Managers PM Strategies

06/23/2021

Start Your Small Project With at Least a One-Pager

Sometimes projects are started and people are assigned without even a description of the expected destination.

I get it, there is no time to get bogged down in bureaucracy and producing documents. It’s too much work.

However, having a little knowledge documented about where you expect to go even for small projects, can save wasting a lot of time, resources, and money. Even pirates had a one-pager before they set off in search of treasure.

So, at least create a 1-page charter. What should this 1-pager have on it? Read more on how to create your one-pager on the Learning Hub under Starting a Project.
https://www.simplepmstrategies.com/blog/initiate-start-with-at-least-a-one-pager

It’s surprising how many initiatives are started without documenting the expected destination.

Think of it as going on a quick sailing pleasure trip for a day (purpose) with a few friends (key stakeholders), they may want to know where you are going specifically, your destination, and that usually involves describing something that can be measured (objectives), and you all gauge if the boat and supplies can make it there and back and the necessary skill sets available and the weather is good (assumptions and risks), and the time it is going to take – people’s time (resource financials).

Making these mistakes managing projects? Take the quiz and find out now: https://www.simplepmstrategies.com/qf01-main

The purpose of this blog is to address those projects that start without anything and to offer a solution that is quick to create and at least gets it started with a simple one-pager. If pirates did it you can too.

06/23/2021

LINK YOUR PROJECT MANAGEMENT WHY TO YOUR MEASURES

Linking your reason, or purpose, or “why” for your project to how you will measure when that is done, is a simple but often overlooked step, but it ensures that what is delivered and what is expected line up.

Start with your “why” or a type out a couple of simple sentences about the purpose for your project. It is kind of like a quick hallway conversation, or a brief chat prior to a call, when you are describing something you are working on.

What is the reason for this side-project that you have? For example, “… well I am working on this x (your label for your project), so that we can do y (what the project delivers), so that my team or my customers can benefit from z (the real benefit that is gained from the project).”

Building on your project purpose, define some measurable objectives that tell you when your project is done and there is nothing more left to do. This is not part of your hallway conversation but is something your project needs. For example, “an outcome abc that can be described in these kinds of dimensions”, or “this report, that tells them this outcome”, or “an amount of subscribers” or whatever it is.
One way to think about the measurable objectives is, can you give the measurements to someone else, like a sixth grader, and would they come to the same conclusion about the items being done, or not, that you would?

Once you have your measurable outcomes, then draft a description of the deliverables that would satisfy those measurable objectives. The deliverables can change based on feedback from key stakeholders, and team members, and sometimes the deliverables just change as a matter of course over the lifetime of the project.

The point is, you have linked the purpose, objectives, and deliverables. This is important because it ensures that in the end all the work that goes into creating the outcomes is going to provide a result that you and others expect.

06/22/2021

A COMMON PROJECT MANAGEMENT MISTAKE

One of the most common mistakes that managers and even project managers make around projects is in the very initial stages when defining their project. This is one of the concepts for which it seems the most time has been spent when mentoring.

When defining the project, the problem is that they mix what is being created, produced, the results, outcomes or deliverables, with the actions being taken, that is, the how, the tasks, or activities that create those outcomes or deliverables.

Keep the deliverables separate from activities and it greatly simplifies things.
Start with just deliverables and completely ignore the activities that create them and just focus on decomposing all of the tangible pieces that make up the outcomes. This can be done whether the outcomes are abstract, like a marketing results, or tangible like a report or product. And you can do this for anything you have to accomplish in a fixed timeframe.

One simplified way to think about it is pretend you are giving someone a grocery list of things to get and what would that look like? Would you tell them how to do it, or just give them the items that need to be picked up (assuming you're not being overly controlling)?

Those grocery items are your outcomes or deliverables, and that's what you need to start with when defining your project. Think of your deliverables as tangible things you would exchange for payment.