Department of Innovation & Technology City of Boston Five Key Ways to Be a Successful Project Manager March 2014

2 Agenda Nail Down Details in Advance Document Everything Manage Risk Keep the Lines of Communication Open Collect Lessons Learned Do you have any tips?

3 Nail Down Details in Advance Scope Roles and Responsibilities Project Goals Schedule Milestones Budget Targets Quality Checks And more… PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! Ensure that the project is planned to as low a level of detail as possible as early as possible to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page and to minimize surprises down the road.

4 Document Everything Why is documentation so important in project management? Configuration changes Sequence of implementation steps Key decisions made Time scales Constant work in progress through daily or weekly updates Single source of knowledge TRACEABILITY HISTORYCONTROL

5 Manage Risk Identify and evaluate risks up front Continue to assess potential risks regularly Resolve issues as quickly as possible The number one mistake project managers make is to not continue to assess risks throughout the project! Not all risks can be identified in the beginning, and you don’t want one sneaking up on you.

Keep the Lines of Communication Open Five ways to ensure that the lines of communication stay open: Timely – Respond immediately Empathetic – Don’t attack Detailed – Be specific Goal-Oriented – Set goals and stick to them Useful – Consider your audience

Collect Lessons Learned 7 Include the Project Manager, project team members, and key stakeholders Conduct the session soon after the project end to maximize feedback If possible, recruit an outside party to facilitate to exclude bias Conduct the session in a comfortable setting and encourage people to speak openly Concentrate on gathering information in the following four areas: What went well? What didn’t go well or had unintended consequences? If you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently? What recommendations would you make to others doing similar projects?

Your Turn! Do you have any tips for other Project Managers? 8

THANK YOU! Feel free to contact the PMO with any questions!