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Human Resource Management International Digest
Emerald Article: The principles of successful project management: It takes
careful planning, skilful leadership ... and a little bit of luck
Bob Little
Article information:
To cite this document: Bob Little, (2011),"The principles of successful project management: It takes careful planning, skilful
leadership ... and a little bit of luck", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 19 Iss: 7 pp. 36 - 39
Permanent link to this document:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111175597
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This document has been downloaded 1887 times since 2011. *
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Systems & Services, Vol. 27 Iss: 3 pp. 170 - 174
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*Related content and download information correct at time of download.The principles of successful project
management
It takes careful planning, skilful leadership . . . and a little bit of luck
Bob Little
uccessful projects don’t just happen. They need careful planning, skilful managing
S and some degree of good fortune. Every would-be project manager – and, indeed,
every senior manager who instigates a project – needs to learn and relearn the
principles of successful project management.
Ron Rosenhead is more than just a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He is even more than
the chief executive of Project Agency, a north London-based project-management training
Bob Little is Senior Partner and development firm. He is vastly experienced in the arts of project management, having
at Bob Little Press & PR, amassed many years of experience as a project manager, trainer and commentator on the
St Albans, UK. subject.
Ron Rosenhead’s experience leads him to promote a four-step mantra for successful
projects. These four criteria – amplified in Project Agency training courses, including its
recently published e-learning materials – provide a strategic, standard framework for
project managers that allows them to: define, plan and control projects; recognize the role(s)
they play and define other people’s contributions to the project-management process;
recognize and reduce risks in all types of project work; and use a range of tools related to
project management.
The criteria for successful projects are:
1. Identify the business case:
B How does the project fit with your strategy? And, if it doesn’t, why do it?
B What are the benefits of delivering this project?
B What are the costs? And are they worth it?
2. Define the project:
B Clarify roles: identify the project manager and project’s sponsor (a senior manager).
B Develop clear, measurable objectives – including defining the project’s scope and
criteria for success.
B Identify and manage stakeholders – including ‘‘selling’’ the project to them, if
necessary.
B Define the skills needed by the project team.
B Identify ideal members of the project team.
B Produce a development plan and then train those whose skills are lacking.
PAGE 36 j HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST j VOL. 19 NO. 7 2011, pp. 36-39, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 0967-0734 DOI 10.1108/09670731111175597B Devise a risk log (charting the risk-management issues involved in the project).
B Develop the plan.
B Split the project into its component parts.
B Be realistic – not optimistic – about what can be achieved, given the resources
available.
B Produce charts that show the relationship between activities and durations.
B Agree a reporting structure: who reports to whom, about what and at what intervals.
B Agree a process by which any changes to the project can be discussed and agreed.
B Compare actual with planned progress.
3. Closing the project:
B Agree a closing date for the project. This acts as a great motivator.
B Reward the project team for its success.
B Review the project and . . .
B Learn the lessons that the project should teach you.
Ron Rosenhead explained: ‘‘Of course, there’s more to a project than merely doing it and
completing it. At the end, there are many lessons to learn. For example, what went well – and
what didn’t? How could things have been done more effectively and/or efficiently?
Help for novices
To those who are new to project management, Ron Rosenhead advocates using an
eight-step process to ensure success:
1. Define your project. He said: ‘‘We’re often asked to work with project teams that need to
deliver a business-specific project. One of the first things we do is ask, ‘What are your
objectives?’ These have to be your starting point. Find out, from your manager, what is
expected and turn this into realistic objectives. Discuss with key players what they want.
Write these objectives down and get agreement from those involved to what is written.’’
2. Clarify project roles and have a clear project-management structure. If you are to be the
project manager, you need to know what authority you have to deliver the project. You also
need to know what role your senior manager and other senior managers will be playing in
the project. ‘‘We’ve found that having clearly prescribed project-management roles helps
in delivering what is required,’’ said Ron Rosenhead. ‘‘It will help if you write down what
each role-holder should do.’’
3. Identify and reduce risks. Many projects are derailed because something unexpected
happens. An assessment of what is likely to go wrong will help to identify the most likely
events that could affect the project. Ron Rosenhead recommends identifying the level of
risk using a simple numbering system – and identifying who will manage these risks. He
added: ‘‘Make sure you review all of your risks on a regular basis because something
that’s not a risk now may become so in, say, a month’s time.’’
‘‘ Find out, from your manager, what is expected and turn this
into realistic objectives. Discuss with key players what they
want. Write these objectives down and get agreement from
those involved to what is written. ’’
j j
VOL. 19 NO. 7 2011 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST PAGE 374. Don’t forget the people. ‘‘You’ll need to ensure you take people along with you,’’ said Ron
Rosenhead. ‘‘Project Agency research shows that those projects where stakeholders are
identified and well managed deliver better project results than those which take little or no
account of this important group. Stakeholders are people with an interest in the project or
who will be affected by the project. Identify what their requirements are and what you
need from them. ‘‘You should also identify the perceived attitudes these groups and
individuals will have to the project. Then, you can then identify actions to take to manage
the individuals or the group. Like risk analysis, you should continue this process regularly,
checking who the stakeholders are and whether anything has changed.’’
