It’s not uncommon for a project sponsor to hand over the reins to a project manager and become occupied in other matters, then only chime in at the end when presented with a bill.

Yet, it’s nearly impossible for a project manager to deliver value when crucial people like the stakeholders and sponsors aren’t interested in giving feedback on a project.

Weak communication and supervision, overlooked risks and a failure to perform a risk benefit analysis are some central reasons projects fail to deliver their intended value.

Establishing project governance makes all these problems go away. A governance provides the structure and framework necessary to steer a project in a direction that generates business value and serves the bottom line. It provides a system of checks and balances that properly monitors a project through execution all the way to completion.

If you’re interested in staging a project for success, then project governance is your solution. Let’s look at the meaning and definition of project governance, and some examples and best practices for using it within your projects.

Project Governance Defined

Project governance provides an overall framework for a project. It’s a central component of end-to-end project management, and is utilized during the initiation, planning and execution stages of a project.

The PM Glossary defines project governance as: “The structure by which roles and relationships between project team members and an organization’s high-level decision makers are defined.”

Project governance, essentially, oversees a project and advocates for the project’s business strategy. The governance board represents many facets of a project in order to ensure that a project doesn’t wander off, but rather progresses in a direction that aligns with the company’s vision and business objectives.

A project governance is established during the initiation stage. Its components oftentimes are determined by previously established systems, or through correspondence between the project sponsor and the project manager. The project governance has a clear understanding of the business justifications for a project. It promotes this business strategy through three central functions.

1. Sets strategic direction for a project.

The project governance establishes a project’s strategy and focus during the planning stage, and monitors it during the project’s execution.

2. Makes decisions during the project.

The governance evaluates a project as it progresses. Team members report and escalate issues to the project governance, who then determine necessary changes to the scope, the deliverables or the overall outcome.

3. Oversees project execution.

Finally, a governance monitors a project at various stages during the execution, to ensure it reaches certain milestones and produces deliverables according to plan.

In summary, governance is like a board of advisers. It’s deliberate, organized oversight, and creates a structure that enables a project’s success.

Example of a Project Governance Framework

A project governance doesn’t have a fixed or definite structure. The right governance varies depending on the project. A governance with too much control stifles productivity and innovation, while a governance with too little supervision leads to an unfocused and mediocre deliverable. Generally, however, every project governance consists of three central components, with distinct roles and responsibilities for each.

1. A Project Sponsor

A project sponsor is the person who has invested in the project. As all the key decisions rest on his or her shoulders, the project manager works closely with the sponsor and meets regularly for consultation and guidance. In a small project, the governance may only consist of the sponsor who meets with the project manager once a month.

2. A Steering Group

The steering group, or project board, is a group of stakeholders who oversee and monitor a project. They work with and under the sponsor to closely monitor risks and provide expert feedback.

Generally, a steering group is composed of subject matter experts who understand the best practices for a project. They initiate a project, plan it, approve the scope document and monitor a project throughout. The steering group is consulted regarding any changes to a project’s scope, timeline or budget.

Although a project’s governance varies depending on the nature and size of a project, the steering group generally consists of fewer than ten members.

3. Project Manager

The project manager doesn’t contribute so much to the vision of the project as he or she facilitates the objectives of the sponsor and the steering group. A project manager closely monitors a project during its execution, looking closely at expenses versus value, facilitates all communication between stakeholders and oversees changes and course corrections.

These three components make up a governance board for most projects. Some criteria for determining who to include within the governance include the project’s risks, the timeline and the scope.

With respect to agile projects, governance presents a bit of a conundrum. Agile projects tend toward autonomous teams who have strong project ownership. This doesn’t translate into no framework structure, however. Agile projects still retain project governance, but the framework becomes more malleable as the agile team matures.

7 Steps to Set up a Project Governance

The purpose of project governance is to maintain transparency and accountability, and make sure the project is aligned with the business strategy. These seven steps ensure that a project governance is properly established to achieve these ends.

1. Identify Sponsor and Stakeholders

This first step may sound like a no-brainer, but it can be challenging sometimes to identify the sponsor and all the stakeholders.

A sponsor, generally, is the person who’s initiated and invested in the project and who wants to see it to completion. The sponsor is the main customer, a key decision maker and the number one person for the project manager to communicate with during a project. Although it seems straightforward, it’s not always totally clear who’s sponsoring a project. It’s necessary to clarify this however, as identifying the sponsor provides the project with a focal point for decision making.

