I was in the middle of a conversation recently with a senior manager about what areas a company needed to grow and what resource they need to invest in next.  Always difficult when funds are tight and the future uncertain.  So most of the time then!

They said it was essential that that someone was proactive.  I instinctively agreed. … then I thought about it … how many times have I been in a conversation where another manager has been complaining because an employee has done something, not consulted or had the right person involved, to try and sort out a problem.   Not done something as that manager would have … quite a few!  More than I can say ‘proactive’ actions have been given a positive spin probably!

IDEA
I got me thinking, what is being proactive …. The definition is ‘creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.’
That’s great if it’s the right action and better sometimes than doing nothing at all ... sometimes.  But to do it the right way is the key … I’ve seen and done many proactive things that have ended up resulting in the status quo if not being worse than before.  Often this happens when senior managers jump in without understanding the situation or people doing things without consulting a person who could guide them a better way.
 
SYNOPSIS
Oh yes, we all want proactive employees, no one wants to spend even more precious time doing other people’s jobs, it’s just inefficient and frustrating, but that action needs to be causing the right thing to happen.  To make proactivity a positive thing then you need to make sure the proactivity is going to benefit the situation.  How?
 
SOLUTION
The key to encouraging proactivity and ensuring good proactivity is creating a good understanding of your company and the right communication.  An understanding that is communicated simply to allow the proactivity to be channelled the best way or through the best person.
 
To do this create a clear structure that outlines knowledge, skills or at least responsibility, it may surprise you what you have or haven’t got and the starting point for this is a company organigram.   These usually though just contain titles, but titles don’t explain the expertise or responsibilities and create an importance hierarchy. 
 
To make it a proactive tool it needs to also include expertise and responsibilities.  Then you have created a basis or roadmap to channel that proactivity in the right way.  Experience will eventually create this understanding most of the time, but it’s a simple solution for everyone to understand what you have.  It will give new employees and anyone else who works with your company that instant clarity and even help existing employees. 
 
So easy, go make it fantastic Mr proactive tell the world what you’ve got!

Practice makes perfect!  The saying goes, top musicians and sports people, don’t turn up and perform without some form of practice. Practice makes things easier, the challenges you face become familiar and you are able to overcome them relaxed and don’t waste as much energy working out what the best way to deal with that challenging situation. 
But its not just on a stage or in a stadium that we encounter repeatable challenges.
Within a project there will be areas that you encounter, project development, procurement, stakeholder communication, complying with contracts or legislation, organising the work to be done …. there are 14 generic areas I would consider that need to be understood, reviewed and performed on projects.
Delivering the scope, engaging users, engaging suppliers, Developing, Procurement, Finances, progress, change, risk, planning, quality, organisation and having a business case for the project.  Which all compliment your business as usual.
IDEA
If you could apply the same principles to getting through a project that a top musician or sportsperson do, you could exert less effort, overcome challenges quicker and better.
 
But a project is unique and takes time, its not a single action like a tennis shot.  In a work environment the more you experience the better you will be equipped to over-come a challenge, the better your stroke … but that takes time.  Do you have time? ……
 
SYNOPSIS
To make your projects better and take less effort you could then always employ experienced people and let them get on with it.  But that relies on people and people fitting in and staying.  It’s expensive and can make people indispensable, more important than the company!  Not an ideal situation if that person doesn’t fit into your culture or isn’t there anymore.
 
How can you make work easier and de-personalise the benefits of experience to help everyone? 
 
SOLUTION
 
Simple, don’t look at the person look at the what needs doing.  When you look at what needs doing and make sure the 14 areas of a project have a repeatable way of being done, you help reduce the effort in getting a result and reduce the reliance on experience and a specific person. 
 
Call them processes if you like, although a process can get to ridged for a project.  It’s simply about making sure all areas are being dealt with in a consistent way.
 
And the more a project requirement has a way of being dealt with, with a responsible person associated with dealing with it, you give the people and project a head start with dealing with the challenges it will bring.
 
