Launch Project and Make It a Success

Unfortunately there is no single method of breaking up your project into appropriate stages and phases, otherwise everybody would be using same method. Basically as there are no two identical projects there are no two identical ways of getting your project divided into stages. So, when chunking up your project, its best to rely on your experience, project conditions and intuition. The only rule you need to follow is to keep to the 4 stages described in the Project Lifecycle post.

However difficult the task of breaking up a project might appear, some relatively accurate calculations may be used in this process.  Of course, these are only very generic figures, given in percentages from the overall length of a project. Each individual project has to undergo individual working out of its stages’ timescales anyway, especially if you are not overseeing the project full time.

1. The Idea

Defining the idea behind your project and setting clear objective(s) might take something between 1 and 5% of overall time budgeted for the entire project. During this stage you also would be expected to budget for any alternative outcome of the project you overseeing.

2. The Planning

Planning should not take more than 9 — 15% of your project’s overall length. For some this might seem like a rather generous chunk, but planning is a very important phase. The better is your planning the better you prepare yourself for any unexpected events that might pop up during your project’s execution.

3. The Execution

First two stages might take something between 10 and 20% of the overall time. The project’s realization should take between 65 and 80%, depending on how much was taken up by the first two stages. Also it is highly recommended that some of this time would be given to troubleshooting — an unavoidable process while realizing a project.

4. Finishing off

Something between 10 and 15% of your time should be enough to deal with whatever bits and bobs you are going to have left after the main work is done. When you get to this stage you will know why you need all this time.

If you read my previous post you must have pretty good idea of what a project is. Perhaps you’ve watched some projects develop around you and you recognize some of them that you might want to take on. Now it is time to to find out what exactly project management is.

Project management means a leadership over a certain job that runs according to a certain plan from beginning to end. The objective of such leadership is to make sure the desired goals are reached, the required standards and deadlines are met and the budget and resources are not overspent.
As project management is a rather complicated structure I have decided to break it down into several key stages. Each one of them will be examined in the next posts. For now I am just going to list them and tie them to some examples for better understanding.

Defining your objectives and outcome.
Before you begin you will have to decide, what it is you want to achieve. The better perspective you have on your final goal, the easier it will be for you to find the shortest route to its execution. It is a bit like driving an automobile: if you don’t exactly know where you are going, it’s likely you won’t arrive to your destination in the near future if at all.

Planning your project, deciding your deadlines and resources.
Say you made a firm decision about the outcome: your aim is to drive to the neighboring town and see the town hall. Now you need to sit down and go over the details: your route, how long it’s going to take you to get there, how long the road is and how much petrol you might need. If its going to be quite far you might want to choose a place to stop for a night and perhaps to book a room in advance. You may want to look into the available alternative options for example, taking the train or bus.
Remember: whatever the desired outcome of your project is, if your planning is sound it will make it easier for you to meet your deadlines on time and in high quality.

Organizing your team.
If you are traveling with a group and you are the team leader you will have to decide what the responsibilities of other team members should be. It is also your job to see and make sure that the others know what they are doing. You’ll also be in charge of their performance and ultimately of whatever outcomes it might bring. It can be tricky especially if you don’t know your team yet. Trust me, a situation like this takes place more often than not.

Work management – solving problems as you go.
It seldom happens in real life that everything runs as smoothly as it was planned on paper. However, as a project leader you want to try and oversee every particular stage of your project’s development in order to deal with any problem that might arise right there and then. If you can catch the problem quick enough, you might be able to deal with it before it effects/undermines the project. Such planning for possible problems and their solutions is called risk management.

Finishing off your project.
This includes your actions after the job is done and your objectives are met. It’s more like tidying up after yourself: it’s making finishing touches, making conclusions, writing down some notes for your future projects, where your experience might help you along the way.

Mikhail Chigorin, famous Russian chess-player once said that “even a poor plan is better than none”. We can say that even a poor project management is better than no management.
Start using the project management tactics now and you will be surprised at the positive results they might bring.