If at first you don’t succeed, then stop what you are doing, take a look at what you have been doing and make a plan to get things back to where you need them to be. Sometimes you might think that your project has ended up drastically going in the wrong direction and you will never pull it back, but never say never – often all you need is some focused planning and some effort on the right tasks to see huge improvements. These quick fix project tips should help…
Planning
With the right planning you can improve your project before it has even begun, and this same process applies whether you are a small business or a large corporation, and whatever the size or complexity of your project. Taking the time to make sure you plan out your projects properly can not only help you to keep to budget but also use your resources wisely and meet your deadlines.
So, spend a little time before your project gets off the ground making sure your plans are solid and you could really improve the outcome of your current project and future projects.
Communicate
The right tools for making huge improvements are right under your nose, and in some cases, they won’t cost you anything at all. Communicate with the people you are working with, and the people you are working for, at every step of your project. Give updates on timescales and if you are not going to make a deadline then let everyone know. There are a number of different ways that you can communicate with everyone so take some time to work out which is the most effective for your needs. Make sure that you are approachable at all times – if you are leading a project then your team need to feel they can come to you with issues that arise before they become a serious problem. It might be that a quick mini meeting every day works well when everyone can give their own update (make it a stand-up meeting to keep everyone’s attention).
Talking really is the key here to making your projects run smoothly – this is one of the best and simplest project tips for everyone.
Goals
Give you team achievable, interim goals, constantly striving for those milestones on the way to the final deliverable can be really motivational. Being able to say yes, we are on track with this part of the project can motivate the whole team and shows them that there is light at the end of the tunnel. I recently heard someone talking about searching for the light in the tunnel and that might be more appropriate on long, complex projects.
Break your project down and watch your team work to achieve those milestones that make up the whole.
Project Management Tools
There are lots of project management tools out there and what works for one company may not work for you, so you might have to do some research to find the most appropriate tool. But, it is worth having a good look for something that works well for your company. They are a great way of keeping on top of all those little details and making sure everyone knows what they are doing next.