This is a key aim in developing project management maturity and with it the benefits of managing projects more effective and transferable.

I was in the middle of a conversation recently with a senior manager about what areas a company needed to grow and what resource they need to invest in next.  Always difficult when funds are tight and the future uncertain.  They said it was essential that that someone was proactive.  I naturally instinctively agreed. … then I thought about it … how many times have I been in a conversation where another manager who’s been complaining because an employee has done something and not consulted or got the right person involved to try and sort out a problem, not done something as they would … quite a few!  More than I can say proactive actions have been given a positive spin probably!

IDEA
I got me thinking, what is being proactive …. The definition is ‘creating or controlling a situation by causing something to happen rather than responding to it after it has happened.’
That’s great if it’s the right action and better sometimes than doing nothing at all.. sometimes.  But to do it the right way is the key … I’ve seen and done many proactive things that have ended up being in the same situation if not worse than before.  Often this happens when senior managers jump in without understanding the situation or people doing things without consulting a person who could guide them a better way.
 
SYNOPSIS
O yes, we all want proactive employees, no one wants to spend even more precious time doing other people’s jobs, it’s just inefficient and frustrating, but that action needs to be causing the right thing to happen.  To make proactivity a positive thing then you need to make sure the proactivity is going to benefit the situation.  How?
 
SOLUTION
The key to encouraging proactivity and ensuring good proactivity is creating a good understanding of your company.  An understanding that is communicated simply to allow the proactivity to be channelled the best way or through the best person.
 
To do this create a clear structure that outlines knowledge, skills or at least responsibility and the  starting point for this is a company organigram.   These usually though just contain titles, but titles don’t explain the expertise or responsibilities and create a hierarchy.  To make it a proactive tool its needs to also include those expertise and responsibilities.  Then you have created a basis or roadmap to channel that proactivity in the right way.  Experience will eventually create this understanding most of the time, but it’s a simple solution to belt and brace it.  It will give new employees and anyone else who works with your company that instant clarity and even help existing employees. 

So make it fantastic Mr proactive.

Project managers (PM’s) are rubbish aren’t they.  You give them a job to do and they get too involved in things they shouldn’t, they don’t get involved in things they should and you have to sort their mess.  They create paperwork for no reason, but haven’t got the information when you need it.  They just don’t do anything but spend a lot of time not doing it.  Then the projects late, over budget and doesn’t look like or do what you wanted it to. 
 
It’s frustrating!  These are all common things I’ve heard about PM’s and accused PM’s of!  Whether it’s someone who’s come through the ranks or someone with experience.  Either way do you feel like you have to make all the decisions for them, like they just don’t get it and you have to step in to save the day!  Would you be better off doing it yourself!
 
IDEA
Here’s the thing … you would!  This is your business after all, you know what needs to be done and why.  You run it off instinct, you’re generally right and it’s got you where you are today.  Then you got busy and it seemed the right thing to do.  You needed someone else to look after some of the project management, there are only 24 hours in a day after all.
 
There is a tipping point where you just have to let go.  This is also the tipping point where you have to become more mature in how you run your projects to succeed.
 
SYNOPSIS
You can’t obviously look after everything and you need someone else to take responsibility.  Someone who knows how to run projects and is reliable and can make decisions like you would.
 
SOLUTION
If you ran the project you would instinctively know what the business needed, this is why you would defiantly run the project better than anyone else.  You need to translate this for the project manager to understand.
 
But how?
 
Firstly, don’t separate the business from the project.  Every project is different, but your business is why you’re here.  The business and the project have to meet for both to be a success, don’t let them drift apart.
 
Secondly, if you don’t get off to a good start with outlining why you are doing the project and the priorities, people will either not be able to make decisions or make their own decisions and that is where it all goes wrong.   Where people become rubbish!
 
You need to set the why and the way and then, if you have one, the PM adapts that to the project, not make the project fit the way…. And that is the skill you are paying for and the ones that can incorporate those business needs the best are the best PM’s. 
 
But they will all be rubbish if they have to make it up for themselves, they aren’t you!  People will have their own agenda and ideas.  Understanding why you are doing the project and being able to explain it is the bedrock for a more mature managed company and project.  It’s your company lead it, without doing everything!
 
So if your PM’s are rubbish what do you do?
 
You have three options.
 
1.Get rid of your PM’s,  if you don’t have a strategy that you can pass on, don’t bother with PM’s, you’re wasting everyone’s time.  Create a hybrid approach to running projects, where people who know the business all take some responsibility and muck in to run the project and you can make decisions when things go wrong.  I know some nice companies that operate this way.
 
2.Get someone in who understands how to create the link between the business and the project and can help you implement it.  I can guarantee you’ll see some benefits.
 
3.Take control yourself and work out a way to make sure everyone knows how and why your projects are being done so you can stand back and let them make decisions as you would.
 
If you want any advice on either of the 3 approaches, I’d love to talk about them with you.  I’m sure I’ll learn something to.
 
And if your PM'S are brilliant, well that is down to you!

Most of these blogs are about project management and how it can help you, but there is no point in talking it up where it can’t be.  So I’ll just get on with it, project management can’t increase turnover.  Sales, production, design, marketing probably some more things I can’t think of, these are the direct influences on turnover.   Bring it in, send it out.  This is where the glamour and importance is! Right?
 
Management, finance, HR is there then to facilitate the process of filling in the blanks between bringing it in and sending it out.  None of these functions are a standalone business without a product or something someone wants.  These are the boring bits! Right?
 
The saying goes turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, or you can get in as much work as you want but if you are spending more to get it out the other end, you’re not deemed a successful company and you won’t be around for long! 
 
There are a few reasons you may want to not care about being profitable, but for the purpose of this, let’s talk about the basic commercial benefit from a project …. to make some money …. so we can enjoy spending it on something else.
 
IDEA
If we are all in this to make some money, the more we make the more we can spend and have more fun, now or in the future. We can do perceived good things or bad things with that money, not my position to judge, but without it you aren’t buying owt, no one’s having fun!
 
So how do you make the profit as large as possible?
 
Let’s look at the variables. Cost, quality and time..
 
Cost, this is very quantifiable and relatively easy to control in advance.
 
Quality, a bit less quantifiable but very subjective and controlled by the cost, which can be controlled in advance.
 
Time, this is extremely variable, both in: subjectivity and how it can be measured in advance.
 
The key to using time well is management, management doesn’t produce anything but it facilitates it. Better or quicker …. and time is a strange thing, you can’t use it again, once it’s gone … puff …. its gone! If you don’t use it, it will use itself, its head strong like that, time is always consuming itself. Once consumed it won’t come back and therefore to the business a massive ongoing risk. It’s a leaking bucket.

SYNOPSIS

So to do fun things, we need to make a profit, the profit comes not from having a viable product or contract but from getting that product out the door for less than it came in for.

Cost and quality are generally closed cases from the start, we only have time left to control.

Better profit is ultimately about time …… sales, production, marketing et al are where the glamour is.  Management is about producing the results, to have some fun.  The better the results the more fun we can have!

Some of us are lucky, we have double the fun enjoying managing and the results of profit, we don’t care for the glamour, that’s for Instagram. 

But here’s a thing … you can still get double the fun even if you don’t like managing!!

SOLUTION

Be boring, concentrate on getting your management better … because if you do it well … time can be doubled and the fun can be doubled!

Here’s how…. If you make something with the resources you have and it takes 6 hours it takes 6 hours.   That is having experience and knowledge of what you are producing, to improve it you could introduce some machine that makes it quicker, there is a cost.

If you have 6 hours to manage a task it could take 6 hours.  If you have the experience and knowledge.  To make that quicker you could introduce a consistent tailorable process, become more management mature and it’s free! 

Once you understand management, you understand how to influences how quick you can make something, by getting the information quicker or clearer, making sure the order is right or knowing who is doing what.

