Project Management Do’s and Don’ts

Emi Akiode’s fourteen year Project Management Career

Below are some practices that have worked for me in 15 industries over the course of my project management career. They are practical suggestions which has earned me the respect and admiration of colleagues, coworkers, and executives.

Do’s:

1. Identify the why’s (What is the project context? Is this project needed to satisfy requests or needs, or is it to implement an regulatory change or technological strategy. Is it to perform a strategic integrated change control action, or improve and fix products, processes and services, or meet regulatory, legal, or social requirements?) The why can prevent purposeless, listless, and weak project goals early in the lifecycle phase (versus learning this later when backtracking will be costly).

2. Create a needs assessment (This will help you as the project manager and the team understand the market sphere and economic climate of the business)

3. Create a Business Case (This links business outcomes and values to project work objectives)

4. Create a Benefits Management Plan (This benefits plan is the explanation defining the process for creating, maximizing, and sustaining the benefits provided by a project. The plan is also able to contribute to the scope planning, to determine what is in or out of scope. Relating benefits plans with scope plans prevents derailment and hijacking of project objectives when stakeholder analysis and engagement ebbs and flows throughout the project, thereby enabling and improving change management. Benefits management is tightly coupled with True North concepts in lean management investment projects whereas benefits may be less important in one-off projects or events. See article on True North through certified Lean practitioners: What is True North in Lean? | AllAboutLean.com and During Strategic Planning, your True North doesn’t Change – American Lean Consulting )

5. Involve the customer, sponsors, and other stakeholders to create a shared understanding of success criteria (Best to do this as early as possible)

Don’t:

• Try to over-detail the activities of the project (This misleads the team into thinking we have all the risks and unknowns-unknowns and can distract from the mission  of the project)
• Let “common practice” replace common sense (Stakeholder engagement and environmental considerations are important and will always be important- Context matters!)
• Assume getting to know your remote team members is not important! (Creating a sense of camaraderie is important and knowing how they work best can help to create a shared sense of success on)
  • Try to write 2 things you know about your team members outside of the project work they contribute. If you can’t try to get to know them just a little!
• Rely too heavily on written communications and emails. Create ways to mitigate risks by having follow up discussions; especially with remote teams!
• Try to retroactively work project management activities into the project when those  planning activities may have already taken place.