Rinse repeat … just make your management of projects easier.

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'd love to hear your views, experiences and comments and if you're interested in finding out more, drop me a line.

Thanks for reading
​Simon