Skip to main content

7 Things to Do Before Starting Any Project




Gauge the scope of the project


The scope of the project is the first thing that has to be ascertained. What is the overall aim of the project? What are you looking to achieve? Once you know what the scope of the project will be, a plan can be devised. However, you should be aware that the scope can change throughout the project as different stakeholders ask for more to be included in the final deliverable, so the system must remain flexible.

Set the success criteria


How is the success of the project going to be defined? By the quality of the finished work? By the amount of money it costs? By the length of time taken to complete it? Whatever the factors for success are, they must be measurable and aligned to the objectives of the key stakeholders – in this way, the Key Performance Indicators can be defined.

Identify major risks


Try and work out what the major risks to the project are before you begin. Where are the most likely points that things will go wrong? If you can identify those points, then you can try and limit the impact of the problems that might arise when you reach them.

Use SMART milestones


The SMART acronym (specific, measureable, agreed, realistic, time-framed) is well-known in the business world, and it’s one you should adopt when thinking about the milestones in your project. Milestones, such as the completing of an important part of the project, help the process keep its structure and keep different teams in the loop with regard to which milestones need to be completed before they can begin certain jobs or tasks.

Milestones can be used as a focal point for the team, for the monitoring and forecasting of the entire project and for reporting throughout. Setting them using the SMART acronym should go a long way towards ensuring the smooth progression of the process.

Optimize allocation of resources


The resources that need to be utilized in your project could be anything from software and hardware to human team members, and they need to be allocated equally according to their strengths and availability. This could present an issue among those who have holiday, personal commitments or other projects that they have to work on.

Find a solution that ensures the maximum amount of resources working on the project at the same time. For instance, if a resource is not available at a certain time and the relevant part of the project cannot move forward without it, concentrate on a different job or task that can be completed.

Produce Gantt chart


The Gantt chart is one of the most widely-used progress measuring tools used in projects across the world, and the majority of project management software uses the format as standard – not bad for a format first developed at the beginning of the 20th century. Because a Gantt chart’s horizontal bar display allows users to see the order that tasks should be done in, the amount of time it should take to complete them and the relevant dependencies that exist between them, it is ideal to use to track the progress of your project.

Create a baseline


One of the last things you should do is to create a frozen snapshot of all final plans to act as your baseline throughout the project as it is being completed. This will enable you to track actual performance against what was expected, perform “what if” analyses and get new team members up to speed on the project if they join it after it has started.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TRAIN YOUR MIND TO BE CALM IN EVERY SITUATION

Great leaders always seem to remain calm, during situations that make mere mortals fall to pieces. Conventional wisdom says that the ability to remain calm is a character trait that most of us lack. Neuroscience, however, has recently revealed that remaining calm under pressure is not an inborn trait, but a skill that anybody can learn. Here's how it's done  ⤵ ● [ Understand the biochemistry. ] The opposite of remaining calm is the state of "fight or flight," a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. The reaction starts when two segments of your brain called the amygdalae interpret a situation as a threat. This perception causes your brain to secrete hormones that tell your nervous system to prepare your body to take drastic action. Your breath gets short, your body floods your muscles with blood, your peripheral vision goes away, and so forth. Since neither fig
Post a Comment
Read more

Why We Say What We Won't Do (but Still Say It Anyway)- The Bigest problem of us.

Every day we say a lot about what we want and will do. “I want to pet a cat.” “I want to buy a house for my parents.” “I don’t want to be single anymore.” “I will love you no matter what.” “I will work harder in the future.” It’s easy to make plans for the future. And we make resolutions all the time. Consider that a full 80% of resolutions fail by the second week of February.1 And that a vast majority of relationships (plus many marriages) end as well with break-ups or divorce. The best intentions and the best-laid plans generally speaking end in failure. No one intended to lie In general, people make these kinds of promises or resolutions with the best intentions. They don’t want to fail; if anything, they want desperately to be right, to improve themselves, and to make their friends and family happy. So even if a resolution doesn’t work out, when they utter them, it’s far from a lie. People often speak without thinking. They say what comes to mind, bu
Post a Comment
Read more