How to write an action plan

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When writing an action plan to achieve a particular goal or outcome, you can get much help from the following steps.

• Clarify your goal. Can you get a visual picture of the expected outcome? How can you see if you have reached your destination? What does make your goal measurable? What constraints do you have, like the limits on time, money, or other resources.
• Write a list of actions. Write down all actions you may need to take to achieve your goal. At this step focus on generating and writing as many different options and ideas as possible. Take a sheet of paper and write more and more ideas, just as they come to your mind. While you are doing this, try not to judge or analyze.
• Analyze, prioritize, and prune. Look at your list of actions. What are the absolutely necessary and effective steps to achieve your goal? Mark them somehow. After that, what action items can be dropped from in the plan without significant consequences for the outcome. Cross them out.
• Organize your list into a plan. Decide on the order of your action steps. Start from looking at your marked key actions. For each action, what other steps should be completed before that action? Rearrange your actions and ideas into a sequence of ordered action steps. Finally, look at your plan once again. Are there any ways to simplify it even more?
• Monitor the execution of your plan and review the plan regularly. How much have you progressed towards your goal by now? What new information you have got? Use this information to further adjust and optimize your plan.

The 5 Goals of a Project Manager

As a Project Manager, you need to manage people, money, suppliers, equipment-the list is never ending. The trick is to be focused. Set yourself 5 personal goals to achieve. If you can meet these simple goals for each project, then you will achieve total success. So read on, to learn…

The 5 Goals of a Project Manager

These goals are generic to all industries and all types of projects. Regardless of your level of experience in project management, set these 5 goals for every project you manage.

Goal 1: To finish on time

This is the oldest but trickiest goal in the book. It’s the most difficult because the requirements often change during the project and the schedule was probably optimistic in the first place.

To succeed, you need to manage your scope very carefully. Implement a change control process so that any changes to the scope are properly managed.

Always keep your plan up to date, recording actual vs. planned progress. Identify any deviations from plan and fix them quickly.

Goal 2: To finish under budget

To make sure that your project costs don’t spiral, you need to set a project budget at the start to compare against. Include in this budget, all of the types of project costs that will accrue, whether they are to do with people, equipment, suppliers or materials. Then work out how much each task in your plan is going to cost to complete and track any deviations from this plan.

Make sure that if you over-spend on some tasks, that you under-spend on others. In this way, you can control your spend and deliver under budget.

Goal 3: To meet the requirements

The goal here is to meet the requirements that were set for the project at the start. Whether the requirements were to install a new IT system, build a bridge or implement new processes, your project needs to produce solutions which meet these requirements 100%.

The trick here is to make sure that you have a detailed enough set of requirements at the beginning. If they are ambiguous in any way, then what was initially seen as a small piece of work could become huge, taking up valuable time and resources to complete.

Goal 4: To keep customers happy

You could finish your project on time, under budget and have met 100% of the requirements-but still have unhappy customers. This is usually because their expectations have changed since the project started and have not been properly managed.

To ensure that your project sponsor, customer and other stakeholders are happy at the end of your project, you need to manage their expectations carefully. Make sure you always keep them properly informed of progress. “Keep it real” by giving them a crystal clear view of progress to date. Let them voice their concerns or ideas regularly. Tell them upfront when you can’t deliver on time, or when a change needs to be made. Openness and honesty are always the best tools for setting customer expectations.

Goal 5: To ensure a happy team

If you can do all of this with a happy team, then you’ll be more than willing to do it all again for the next project. And that’s how your staff will feel also. Staff satisfaction is critical to your project’s success.

So keep your team happy by rewarding and recognizing them for their successes. Assign them work that complements their strengths and conduct team building exercises to boost morale. With a happy motivated team, you can achieve anything!

And there you have it. The 5 goals you need to set yourself for every project.