And in lies the magic.  If you make things quicker you save money by not using the time, but you also have that unused time to do something else with.  You double the profit on not using that time!
 
Use it to make something else … or …. use that time to gain more experience and knowledge to make the work even quicker, allow time to learn!

So to get double the profits, concentrate on the management, concentrate on being boring and we’ll all have much more fun!

Is there a project where you don’t have to spend anything?  Whether its money or time and the less you spend the better the profit.  I’ve worked for companies where they try to monitor every penny …. others that trust you to spend …… and ones that fluctuate between the two depending on which way the wind is blowing.  This last version is the worst sort, no one knows where they stand, recipe for disaster for getting things done and guaranteed to add to a negative culture.
 
The approach to spending is important on a project and can greatly influence management time.  You can’t let all spending go unauthorised, it would get out of control. You can’t watch every penny, it’s just counter productive as you spend more time monitoring.
 
A basic authorisation process can easily waste an hour of working time; to ask, fill in the information or whatever the process, the requesters time and the authorisers time could easily put £50 on the cost of that item through time spent no matter what software you use.  At this rate you will be whipping out your profit on all transactions up to £500 ….. depending on your markup!
 
There is also the delay in waiting for the approval.  So frustrating for both the employees who can’t get on and the authoriser who is now a bottleneck for the project and is getting told they are holding up the project.
 
IDEA
If you could trust everyone it would be easy!  Yes, but what about the company cashflow, large expenditure at the wrong time will cause issues.

You need to find a balance and this is where managing by exception is really helpful.

Managing by exception means that you have a process but there are exceptional circumstances that you don’t use the process and get on with it.  In this case a designated limit to spend under.  A limit that it is more costly to authorising under or a limit you trust your employees to spend to.  Simple!

Simple enough, but every project is different, every employee is different.  Setting a £500 limit on a £5000 job means one transaction is 10% of the job, could be issues if it’s wrong!  Setting a £500 limit on a £500,000 job is only 0.001% great, but you will have hundreds of these to approve and those £50 administrative costs to get approval will very quickly mount up … along with the work while they wait for the bottle neck to clear.

SYNOPSIS
You’ll want to find a balance, somewhere between letting people get on and not wanting the profits to waste away unmonitored.
​
SOLUTION
As with every project, the actions need to be proportional to the project, its risk, size and scope. 

To do this with exception managing, you need to start off with a generic limit per project that the company is happy with the risk.  Say 0.01% of the project value or manhours, this can then be greater for specific people with greater knowledge of the budget or procurement understanding, or keep it simple, the same across the board.

This limit can then be adjusted at the start of a project and be lowered for less complex projects or increased for more complex ones.  Tailored to be lower if the project has a low margin to protect profit, higher if there is more profit to play with but program is tight and you need to get on. 

Tailoring is the key to exception managing, it will only work in the long term for the company if it is specific to the project.  The company sets what they think their risk tolerance is and the project team can get on with getting the work done, knowing where the boundaries lie.

To be even more exceptional, exception management can be used in the client user relationship when change comes into play.  Set a lower limit for the cost of change that both sides that don’t claim for unless the change exceeds it.  Either in overspend by the user or a cost saving for the supplier.  It will stop slowing the project down with minor issues!
​
So be exceptional…….. make sure you get the balance right and make the best profits you can.

Background
What’s a small project to you?  It’s all relative, I would suggest that a large project is one where you sub-contract a proportion of the work because its beyond your resources and a small project is a project that only uses up a maximum 50% of your resources at a time.  Both large and small projects have their good points and obviously a balanced portfolio of projects is the ideal, we don’t live in an ideal world, so we all do what we need to do.

An initial thought might be that a large project is going to be more draining on management than a small one.  You’ll need to manage more people, there are more opportunities for something to go wrong, bigger numbers involved, larger items to cost you time and money and so a small project if something goes wrong will mean you won’t lose as much money.  So that’s a winner, right?  No need to worry about them!

