A guide to simplifying even the most complex projects

Many staff members accidently fall into project management roles despite lacking training in this important area, but following some basic rules and processes can reduce headaches and ensure successful outcomes, writes Dermot Crowley.

Projects are complex beasts, no doubt about it. Do they, however, have to be as complicated as we tend to make them? Many people in today’s workplace are not project managers, but they find themselves managing projects. They are managers, team leaders, executive assistants, partners, consultants or lawyers. None of them has ‘project manager’ in their title, yet they are managing complex endeavours every day.

What is more, because of the seeming complexity of this work, they get stressed, overwhelmed and end up procrastinating on the work so that it gets left until the last minute. The work becomes a chore and a weight around their neck – and, as a result, there is every possibility that it will end in failure. This is such a pity because I truly believe that the great work, the meaningful work, the really fulfilling work gets done through projects.

So let us look at some strategies to simplify your projects and make the next one a little less daunting. The first step on the path to simplifying projects is to break down their complexity and visualise the elements and factors that should be considered. Once you have done this, you can then think about the best tools to manage the work, as well as the best processes to implement. A simple framework for thinking about projects is Who, What and When.

WHO

Before you get into the detail of tasks and schedules, it is worth thinking who is going to be involved in the project, and from whom you may need to get buy-in with the project. Project management expert Colin Ellis suggests in his book, The Conscious Project Leader, that the success of most projects comes down to people and relationships. There are three factors you should consider:

Project leadership – Who will be the project manager? Perhaps you! Who will be the project sponsor? This is usually a senior manager within your organisation who will sign off on the budget. He or she will have the final say on key decisions. They should also champion your project within the organisation, especially at leadership level. It is really worthwhile building a relationship with them and understanding their expectations and preferred workstyle.

Project resources – Who will be on the project team and do the work? Remember, these people may be members of other teams and they may sometimes be your peers, or they could be more senior than you. Influencing them will be the key to the success of the project, and getting their buy-in is crucial, too. Simon Dowling discusses some great strategies for getting buy-in in his recently published book, Work With Me. It is well worth a read.

Stakeholders – You may also want to list any other stakeholders in the project who will be critical to its success. End users, management, suppliers, procurement specialists, the client – build a relationship with each of these stakeholders. Try to understand what they need from the project, and what they can contribute. Cost, quality, scope and time are often stated as the four variables of any project. When one changes, one or more of the other variables also needs to change. It is good to understand which is the one non-negotiable variable for each stakeholder. This will help you manage their expectations.

One of the most important things to consider when choosing people to work on a project is the capability of those people. Do they have the skills, knowledge, experience or authority needed? Making this judgment will help align the right resources to the right activities.

WHAT

The next layer of complexity to simplify is the ‘what’ of a project. What is the project trying to achieve? Understanding this element will help define everything else that needs to be done. What deliverables will the project produce? And, finally, what tasks need to be completed to make progress and achieve completion?

Objectives – Sometimes we get stuck into a project without really being clear about the project objectives. Why are we doing this? What business objectives does the project link to? Is this the best use of our time? Gaining clarity around these questions will ensure you invest your time and resources the right way.

Deliverables – A good way to start to break down the complexity of what needs to be done is to identity the project deliverables. You can easily create a work breakdown structure to help you brainstorm everything that needs to be done, and the deliverables sit at the centre of this. The structure is similar to an organisational chart, and the deliverables are the main work streams that need to be completed.

The deliverables basically represent the different tangible outcomes that the project will deliver. When designing a new training program, for example, one deliverable might be a slide pack, and another a workbook.

Tasks – Once you have identified each of the deliverables, you can then brainstorm a list of all the tasks that need to get done to complete each deliverable. Chunking the work down like this makes it much easier to get a complete picture of what needs to get done. Brainstorming this work within the context of each deliverable also makes things much easier.

WHEN

Now we get to the most complex part of project management – ‘when’. Research shows that a seriously high percentage of projects go over budget and over time. Sometimes this is down to unforeseen issues that arise, but most of the time it is because of poor planning and incorrect estimates about how long a project will take. Getting clarity about the ‘when’ is completely reliant on the previous areas of ‘who’ and ‘what’.

Schedule – Proper scheduling relies on two things. First, it is a good idea to create a project schedule which indicates at least the key activities and when they need to happen. For a simpler project, you may just need a sequenced list of tasks with deadlines for each. For more complex projects, you may need to use project software to create a detailed schedule with every task visually represented on a timeline, possibly with task dependencies identified (e.g. Task 2 cannot start until Task 1 has been completed).  This can get complicated, and I would only go down this path if the project warrants it and you know what you are doing.

The second consideration with a task schedule is that at some stage the work has to get out of the project plan and into an individual’s schedule. Each project team member should be reviewing the project plan and scheduling their upcoming activities into their personal planning system. If they do not do this, the work will get left until the last minute and the project will go off the rails.

Milestones – A good way to manage critical dates in a project is to create a milestone schedule. Rather than bogging yourself down with trying to set a date for every task, establish dates for the critical milestones in the project. Milestones are points in time when a piece of work has been completed, goes live, is finished testing etc. Search in Microsoft Excel for Milestone Templates and you will find a number of pre-formatted templates that make this a breeze.

Deadlines – And finally to deadlines. These are a type of milestone, with one critical difference. They are often non-negotiable and cannot move. It is worth working out the deadlines and working back from them. An example would be a conference project. The date of the conference is a deadline, and every task – and intermediate milestone – leading to that deadline must be met. There is no flexibility to delay the conference if you are running late. Not all projects have a deadline like this, and sometimes you are better off setting a deadline anyway to rally the troops around a point of completion.

Two other factors come into play at this point. When we match ‘what’ and ‘when’, the dependencies between the tasks affect the timing.  I mentioned dependencies in the section above. If there are dependencies between tasks, this will influence when things can get done. This is one of the areas where projects go over time because the project manager did not take into account the fact that not all of the work can get done at the same time. When you consider ‘who’ and ‘when’, you also need to take into account the availability of the resources. Are people around to do the work when it needs to be done? They could be involved in another project, or they might be busy with their operational role, or away on leave. Again, good relationships and clear communication will help to clarify this and help keep your project on track.

So we now know that projects are complicated beasts with lots of moving parts. Essentially, though, they are just a list of things that need to get done by a bunch of people by a certain date. Take some time to map out the details and it will be much easier to manage.

Dermot Crowley is a productivity thought leader, author, speaker and trainer. He works with leaders, executives and professionals in leading firms and organisations, helping to boost the productivity of their people and teams. He is the author of Smart Work. For more information, visit www.dermotcrowley.com.au or email dermot.crowley@adapttraining.com.au.