Of course, you should always work smart to achieve these goals more easily. Use online software to help you manage projects on time and under budget, like ProjectManager.com

5 Tips on Project Reporting

As a Project Manager, now that the New Year has started you will need to report on the status of your projects. Your Project Sponsor will want to know if you’re on track and when their project will be complete. To help you do this, read these…

5 Tips on Project Reporting

1. Project status: Create a weekly Project Status Report to show your actual vs. planned effort, percent complete and actual vs. forecast spend. Specify the number of open risks, changes and issues, and state whether action by your Sponsor is required to resolve them. Also show the forecast amount of time, effort and money required to finish the project. Always try and forecast as accurately as possible. Never forecast optimistically, always conservatively.
2. Task completion: You need to regularly show your Sponsor your progress against the tasks listed on your schedule. Create a summarized view of your project plan and update it to reflect the percent complete for every task. Then append this summary view to your Project Status Report. This way, your Sponsor can drill down to see further information about each task, if they want to.

   By offering your Project Sponsor both summary and detailed information weekly makes them feel like your project is an “open book”. They will have all of the information about your project at their finger-tips. This way, you will get more buy-in from your Sponsor and more support when it’s needed.

3. Milestones: You need to add Milestones to your project plan to show when the major project deliverables will be produced. You then need to report on the progress of each milestone to your Sponsor. Show the percent complete of each milestone, and again, forecast the completion dates.

   Here’s another tip: You will get more out of your team if you motivate them to complete milestones, as opposed to tasks. That’s because people are usually proud of the things that they have achieved in life (i.e. milestones), as opposed to the things they have done to achieve them (i.e. the tasks).

4. Getting help: Project Sponsors don’t always want to hear “we’re on track and under budget” in their project reports. They just want to hear the truth. So if you’re behind schedule and you need help to get back on track, then tell your Sponsor about it in your project reports.

   State exactly what you need from them. Show them that you’re doing the best you can and that you’re the best person for the job, but that you still need their help to deliver the project. If you need more time, money or resources, then ask for it. Don’t be afraid. And remember, the best time to ask for help is before you really need it. This gives you contingency, because it always takes time for help to arrive.

5. One version of the truth: Your project reports need to depict “one version of the truth” to your team. Keep them 100% accurate and be as open as possible about real issues that are affecting your team. Remember that if you communicate an issue to your Sponsor, then it becomes their issue to fix as well. Reporting issues is a great way to share the responsibility for fixing them.

So there you have it, 5 unique tips for reporting on projects. To take the hassle out of project reporting, use www.ProjectManager.com

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Deliver your Projects Faster

As a Project Manager, you will always be under pressure to deliver your project faster than people expect. It’s a tough challenge, but by using the tips and tricks listed below you can deliver your project before the deadline and reduce your stress along the way…

Deliver your Projects Faster

Here are 5 tips for delivering projects faster…

Tip 1: Find Shortcuts in your Plan
Project Managers usually spend 80% of their time executing and 20% planning. The reason is that the Execution phase is where the excitement is, so they roll their sleeves up and get started executing as quickly as possible.

But if you spend extra time in the Planning phase, then you can usually identify shortcuts which enable you to produce the same project outcome in less time.

So when you think your project plan is complete, take extra time to re-look at your plan from the point of view of delivering it faster. By doing this, you’ll find that you can schedule things to be done in a way that takes less time, with less effort.

Tip 2: Automate Manual Tasks
You need to automate your manual daily tasks to help you do things faster. Here are some of the manual tasks that many Project Managers do each week that could be automated using project software:

• Summarizing data for your Weekly Status Reports
• Collating Timesheets and Expense Forms
• Updating your Project Plan with timesheet data
• Working out whether the project is on track
• Reporting on risks, changes and issues.

You don’t need to perform these tasks manually. You can invest in project software to do all this for you. Your team will enter the data you need and the software will group and summarize it all for you. All you need to do is run reports and view the current status of your plan to ensure it remains on track.

Tips 3: Manage Execution Carefully
When your project gets underway, manage your project against the plan vigilantly. It’s easy for the plan to sit on the shelf, and for the team to go in their own direction. Instead, you need to lead the team by making sure they complete only those tasks which have been planned, and not other tasks which have cropped up along the way. So manage the project execution carefully. You can also save time in the Execution phase by:

• Working your suppliers and contractors hard
• Mitigating risks and issues before they affect the timeframe
• Saving all non-critical tasks until after the project is complete
• Not allowing unplanned tasks to be completed, unless critical
• Not implementing change requests, unless they are critical.

