Let’s continue with our exploration of the things project managers need to be skilled at. There are three major project management concepts to consider. The first is planning. The second is controlling. The third is executing. In this third article, we will concentrate on planning and controlling as it pertains to IT projects, as outlined in a good PRINCE2 Training Course London.
Planning is what it says it is. Planning is all about the organization of resources for their time associated with a project. Planning is a number one priority and something that should be carried out each time a project is ordered.
Some people understand this concept, but others will not. For example, when making a major purchase such as a car, insurance carrier, copier, movies, or a large television, the planner, the salesman, may have the solid, concrete, and specific information which they are responsible for presenting to the client or the individual with whom they are speaking. They may also have to know the specific delivery date, which is important along with some other major details to complete in making the presentation and the time and date when the delivery will take place. A planner is very specific, good, and organized. They have the information that needs to be conveyed to their client in a specific manner and a manner of asking for the order.
Teams are the next concept we will address. Often organizations will have more than one project going on in parallel. And, more importantly, there will be team leaders who are part of the team and are in charge of the team. Regardless of the number of team members, we believe in the maxim that every team needs a Project Update (P.U.) or exceptions to the time-line for the project or respective team member. This update is a word document of the things that are not happening with the project and still need to take place. Even teams that have people with different expertise on the team need to go through a P.U. along with the summary or the Key Points in the update. By thinking this through and doing a summary for each team member, a plan can be developed that will effectively move things along.
Again, a planner is very specific. Good planners know that they must know the delivery, but they also understand that there is no pie in the sky in terms of things going on within the organization. People to get hired, people to move on, and situations to be learned from that should be listed down. That way if there are changes on the project or a situation is taken down from the P.U. to the announcement of it creating a needed continuity to the project due to some outside circumstance that the team can follow and workaround.
In summary, each process has its own method and the final well is a thought-out plan to get from now to the next stage. We believe that taking from the previous project is necessary in order to gain a new one. In the past, a project manager may have begun a project without a clear game plan and ended up with an incomplete project, or maybe worse. Since so many projects have begun and failed in the past, it is only natural to go down the same path during this type of situation.
