First of all, what is a project?
A project is a temporary organisation that has been set-up to deliver one or more products. That is, it has a finite life span.
A project can be set-up to produce any product of any size within any organisation. The primary objective is to ensure product delivery to time, to cost and to customer’s expected quality.
Why do projects succeed?
Simply from thorough planning and good regular communication, a project will achieve a tangible result.
What can be done to start a project?
First thing is to have a good set of requirements and specification. Without these, any project is doomed to overrun in terms of both cost and time, and may not achieve the desired benefits.
The next thing to be done is to assign an experienced project manager who has the wile to set-up and kick-off the project. This may or may not be the same project manager that sees the project through from start-to-finish. The project manager must be given the appropriate authority to manage each stage of a project.
Establishing the project team
By now, it should be known what the project is planning to achieve, and that all interested parties have been contacted. Now, the official project team, in terms of personnel resources, need to be allocated and informed of their particular role and responsibilities.
Planning
This is an essential part of the project as this included milestones and key dates for project completion. There may even be a go-nogo milestone date set to decide whether or not the project should continue.
Delivery
Work has started, and deadlines are being met. These need to be managed effectively so as not to allow changes in project scope unless authorised via a change request procedure.
Documentation
Prior to starting the project, the quality plan, approach, communication plan need to be set-up. This allows all involved to see and understand the project.
Project closure
It may sound simple, but when working on a complex project, it can be difficult to realise when to close a project. Hopefully, all deliverables have been achieved. If not, then the reasons need to be collated at the post project review and feedback into the business so that lessons can be learnt for the next project.
Typical Projects
No two projects can be considered typical, as by their very nature they are completely different.
Background
Peter Genet is a Chartered Engineer, and Prince2 Project Manager, who having worked in the electronics, telecommunications and IT industries for many years, has worked on and managed an interesting variety different projects. Many of which have been multi-disciplined such as mechanical, electronic and software engineering and intercontinental. Other projects have included design for manufacturing engineering, GPRS Reliability, 3G, Data Centre Moves.
Contact
E-mail: peter.genet@btinternet.com
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