Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Formula for Project Management Success

These days, project managers can encounter a few problems that happen to almost everyone in the market. Projects can be delayed, exceed budget, and in many cases, projects don’t come out as designed. In fact, did you know that 68 percent of projects either fail or are seriously challenged?

So, why is this is happening?  With over 10 years of experience in the project management industry, Yarn Sinai, founder of web-based project management tool Elemtool, has discovered the secrets to solving these problems. Here are easy steps every PM can take to make their projects successful based on Sinai’s new book, “The Project Management Formula:  The Five Steps to Complete Your Project on Time.”

“We all run projects as part of our daily life activities. Let’s say a fun dinner party is a project. This project includes several tasks and people and can be run using common management concepts,” wrote Sinai.
These steps will drastically change your thinking about how you invest your time, what you focus your energy on and what’s really important when it comes to managing projects:

Step 1 - Define project objectives and collect requirements.  Not defining the project’s objectives is the number one reason why projects fail.

Step 2 - Define the priority of the requirements and features.  Identify the requirements that are most important to achieving the project’s success -those should be marked as the highest priority features.

Step 3 - Planning iterations.  Iteration is defined as the act of repeating a process with the aim of approaching a desired goal, target or result.

Step 4 - Running the iterations.  With the iteration schedule ready and all the tasks assigned to team members, each person should be tackling their tasks.  

Step 5 - Present the product to the client.  At the end of each iteration you should meet with the client to present the features that were developed. Having a straightforward formula to follow will help you stay on track and eliminate any difficulties that may arise.



Amanda Ciccatelli, Social Media Strategist at IIR USA in New York City, has a background in digital and print journalism, covering a variety of topics in business strategy, marketing, and technology. She previously worked at Technology Marketing Corporation as a Web Editor where she covered breaking news and feature stories in the tech industry.  She can be reached at aciccatelli@iirusa.com. Follow her at @AmandaCicc. 
Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments: