ARE YOU A PROJECT MANAGER?

For the dedicated project managers out there, this may seem like a bit of an odd question because you are! However, there are many out there who perform many of the tasks of a project manager but who do not equate what they are doing with being a project manager.

I am talking about the thousands of small and medium business owners who are delivering services or products to their customers. Most have no project management training, nor do they have the inclination to be called project managers. Does this sound like you?

What is project management?

Well if your business, here goes the definition part, is involved in running temporary endeavours to produce a specific result of objective then you are in the business of project management and consequently are a project manager (albeit not necessarily in name). Projects are different to normal day to day operations which tend to be generally amorphous in nature and are often repeated. Normal operations don’t follow the same set of practices engaged in as part of project management.

If this does describe you, then it is probably worth taking some time to do some reading on project management processes and practices to help you deliver better quality projects which, in turn, will lead to even happier clients. You don’t necessarily need to try and become a PMP certified project manager, but there is some really great practices that you could learn about and adopt with a bit of research.

The areas that you should focus on I would suggest would be;

1. Project scoping – get the scope right and this can/does solve a huge amount of pain. Go on, admit it, how many times have you found yourself in an impossible situation that costs either customer satisfaction or cash because what you were delivering was not “quite what the customer expected”!
2. Project communication – this might seem  a bit over the top, especially if you are a one-man band. It isn’t. From a customer perspective, it’s about how you will give them updates and progress reports. It’s about how you will communicate any changes that come up during the project. It’s about making sure they are in the loop and helping give them confidence that you are in control of what you are delivering.  From your perspective, it encourages openness with both the customer and the team and makes sure everyone is on the same page. (cringe – sorry about yet another over-used phrase there!)
3. Project reporting – this is all about how you are managing your project and being able to see how you are progressing. How’s the time going? Where’s the cash being spent? What is going well? What could be improved? Even if you are a one-man band and you “kind of know where you are at”, having robust and accurate reporting will only make things better next time you run a project. It gives you the big picture.

These are the three areas that I would start with.

Project management as an art covers a much wider variety than these three high level areas. But they seem like a good place to start to me.  Other areas that you may want to cover off might include;

1. Risk management.
2. Change management.
3. Quality management.
4. Defining and managing the business case behind a project.
5. Issue management.

There is lots of really great reading to be found on the internet. Project management, the chances are your doing it. If you are not trained or have not considered yourself as a project manager – then do that bit of research and make your projects just that little bit better.

What are your thoughts? Does project management apply to you? Project managers what are the areas you’d recommend for business managers to focus on?

Photo: Hiro Sheridan