If you’ve been around the industry for a while chances are you’ve seen or been a part of a project or two. We’ve all seen projects that go well, and those that don’t go so well. Whether it’s a planogram release or software development project, there are some common success factors to keep in mind. Let’s take a quick look at two of them.
Clear Goals / Objectives
When you walk into a meeting with an agenda and clear objectives you tend to have a very productive session where everyone comes out on the same page. The same goes for managing a project. Going into your project with a clear goal (or set of goals) ensures that you have something concrete to work towards and can help you measure the progress and outcome of your project. If you don’t know what your goals are, how do you gauge your project’s success? Keep in mind the project’s goals should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely (SMART). We’ve all heard that before – but that’s a topic for another time.
Communication
In my experience communication has been one of the challenges in many projects. Simple as it may sound, communication often falls by the wayside under the tempo of the daily grind. It is important to take a step back and ensure that everyone involved in the project knows what’s going on and when. There are a number of ways to keep your team in the loop, and each has its pros and cons. The size, timelines, and type of project you are running will help determine the frequency (and in some cases method) of communication that will work best. Some of the simplest points of communication can often (in my experience) help the most: recaps after meetings and weekly recap emails. The latter only needs to take a couple of minutes of your time, and usually would include a recap of the week (key milestones, discussions, etc…) and a quick highlight of what’s coming up in the next week.
There are many other factors that can impact the success of a project: resources, deadlines, etc… In a lot of cases, those factors are out of the direct control of the project manager. Ensuring you go into the project with clear goals and continually communicating and engaging the project team are ways that are in our direct control that can have a large impact on the success or failure of a project.