5. Develop a robust project plan. Ensure your project plan is credible – by identifying all the
activities you need to carry out, putting cost and time estimates against them. Show the
order in which the tasks will be done and produce a Gantt chart or milestone chart.
‘‘Research shows we suffer from optimistic planning bias,’’ said Ron Rosenhead. ‘‘In other
words, we think we can deliver an activity in a project in less time than it will actually take.
‘‘Use percentages to help you. For example, ask yourself how confident you are of
achieving the activity in the time given or against the identified budget. If you are less than
80 percent confident, recalculate until you get to the 80 percent figure. This process can
be used at an individual task level, a stage level or for the whole project.’’
6. Deliver what you say you will deliver. Develop a simple monitoring and control system
early in the life of the project. Ron Rosenhead advised: ‘‘Be clear what role your senior
manager plays and ensure you don’t get bogged down with completing long, wordy,
project reports. Use simple highlight reports to show progress. Hold brief project
meetings – which should be on your project plan – and challenge and support each other
to ensure you are going to deliver when you should.’’
7. Dealing with project changes. Beware of project changes. Ensure you have a system in
place for dealing with them. ‘‘Identify the impact of the change before agreeing to it and
ensure you understand who can agree to any major changes in, say, budget or
objectives,’’ said Ron Rosenhead. ‘‘Any system you instigate must take account of your
stakeholders and the project team.’’
8. Stop ‘‘project dribble’’. ‘‘One common problem with projects is that they fail to finish and,
instead, keep ‘dribbling on’,’’ said Ron Rosenhead. ‘‘So, you need to plan to hold a
project-closure meeting – putting it on to your Gantt chart to ensure it happens. ‘‘Use a
facilitator to ensure that all of the learning that came out of the project is shared among
project-team members and others in the organization. Identify elements that need to be
finished and agree who will deliver them and close the project,’’ he concluded.
Project monitoring and control
According to Ron Rosenhead, there are also eight key factors that keep active projects on
track. He explained: ‘‘Even after planning a project carefully, identifying the stakeholders
and the project’s risks – and actively managing them – there are plenty of things that can go
wrong. To stop this happening, you need a monitoring and control process for your project.’’
Rosenhead’s eight key factors in this process are:
1. Loose versus tight control. You need to decide, in conjunction with the project’s sponsor
(a senior manager) the type of control that is appropriate for your project. Tight control is
appropriate for high-risk projects. Once you have decided on the appropriate type of
control – and you may want to mix the type of monitoring and control throughout the
project – ensure you develop a system that fits it.
2. Project spend. It is vital to have accurate project-spend figures – regardless of the
amounts of money involved. Create processes for capturing the figures if your
organization’s internal system does not help.
3. Tolerance. In conjunction with the senior manager who is the project’s sponsor, agree a
‘‘tolerance’’ percentage – in terms of time and/or resources. You only report to the
j j
PAGE 38 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL DIGEST VOL. 19 NO. 7 2011‘‘ It is vital to have accurate project-spend figures – regardless
of the amounts of money involved. Create processes for
capturing the figures if your organization’s internal system
does not help. ’’
sponsor if an activity within the project turns out to be over or under that agreed
percentage.
4. Planned versus actual. Develop a chart that maps out the planned activity’s durations and
costs. Plot the actual figures and compare them with the plan.
5. Reporting. Agree with senior managers how often and how you will report. Ron
Rosenhead advocates a one-page report with agreed headings.
6. Milestone reports. Develop a ‘‘milestone’’ reporting chart – and ensure that, when
someone reports that he or she is off schedule against a milestone, he or she has a
recovery plan to bring it back on target.
7. Project changes. According to Ron Rosenhead, few projects go through their life-cycle
without change, so develop an agreed process to deal with these changes. Control the
changes rather than allow them to control you – by recording the type of change and its
impact – and agree changes with the project sponsor (and if appropriate, key
stakeholders) if the change affects the project budget or the project’s objectives.
8. Meetings. Have agreed agendas and agreed durations for each project meeting. Ensure
you produce action points that are circulated soon after the meeting. ‘‘At the Project
Keywords: Agency, we advocate putting in place a project monitoring and control process as early
Project management, as possible in the life of the project,’’ said Ron Rosenhead. ‘‘This process needs to be
Leadership, discussed when the business case for the project is made. Otherwise the project could
Planning ‘stray’, wasting precious time and money.’’
Note
For more than 20 years, Bob Little has specialized in writing about, and commenting on,
corporate learning – especially e-learning – human-resources and technology-related
subjects. His work has been published in the UK, continental Europe, the USA and Australia.
You can contact him via bob.little@boblittlepr.com. For more information on Project Agency,
please visit: www.projectagency.co.uk
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com
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j j
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