7. Manage Your Project
- Standardize and manage your project reports including budget, timetable, issue, risk and team satisfaction reports.
- Run your meetings efficiently.
- Implement proper gate controls so that you can abandon projects that no longer meet your business goals.
Team members must regularly report work progress against the approved project plan before a project can be managed successfully. And not doing so must have consequences. Effective reports will address variances to the agreed schedule, budget, quality and risk- and not simply tell stories of progress without reference to the agreed plan. The schedule and format of these reports are best introduced at the project launch.
Meet regularly but don’t waste time at meetings. Meetings must be organized, productive and engaging to provide value to the project. Leading effective meetings is a skill and an art enjoyed by the most successful project leaders.
If the project is no longer a priority-abandon it. Gate controls at the end of each phase are essential for determining the continued viability of a project. Gate meetings will review a project’s priority relative to other projects and determine whether there are funds, resources and time available to proceed.
