Most people are given projects long before anyone calls them a project manager. Recognising when work is a project changes how you handle it, and it is the difference between coping and being on top of it.
Ordinary work repeats: serving customers, filing, answering the phone. A project has a start, an end and a result that did not exist before. Setting up a new stockroom is a project. Running the stockroom afterwards is not.
Projects go wrong in ways ordinary work does not, because nobody has done this exact thing before. That is why they need a plan, even a small one on the back of a page.
Your manager says: can you sort out the filing before month end.
What happens: Two days in you discover half the documents are missing and you needed a decision from someone who is on leave. The deadline is now at risk and nobody knew.
What happens: You find the missing documents and the decision on day one, when there is still time to do something about both.
Nobody called it a project. Does this still apply?
Yes, and this is the most common case. Almost nobody says the word project. They say sort this out, or set that up, or get this ready by Friday. If it has an end and a result, treat it as a project regardless of what it was called.
Is ten minutes of planning really worth it?
On anything taking more than a day, almost always. The value is not the plan itself, it is discovering on day one the things you would otherwise discover on day four, when they are far more expensive to fix.
Before you move on
- Notice when work has an end and a result
- Spend ten minutes listing before starting
- Look for what you are missing on day one
Check what you know
3 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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