PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES

Project Management Best Practices

Don't Forget These 10 Project Management Best Practices

The best project managers are adept at balancing stakeholder engagement, preventing escalation, mitigating risk, and adhering to project management principles.

You may be tempted to try out the many project management tools, tips, and methods, but after a few weeks you forget.When you're busy practicing the principles of good project management, it's time to find the best project manager. It's easy to forget details worthy of imitation. In this blog, we've compiled 17 project management best practices you can learn and apply to deliver successful projects every time

1. Communicate with project stakeholders

A customer-centric approach is essential to any project. However, from the day you start your project, you should also communicate your goals and objectives to everyone involved. This includes project team members, managers, project sponsors, and valued users.

Schedule a meeting with them to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the project's success and set clear expectations. Provide consistent and up-to-date information with real numbers and results to keep stakeholders engaged.

 2. Clarify the purpose of the project

Purpose is everything. It is the roadmap for driving an organization's strategy and maintaining a competitive edge in the market. A PWC survey found that 79% of business leaders believe purpose is essential to business success.

Project credibility is maintained by articulating the project's purpose to team members and stakeholders. Clearly define the existence of the project, the problem to be solved and the reason for helping each end user.

The purpose-driven company is growing three times faster than other companies, gaining greater market share, and building deeper customer relationships.

3. Create a risk response team

Projects and tasks are exposed to varying levels of risk. Therefore, a risk response team should always be in place. It allows projects to stay in the preferred green zone and avoid entering the yellow zone, or the dreaded red zone. Think of your risk response team as your first line of defense when things go wrong.

4. Formalize project roles

Projects aren't just the PM's responsibility. There are team members who perform project management functions without having a formal role. Simplify your project by identifying, defining, and formalizing these roles.

For example, software engineers help project managers document technical information and gather requirements from various business areas. However, you may not have the formal knowledge to fill the role of business analyst.

Consider providing professional training and formalizing their roles so that they can contribute more effectively to the project.

5. Hold a project kickoff meeting

A project kickoff meeting sets the tone for the entire project. Getting this right will keep your team motivated, energized, and focused.

Use kickoff meeting time to:

1. set common goals
2. Clarify roles and responsibilities
3. Define parameters and criteria for measuring success
4. Anticipate potential risks and how to manage them
5. Determine the communication mode for your project
6. Choose a project management methodology and tools

Expectations should be managed up front by involving everyone involved in the project. The sooner you get on their radar, the better. Maintain an open line of communication with all team members. Making sure everyone is aware of the project from the start is a simple yet effective way to move a healthy project from idea to execution.

6. Start with a detailed work definition document

A common problem in managing a project is clarifying who is responsible for what. Detailed working documentation eliminates uncertainty and confusion. The work each team member does is clearly documented so everyone is aware of the effort, time and resources required.

To promote accountability within the project, develop a detailed work definition document and have all stakeholders sign it.

7. Create a detailed work plan

Formalizing a project work plan is key to meeting deadlines and hitting milestones. Documenting the various project phases can be difficult without a detailed work plan.

What is measured is performed. A detailed work plan is an easy way to track the progress of all the various moving parts of your project. Rather than simply listing tasks to be accomplished, project plans are written in terms of goals and problems to be addressed (or not addressed). This keeps you focused on your work and protects you from scope creep.

Prioritize project goals, identify deliverables, estimate task durations, and define schedules and dependencies.

8. Outline quality standards across the project lifecycle

If quality is overlooked, it's difficult to make a project successful. Project quality is the performance, functionality, reliability, and consistency of project results. It is imperative to set quality standards for the entire project lifecycle before beginning project implementation.

Remember to communicate these benchmarks to relevant stakeholders to keep everything transparent and increase your chances of success.

