Express – Managing Projects
Comprehensive bundles of tools and templates to help you get to action quickly on your most important projects.
Your Challenge
Dealing with project chaos can be expensive.
- You have more than one project on the go and more project requests coming in all the time – all of which need to be prioritized and managed.
- You also have to live with the consequences of your project decisions.
- The literature on project management is overwhelming, and often leads to heavy, expensive processes.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Organize your projects quickly and easily.
- Use Info-Tech's Project Management Toolbox to develop a method for monitoring and controlling incoming project requests, manage your projects right, and monitor the portfolio to focus your limited resources on the right projects.
Impact and Result
Use this toolbox to:
Project Management Toolbox
Section 1: Establish a process to prioritize projects
Section 2: Implement processes to manage projects
Section 3: Design processes to monitor the portfolio
1. Prioritize: Collect project requests
Understand what constitutes a project and establish transparent rules for collecting proposals.
a. Collect project proposals from the organization
b. Assess the feasibility of the collected projects
c. Establish a prioritization process with senior management
2. Prioritize: Identify high priority projects
Once project proposals are submitted and collected, establish a process to identify the highest priority proposals. Maintain an inventory of proposed projects, rank proposals using metrics that matter, and clearly identify which proposals the organization should tackle first.
a. Design a project prioritization process
b. Rank your projects
c. Obtain approval from senior management
3. Prioritize: Adjust project rankings
Whether IT experiences a shift in capacity or the goals of the organization change in response to market pressures, IT managers must adjust project priorities to reflect the environment in which it operates.
a. Refresh project priorities
b. Re-evaluate priorities in light of new developments
c. Review proposed adjustment with stakeholders
4. Manage: Plan a project
A successful plan can help you save time and money and mitigate the risks inherent in any new venture. Immerse yourself in the project only once you have a process for organizing, coordinating, and directing how the project team plans to reach its objective.
a. Assess project details
b. Create the plan
5. Manage: Manage a project
Once your organization agrees on a project plan, use this toolkit to implement the plan and successfully deliver on project outcomes.
a. Review the project plan
b. Execute the plan
c. Communicate project progress
6. Manage: Close a project
Project closure is often overlooked, but it is essential to successful project management. Use these tools to understand what loose ends you need to address once you have delivered your most important project outcomes.
a. Wrap up the project
7. Monitor: Monitor the project portfolio
Provide a comprehensive guide to monitoring the project portfolio from start to finish.
a. Understand portfolio monitoring
b. Enlist key stakeholders
c. Monitor project progress
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a seven call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Prioritize Projects
Call #1 - Collect project requests
A transparent method for collecting and documenting project requests, and processes for tracking them effectively.
Call #2 - Identify high priority projects
An up-to-date list of project proposals, a prioritized list of projects, and a template for communicating your priorities with senior management.
Call #3 - Adjust project ranking
An up-to-date list of project proposals, a prioritized list of projects, and a template for communicating your priorities with senior management.
Guided Implementation #2 - Manage Projects
Call #1 - Plan a project
An up-to-date list of project proposals, a prioritized list of projects, and a template for communicating your priorities with senior management.
Call #2 - Manage a project
A working project plan, and a communication strategy to communicate with stakeholders efficiently.
Call #3 - Close a project
A plan to close the project systematically, which will ensure the administrative tasks are completed efficiently and important lessons learned compiled for future projects.
Guided Implementation #3 - Monitor Projects
Call #1 - Monitor the portfolio
A comprehensive guide to monitoring the project portfolio from start to finish, and the associated processes.