The next few pictures are my take on the more common view of what happens when project management is not used to ensure an effective delivery.
Scope As Described By The Customer!
Project management is about working with the customer to define their needs correctly i.e. scoping. Project management ensures that the project team understand what they are delivering and the customer understands what they are receiving at the end of the project.
An understanding of project costs is a key part of project planning and building the supporting business case. The project costs create the project budget against which the project manager is expected to deliver. The scale of the project is immaterial, two people for a few days or a large team for a year, knowledge and management of the project costs are one of the key attributes for measuring success.
When project costs are being estimated for a new piece of work it can often be hit and miss when required early in the process.
If a similar piece of work has been done in the past, estimating the project cost can be an easier process and is more likely to be correct from the off-set.
For completely new project types though project costing can be a little like a black art and can, if incorrectly managed, create serious problems both for the project and the business.
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It is more than a little ironic that the initials of the company responsible for what is likely to be one of the greatest man-made natural disasters of this decade, is the same as the two that begin the phrase “be prepared” i.e. BP. They most certainly were not in this instance.
As each day passes, the scale of the problem facing the company and those in the path of this disaster becomes clearer and clearer. The PR machine is in full operation, country leaders are calling each other to pacify fears, engineers are working frantically to come up with solutions. Unfortunately, nothing so far is fixing the problem at hand and it will be some considerable time before it is brought under control.
Now I’m no engineering expert or oil rig risk analyst but surely someone, somewhere has asked the question “what do we do if there is an under-sea blow-out caused by..” and the answers have already been considered.
Marketing blogs, they’re everywhere! If you do a review of the top 100 blogs in the small business section in Technorati approx 85% of them relate to marketing and social media. The top blogs are all marketing blogs (Mashable, Seth Godin, Chris Brogan and the rest). They are all full of very useful and offer relevant advice.
However, for those of us who are not marketeers by trade or have other views or opinions on other aspects of small business – it can be difficult to get noticed. Sometimes you’d have to ask yourself why you would even bother writing about other things as it can dilute any traction you gain by talking about the business of marketing in one or two posts.
This blogs greatest view numbers have been on posts that relate to social media marketing. If we don’t have a post that relates primarily to this space, the number of hits from the U.S. drops noticeably.
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Your business has survived the first couple of years and is still viable (well done, that’s a great achievement). You were a one man show and now there are three of you and the odd sub-contractor when things get really busy.
But, everything is still done in your head. Your business is still small, so you are getting by like this where you seem to intuitively know how things are going – what’s been done well and those things that perhaps aren’t.
You also know that it’s time to expand and perhaps keeping all of the business processes and operational information in your head is not such a good idea.
So, decision made, you need to put some decent business processes into place.
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Product testing is an integral function with any software house or machine based business. It is second nature to these types of companies because if things go wrong after delivery, it will cost big-time to put it right.
Product testing is done as early as possible in the life-cycle because it is more cost effective to fix issues found earlier than during or after production.
Having worked in the IT and Telecoms sector for more years than I care to remember, one thing that I did take from it was the value of good quality and early testing to validate what you are producing. But if you are not an engineering or IT business, do you still need to do it?
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is the process of how you engage with your customers from acquisition, selling and then the on-going retention of their loyalty and hopefully repeat purchases.
In order to gain a customer, you need to have a product or service that is needed/wanted and to achieve that you will have had to identify and understand that prior to launching your business. So in effect, your CRM has commenced before you have even one customer engaged.
While browsing Smallbiztrends yesterday, I came across an article from Lisa Barone on myths that she has observed in businesses small and large in the area of social media engagement. In a nutshell, the focus was on the areas of;
All in all, this article was about handling social media as an integrated and planned part of your marketing activities. It is simply no use engaging with your community on a fire and forget basis. Your business needs to;
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Market research is a vital tool in understanding the overall placement of your business in that market. Market research covers everything from whether there is actually a market for your product, how your customers would perceive the product,how they make their purchasing decisions and what your competition is doing.
In other words, market research gives you a full picture of the battleground your business is either in or about to enter.
As new business owners, we found it a real struggle to get our heads around how to conduct market research. We had visions of agencies, marketing consultants, the whole nine yards.
We also had zero budget and really didn’t know where to start at all including what questions to ask!
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