Tip 4: Double up on Resources
Usually, the easiest way to shorten the length of the project is to assign more resources to it. However, this isn’t possible for many projects because they have a limited budget and a limited pool of resource.

But that’s not to say that you can’t double up on resources for the right tasks. It just means that if you do this, then other tasks will be under-resourced. So why would you do this?

In most projects there are tasks on the “critical path” that must be completed to deliver the project. If you assign more resources to these tasks than are necessary, you can usually complete them earlier than expected. And it makes sense that if every critical path task is completed faster, then the entire project will be delivered quicker than expected.

Tips 5: Get the Critical Tasks done first
In many projects the last 20% of tasks, take 50% of the length of the project. This is because the team have left the difficult tasks until the end, which happens to be when they are tired and need a holiday!

Instead, identify the tasks in your plan which are the most complex and challenging to complete. And if possible, tackle those tasks at the start of the project, when people are fresh and enthusiastic. You’ll find that they can complete those tasks in less time and to a higher standard of quality than if they were left until the end of the project. And with those difficult tasks completed, the rest of the project should be easier to deliver.

So there you are, 5 top tips for delivering projects faster. If you truly want to speed up your project delivery, then use the Project Management Kit of templates from Method123.com. They are pre-formatted and come with all of the charts, tables and examples you need to do things quickly.

Project Management Templates

How to Deliver Your Projects Successfully

Your ultimate goal in delivering a project is to finish on time, under budget and with a happy customer. But how do you do it? Here are 5 tips to help you.

How to Deliver Your Projects Successfully

These 5 tips will give you a head start:

Be honest

Always be totally honest and upfront with your customer right from the start. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t have all of the resource, money and time needed to deliver it successfully from the outset. Set their expectations by telling them what you will deliver and by when. And if it eventuates that you can’t deliver on your promises, then tell them about it immediately. By having an “open book” policy, you’ll gain your customer’s trust. If you involve them early enough, they will be more supportive for your project.

Manage through delegation

Managers often fall into the trap of believing that they can do things more efficiently than staff. Of course in many cases they might be right, but the problem is that they don’t have the time to do everything themselves. So a smart manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It gives them the time needed to monitor the project and support their team. It’s a tough ask, but even if you know you can do a task more efficiently than others, delegate whenever you can anyway.

Expect the unexpected

Always expect things to change and be ready for it when it occurs. People have ideas, your customer may want changes and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s important, it’s how you react to the change that counts. Always embrace change, but be wary of it. Question every change request and only when you’re certain it’s for the best, then implement it.

Become a great leader

When you save time by delegating your tasks, you have free time for leading and motivating your team. Do this by regularly communicating the project vision to your team, rewarding them for progress and recognizing their achievements. Gain their respect by showing them you care. Build team spirit by taking them to lunch regularly and talking about what they achieved together.

Work smart, not hard

Never start from scratch. Always give yourself a head-start by using tools like Project Management Templates. The templates boost the quality of your documents and they save you time and effort.

Using these 5 tips, you’ll boost your project success. Try the complete Project Management Kit of templates today.

Project Management for Dummies

Are you new to project management? Want to learn the basics of managing projects? Then read this newsletter about…

Project Management for Dummies

You can manage any type of project, by taking these 5 steps:

Step 1: Set the goals

The 1st step is to gather your team together on site and set the goals. This means stating clearly what they have to achieve, by when and how they are going to do it. At this meeting, you need everyone on board, offering you their full support. Get them pumped and ready for action!

Ask your customer to come to the meeting and explain why the solution that the project will deliver is critical to their business. Get your customer to explain why the timescales are also important and the level of quality that must be achieved. Only with an understanding of the solution, timescale and quality targets will the team fully realise what it is that they have to achieve and be motivated by it.

