In my experience, project success starts at the very beginning. Pay attention to the fundamentals of project management and make sure you start with a crystal clear scope definition and well defined deliverables.
Here are a few things to think about:
Tips
- Project management has a definite beginning and end. It is not a continuous process
- Understand your responsibilities and what/when/how you and your team must deliver
- Set clear goals
- Project failures will happen
- Know who’s in the project environment and manage them
- Monitor and control all risks
- Attention to detail
- Patience
- Stay flexible
- Projects do not run without politics, so manage it
Traps
- Don’t assume everyone can be a project manager
- Lack of detailed project work plans
- Lack of clear and shared vision
- No clear or specific scope definition
- Scope creep
- No clear definition of project deliverables
- Inability to reach internal consensus
- Lack of acceptance criteria or procedures
- Failure to anticipate changing needs
- Lack of change control management
- Lack of project management methodologies
- Infrequent progress reports or status meetings