10 Commandments for Professional Project Managers

10 Commandments for Professional Project Managers

1. Ensure that there is a Project Sponsor who overtly demonstrates his/her commitment to the project.
2. Plan plan plan ! Do not be too eager to jump into the interesting stuff in the project without having a sufficiently detailed plan that has been signed off by all key project stakeholders. Always prepare an achievable plan and budget, that takes into consideration unforeseen circumstances.
3. Ensure that the various project roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, accepted and understood by all key project stakeholders.
4. Identify and constantly re-visit the critical success factors and project risks.
5. Have “go/no-go” decision points at key milestones on the project plan.
6. Constantly monitor compliance with the intended scope and prevent scope creep as far as is practical.
7. Do not cut corners to meet an unrealistic deadline. If this has to be done for business reasons, ensure that the Project Sponsor understands the consequences and demonstrates full ownership.
8. Ensure key stakeholder’s expectations are managed throughout the project.
9. Build team spirit, momentum and motivation. Get over temporary failures and celebrate successes.

Learn from your project. Conduct a project post-mortem or benefits realisation exercise, that identifies the project’s strengths and weaknesses. Share these insights with other project teams in your organisation to foster a project best practice culture

Managing Project Risk – the Key to Project Success

Remember Murphy’s Law ? What can go wrong, will go wrong !

“Many Project Managers choose to ignore project risk management because (i) it is either perceived as a technical, detailed and onerous task, or (ii) they don’t know where to start.” This is one of the key findings identified by marcus evans' associate training consultants Peak Performance for Business Limited in their recent review of project management best practices.

following 6-step plan to manage project risk:

• Step 1 Brainstorm with the project team the inherent project risks, or “what can go wrong ?” - these form the risks that could jeopardise the project.
• Step 2 For each risk identified, indicate its likelihood of materialising - very likely, possible, not very likely (or % probability).
• Step 3 For each risk, indicate the impact of the risk materialising - e.g. impact on project deadline, budget, resources, etc.
• Step 4 Prioritise the risks first in terms of the most likely (from Step 2) and second in terms of the highest to lowest impact (from Step 3).
• Step 5 For each risk, determine the controls steps that need to be implemented to manage the risk, i.e. to mitigate the risk completely or to reduce its impact to a minimum.
• Step 6 Once the risk management plan has been established, ensure it is signed off by the Project Sponsor.

Finally, project risk management is not a once-off event at the start of the project. The most successful Project Managers ensure that their Project Risk Management Plan is reviewed with other action plans at regular project meetings until the project is successfully concluded.