A stakeholder is anyone who’s impacted by the project and its outcome. This includes a variety of people, including business owners, sponsors, government regulators and suppliers. It takes some brainstorming to identify all the project’s stakeholders. As this is another group who contributes to the project plan and execution, the stakeholders need to be clarified at the get-go.

2. Establish a Steering Committee

A steering committee, sometimes referred to as a project board, is a group of people who represent the project stakeholders. Generally it’s composed of around five senior individuals in the organization, including the project’s sponsor, the customer, a supply representative and other users impacted by the project.

The purpose of the steering committee is to provide insight, make decisions and support the project to make sure it proceeds smoothly.

The project manager isn’t part of this board, but he supervises it and disseminates information to the group. For example, the project manager may provide project updates with a slide deck at monthly meetings with the steering committee.

3. Create Documentation

The planning stage is probably the most critical to determining a project’s success. If completed thoroughly, it lays a strong foundation and forces the steering committee to think everything through and identify possible risks and issues. Here are some fundamental components of a healthy planning stage:

• A written document that lays out the sponsor and the members of the board.
• A project proposal or plan document that identifies the “what” of the project and the “why.” The “what” of a project is also known as the project’s definition.
• A project’s “why” is its business case, which explains the business justification for the project. Generally, the business rationale for projects are things like improving operational efficiencies, developing a new product or adhering to compliance regulations.
• The project plan. This is the “how” of the project, and it spells out things like materials, scope, budget and timeline.
• The “what if” of the project. This is the project’s risk management plan, and it carefully considers threats to any of the project’s assets, and puts plans in place to mitigate, avoid or transfer the threats.
• A project handover and completion plan. These explain how to resume the project in the instance of a handover, and the criteria for completing the project.

4. Initiate a Boundary-Gate Process

This system evaluates a project at several stages. At the beginning of a project, the project manager divides the life cycle of the project into stages, with go or no-go demarcations at each. When the project reaches a boundary-gate, the steering committee evaluates whether or not it has reached the predetermined milestone, and gives it either a green light, meaning it continues, or a red light, meaning the project ceases.

A boundary-gate (or stage-gate) process allows a project to stay on track and deliver value. This system ensures the proper channels are consulted at each stage, and that the project follows its strategic course.

5. Engage the Steering Group

Chances are, the steering group is preoccupied with many other projects and responsibilities. The duty lies on the project manager to encourage their involvement in and contribution to the project at hand. One way to engage the group is with routine weekly status update meetings that clearly communicate the stakes and the benefits of the project and allow the committee to provide feedback.

6. Engage the Sponsor

More often than not, a sponsor is perfectly happy to hand over the responsibility for the project to the project manager and then forget all about it. However, the project reflects the sponsor’s vision, and the project manager simply facilitates this vision. And so it’s imperative that the sponsor keep a keen eye on the project throughout its execution, in order to be sure it’s on track. For those times when a project manager encounters a passive or uninterested sponsor, here are some engagement strategies:

• Communicate the benefits of a successful project.
• Give her a sense of pride in the project.
• Show how the project might enhance his professional reputation.
• Identify the risks of not overseeing the project.

7. Allocate Time and Resource to Governance

And finally, appreciate that good governance takes time. Continual, ongoing communication and transparency are fundamental to healthy governance. Meetings can’t be squeezed into a fifteen minute window at the end of a busy day, or continually cancelled and rescheduled. Rather, utilize a proficient project management tool to ensure everyone communicates regularly. Set up processes and procedures for good record keeping.

These eight steps foster a robust governing board which provides a project with a strong and steady framework.

7 Benefits of Project Governance

The governance board melds many perspectives and establishes a vision for a project. Let’s take a look at the many ways a project benefits from this structure.

1. Aligns a Project With Business Goals

It’s so easy to focus on time consuming things that don’t really align with a company’s culture, mission, or business objectives. This mindless meandering creates stagnation and precludes growth.

A project governance, on the other hand, aligns a project around business objectives. It continually monitors and course-corrects a project, to keep it sailing toward its North Star.

