How to Be an Effective Project Manager

Any activity that takes more than 1 step could be considered a project. Being an effective project manager is simple if you remember that your job is to manage the project. That means riding herd over what can be changed during the execution of a project. There are only 3 things that can be modified while working on a project: schedule, scope and resources.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

1. Define the scope of the project clearly. Make sure to know when you are finished. This may mean breaking a project into smaller phases if it is a large-scale project. Get the team to agree to the scope at the beginning and document what success looks like. Have a clear discussion of what the project is and more importantly, what it is not. This will flush out assumptions people may have that differ from reality.
2. Know the team and what they are expected to deliver. This is your extended team, and they will either be doing the work themselves or managing the people who are doing the work. In any case, they need to be held accountable for their responsibilities on the project.
3. Flesh out the schedule with the team based on the resources that are available. If the schedule is very aggressive, the only way to meet it is to reduce the scope or add more resources.
4. Have milestone meetings with the extended team. Hold each member responsible for their part. This is also a good time to discuss issues that each group may need help with or clear up conflicting priorities.
5. Get the team to brainstorm the possible risks to the delivery of the project and then create contingency plans for the top 10 or so risks. The top risks should be decided based on impact to the project and likelihood to occur. If everyone already has an idea of what to do if a risk does occur, it is much easier to react without panic.
6. Agree to what the phases look like within the defined project and what it means to finish before moving to the next phase. A list of phases often looks like: Concept/Planning, Development/Design, Manufacturing, Launch and finally, Sustaining. There should be a team review and sign off on each phase to ensure that the project is ready to move forward and that everyone has met their goals.
7. Present the results of each phase review to upper management. Define upper management as one or two levels above the team members and each department that is on the team should be represented. These phase exit reviews are an important tool to ensure good participation along the way. Having each extended team member report on their part of the project is also a good way to get active participation and ownership.
8. Celebrate the successes along the way and especially at the end. Be sure to have a wrap up meeting that covers both the good things and the things that could have been better and then take the team out to celebrate. This does not have to be elaborate, but recognition of a job well done and for the projects success is important. It could easily just be ice cream or giving everyone the afternoon off.

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