Introduction to project management

30’ introduction: (Trainer) - (support: slides & video & web)

Description of the activity

→ What is project management

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Project management is then the use of specific knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to deliver something of value to people. The development of software for an improved business process, the construction of a building, the relief effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market—these are all examples of projects.

All projects are a temporary effort to create value through a unique product, service or result. All projects have a beginning and an end. They have a team, a budget, a schedule and a set of expectations the team needs to meet. Each project is unique and differs from routine operations—the ongoing activities of an organization—because projects reach a conclusion once the goal is achieved.

After having introduced the concept of project management, the trainer asks the participants what their experience on PM is and if they can imagine an activity they carried out that could be conceived as a project (ex. organization of a dinner, planning of a family trip, etc.) How that activity could be planned and carried out in a more sustainable way (ex. taking green means of transport, ordering natural and organic food etc.)?

45’ duration: (Trainer) - (support: slides & video & web)

→ The main components of project management

Project management involves planning, controlling and completing the work of a team to achieve specific goals in a specified time. Managing projects effectively and consistently is one of the most important functions for anyone. To be a great project manager, it is important to get these things right. Let’s start with the constraints of the work that needs to be completed for the project. This will help determine the people or team that should be involved. The constraints of a project include goals, time and budget.

Project Goals

The first thing you will need to establish are the goals of the project. Ask yourself, "What are the desired outcomes I want to achieve from completing this project?" It can be very helpful to use the SMART Goals framework to set your goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. The goals of your project will help you determine the quality standards of the completed work.

Project Timeline

Once you know the goals of the project, the next step is to determine the time needed to complete the work required to achieve the goal. More often than not, in order for a goal to be realized, the project will need to be completed within a certain amount of time. If you’re hosting a webinar to market a product or service, you better believe that the timeline for completing the webinar should not run beyond the date of the webinar. Furthermore, the larger the goal, the more work will need to be completed. If this is the case, it will be useful to identify milestones or micro-goals that need to be accomplished along the way.

Project Budget

There are very few things that cannot be completed with a small budget — as long as you don't care about the end result and you have an infinite amount of time. For example, if you need your website redesigned in a short amount of time on a shoestring budget, you will be unsatisfied with the end result. As we all know, when it comes to good, fast and cheap, you can only pick two.

Project Scope

Now that you have your goals, timeline and budget, you can complete the scope or specifications for the work. It should include a list of all of the tasks, deliverables, deadlines and resources required to hit your goal. Managing your scope and understanding what deliverables fall in and out of the allocated scope of the project is critical to ensuring that work gets completed on time and to the required specifications.

Now that you've identified your work constraints, it's time to assemble a team. At the risk of stating the obvious, your team will be the collection of individuals delivering the work in the project. Your team should consist of people with the right balance of diligence and capabilities to reach your project goals.

Team Skill Set

Building a team with the requisite skill set to deliver the work on time and on budget is incredibly important in project management. Since the scope of the project will define the deliverables, it can be used as a starting point to determine what the makeup of the team should be in terms of skill and capabilities.

Team Motivation

You should align a team members skillset with the relative importance of the tasks they will be assigned to for the project. For example, if your project requires SEO work on your blog, but this work is neither complex nor critical to the project, then you probably do not want to assign this work to your top SEO specialist. In other words, the work your team members are doing should align with their goals.

Team Chemistry

A team comprised of highly motivated and highly skilled members can still fail if they do not work well together. Two ways you can go about building a team with a lot of chemistry include previous experience working together and compatible personality types. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and DISC profile personality assessments are commonly used for this purpose.

Leadership

Finally, the  needs to be capable leaders who are held accountable for ensuring the project is brought to completion. These individuals should be able to inspire the team, communicate effectively, delegate responsibilities and solve issues related to scope creep.

Now that you know the critical components of project management, it's time to start applying them to your idea generation strategy. Based on the ideas identified in the previous session (ex. organization of a dinner, planning of a family trip, etc.), the trainer asks the participants to rethink the way those activities were carried out considering the components identified in this session: How that activity could be planned and carried out in a more efficient way (ex. was there a time and/or budget constraint; could the support of friends or relatives be helpful in carrying out those activities)?