| Skill Sharpener Item #9 |
| I develop a Work Breakdown Structure (project scoping), an appropriate project chart (P.E.R.T., C/PM, Gantt, etc.) and task lists before beginning a project and I present these plan elements to project participants for input and for specific performance commitments. |
Outstanding! Here are some of the benefits you've probably received because you formalize project plans into charts and lists that allow almost no room for project-degrading alternate interpretations:
By knowing which groups, teams, vendors and/or departments will be involved in your project, you're able to take the steps required (e.g.. mend fences, buy lunches, revive relationships, etc.) to make sure you have access to managers and/or supervisors who can help you get what your project needs when it needs it.
Your project schedule isn't trashed when you belatedly realize that you've overlooked the contribution of a necessary function (it happens!).
You can show your Prime Mover(s) and your project team what the project schedule looks at a level of detail that is appropriate (a Gantt overview for Primes and, in many cases, a PERT or C/PM flowchart for participants). (The benefit here is that they're informed and enabled to provide input that is either accelerating or cautionary.)
Your task of managing multiple, time-sensitive tasks done by people who don't report to you is made much more possible, particularly if you're managing more than one project.
You can use your project flowchart to pinpoint high risk handoff days and make the necessary contingency plans.
By showing participants the complete project flowchart, you can drive home the point that the work of many people is dependent on each person completing what they've committed to on schedule and at acceptable quality levels.
You can enhance your Prime's level of confidence in you and in the project by showing him/her that you have all the foreseeable details accounted for.
You can enlist participants in a much more tangible version of the "what could go wrong" game than you were able to during more preliminary, non-charted periods.
You can nail down a much more specific "On this date, I promise to . . ." type of commitment from participants with a project chart and with their task lists than is possible when you were talking with them about their contribution during preliminary scheduling discussions. (If the commitment wording above makes you feel uncomfortable when you consider saying those words to a participant, try to envision how uncomfortable everyone will feel when the schedule is pushed back because the participant "Didn't realize that you actually needed it by . . .")