JS 569: A Project-management Overview (The First of a Series)

 A lot of people, when they hear the terms “project management” and “project manager” think, “Wow. That’s high-level stuff”:

  • Putting astronauts on Mars

  • Building water barriers along the Thames

  • De-salinizing sea water for drought-stricken Africa

Okay. Yeah. Those fit.

But so do these: 

  • Building a doghouse

  • Planning a wedding

  • Hosting a “March Madness” party

Project management means doing something. That’s it. Doing something. Identifying a task and successfully completing it.

This is the first in a series of tips outlining the steps in identifying a task and successfully completing it. Project management. 

The Project Management Institute (PMI) is the professional source for project management. The folks at PMI identify five steps within project management: 

  1. Plan the project: What do we want to do? How big? How small? Who should be involved?

  2. Analyze the project: What challenges do we face? What gaps are there in our plans? And how do we resolve those gaps?

  3. Design the project: How do we design—put together—the project? Document it? Test it?

  4. Develop the project: Doing the project. Building the doghouse. Putting the team on Mars and returning them safely to the Earth.

  5. Implementing the project: Capturing what we’ve done on paper. Reporting on the project. Handing off the project to someone else.

In the five weeks to come, we’ll elaborate on each step. And we’ll focus on something simple: Little Debbie (your Great Dane) needs a new doghouse. She’s outgrown her last one. We’ll design a project to get it done.   

We love this stuff. 

Any questions, let us know. 

 

Kurt Weiland