2. Sets Direction and Strategy

It’s no accident that a governance board is also called a steering committee. Just as a steering wheel allows a car to veer away from a ditch, a governance board keeps a project from going off the rails.

The governing board combines its business acumen and expertise to steer the project in a direction that best utilizes the project’s resources.

3. Disseminates Information

So often, a SNAFU occurs simply because the right people didn’t receive the right information at the right time. A governing board establishes a system of continual communication, and procedures to escalate concerns to the right places. With a system of routinely sharing information, everyone keeps abreast of the project and issues are spotted right away.

4. Monitors and Realigns

A strong governing board monitors a project during the execution stage. For example, a furniture company that sets a goal to design a dining room table can easily get side-tracked by custom orders or demanding customers. However, with stakeholders continually overseeing the project’s progress, it provides the supervision needed to keep the project on track.

5. Establishes Good Processes

A project without governance may not have a clear sense of priorities, and may fall into patterns of attending to the squeakiest wheel rather than focusing on the work items that add value. A governance makes sure the project does the right things in the right way. And the combined expertise allows for all of the risks to be properly evaluated.

6. Conserves Resources

Have you ever seen a “ghost highway”? The project was suddenly abandoned during construction, and the highway heads into nowhere. Clearly, in these instances a project board realized mid-project that something wasn’t right and wasn’t afraid to call it quits.

Similarly, a governance board isn’t scared to jettison a bad project. Once it appreciates that the project doesn’t make business sense or the risks are too high, it can nip a project in the bud. This preserves valuable resources and allows an organization to dedicate itself to projects that do add value.

7. Keeps a Project Within Its Scope

Governance has a proven track record. When it’s properly established and engaged, a steering group monitors a project to keep the timeline on track, and spots scope creep before it starts.

As you can see, project governance is well worth the effort. But establishing one isn’t a piece of cake.

3 Common Challenges to Project Governance

Project governances don’t just happen. At the same time that they provide a project with many benefits, it’s no cinch setting one up. Here are three common challenges to project governance, along with some tips to overcome them.

1. Identifying All the Stakeholders

Stakeholders don’t raise their hands to identify themselves during a project’s initiation stage. Although some are front and center, others lurk in remote places the project manager may not even think to look. Suppliers, for example, are crucial stakeholders that are easy to ignore completely. But forgetting to consider them could mean not receiving the necessary materials at the right time or at the right price.

It takes some brainstorming, delving, and talking to the right subject matter experts to thoroughly identify all the stakeholders. Creating a network diagram also helps to think things through and identify everyone who’s impacted by the project.

2. Selecting the Right Framework

Governance is not one-size-fits all. An overbearing governance can squelch a team’s initiative, while a weak one allows it to go off the rails. On small projects, just the sponsor is sufficient for a governing board, while larger projects may require a board of a dozen people. It takes some teasing to identify the proper governance for a particular project. It means including all the right people to provide the necessary expertise, without letting it become too large or authoritative.

Ultimately, the steering committee determines so much about a project, from the kickoff meeting to the communication tools and the processes used throughout. A project manager determines his or her optimal governance by identifying the stakeholders and clarifying what success looks like. It may take experience to establish the right meld.

3. Ongoing, Daily Communication

Much of the communication necessary for executing a project won’t occur without deliberate planning. In a remote team, a steering committee can easily go for days without contacting one another. And even in a busy office, people are concerned with many other things.

A project manager selects effective tools and a workable schedule to facilitate fluid, ongoing communication. This may include a daily scrum, weekly round-ups or steering group meetings at project boundary-gates.

As you can see, establishing a project governance isn’t so simple as deciding to have one. An effective governance requires some sweat and tears. When aware of the challenges, however, it’s easy to overcome them.

Project Governance Best Practices

As discussed, governance doesn’t just happen. Rather, it’s formed and developed. Let’s look into the characteristics of a robust governance system.

1. Gate Reviews

A project doesn’t receive a green light at initiation and then proceed like a line of collapsing dominos. Healthy governance, rather, divides a project into stages, defining processes and milestones to reach at each. At each gate review, a steering committee evaluates the project according to predetermined criteria, and assesses if it’s achieved certain milestones. The business case is updated periodically to assist with the reviews. If the milestones aren’t met or if the project reveals a weak ROI, then the project ends.

