How to Manage a prince2 Project on the weekend
‘This year there is no space in the budget’ is a quote which rings 70% true each year. This must be the reason why project managers spend so much time chasing money! I find it weird that so many project managers are stressed about money and the amount of money to be made. If we were only challenged by earning (not spending) money, how many times will you think about that when it comes to managing a project? As on a PRINCE2 Weekend project management training courses.
“An effective project should deliver demonstrably significant benefits to the business or organisation… It should meet the business’s needs rather than the project’s needs.”CIO, “.org.uk”Dealing with the business’s needs should be the main priority, not work on something that needs to be done.”PMI’s “10 Core Competencies for leading a business, protecting or supporting an organisation from disaster”. PMI, 2006
Circumstances may not be the right one for what you’re doing in the first place. In fact, this may be exactly the time to decide to transform your project. Suddenly there is more potential in another way of doing things. After all, this might be one of the turning points in your organisation’s history.
Considerations
Tasks and schedule- Structure the tasks into manageable units, one task per week or per month, each having some specific task durations. Each task should have an owner and be delivered on. Don’t employ people to be “ists” for every task in the schedule. Ensure that it’s provided the owner who is accountable for meeting the task requirements.
Time, resources need to be managerial.Decide if you allocated the right amount of time to each task. Ensure that you are aware what’s available to you and how long it will take you to complete the tasks.
Limit the time to complete tasks.You can reduce the time to complete tasks by approximate estimating the time required. As an example, if you have to do the tasks of generating a list of 50 contacts, the time estimate should be 6 hours for each lead and 4 hours for each client.
Review regularly.Review your tasks as soon as one is completed, to see if you are getting value for your effort.
Understand the consequences.In some areas, you may be swamped – either getting too many jobs to do or having to deal with too little people to cope with. There may be time costs associated with these tasks to consider.
Find where there is time- The attraction of project input is, of course, that if you have the authority, you will end up doing/spending more. Time estimates make this much more rigorous.
Ensure the criticality/criticalness of tasks- It’s often more costly to delay tasks than it is to act quickly/engage effectively in those areas. Plan ahead.
Ensure that all outputs/deliverables are ” matches” across projects- There may well need to be adjustments made as the schedule progresses throughout the project, such that some tasks are more critical than others (in terms of due date)
