Tips for successful IT projects – Documents and Meetings
IT projects can be delivered on time, to budget if the agreement is there. I have worked as a Project Manager and see the same problems that dog projects again and again.
Here are a few tips to help deliver the result every one wants :-
Ensure that you have an ample amount of contingency in any plan. Whether that be in terms of extra money to cover unforeseen events or in the form of tolerance that you must work to. If your project is over by £15 and you can’t complete something because of such a minor amounts of money than it will be simply be your neck and is on the line. Also if something is going to cost £20,000 more than you need to have a clear procedure to go back to the board to review the extra expenditure in a timely manner so that it does not cause unnecessary delay to the project that you are working on. Remember you are responsible for good management of a company’s resources. Make sure you understand where your boundaries are and where you may have discretion and where you may not.
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Never let meetings become personal. A meeting you arrange must be for a purpose remember you are taking up the most valuable time of the company to meet and discuss your aim; do not let a meeting become a speculation of what might happen. If you need to clarify facts then have it documented who will be responsible when they will report back. Do not take speculative information to be correct this can be a big problem when it comes to justify why you make an action.