Idea
There is a but though. Yes in terms of turnover the losses will be worse on a larger project, but in terms of profit you need to beware.
​
Say for instance you have a larger project £500k made up of 220K of costs and 220K of labour 80k profit and a smaller project £50k, 22k costs 22k labour 8k profit.#

Both projects have a issue with communication and you end up having to reissue drawing information 3 times because you’ve not interpreted the clients wishes correctly.  Each issue uses up 2 hours management time and 4 hours design time.

That’s 18 hours at £25 per hour = £450.

On the larger project that 0.566% of the profit gone but on the smaller project its 5.6% of the profits gone.  20 of those mistakes and the profits totally gone.  You’ll probably also use up more management time arguing to try and save you money, that’s not a good conflict to have (there is good conflict btw).

This example would be for a bespoke manufacturer but for a designer the profits are reduced even more as you don’t have cost profits to help you out!  That example given could easily be 10% of profits gone for a designer!

Synopsis
As you can see, the effect an issue has on profit is magnified the smaller the project.  You could just put in a contingency and accept that things will go wrong.  Or you could employ the view of a bigger organisations who’s small projects are a lot bigger than yours and look at maximising profits and benefits when you can and use a contingency where it’s needed (That would be for events you have no control over, something for another day).
​
Solution
This is where understanding project management maturity comes in useful.  It’s a bit more complex than this but essentially Project management maturity is elevating how you run projects from.

1. Being aware that you are running projects... to
2. Repeating how you run projects.... to
3. Defining how you run projects..... to
4. Managing projects.......... and at its most mature
5. Optimising projects. 

You can operate at any level and it’s not wrong to, but to start to get the best out of your projects and have less frustration, then just getting to stage 3 where you define how you run projects will start to make a big difference, in terms of profit and ease.

At this level you have a process that covers and mitigates issues pre them happening that’s not administrative heavy and aligned to the business.  It won’t negate change and threats, but will greatly reduce issues like communication breakdown happening.  These sorts of issues are how the profits slip away quickly on small projects.

Small projects are great, manageable, much more fun, you feel part of them and they spread the risk for the company.  But to get the best out of them, manage them well and manage them with maturity. 
​
No one likes an immature project after all … well apart from maybe your mom! 

Managing the design process is an overlooked art, you are managing a project and creating an idea, or creating a project.  There is a reason and an outcome, a start and a finish.  But every design is unknown at the start and then, especially in fit out and architecture, there are a multitude of outside influences which makes them more complex, you also have subjectivity to add into the equation.
 
Sometimes there is a design manager involved on larger projects, but that doesn’t mean someone who is managing the project and to involve a dedicated project manager can be a heavy-handed way of developing a design.  So, it falls to the designer to effectively manage the project.  That is the element that makes or breaks the project, in terms of getting the financial gain and ongoing relationships. 
 
The gains in doing it well can soon mount up.  If you could spend even 5% less hours on a £20K job through its management, that would be an extra £1,000 in time saved.  Time which you could potentially double the value of by using it to work on another project!
 
Manage the process effectively and you are more likely to get a recommendation or repeat work.  That would also be a few less speculative pitches.
 
How can you manage a design project well when you don’t have the project management skills?
 
Idea
First thing is to understand the process.  Design is subjective, kind off, until you start having the constraints of legislation, usability, buildability, cost and sometimes vanity to incorporate.
 
The hardest thing with subjectivity is to get a decision, the even harder thing is to get an agreed subjective decision that works. 
 
The quicker you get a decision, the quicker the project and the client gets the value.  Also the less time you spend, you get better profits. 
 
To manage design efficiently, get those series of thoughts and ideas into a defined outcome as quickly as possible.  Or all of those thought and decision loops into a flat line and deliver the idea quickly!
 
Synopsis
How do you then manage a design project effectively? There are a couple of ways to approach it. You could accept that you don’t know how many hours it will take to get an answer, charge a contingency.  That way though everyone misses out on all the benefits and not achieve the most effective and efficient project possible.  To achieve that you could focus on a few simple things.
 
