Top 8 Reasons for Project Success
Sunday, March 2, 2014, 1:00 AM | Leave Comment
We all know every project is not a complete success. Failure may be because of poor management, lack of communication, or perhaps the project manager doesn’t have overall big picture of the project. There can be many other such issues and concerns that contribute to the failure of the project. The time is now to understand certain issues before starting on the project.
Successful project managers share these eight attributes:
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Understand the Big Picture
It’s important to see the big picture as well as the details. Understanding the overall purpose and goal of the project allows you to make decisions and resolve issues that arise.
The best project tool that will give a big picture is the use of Nassi-Shneiderman chart. It’ll not only help you but will come handy when doing presentation to team members and senior managers.
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Make quick decisions
Paralysis by analysis is the bane of many successful projects. You use the best information you have available to make decisions quickly. Even if it’s not the best decision, a good decision suffices in nearly all cases.
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Good Communication is always welcome
You can never have enough communication. Letting the team members and all stakeholders know, on a regular basis, the status of the project is the most important aspect of communication.
However, communication doesn’t mean talking continuously. Listening is a bigger part in communication – much bigger than just talk.
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Manage project expectations efficiently
As long as you as project manager don’t get too consumed with day-to-day operations and don’t lose the big picture, you’ll meet project expectations. Never ignore clients or project sponsors at any time during the process of completing the project successfully. Spend quality time with stakeholders to ensure their expectations are met and managed.
To perform this task successfully, you must go back to the overall big picture that you so fondly understood and communicated it with your team and upper managers.
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Get Approvals and Sign-Offs from Sponsors and Senior Managers
It’s easy to get caught up in the momentum of a project and disregard the approval process or signing off on changes, plans or deliverables. You make sure appropriate parties are okay with a project moving forward.
Approval and sign-off can turn out to be extremely important and useful to you as project manager and the project itself.
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Get team members involved completely and wholeheartedly
At the outset, slews of people attend meetings, ask questions, and more importantly provide input for the direction a project should take. You keep these stakeholders involved throughout the entire duration of the project, not just at the beginning.
The more informed you keep your stakeholders about the project, the better and successful your project would be.
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Hold meetings regularly
It’s tempting to get together only when there are big problems, but when status meetings, project reviews, and other meetings are held regularly, it minimizes the risk of issues getting out of hand.
However, make sure these meetings are very fruitful for the betterment of project. Don’t lose track of your original schedule, resources – human as well as capital.
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Have Good Relationships with Project Sponsors
You foster a good relationship with the project sponsor or client. The resulting trust allows you to smoothly navigate through troublesome times that may arise on the project.
This involves how good you’re in communicating project status to the stakeholders.
These are the things that you as project manager do to manage a project successfully.
This column is © copyright to www.Method123.com and originally appeared in their weekly project management tip newsletter.
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