Tip 2: Plan, plan, plan

The next step is to plan a course of action to achieve your goals. Work with your entire team to identify all of the major tasks that need to be completed. Estimate how long each task will take and create your project schedule. Then assign resource to each task so that everyone in the team knows what has to be done and by when.

Run the plan past your customer to get their feedback. Only with a rock solid plan will the team have clear direction going forward.

Tip 3: Measure, Monitor and Control

Then start measuring progress against your plan and monitoring it weekly to ensure you’re always on track.

You also need to control any change requests. This is when someone requests changes to your scope or deliverables. They might be a great idea at the time, but unless they are going to save you time or money, then wherever possible try and park them and move on. Changes to project scope often kill the best laid plans.

Tip 4: Communicate clearly

You know whether you’re ahead, on track or behind – but do your team? You need to keep them and your customer properly informed, if you want their full buy-in and motivation.

Also, report your project status to your customer weekly. Hold regular project status meetings with your team to keep them informed of progress against the goalposts and what lies ahead.

Tip 5: Work Smart

You have limited time and resources to deliver your project, so you need to work smart. Manage your time carefully. Use “To Do Lists” to prioritise your work. Limit the number of meetings you have and keep telephone calls short. Only work on prioritized tasks. If something arises that is non-critical then keep a record of it and move on.

Work smart by using clever tools. Use project management templates to help you deliver your project.

Download these templates from www.Method123.com

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How to Initiate Projects Successfully

Within this newsletter, we’ll help you to properly scope your projects, by describing:

How to Initiate Projects Successfully

Most Projects Managers get tired at some point in their project. After all, managing people, money and time is exhausting. But if you’re not at the top of your game for the whole length of the project, then your team can get stressed and timeframes can start slipping. So here are 5 tips for kick starting your project to rejuvenate it and give it a new lease of life…

Did you know that a large percentage of projects are cancelled before they even reach the detailed planning phase? The most common reason is that they have not been properly defined and scoped, and as a result, they lack the sponsorship needed to ensure their success. If they do manage to secure sponsorship, then Project Managers often find it difficult to control changes to the project scope, as they do not have a clearly defined scope statement to measure against.

For these reasons, it’s critical that you initiate your projects as quickly and efficiently as possible, by taking these 6 steps:

Step 1: Develop a Business Case

The first step taken when initiating a new project, is the creation of a comprehensive Business Case. A Business Case describes the business problem / opportunity to be addressed by the project and the alternative solutions available. The potential costs and benefits associated with each alternative solution are also defined.

The Business Case becomes the foundation for the project as it fully documents the reasons for creating the project and the key benefits to be delivered. Once produced, the Business Case should be formally endorsed by the Project Sponsor, before funding is allocated to the project. More info…

Step 2: Undertake a Feasibility Study

A Feasibility Study is completed to identify the likelihood of the alternative solutions actually delivering the benefits stated in the Business Case. Based on the results of the Feasibility Study and the Benefits and Costs portrayed in the Business Case, a preferred solution is identified and once again, is approved by the Project Sponsor.

If you can complete a comprehensive Feasibility Study, then you will greatly improve your chances of delivering your project successfully. More info…

Step 3: Establish the Project Charter

Once the problem and solution have been identified, a new project is then defined to deliver the solution. The “Project Charter” is documented, which essentially describes what the project sets out to achieve and the boundaries within which it must achieve it.

The project vision, objectives, scope, deliverables, project organization and an implementation plan are all clearly stated in the Project Charter document. The Project Charter may be otherwise known as a “Terms of Reference” or “Project Definition Report”. More info…

Step 4: Appoint the Project Team

Now that the project is defined, it is time to appoint the team. The Project Board is established and the Project Manager is recruited to take on responsibility for the project. The Project Manager recruits the Team Leaders and they in turn help recruit project staff. Every team member is assigned a detailed Job Description, defining their role and responsibilities within the project. More info…

Step 5: Set up a Project Office

The Project Office environment is then established, as the physical place of residence for the team for the duration of the project. This environment will provide the premises, equipment, materials, tools and processes required to enable the members of the project team to perform their roles successfully. A checklist is used to ensure that the Project Office has been set up correctly and will continue to support the Project as needed.