To establish project quality, the team must identify the criteria and success criteria for each phase of the lifecycle. It's important to define quality, because different stakeholders define it differently. Use these 

tips to get started:

1. Divide the project into different phases using deliverables
2. Evaluate past projects, review competitors' projects, and set quality standards
3. Document and validate quality benchmarks and processes
4. Communicate quality standards to all project stakeholders and keep them clear and transparent
5. Finalize project quality documentation with relevant data and supporting information

9. Document everything

As a project manager, have you ever had an order delayed by days or even weeks? Why did this happen and how can you prevent it from happening again?

To answer these questions, we must rely on evidence. Documenting your entire project is an effective step in gathering all the data you need to make better decisions and learn from past challenges. So write everything down! Project steps, bottlenecks, scope changes, and task dependencies. Stakeholder Paid Time Off (PTO) calculations are also useful.

10. Involve project sponsors

A good project sponsor is the most important indicator of a project's success, but fewer than 2 out of 3 projects have an actively engaged sponsor.

The project sponsor's job is to monitor progress, help solve problems, advocate the project to other leaders, and understand how the project fits into the larger organization's goals. Project sponsors are the most important link between project managers and supervisors. Meet regularly with sponsors to discuss project goals and required resources. Guide her team's discussions and set expectations with this project sponsor checklist.

11. Ask for feedback

As Cornelius Fichtner says, the P in PM stands for "People" and "Projects". Great leaders understand that no one is perfect and that there are areas for improvement. As a project manager, it's your job to ensure the success of your project. Getting feedback from your team is one of the most powerful ways to grow as a project manager and increase your chances of success.

Recognizing areas for improvement is a very powerful tool. Using your team's feedback can motivate you to become a better you.

Asking for feedback is a great way to improve your management skills. Knowing how to teach your team members project management best practices can also help improve your next project.

12. Sign new contracts if necessary

A new request often means a change in the original project scope. In this case, it is recommended that everyone sign a new document.

This gives stakeholders a clear understanding of the new scope of work and its impact on the project. A documented contract is created so there is minimal confusion if a deadline needs to be pushed back. Keep all your change requests in one place with the Wrike Request Form.

13. Manage both risks and opportunities

Spend time imagining worst-case scenarios, their solutions, and how to prevent them. Discuss this with your team and get their input. Open team discussions also help identify known issues impacting the project. Not all anxiety is bad. Remember to look for opportunities to deliver value that exceeds expectations.

It is important to conduct a thorough risk assessment and develop a project risk management response plan.

14. Schedule regular check-ins with your team

Staying in touch with your team is a must when managing a project. A weekly or bi-weekly standup with the team is a surefire way to align priorities, get feedback, and remove roadblocks that are holding your team back.

The key is to keep things short and focused. What did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? Who is stuck and what can be done about it?

15. Managing Scope Creep

As new requests arrive, communicate their impact on the project schedule and budget and calculate the earned value.

Even when you want to take on new projects and tasks, it can quickly lead to project overload. If there is a new request within the project, it is your responsibility to indicate how it will affect the schedule and budget.

When various stakeholders have competing or conflicting demands, bring everyone together to discuss and clarify goals and move forward together. This concept can be confused with gold plating. However, gold plating and scope creep in project management can have a negative impact on performance.

16. Hold a debriefing session

Once your project is complete, think about it and see how you can streamline your project management process for success. The final meeting is a great opportunity for everyone involved in the project to come together for networking. The same steps won't lead to success, so review lessons learned and opportunities to improve next time.

17. Host a project retrospective

A project is not finished when final results are submitted. Conduct a retrospective, record lessons learned, and you're done.

During a meeting:

• make sure it worked
• Identify best practices for future use
• Collect more ideas to get the job done faster
• 
  

How to integrate project management best practices into Wrike

These project management best practices help her succeed in projects in every industry, from marketing to IT to construction and more. Continuous optimization of work management can save a lot of time and money.

By following these project management best practices, you'll gain valuable project management experience and continue to strive for success. Get a free Wrike trial to get real-time visibility, track progress, and drive project success.