Project Management 101: For Non-Project Managers

Happy International Project Management Day!

International Project Management Day is all about celebrating the important role project management plays in our organizations. In the 1950s, organizations began using formal methods to organize work around projects – leveraging the power of structured planning, clear communication, and team collaboration to achieve specific goals. This project-centered focus has since grown, becoming a vital way to connect efforts across departments, professions, and even industries.

Surprisingly, you might be using project management principles without realizing it. Whether you’re overseeing an office relocation, recruiting new board members, or planning an annual fundraiser, these are all projects.

So today, let’s zoom out, and explore the basics to Project Management…

Scope, Time, Budget, Quality - Project management triangle

What are the pillars of Project Management?

The three pillars – SCOPE, TIME, and BUDGET – are also known as the “triple constraints” in project management. A successful project must balance these three constraints to be able to deliver a high-quality final product. If any one of these pillars are out of balance, similar to a 3-legged stool, then the quality of the project will be low, or the project will fail altogether.

Example: If there isn’t enough budget to meet the needs of the scope, OR the timeline to complete the scope is unrealistic, the project will be low quality, or possibly fail.

Project Management 101: Ensuring the budget is realistic to achieve the proposed scope within the planned timeline is the first critical step to project success.

Discovery Phase or Go/No-Go decision point

Go/No-Go: Decision to continue or stop a course of action.

Project requirements should be gathered and thoroughly assessed during the discovery phase (also known as the requirements phase), before the project begins. The Discovery phase should also include a Go/No-Go decision, where it may be determined that the project pillars cannot be balanced, or that the project is not viable for a multitude of reasons.

Project Management 101: Before a project even starts, assess and make an informed decision regarding the viability of the project by doing a thorough Discovery process.

Lifecycle of a Project

All projects move through five phases throughout its lifecycle: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure.

In a Waterfall project, these phases occur one after the other.

In an Agile project, the Planning-Execution-Monitoring and Controlling phases may go through several iterations throughout the project term.

The five phases create a roadmap that helps project teams manage complicated projects in an organized way. Understanding the phases can help project managers create accurate plans, estimate realistic timelines, and guide projects from concept to successful completion.

Project Management 101: Determine the most appropriate method for your project, and make sure that each phase is clearly understood.

Plan it! Plan it! Plan it!

A project management plan (also known as a Project Charter) includes MANY plans, outlining the specific needs and details of the project.

Project Management 101: Draft, review and approve at LEAST a basic set of plans for the project. These should be referred to throughout the project and updated as needed.

For small to medium sized projects, Koja recommends that the following plans be developed, at a minimum:

Schedule (Time): Usually in the form of a GANTT chart, listing all of the phases and tasks for the project, noting lead and lag time for appropriate tasks (eg. ordering materials and building in delivery time) and dependencies for tasks that rely on another task being started or completed (eg. receipt of those materials to start production).

The Schedule will help inform milestone deadlines and if the overall project is running on time or not.

Budget: Should include estimated costs for all elements of the project, and may include consultant fees, purchase of materials, space rental, cyber and IT expenses, travel, etc.

The budget may also include a schedule for when each expense is expected to occur, eg. paying for materials that have been ordered may be a one-off expense, but may have a large impact on the overall ‘burn rate’ of the budget. The Budget will inform the sponsor organization (ie. who is paying the bills) how to plan cashflow for the project.

Communication Plan: Specifies who should be consulted and/or informed as the project project progresses. This may include key interest groups, the public, staff and funders.

The communication plan would refer closely to the Stakeholder (Interest group) plan (if it has been created). The Communication plan should also specify the methods of communication that will be used (email, social media, newsletter, text/phone, secure portal, other) and frequency or schedule of communication (perhaps at key milestone dates).

Risk Management Plan: A risk register includes a list of possible risks, their likelihood to occur, the impact if they eventuate and possible mitigation actions. Identifying and assessing risks should ideally be part of the Discovery phase mentioned above, which will help inform the Go/No-Go decision.

Example: if a particular risk has a high risk of occurring AND it would be catastrophic to the project, it would be important to work out how to mitigate (stop the risk from happening) the risk. Or, it could be determined that it would be impossible to mitigate effectively enough to be able to save the project.

Risks will always happen. Their effect on the project can be estimated, and potential solutions (mitigation) implemented ahead of time or upon occurrence to save the project. Thinking about what could go wrong before even starting is a very useful exercise to do!

Change Management: Identification, review and approvals of any changes to the scope, budget or timeline. Changes will happen, so consider and plan for who needs to know and what the process is to approve (or not) those changes.

To summarize, the keys to a successful project:

Start with a thoughtful ‘Discovery’ phase to:

  • Determine the goal of the project
  • Define the scope, budget and timeline,
  • Identify risks that may occur and appropriate mitigation actions,
  • Identify who should be involved in the project and what their roles are (staff, funders, public, subject matter experts, etc)
  • Make sure the scope, budget and timeline balance with each other, and that the overall success of the project is realistic.
  • Decide if the Project is a Go or No-Go.
  • With this Discovery work done, and with a Go project approval, you are ready to move in to the ‘Initiation’ phase of the project – good luck!

Ready to take your project further?

If you are a non-governmental organization (NGO) and would like support with the Discovery phase, or any element of your project, feel free to book a Discovery Call with me.