Step 6: Perform Phase Review

Once the project has been defined and the team have been appointed, you’re ready to perform a project phase review. A Phase Review is completed to ensure that all of the required Initiation activities have been undertaken and to provide formal approval to proceed to the next phase.

And there you have it – 6 steps to initiating projects successfully. If you would like to use templates to complete each of these activities quickly and efficiently, then read about the Project Management Kit.

This kit includes all of the templates, needed to implement the steps above… Download Now

How to Kick Start Your Project

Is your project getting you down? Do you want to give it a kick start, injecting new energy and motivation, boosting your chances of success? If so, then read this article telling you…

How to Kick Start Your Project

Most Projects Managers get tired at some point in their project. After all, managing people, money and time is exhausting. But if you’re not at the top of your game for the whole length of the project, then your team can get stressed and timeframes can start slipping. So here are 5 tips for kick starting your project to rejuvenate it and give it a new lease of life…

Tip 1: Stop and get a grip
Projects are always ahead in some areas and behind in others. Stop and take the time to get a firm handle on the project progress. Make a list of all of the areas that you’re behind in. Then prioritize the list and calculate the amount of effort needed to get them back on track. Are there any tasks that can be completed by others outside your team? If there are non-critical tasks that you can outsource, then now is the time to consider it. Use whatever resources you can find to complete these late tasks as soon as possible.

Tip 2: Rework the plan
Once you’ve caught up, revisit your Project Plan. Update every task in the plan and recreate your schedule ahead. You need to revitalize your team and to do this, you need a newly worked project plan that shows how you’re going to deliver the rest of the project on time. This will boost motivation and enthusiasm for completing the revitalized plan. Especially if your team can see that it’s actually achievable.

Tip 3: The Road Ahead
Now that you have a crystal clear plan ahead, you’re ready to get the team behind it. Take your team out for lunch. Walk them through the remaining challenges and the timeframes in which they must be achieved. Try not to talk about the prior period or any failures to date. Instead, be positive and focus on the road ahead to gather their support. If possible, ask a customer to come along, to impress on your staff what it is that they need to deliver and by when. Tell them you’re proud of them and what they’re capable of achieving.

Tip 4: Individualization
The trick now is to make each person feel like they are a critical cog in the wheel. Meet them individually, reward their successes and recognize achievement whenever you see it.

Tip 5: Quick wins
A winning team like to know they are winning right from the start. Focus on delivering a couple of critical tasks early, then shout about the success. Then get more quick wins under your belt and shout out about your successes again. This creates the feeling of achievement and it creates momentum in the team. Sure, the project may not be finished until you’ve crossed the finishing line, but half the fun should be in getting there.

By taking these 5 tips, you can kick start your projects to boost motivation to an all time high.

To invigorate your team, use these refreshing new Project Management Templates.

They include all of the documents you need to help your team deliver the project on time. Download from Method123.com

Create a Project Plan in 3 easy steps!

The most critical step in the Project Lifecycle is the creation of the Project Plan. This document acts as a “yard stick” by providing the basis upon which to assess the performance of the project. In this newsletter, we will describe how to…

Create a Project Plan in 3 easy steps!

The Project Plan lists all of the activities required to complete the project as well as the milestones, dependencies, resources and timeframes involved. The following diagram depicts the 3 critical steps involved in creating a Project Plan:

To create a Project Plan, you first need to define the Work Breakdown Structure (“WBS”). The WBS lists each of the phases, activities and tasks required to undertake a project. You will then identify the resources required to carry out each activity listed. And finally, you will construct a Project Schedule which describes the flow of tasks and the timeframes involved in completing each task specified. A more detailed description of each of these steps follows:

Step 1: Define the Work Breakdown Structure

The first step taken when creating a detailed Project Plan for your project, is to create a comprehensive Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS lists all the phases, activities and tasks required to undertake the project. Identify and describe each phase, activity and task required to complete the project successfully. Depict the order in which the tasks must be undertaken and identify any key internal and external project dependencies. Also list the critical project milestones, such as the completion of key project deliverables.

