How to Manage your Project

The effective way to manage a project from start to finish.

1. Plan Your Project

The success of any project boils down to planning, without it, project is bound to fail. It will definitely take some effort initially, but in the long-run, a clearly defined project plan will save you time, money, and a lot of headaches once the project launches.

To get started on creating project plan, your main focus should be on the following components:

• Identify and understand your project: – You want to breakdown the project by understanding what the project really entails. For example, telling your team that you want to build a software is very broad. But, telling them that you want to build a software that can identify presence of a virus provides a better understanding on what the project really is.
• Define goals and objectives: – After you have narrowed down your project, it’s time to establish the goals and objectives you want to accomplish. Your goals are the ‘what,’ such as increasing the number of likes to your ads. Your objectives are the ‘how’ you want to achieve the ‘what’, i.e. If you want to increase the number of likes in your ads, you could accomplish that by targeting campaign.
• Define tasks: – You will need to clearly define the tasks/activities involved to complete the project. For example, if you’re planning on building a house, key tasks/activities would include excavation, blinding of excavation, laying of blocks for foundation, backfilling of foundation, DPC, etc.
• Build your team: – Who are the people who are going to work with you on the project? what are their roles and responsibilities? Typically, your team should include the Project sponsor, experts/owner to define the scope of the project, the Project manager, the team member and stockholders (Negative, Positive and neutral). The smaller the team, the better the performance.
• Identify any negative stakeholder: – Are there any persons that can prevent you from completing the project on-time? If so, identify and address these negative stakeholders so that the project can run smoothly.
• Create a timeline: – Break down tasks/activities into stages and establish deadlines on when you want each tasks/activities to be completed. Knowing how long each stage takes to complete assists you in keeping the project on track.
• Get feedback: – After getting your initial plan, seek feedback from your team, stakeholders, and clients before proceeding.
• Adjust your plan accordingly: – Most plans normally don’t go as planned because of unforeseen circumstances. Have some flexibility with your plan so that you can adjust and plan accordingly.
• Develop a road-map: – Once you have your plan in place, and everyone involved is on board, write the plan down so that it can be used as your road-map during the course of the project.

2. Keep the Project on Track

A good and clearly defined plan can help guide you throughout the project, but constantly reviewing, revising, and monitoring the project is required for the success of the project.

To ensure that the project stays on track, make sure that you:

• Regular schedule interval to check on the project: – It may be every other day or once a week, you need to make it a point to schedule an amount of time to review the progress of the project.
• Be flexible with you team: – You have got to trust your team when working on the project. Even though you may own the plan, your team are the experts that have the knowledge and experience to make it a reality. If they have suggestions, it’s better to keep an open mind and listen to what they are saying.
• Communicate with your team: – Keep everyone in the loop and provide frequent status updates. Better still, at least, schedule weekly meetings so that everyone has the most recent updates and can address any issues. For example, if your deadline has changed, your team need to be in the know of it so that they can plan and work towards that new deadline.
• Identify and address any problems before they occur: – Prepare for any blockers or risk in advance so that you can handle them before they become a problem. Prepare a contingency plan for budget, resources etc. in case what you have before fails.
• Provide direction: – It is the responsibility of the project manager to keep the team informed and make sure that everything runs smoothly. You need to provide your team with the appropriate resources and information so that they can complete the project on-time.

3. Utilize Project Management Software

You are bound to run into a number of troubles, no matter how detailed your plan and how prepared you are. But thankfully, technology has made managing everything more effective and convenient. Project managers also have access to software that has made their lives easier.

Below are some project management software to keep you organized and better communicate with your team.

• Primavera P6: – Primavera P6 is an Oracle software product designed for project, program, and portfolio management. It is a powerful, easy to use solution for planning, managing and executing projects and programs. Primavera P6 can be used for all sizes of programs or projects from small companies to large-scale capital projects.
• Microsoft Project: – It is designed to assist a project manager in developing a schedule, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workloads.
• Basecamp: – When it comes to project management, Basecamp is arguably the leader of the pack. With a simple interface, you can use this software to write to-do lists, create multiple projects, share files, schedule important dates, and have discussions.
• Trello: – Unlike other software, Trello lets managers organize to-do-lists and discussions visually through the use of collaborative board.
• Wrike: This software can help you make sure that that tasks stay on track by allowing you to assign tasks to team members and making sure that they have the resources on hand.
• Asana: By integrating with your email, Asana is a great option if collaborating with remote workers or freelancers. The software gives you the chance to schedule tasks and share files via Google Drive or Dropbox.
• Zoho Projects: This powerful online project management tools comes equipped with tasks and milestones, calendar and meetings, time tracking, reports, forums, file storage, and even a chat-in app to improve collaboration.
• Podio: With Podio, you can communicate with your team, store files, and setup task management. What makes Podio unique is that it can also be used as an internal intranet for your team or even a CRM system.

4. Time Management

As a project manager, you must be skilled at effectively managing your time. If not, you may have schedule slippage and you may not be able to complete your project on time.

Here are some of the best techniques to manage your time as follows:

• Delegate tasks/activities: – Except you are a super hero with strange strength, you may need to assign some other tasks/activities to a skilled and trusted team member so you can focus on your most important tasks/activities. Afterall, you are not expected to do all the work by yourself alone, your major job is to make sure it gets done.
• Prioritize your tasks/activities: – You need to learn how to prioritize rightly and complete your most important tasks/activities first, and then work on tasks that are less important.
• Run more effective meetings: – You may want to keep your meetings as short as possible and make sure that they don’t get off topic. You also want your team to share their thoughts and provide feedback on the progress of the project.
• Learn to say ‘no’: – Sometimes saying ‘no’ to request from people for your time to talk or work on a new project may be the best for you if you don’t want to get distracted or burnout.

5. Celebrate Milestones and Victories

When you and your team completed a milestone or completed the project ahead of schedule or on schedule, that is a victory for you and your team, and it is a time for you and your team to celebrate.

Dinners, celebratory drinks, gala night, etc. are some of the ways to celebrate. You may give a pat at the back or show signs of appreciation by announcing the team’s success during your next meeting, mentioning the exceptional team member, offering meaningful rewards, or simply just thanking them personally.

Oluwafemi Ayilara, PMP

Project Manager and CEO of Isoric Oasis Limit