In Chap. 3, I described key success factors in project management and from them derived five principles of good project management. I end by summarizing the five principles and the key success factors.
20.1 PRINCIPLES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The five principles of good project management are
Manage through Structured Work or Product Breakdown. Use a breakdown structure:
To delegate responsibility
To define the scope
To isolate risk
To isolate changes
Focus on Results. Focus on what to achieve, not how to do it:
To control scope
To give a flexible but robust plan (using rolling-wave planning)
Balance Objectives through the Breakdown Structure. Achieve a balance:
Between areas of technology
Between technology and culture (people, systems, and organization)
Negotiate a Contract between the Parties Involved. All planning is a process of negotiation:
Between the owner and contractor
Between the project team members
Through bipartite discussion
By trading benefits for contributions
Adopt Clear and Simple Management Reporting Structures. Keep it simple. Use single-page reporting, nested through the breakdown structure, to give:
Visibility
Clarity
Commitment
The success factors were listed under four headings:
Foundations
Align the project with the business.
Gain the commitment of your boss and involved managers.
Create shared vision, a sense of mission.
Planning
Use multiple levels through a breakdown structure.
Use simple friendly tools, one sheet per level.
Encourage creativity, by delegating to experts through results.
Estimate realistically.
Organizing and Implementing
Negotiate resource availability.
Agree cooperation.
Define management responsibility.
Gain commitment of resource providers through the shared mission.
Define channels of communication.
Control
Integrate plans and reports.
Formalise the review process, through
Defined intervals
Defined agenda.
Defined criteria
Controlled attendance.
Use your sources of authority as a project manager.