Entrepreneurship and Project Management
Practical Project Management for Entrepreneurs
Project management has become one of the black arts' of business thanks to the development of methodologies, associations, software and qualifications. This has created a plethora of project management experts who talk a strange language of Gantt, PERT and CPA! Most of this has grown up over the last sixty years and came out of projects such as the development of a Polaris nuclear missile!
If you listened to all of the hype you would wonder how any projects were ever completed before 1950! However, major historical buildings were completed and great engineering works were carried out. But these people didn't have a certified' project manager with a laptop and the latest software; in these cases the entrepreneurial engineer or architect would project manage everything.
So for the entrepreneurs who cannot, or need not, employ an expensive project manager, I have tried to put together some key points when deciding to implement a project. In other words, I am not saying that entrepreneurs don't need project management, but they do need a process that is fit for purpose for the average SME rather than the average multi-national.
A project is different to business as usual. It is a temporary piece of work with clear goals and objectives and has a clear beginning and end.
The first big mistake that people make when establishing a project is not to make sure that the project is clearly defined at the start. If this is not done then you end up chasing a permanently moving target.
In clearly defining the project at the inception phase it is important to document not only the scope of the project but also the time constraints and other resource constraints. It is also a good idea to document the benefits that are expected to accrue from the project.
Be aware that project estimates at the start of a project are likely to be out by a factor of four in either direction. Therefore, constant review and monitoring is necessary as is constant revision of the plan.
Once the project is defined then project planning needs to take place. Make sure that all tasks are identified, time and other resource estimates are documented and interdependencies between activities are identified.
It is at this point that you should be able to identify your critical path. To do this you have to identify which tasks are dependent on others. This will tell you which activities cannot start before others are completed and hence you should be able to calculate your minimum completion time. Hopefully not all activities will be on the critical path if you want to sleep at night.
Make sure that there are no human resource conflicts and that whoever is managing the project has accepted ownership. It is no good developing a plan which requires someone with conflicting work pressures.
Once the plan has been produced, review it and ask the question as to whether it is affordable and should the project proceed to implementation.
Once the project starts implementation then regular monitoring and evaluation is essential. It is essential to understand if the project is slipping and to take corrective action where possible. It is also important to be able to constantly check that the project is still viable and relevant.
Once the project is over then it is important to evaluate how it has gone. Did it realise its objectives? What lessons have been learned for next time?
Of course, even the big companies get it wrong sometimes. One of the areas where things are inclined to go wrong is in IT. These can produce some of the most costly mistakes that could have been avoided had the steps above been followed.
In 1993 the London Stock Exchange abandoned Taurus, its paperless settlement system after 10 years of development. The original budget was 6M but it is estimated to have cost 800M when it was stopped.
However, other major projects have also failed to learn the basic lessons of project management. But then again, what is a billion or two between friends!
The channel tunnel between England and France was budgeted at $7 billion and came in at $13 billion.
Even EuroDisney came in at $4 billion against a budget of $2.25 billion
Entrepreneurial mistakes through lack of proper project management may not reach these figures, but in their own way they can be just as damaging. The costs of not project managing may well be more than the costs of doing it.
Entrepreneurship and Project Management
By: Roger Cowdrey
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