newer PMs may even be working in an organization that provides little to no support for the PM process. In some smaller organizations or companies where IT is a sidebar rather than a primary focus, the newly anointed PM may be standing alone trying to get their arms around a portfolio of ‘projects’ in various stages of disarray.

 

 

 

 

How do you jump in and take over managing in this type of situation. I’d like to discuss that at length and share my thoughts, but that’s probably for another article. Here, I’d like to discuss some of the ‘best practices’ that the new PM should employ as basics to getting started on the road to good, solid, project management performance. Paying close attention to these 5 key areas will help the project manager stay on track toward a successful project conclusion. The degree of effort that is put into any of these areas depends on the size, timeframe and budget for the project, but they all must be performed.

 

 

 

 

Scope Management

 

 

 

 

Get a good handle early on as to the proposed scope of the project that you’ve been handed. Gather as much info concerning the scope from whoever closed the deal and handed you the project. Jot down any project requirements you don’t fully understand and be sure to discuss those in detail with your customer before or during the kickoff meeting. This proposed scope is critical because it is the basis for the project, the input for the project schedule and ultimately what your project will be judged against.

 

 

 

 

Reporting

 

 

 

 

A good rule for the PM, at a minimum, is to provide your team and your customer with the following, in terms of project reporting on a regular basis:

 

 

 

 

 

 





     
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  • Weekly project status report




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  • Weekly budget status/forecast update (if applicable – discuss with your customer early on)




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  • Weekly revised project schedule




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The project status report will be the document that drives the weekly status call with the customer and the weekly revised project schedule will be what shows the team and the customer whether or not the project is on track and will let each team member what their responsibilities are for the week and for the rest of the project.

 

 

 

 

Budget Management

 

 

 

 

It’s imperative that the PM management the budget and the forecast (both financial and resource) very closely. Whether that gets shared with the customer regularly may be a matter of corporate policy or may be based on your customer’s preferences. But at the very least, the PM must be on top of this at all times.

 

 

 

 

Losing control of the budget and the forecast – which can be relatively easy to do – can cause major problems down the road as the project nears completion. Finding out in the late stages that you’ve run out of money is hard news and sharing it with your customer as a ‘surprise’ will not only result in great customer dissatisfaction, it may either get you pulled from the project or it may get the project canceled on the spot. Both are bad for your career.

 

 

 

 

Timeline Management

 

 

 

 

The project schedule is what lays out the entire timeline for the project identifying key deliverables and milestones. As mentioned in Reporting above, the project schedule is a critical piece of information for each project team member and must be revised and distributed weekly to everyone.

 

 

 

 

I’ve not managed a project yet where the original project schedule remained unchanged throughout and I just managed from it. Because of change orders, issues, customer preferences, or revolving project resources, there are monthly, weekly and sometimes daily changes to the project schedule. Those must be accurately noted and distributed to the team and the customer on at least a weekly basis.

 

 

 

 

Customer Communication

 

 

 

 

As the Project Manager, how and what you communicate to the customer will go a long way in determining customer satisfaction on the projects you manage. Keep them engaged in all critical project communication. Don’t keep the bad news from them…but don’t tell them the sky is falling all the time either. If you have bad news to share, be well prepared to deliver it. In fact, it’s best if you already have a planned course of corrective action. But if not, share it with the customer and ask them to share in the corrective action. It’s their project, too…and they want you to succeed.