1. Project Management in a Nutshell Tips to Keep Your Project on Track Ceilyn Boyd & Cathy Conroy Programs, Projects & Operational Planning December 2015

2. Overview Project Management in a Nutshell – 1) Plan, 2) Manage, 3) Deliver – Project Management: Principles Tools Strategies Utilities Page 2

3. Project Management in a Nutshell Project Management Goals 1.Plan 2.Manage 3.Deliver Page 3

4. Project Management Principles Planning helps to minimize risk and ensure good outcomes Plans always change, but change can be managed Good lines of communication help to: – manage stakeholder expectations, and – ensure that team members stay engaged Page 4

5. Project Management Tools 1.Project charter – Goals and deliverables – Benefits and/or impact statement – Workplan To-do list Timeline – Budget – Resources Roles and responsibilities – Communications plan* 2.Status Reports 3.Lessons Learned Page 5

6. Project Management Strategies Project scope management – Avoid scope creep Resource management – Document roles and responsibilities – Identify members of the ‘critical path’ Risk management – Identify risks to project in advance – Create risk mitigation plans Change management – Document changes to goals, scope, and, deliverables Communications* Page 6

7. Project Communications Audience – Internal: project team, stakeholders Charter, Status Reports, Lessons Learned – External: other members of the community Charter, Status Summaries, Deliverables Modes – Written Project documents: charter, workplan, schedule, meeting notes, status reports. Reports: formal reports to funders, etc. – Other Informal Formal Page 7

8. Common Project Management Utilities Goal: Use the simplest tool possible – spend time executing and managing your project, not wrangling with your tool Microsoft – MS Project Most projects do not need the advanced functionality of MS Project – MS Excel Most projects can be managed easily using a tool like Excel – MS OneNote Good support for collaboration Online Project Management and Collaborative Utilities/Apps – Collaboration Google Docs: https://www.google.com/docs/about/https://www.google.com/docs/about/ Evernote: https://evernote.com/https://evernote.com/ TeamSnap: https://www.teamsnap.com/https://www.teamsnap.com/ – Project Management Asana: https://asana.com/https://asana.com/ TeamSnap: https://www.teamsnap.com/https://www.teamsnap.com/ Smart Sheet: https://www.smartsheet.com/https://www.smartsheet.com/ Page 8

9. Contact Us Ceilyn Boyd – ceilyn_boyd@harvard.edu ceilyn_boyd@harvard.edu – 617-733-0730 Cathy Conroy – conroy@law.harvard.edu conroy@law.harvard.edu – 617-496-2114 Page 9