Project Management

 

Now this page is going to be a little different to the rest, unlike the rest of the site where we have talked about managing your life and improving your self, this page is about managing projects. See the difference? But! That does not mean it isn’t a useful read… projects are often an important part of a successful persons life.

Writing a book is a project, making a website is a project, refurbishing a car is a project, these are all projects, and they are very often the part of the variety of vital experiences in life where our skills come from & our knowledge is gained.

Projects have been a big part of my life, in particular my younger life and that is why I wrote this page. This website is for self-development and I believe projects are a big part of developing yourself and your skills.

Now we are not talking huge projects here, and I don’t intend to talk about projects and management for things such as the construction of the Eiffel Tower or the London underground system, but what I do intend to talk about is the management of small projects. Small, personal projects which may be done alone or like this website, done with a small group of people of 2 or more.

These small projects could be any of a million things, the writing of a book, the planning of your first business, the production of a website, even the rebuilding of an old tank! This is not a set thing, and it really is something that depends on you! You don’t have to do a project, I’m not saying you must think of one now and do it, but if you are doing one or there is something you have wanted to do then this could be very useful for you.

Initial Project Planning

Rather like the importance of planning for your goals, planning is incredibly important to projects also. It sets out all of the key factors for your project and gives you a plan to go along. It not only gives you defined details on what should happen with and throughout the project, but it can also bring to your attention the potential for things that should not happen happening, and this gives you a chance to deal with these potential issues before they arise.

A good project plan should include details on the following (Others could also be added as necessary depending on the project itself):

Objective

A brief but detailed objective of the project. An example may be to offer information on a certain subject through a certain method in a certain way. Thats all there is to it, not timescales just what the project aims to do/be.

Costs

An overview of the costs of the project. What the cost is, what the cost is for, and when it will occur/re-occur. A total is also useful.

Goals

Same as in life, goals should be set. These can be anything applicable to the project and its success but should only be the main goals. For creating a website these could be such as ‘Complete www.*****.com’s static web pages by ***’ or ‘Be receiving *** visits per month on www.*****.com by ***’.

Solution (To the goals)

This a paragraph or so per goal stating how you will achieve the goal. So to be getting x amount of visits per month on your site your solution may be to use a particular form of marketing, or several forms of marketing.

Timescales & Scheduling

The goals and there solutions are used extensively when setting timescales and schedules for projects. The point of a schedule is to look at your goal and realize your timescale to complete that particular goal.

You should then look at the solution to the goal and create a schedule of when things will be done by. This may be such as having from now till ’***’ to write five articles, you can then further split it down and put it in your notebook or planner.

A schedule is great way of making sure you meet your deadlines and complete your goals in the timescales set. When creating this website with Aimee, we put ourselves on a very tight timescale. Aimee once named my schedules ‘Joe’s deadly schedule’ as I was consistently pushing to get things done fast… we did it and we believe we have created this great resource in the relatively short time given.

The schedule not only condenses your to do into a timescale but it enables you to get the most out of your time working on a project. This not only shows something for project management but good time management and productivity for individuals as a whole.

Evaluating A Project & Its Progress

Evaluating and reviewing a projects progress in terms of its goals and schedules is incredibly important in the management of any project. The ability to look over the projects initial plan, its goals and its current set schedule is the only way to see if the project is quite so on-track as you think. It is an important task to do consistently on a recurring basis, it not only gives you chance to review the project but also review the projects schedule for the future.

Once you have reviewed a project in terms of where it has been, where it is now, and where it should be then it is time to start making decisions from this evaluation on where you should head in the future with your project. This is the time to review and reset goals, there plans and the projects schedule.

Wrote by Joe Brown