2. Audit Trail

Alongside each gate review, a system for documenting the steering committee’s decisions allows everyone to understand what decisions were made, and why.

This audit trail shifts the responsibility away from the sponsor and project manager and distributes it amongst the steering committee as well. It creates an environment where everyone is accountable and responsible for the success and direction of a project.

3. Define Governance Roles

Oftentimes things fall through the cracks just because people don’t understand what they’re responsible for. Identifying the stakeholders, the sponsor and each of their respective responsibilities keeps all of the critical aspects of a project under a watchful eye. It also allows teams to understand who to escalate issues to.

4. Project Aligns with Culture, Mission, and Organization Strategy

When both the project manager and the sponsor have a thorough understanding of the organization, it’s possible to plan and steer a project to align with its mission, culture and overall business goals.

5. External Audits

In the enthusiasm of completing a project, it’s common to turn a blind eye to things like compliance and regulations. Allowing external experts to come in and oversee processes keeps everything in compliance and precludes expensive headaches and rework.

6. Transparent Culture

A culture that thrives on secrecy and power struggles, where everyone shirks responsibility and blames others, is fertile ground for stalled and failed projects.

In a transparent culture, on the other hand, responsibilities and roles are clearly understood. It’s clear where to escalate an issue, and concerns are listened to and addressed.

Open cultures start from the top. Leadership rewards the behavior they want to see, listens to concerns and admits to failures and shortcomings.

7. Full Disclosure When Planning

In the enthusiasm for developing a new product or improving procedures, it’s easy to look at a project through rose colored glasses. A grocery store that wants to automate its checkout process, for example, might rush to complete the project without carefully calculating how much time and resources the automation will save versus the costs for new equipment, maintenance and periodic updates.

Other times, stakeholders are interested in getting a project approved simply because it may lead to a promotion or a raise in pay.

Openly and honestly laying all the cards out on the table allows the steering committee to properly evaluate and make decisions. Rather than exaggerate benefits and gloss over costs, considering benefits and costs with pessimistic, likely, and optimistic values provides a full range from which to consider a project.

8. Appropriate Stakeholder Involvement

Not every stakeholder carries equal weight in a project. A supplier who provides a small portion of material, for example, has far less influence than the business owner or the product manager.

A healthy governance delineates these various levels of influence, and involves the stakeholders accordingly. A senior stakeholder, for example, may be regularly contacted by a senior member of the steering committee. Whereas a lower stakeholder with less interest isn’t included in all communications.

9. Competent Resources

Procurement and resource management are central components to a governance. A steering committee carefully looks at all of the materials, labor, equipment and facilities required to carry out a project, and develops plans to acquire the most suitable resources within the given timeline and cost.

These best practices allow a project manager to overcome the challenges of setting up a governance and to establish an effective governance to oversee a project.

As a project manager, you know that keeping your projects on track and on budget is crucial to their success. One of the key tools at your disposal for doing so is cost variance analysis. But what exactly is cost variance, and how can you use it to your advantage?

In this blog post, we’ll delve into the concept of cost variance in project management and how it can impact the success of a project. We’ll explore how to calculate cost variance, the relationship between cost variance and schedule variance, and tips for containing cost variance. By the end of this post, you’ll have a solid understanding of this important concept and how to use it to your advantage in your project management endeavors.

So, whether you’re a seasoned pro or a newcomer to the world of project management, this blog post has something for you. Let’s get started!

Defining Cost Variance

So, what exactly is cost variance? It’s simply the difference between the actual cost of a project and the budgeted or planned cost. It’s usually expressed as a percentage or a monetary value and can be either positive or negative.

A positive cost variance means that your project is under budget – yay! – while a negative cost variance means that it’s over budget. No need to panic, though – we’ll discuss how to address this later.

Importance of Cost Variance

As a project manager, tracking cost variance is crucial because it helps you see how well your project is sticking to its budget. This is especially important if you work with limited resources or have strict financial constraints.

Cost variance is often used alongside schedule variance, which measures the difference between a project’s actual and planned schedule. By keeping an eye on cost and schedule variance, you can get a complete picture of your project’s performance and make any necessary adjustments.

Calculating Cost Variance

Okay, so now that we know what cost variance is, let’s discuss how to calculate it. Don’t worry; it’s not as scary as it sounds.

