Project Management in under 8 minutes

Project Management can be simple! You don't need lots of Maths, or forms, or PRINCE2, just the common sense APM method which I have explained here as a twelve step process for planning and then doing your project.. This 8 minute talk tells you all the main points, but of course there is more to learn than this - if you think it looks good then come on one of my courses!

The 12 steps are
- define the project
- list the tasks
- estimate the cost and time of each task
- plan the dependencies and longest route
- speed up the project plan if necessary
- create a Gantt chart (I love Gantt charts)
- check you have the resources required
- think about risk
Start the project
- monitor progress
- monitor cost
- adjust your plan if necessary
- review and learn from what happened


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I hope you like this video. It is a new and improved version of my original one called Project Management in 8 minutes. I have also made a rap which covers the same material but in a very different way - check it out!

My website http://www.chriscrofttraining.co.uk has lots of other free resources as well as information on the training courses that I run on project management, time management, and other subjects.

And check out a description of my on-line project management course at http://youtu.be/YqHX8i72x1U

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Closed Caption:

ok my name is chris craft I run training
courses in project management
I much prefer the APM process that's the
association of project managers to
Prince
so I'm going to take you through the APM
process really fast
it's a 12-step process that allows you
to plan and deliver any project on time
to budget and correctly to quality
so step one define the project really
carefully make sure you know exactly
what you're doing before you start a
great with everybody
probably a kickoff meeting and get the
agreement in writing this document is
sometimes known as a paid a project
initiation document and in that document
you will need to define what you're
going to deliver
that's the quality when you're going to
deliver it that's the time and the cost
that the project is going to be cost
quality and time
whatever you do don't agree to a project
you can't deliver and don't even say
maybe you can deliver it because that
will sound like a yes and they will
think they're going to get it when they
probably won't and it will end up badly
for you and then
so define everything at the beginning
final thought about step one to find the
key driver which of the three circles is
the most important
ok then step to the planning begins list
the tasks
make sure you don't miss any tasks
because that will really mess up the
cost quality and time
so think carefully about listing the
tasks probably in three different ways
have a big brainstorm meeting with your
team and get a random list then get that
list structure down into a work
breakdown structure which is a tree
diagram of tasks and then maybe ask an
expert
if you've missed anything or have a look
at history see what happened last time
once you've got a list of tasks you can
go to step 3 which is to estimate the
tasks think about how long they're going
to take and what they're going to cost
and don't promise the average because if
you promise the average
there's a fifty percent chance that
you're going to fail ideally a good
safety margin would not be just adding
ten percent you add a bit more than that
you go halfway between the average and
the worst case
so if you expect something to take four
weeks but it might take six weeks then
put five weeks as your estimate
once you've got all the tasks listed an
estimated you can go to step 4 which is
to produce a network diagram or critical
path diagram
I quite often goal is a post-it note
diagram because the best way to do it is
to put all the tasks on post-it notes
stick them on a whiteboard or a big
piece of paper get them in roughly the
right order and then draw arrows
connecting them so you know what comes
after what this allows you to find the
longest path or the critical path but
also more importantly it's the heart of
all your planning because this is when
you decide how you're going to actually
do the project
so this is a network diagram absolutely
essential
do not jump straight to a gunshot but do
a network diagram first step 5 is to let
your network diagram and decide whether
you're happy with how long it's gonna
take
if it's going to take longer you'll need
to speed it up which is known as
crashing and it's usually means either
putting the money up on some of the
tasks or reducing the quality of some of
the tasks
although sometimes you can overlap some
of the tasks as well
and by the way the ones that you need to
crash obviously going to be the ones on
the critical path
no point in crashing a floating task you
have to keep an eye on the floating
tasks though because if you shorten the
critical path enough
some of the floating tasks made and
become critical
so you've produced the network diagram
without thinking about the total and
then you've looked at the total and
reduced it if you have to
you can now move on to step 6 which is
to make it into a Gantt chart again shot
is the output that you really want but
it's very important to go through the
network diagram stage first because
otherwise the gunshot is very difficult
to draw when you draw the Gantt chart
you put in the critical path first just
coming down in steps you have a time
scale across the top so that the longer
tasks are just shown as longer bars and
then once you've got the critical path
all the floating task hang off that you
can look at what they come after and
what they come before to put in the
floating tasks if we were doing a
training course we were two examples and
we would practice this of course but you
can probably see from this diagram
roughly how it
works so you've got the Gantt chart the
Gantt chart is brilliant for three
reasons firstly it shows everybody what
they've got to do in wherein each person
can see their part of the project
secondly you can look vertically and see
when you're going to be busiest you can
calculate the later levels required and
you can slide floating tasks if you've
got too much going on at once
and thirdly you can use the Gantt chart
to monitor what's going on by coloring
in but I'll come to that in a minute
so again shot completely essential you
have to have one you can then go on to
step 7 which is to think about resources
in more detail adding up vertically and
possibly even adding up all of your
projects because if you've got a
resource profile for each one you can
add up all the resource profiles to
check that you are able to do all the
projects that you want to do and then
finally step 8 the last bit of your
planning is to look at the risks you
probably would look at the critical path
on the Gantt chart in particular and
think what might go wrong
how likely are those things to go wrong
and how serious would they be
if they do go wrong if something's
reasonably likely and reason be serious
then you need to have a plan for what to
do about it either to make it less
likely or make it less serious
that's the end of the planning that's
the end of step 8
you need to do all of this before you
commit to a project
so there is a little loop back to step
one and you may find yourself going back
to the people who want the project
saying I can't do it and this is why
very important to be assertive but the
good news is planning makes you stronger
so if you've got a Gantt chart you can
use it as an arguing - which everyone
can understand
once the project's been agreed by you
and the people who want it you then
start the project and step nine is to
monitor the project by coloring in the
Gantt chart
check that you're keeping up with the
shedule you probably would have a
monthly meeting but possibly even a
weekly meeting if necessary based around
a Gantt chart to make sure you're
keeping up
that's monitoring progress
the other thing that you want to monitor
which is step 10 is the finance and you
need to combine steps nine and ten
really because if you're under spent
you may think you're okay but of course
if you look at progress is probably you
haven't done the work by the way if
you're overspent you probably are
overspent so comparing the progress and
the money is very important to know the
steps nine and ten
step 11 is to reschedule this is where
you have to ask for more money and ask
for more time
step 11 is usually quite unpleasant the
main hope you've got a surviving step 11
is to put in some contingency when you
do you're estimating way back at step
three
and then finally when you finish the
project
step two are ways to do a review and to
say what have we learned
usually three questions good bad and
better so what was good that we must
repeat next time I might have just been
lucky but at least we can make sure we
repeat it next time
what was bad that we going to avoid next
time and everybody else needs to know
about so they can avoid it -
and what could we have done better so
there we are that's the 12-step process
done very very quickly I hope that's
been useful if you need to know more
have a look at my website or come on one
of my courses
thank you