Step 2: Identify the Required Resources

Having listed all of the tasks required to undertake the project, you now need to identify the generic resources required to complete each task. Examples of types of resource include: full-time and part-time staff, contractors, equipment and materials. For each resource type, identify the quantity required, the delivery dates and the project tasks in the WBS that the resource will be used to help complete.

Step 3: Construct a Project Schedule

You have now collated all of the information required to build a detailed Project Schedule. To construct your schedule, you need to:

• List the phases, activities and tasks
• Sequence the phases, activities and tasks
• Add key internal and external dependencies
• Allocate relevant completion timeframes
• Add additional contingency to mitigate risk
• Assign resources required to complete tasks
• List critical delivery milestones
• Specify any assumptions and constraints

And there you have it! By following these 3 simple steps, you can create a comprehensive Project Plan to increase the likelihood of success of your project. If you would like to download a Project Plan template to help you to create Project Plans quickly and easily, then click here.

How to Fail your Projects

Do you want to know how to fail with your projects? In this light-hearted view of project management, we’ll tell you how to go about everything wrong! Yes you heard us right. That way, you can learn what NOT to do on your project. Hope it helps!

How to Fail your Projects

Take these 5 tips to deliver your project OVER time, OVER budget and make your customers miserable along the way…

Step 1 – Never Plan: “What’s the point of planning when no-one follows my plans anyway? My plans get printed, forgotten and put on the shelf. I’m just going to roll my sleeves up and get stuck in to the project?” A wise man once said: “if you fail to plan, then you plan to fail”. So planning is all about making sure that the right people work on the right tasks at the right time. Only if you plan can you be sure that you’ll deliver your project on time.

Step 2 – Don’t Communicate. “Why do I have to tell everyone what’s happening all the time? It’s pointless. All they have to know is what their daily task list is. Communication takes too much time. It’s not worth it!” The reason you have to communicate is that it keeps everyone on the same page so they all know how each other are getting on, when they have to work harder and when they don’t. For instance, if no-one knows that the project is slipping, then what chance have you got of delivering it on time if you don’t communicate?

Step 3: Forget leadership, it’s over-rated: “My team had better do their job or else they will get a kick up the bum when I come into the office tomorrow. You have to constantly crack the whip to get your staff to work effectively”. While this approach may work in the short term, people need to be rewarded and recognized for their efforts long term, to be motivated. In short, they need to feel valued and only a true leader can do that. You need to always be positive with them, even when giving them a grueling. Apply balance. Be constructive. Think in their shoes. Great teams have great leaders. It’s as simple as that.

Step 4 – Fall in love with Scope Creep: “Who cares if the customer has asked for more changes. If the project is late then it’s their fault. If they want to constantly change the scope of the project, then I’m not going to stop them.” Sure, your customer can change the scope when they want, but you have to control it because when the deadline has been exceeded and your project is still not complete due to all of the change requests you’ve allowed, then your customer’s not going to be happy.

Step 5 – Forget your customer, once the project has started: “Once I have my customers approval, I don’t need to hear from them until the project’s complete. The less I involve them in the project, the less havoc they can wreak. If I don’t talk to them then they won’t hassle me.” That approach might work, until you need their support. Then you’re in trouble! If you need your customer to approve more time, money or resource, then you have to keep them on side at all times. They have to be informed at every step in the journey and feel a part of the project team, if you want their full buy-in.

Treat your customer as though they were your best friend. Shower them with love, talk to them often and ask favors when you need them. If you have their full support, then you’ll get what you need when you need it.

We hope this refreshing view of projects helps you see what you should and shouldn’t do to deliver successfully.

One last tip – to avoid project failure, use smart tools that save you time and effort to get the job done. Get the “Project Management Kit” of templates. They help you work smart and get more done in less time.

Download the Project Management Kit of templates.