Six Steps to Ensuring Project Success Webinar Recap

Managing projects is challenging. Understanding the projects scope, managing budgets and forecasts, and delivering on time is a lot to keep up with. 

Throw in executive management briefings and managing the customers expectations, this all adds up to a difficult job for a project manager. I recently hosted a webinar that focused on six steps you can take to be in the best position to be successful.

You were awarded a new contract and now it is time to assign a project manager. How is that handled at your organization? Is it the PM that is aligned to this type of work, or experience with the customer? Are they selected because they have the best skill set to match the project requirements? Or are they selected because they are next up in the rotation?

The first step to ensure project success is to select the project manager that best fits the requirements of the project.

The next step is for the project manager to get execution team buy-in from day one. The team must understand the project scope and who the responsible individual is for that work. This will help ensure commitment from the entire team to the project deadlines.

There also needs to be agreement from the team on the skills and resources necessary to deliver the completed project. The earlier the skills and resources necessary are identified, the earlier they can be scheduled to avoid conflicts with other projects in the organization.

After selecting the project manager that best fits the work and gaining team buy-in, it is now critical that you have executive buy-in. According to the 2018 Pulse of the Profession report by the Project Management Institute (PMI), 38% of projects have no active executive sponsorship. That is a disconcerting metric as an executive sponsor has several key duties:

• Alignment of the company’s vision and strategy with the project’s goals
• Use influence to remove roadblocks during the project lifecycle
• Champion the project

Selecting someone that can motivate the team as well as understanding the organization so they can effectively remove roadblocks is imperative.

Next, you need to confirm that your team isn’t overworked to the point that they burn out, start producing poor quality work, or not meeting the customers project goals. Extensive multi-tasking has been shown to actually slow people down, so let your PMs and team members focus on a small number of tasks and projects at one time. This will allow them to be more efficient, produce better quality work and prevent delays that could affect the entire organization.

The project manager should set the business rhythm as early as possible. I have worked on projects where the PM established daily, 15 minute, stand up meetings so that every team member knew what was going on that day and if there were any issues. Maybe you want to hold weekly project status meetings. Whatever you choose, there are some ground rules that must be established. Have an agenda, and stick to it. Everyone must be engaged and prepared to talk about the status of the project. Action items must be identified, assigned to an individual, and managed to guarantee completion.

Finally, the scope of the project must be defined clearly. A clearly defined scope gives the PM a way to ensure that tasks are being completed and all deadlines are met throughout the project lifecycle. Proper management of scope helps to avoid many pitfalls that can throw a project askew. One major issue is the constant changing of requirements. Every time the project requirements change the team must reassess the new or additional scope, update the schedule and analyze the cost impact. Each change stops the team from what they were doing and necessitates a pivot, which ultimately changes the project deadlines and increases costs.

When your next project is kicking off, think about these seven steps and how you can put your team together to deliver on-time and within budget.

1. Select the project manager that has the skills and experience necessary to lead the team.
2. Build trust within the project execution team and get team buy-in.
3. Have an executive sponsor that will remove roadblocks and obstacles.
4. Don’t overburden your team.
5. Establish recurring meetings with full team involvement.
6. Clearly define the project scope and know what is expected from the customer and stakeholders.
7. BONUS (you’ll have to watch the webinar to uncover this one)

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