Project Management is all about using a set of tools, disciplines and methods to achieve a specific business goal or objective.

What makes a project?

Usually a project involves these minimum five attributes:

• Specific goals or outcomes
• Start and end dates
• People or resources
• Set budgets or contraints
• Tasks and milestones

This means:

• The project is unique (i.e. it is not a business-as-usual activity)
• It may require multiple people or resources across different teams
• Progress needs to be formally tracked and communicated
• The impact should be measured when the project finishes

Key project stages

1. Set an objective for the project – goals, outcomes
2. Define the work requirements – tasks, activities
3. Allocate people or resources to each task
4. Specify a start and due date for each task, including constraints
5. Measure the progress of each task to ensure progress is on-track
6. Celebrate key milestones and successes
7. Manage any missed tasks or deliverables
8. Conduct a Post Implementation Review (PIR)

• Engaging executives and sponsors
  Before embarking any major effort to improve something big within your organisation, make sure your executive team are onboard and know the benefits of your proposals.
• Risk assessment
  Using a Risk Assessment Matrix helps you to uncover potential issues, the severity of the risks and minimise the impact.