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i business process management
Project planning and communication defined.
Defining Deliverables
Somebody must carry out the actual work in order to produce what is
delivered from your project. Even if the deliverables are small and
don't take much effort or time to produce, they should be documented. By
documenting deliverables and then having them reviewed by others, you
can find any errors or oversights. Your aim should be to document
complete descriptions of the products to be delivered. These
descriptions can then be used by the people who will produce the
deliverables.
These descriptions should be written clearly and unambiguously. They may
take no more than a page of text, but they should be complete. If you
don't write down a clear and complete description, the person producing
the deliverable may interpret your requirements in unexpected ways that
could result in further work in order to correct mistakes. Consequently,
always define and document the deliverables.
Project Planning
You would never climb Mount Everest without a considerable amount of
planning. Even when you go out for a walk near your house, some planning
is probably involved. When should you go? What should you take with you?
When should you be back? It is the same for even a small project. You’ll
need to decide which activities are necessary to produce a deliverable,
estimate how long the activities will take, figure out how many staff
members and what resources are required, and which activities and
responsibilities to assign to specific staff members.
All planning should be written down and communicated effectively to the
team members on the project. Some project managers become anxious
because they think they need to use project management planning
software, such as Microsoft Project, but this is unnecessary. It’s also
too easy to spend a lot of time making Microsoft Project Gantt charts
look good while losing sight of the reason for using the tool.
For a small project, you might try creating a simple bar chart in
Microsoft Excel. This is usually more than adequate for a small project.
Be sure to make each column a sequential date, and write your tasks in
the first column. Fill in the cells to document the time each activity
takes.
In addition to a bar chart, you should document the milestones achieved
on the project. The milestones consist of the dates by which you need to
achieve certain goals or produce deliverables. A milestone may be the
date on which a main activity ends. Each project member’s
responsibilities should also be documented in the project plan.
Effective Communication
Even a small project team composed of just the project manager and a
staff member should include documentation of each person’s tasks and
responsibilities. If you are the project manager, you can’t assume that
the staff member will know what to do without having it in writing as
well as given verbally. If the project manager doesn't assign specific
activities to the staff member, chances are that the staff member will
work on other things while waiting for clear instructions. Either the
project will produce the wrong deliverables or be delayed, since time
will have to be spent later on doing the tasks which should have been
done earlier.
You can communicate the project plans via e-mail, a printout, and
verbally at a meeting. Communicating in both writing and verbally is
better than only using one medium. Running through the plans verbally
with all project team members while giving them a printout is best. When
changes are made to the plans, these changes should be clearly
communicated to all team members as well.
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