Solution
The design process is an agile process.  That is you are flexible and try and get a series of small decisions agreed until they mount up to make the full picture.  The full benefit of this is that even if parts aren’t agreed there are elements that can be progressed.  I always see design as a series of ever decreasing circles or loops, that eventually flatten out to a finished item, either through decision or necessity.
 
To get these circles to flatten in the best way, focus on making the circles increasingly smaller, treat the design as a series of shorter projects that combine to make the whole project, the aim is to get some value for the client at the end of each loop.
 
To help do this focus on the following in this order.  You probably do this unconsciously, but to do it consciously is important in being effective and importantly make sure the whole project team knows what’s needed.  This will limit communication and information fog and get decisions and solution quicker:
 
1.Why
Why does the client want to do the project, what do they want to get from it?

2.Priorities
Then find out what are the most important elements?  Where is the value to the client?  Where is the value to the contractor in getting decisions early?

3.Complexity
What are going to be the difficult bits, especially when you add in legislation, usability, buildability, cost and vanity.  These are the risks, these are the elements to monitor closely.
 
Once you have this information, communicate it, then move onto the executing:
 
1.Organise
Decide what you need to do and who’ doing it. 

2.Communication
Understand and decide who responsible for communicating with who and how.  Make sure everyone knows!  Clients, employees whoever is part of the project.

3.Information
What information have you got, what do you need.  Use the agreed communication plan.

4.Plan
Plan at a high level for achieving all this.
​
5.Do
Have fun, let the client have fun but always keep in mind the why, priorities and complexity to retain focus on what needs to be done to stop the project drifting.
 
Make sure all the project team know all of this or you have wasted your time, this is your project, you manage it, or better still lead it.
 
Managing design is all about delivering ideas in a functional way, managing the clients focus and delivering the value the client wants and you can do that!
 
There are substantial benefits in terms of cost and reputation if you can improve how you run projects.  Don’t miss out!

You’ve won a new project, yeah.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you knew exactly what needed doing and you just got on with it. You’d just then have to manage yourself and get the work done.  Deliver the product.  Dreamy…
 
That’s not the real world of projects though, it’s one of the key differences between manufacture for a product and manufacture for a project.  There will always be fog to peer through.  Fog from lack of information.  Fog from different interpretation of information.  Fog from knowing where to get the information from.  Fog from who has the final decision.  Fog from interpreting those decisions.
 
If it wasn’t for the fog, how quickly would you get the work done?  Quicker anyway.  So you have to manage the fog, turn it to mist or clouds.  Try and start to see some blue sky.  Once you get to that point you can get on with the work effectively.  Clear the fog, the time spent finding out will reduce. 
 
If you could spend even 5% less hours on a £20K job through its management, that would be an extra £1,000 in time saved.  Time which you could potentially double the value of by using that time to work on another project!
 
The question then is how do you get rid of the fog.
 
Idea
Managing that fog is tricky, you’ll never get rid of it completely, it can be reduced though.  To do this, focus on it and focus on it in the right order to stop repeating actions, redoing work and get the answers.  The quicker you get the information you need, the more time saved and better profit.
 
Synopsis
The important part of managing a build project, is getting the information and communication right, quickly and in the right order.  It helps efficient procurement, your co-ordination and getting the job done and done well.
 
Solution
The manufacturing process is a waterfall process, you need to do one action to do the next, until you’re finished.  To do this well you’ll need the right information in the right order.  It will also need you to accept that you won’t have it all at the start, things will change, things will happen!  The information will need managing.
 
The key to managing the work effectively is to prioritise and focus on the right information at the right time and do it consciously and communicate it.  Inform the rest of the project team as part of the process to limit communication and information fog.  In doing so getting the right information before you need it.  To do this focus on the following questions in this order.
 
1.Why
Why are you doing the project, what do you want to get from it, why is the project being done?
 
