Idiot's Guide To Project Management (For Dummies As Well)

Spend less time, money and effort on projects than ever! It's the quintessential Idiot's & Dummies Guide To Project Management! Watch the video and learn from https://www.projectmanager.com/?utm_s...) Director Jennifer Whitt,as she shares her own guide to project management for idiot's and dummies with you.

Looking for an intelligent, fast-thinking tool rather than an idiot's and dummies guide to project management? Simply click the link below to claim your 30-day free trial of ProjectManager.com

https://www.projectmanager.com/online...

To subscribe to our YouTube Channel, click here: https://www.youtube.com/user/projectm...

To see another great project management video, check out ccc"Introducing The Ultimate Agile Project Management Software" by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4gmx...

---

Closed Caption:

>>Hello, I’m Jennifer Whitt, Director of
ProjectManager.com.
[Music Intro]
>>Welcome to our whiteboard session today
on the Idiot’s & Dummies Guide to Project
Management. Before you make any judgments,
let me share with you where this came from.
People always kid me about my stories of “back
in the day,” so I’ll start with my “back
in the day” story.
Back in the day, right out of college, I worked
for a company and, believe it or not, I was
a Unix system administrator. People may not
even know what that is anymore. It was on
the technology side, and it was before the
term “project management” or “project
manager” even existed. I was given by my
executives my first small project. The first
word that came out of my mouth was, “Yay,”
but what was in my mind was, “Oh, no. What’s
that? What’s a project? What’s a small
project and what’s a big project?” After
all, I was, again, a Unix system administrator
and involved in very large project initiatives.
The term “small” is relative to your organization.
I’ve created my Idiot’s Guide for me,
Jennifer Whitt, and I’d like to share that
with you today in case you find yourself on
your first small project. Maybe some of the
tips will help.
The principle I learned through this in the
beginning was from my executives once I got
my first small project is don’t spend more
time, money, or effort on the project because
this was literally a small project, and once
I was given this project, I was a woman on
a mission. I really studied and analyzed this
thing.
My small project was moving our group of about
15 people. Our group was actually sitting
on the raised floor in the computer room of
our company. We were moving into our new office,
which was a modified hallway. So I did have
to coordinate with several other people for
this big move. What I learned from my executive,
again, was not to overkill this project.
I want to share with you some of these things.
As I’m talking with many organizations,
I do actually interview some CEOs. Some of
the problems that they say is on some small
projects, where project managers get a project
bad rap sheet, it is for the same principle.
There are some things that are projects. They
have a beginning and an end date, and they’re
producing a unique deliverable for the organization,
but they are small. So to incorporate and
do overkill on some of the project management
principles and processes is way too much.
In some organizations, a small project could
be coming up with a quote if it’s an insurance
company, developing a quote for different
services. It could be a healthcare organization
coming out with some piece. Again, small is
relative to one’s organization. So the level
of rigor should be appropriate to the size
of the project.
Here are some of the “should dos” and
some of the “don’t worry abouts.” If
you’re finding yourself maybe on some of
your first small projects, these are some
of the things that I’ve found that you should
do.
Number one, you should create a task list
so you’ll know what has to be done in order
to get this project done. You don’t have
to worry about a Monte Carlosimulation or
coming up with different things. You do have
to have somewhat of an idea of the tasks,
the work that has to be done, and the scope,
but you don’t have to come up with the exact
estimates in different scenarios.
Number two is to identify dependencies. You
do have to know what you have to have in order
to get certain tasks done. You may not be
able to get some tasks done unless others
are done before then, or you may have to wait
on certain resources or assets into the organization
of the project before you can do it. So it’s
good to identify dependencies, but you don’t
have to come up with a critical path or other
contingencies.
The other one is assign people. It’s important
to know specifically who is responsible for
a task, because if there is no one assigned
or if there’s an organization assigned,
then the task is not going to be done. You
need to know who to go to for specific things,
so you’ll know who to report on what’s
the status, has it been done, how can I support
you. You don’t necessarily have to come
up with a full-blown organization chart, resource
matrix, or even a detailed communications
plan of all these people in all these elaborate
ways, because in a small project, again, relative
to your organization, this is small. This
is a small effort, something that maybe it’s
one person or two people or a few people.
Set due dates. You have to know when things
are going to be completed or when they’re
projected to be completed, but you don’t
have to do any detailed reporting, all these
elaborate, customized reports, all the red,
blue, yellow, green reports. That can be overkill.
You do need to document the project, what’s
been done, who, what, when, and where. If
it is a project, it is being funded from something
in the organization, so you do need records,
whether it’s estimates, billing, or things
like that. So it’s does have to be documented,
but you don’t have to go to any elaborate
version control or version control systems
and all of that.
Then, you do need to track time and budget,
because after all, if it isn’t within an
organization or a company, it is being paid
for. The people, whether it’s yourself and
one or two people or however small your team
is, that is being paid from somewhere. You
do have to track time, and that’s associated
with budget, invoices, billing, or even payroll.
You don’t have to go through any elaborate
EVA analysis.
There are more things, but these are the top
things that I think you should do. Some of
the top things you don’t necessarily have
to worry about, again, for the small projects.
The level of rigor should be according to
the size of the project so you don’t end
up with a project bad rap sheet on your record.
If you need a tool instead of an Idiot’s
and Dummies Guide to Project Management, then
sign up for our software now at ProjectManager.com.