2.Prioritise
What are the most important elements?  Where is the value?  What of that value should be delivered first to the client so they can use it and other contractors can get on with their work?
 
3.Complexity
What are going to be the difficult bits, what’s going to take the longest time to complete, what information is not available to complete parts of the work.  Which elements effect other elements the most.  Do elements need specialist knowledge?
 
Once you have this information, communicate it, then move onto executing the project:
 
1.Organise
Decide what you need to do and who is doing it
 
2.Communication
Understand and decide who is responsible for communicating to who and how.  Make sure everyone knows!  Clients, employees whoever is part of the project.
 
3.Information
What information have you got, what do you need, where do you need to go to get that information, what information do you need to produce.  Use the agreed communication plan.
 
4.Plan
Plan at a high level for achieving what you need to.
 
5.Do
Have fun, get it built, but always keep in mind the why, priorities and complexity to retain focus on what needs to be done to stop the project from stalling.
 
Make sure all the project team know all of this or you have wasted your time, this is your project, you manage it or better still lead it.
 
Managing bespoke manufacturing projects is all about delivering the product, in a best order to deliver the value, for you and the client.
 
There are substantial benefits in terms of cost and reputation if you can improve how you run projects.  Don’t miss out!

A client’s world is an easy one right? You want something permanent creating, you know what you want that will bring in additional revenue, you’ve got the funding, you know you want it open for a certain date.  Right go …
 
It should be an easy process, get the right people in, you pay the bills, the work gets done.  You just have to wait till it is ready for you and there it is as you envisaged.  That’s how it appears on Instagram or would in the movies …well if they ever made films about development projects it would.  Niche market the development film genre though!
 
Then the questions start, you start getting new ideas, costs are too high, time ticks on.   What you thought was being done hasn’t been done or quite how you thought and its somehow your fault, the more you get involved the more it’s your fault and you’re paying!
 
Idea
As a client the buck stops with you, to make decisions and have answers.  The trouble is there are no wrong answers, but lots of right answers and everyone has them.  In order to have the best project you need to have the most effective answers, if you can before you start.  This isn’t entirely possible but I’m sure you do have lots of answers, but does everyone working on the project know what they are?  Do they understand why?  If they did maybe you would hear a little less of the things you don’t want to hear.
 
Synopsis
The important part of managing a project from the client or developer’s perspective is that you are as clear as possible about what you need.  Where the value for you is and what your priorities are.  You want everything of course, but there needs to be a hierarchy to let decisions be made.  That way you’ll get what you want and need in the most effective way.
 
Solution
A client led project approach needs to be a hybrid of agile and waterfall management.  You have to get the best ideas that work and get it done.  But first you need to be able to explore to get the best ideas.  The best way to do that is to have the elements of the project split down into manageable chunks.  Specifically, the elements are most valuable to you.  Think of the elements of your project as small loops, develop the element, review and improve then repeat until they are right to deliver the value to you.  Then you can set them off on a waterfall approach to be built and become reality as quickly as possible.
 
The key to managing your projects effectively is to prioritise and focus on where the value is to you.
 
To do this follow the following process to get the important answers, do it consciously, don’t assume anyone knows the answers or will ask.  It sets the right path for the project to travel down.  This is the best way to stop the questions which slow the project down and then the blame and let the people deliver the project effectively.
 
1.Why
Why are you doing the project, what do you want to get from it, why is the project being done?
2.Prioritise
What are the most important elements?  Where is the value in getting what completed first?  What do you need to use it?
3.Complexity
What don’t you know, what are you not sure on yet, what’s not been decided?
 
Then move onto letting the people execute the project, but monitor it.  Make sure its going down the path you set it on and try and get the project flat lined as quickly as possible.  It will only cost you if you don’t, its your project, manage it or better still lead it.
 
Managing your project is all about setting the right path for everyone.  In the clearest way possible.
 
There are substantial benefits in terms of cost and reputation if you can improve how you run your projects.  Don’t miss out!