All you need is the following formula: (Actual Cost – Budgeted Cost) / Budgeted Cost. Let’s break it down:

Actual Cost

This is the amount of money your project actually costs. It can be tricky to determine if your project is still ongoing, but you can use your best estimate based on the progress you’ve made so far.

Budgeted Cost

This is the amount of money you plan to spend on your project. If you’re using this formula after the fact, this should be a piece of cake – it’s just the budget you set at the beginning of your project.

Actual Cost – Budgeted Cost

This part of the formula calculates the difference between your actual and budgeted costs. If the result is positive, your project is under budget. If it’s negative, your project is over budget.

(Actual Cost – Budgeted Cost) / Budgeted Cost:

Finally, we divide the difference between your actual and budgeted costs by your budgeted cost to get the cost variance as a percentage. If your cost variance is positive, that’s a good thing – it means you have some wiggle room in your budget. If it’s negative, that means you’re over budget, and you might want to start looking for ways to bring your costs back in line.

3 Common Reasons Why Cost Variance Happens

There are a few common reasons why cost variance happens, and understanding these can help prevent them from occurring. Here are three common causes of cost variance:

Reason #1 Changes in scope:

One of the most common reasons for cost variance is changes in scope – that is, changes to the scope of work initially planned for the project.

Maybe your client changed their mind about something, or you realized that you needed to add an extra feature to your product. Either way, changes in scope can significantly impact your budget, so it’s important to keep an eye on them and be prepared to adjust your budget accordingly.

Reason #2 Unexpected changes in resource availability or cost:

Another common cause of cost variance is unexpected changes in resource availability or cost.

You may have planned to use a specific vendor for a particular service, but they suddenly increased their prices. Or you thought you had a specific resource available, but it wasn’t as open as you thought. These changes can throw a wrench in your budget, so it’s crucial to be proactive about identifying them and finding ways to address them.

Reason #3 Inadequate budgeting or planning:

Finally, cost variance can sometimes be caused by inadequate budgeting or planning.

For example, you needed to do more research to determine the actual cost of a particular resource, or you needed to account for all of the potential risks and contingencies in your budget. In these cases, reviewing your budget and planning process is important to see where you can improve.

How to Address Negative Cost Variance

So, what do you do if your project is over budget due to negative cost variance? First, don’t panic – you can take a few steps to address this issue and get your project back on track. Here are a few suggestions:

STEP 1 – Review the cause of the cost variance

The first step in addressing negative cost variance is to understand why it happened in the first place. Take a look at the common causes we discussed earlier in this post – changes in scope, unexpected changes in resource availability or cost, and inadequate budgeting or planning – and see if any of these factors apply to your project. This will help you identify the root cause of the cost variance and take appropriate action to address it.

STEP 2 – Communicate with your stakeholders

Once you understand the cause of the cost variance, you must communicate with your stakeholders – including your team, your client, and any other relevant parties – to let them know what’s going on.

Be transparent about the situation and explain your steps to address it. This will help build trust and ensure everyone is on the same page.

STEP 3 – Adjust your budget

Depending on the cause of the cost variance, you may need to adjust your budget to account for the additional costs.

This might involve negotiating with your client or other stakeholders to secure additional funding or finding ways to cut costs elsewhere in the project. So again, it’s essential to be creative and proactive in finding solutions to get your project back on track.

STEP 4 – Keep track of your progress

Finally, as you address the cost variance, keep track of your progress and continue monitoring your budget. This will help you see how well your efforts are working and make any necessary adjustments along the way.

The Relationship Between Cost Variance and Schedule Variance

In addition to tracking cost variance, it’s vital to track schedule variance in project management. This measures the difference between the actual and planned schedules of a project.

So, what’s the relationship between cost variance and schedule variance? Well, it turns out that they’re closely related – if one goes off track, it can have an impact on the other.

For example, if you need to catch up on a project, it could lead to additional costs. On the other hand, if you’re over budget on a project, you might have to adjust your schedule to make up for the additional costs.

You can get a complete picture of your project’s performance by keeping track of both cost and schedule variance. If one of these metrics is going off track, take a closer look at the other.

7 Protips for Containing Cost Variance

Keeping projects within budget can be a challenging task, but there are measures you can take to stack the odds in your favor.

Here are 7 tips to help you contain cost variance:

1. Do your homework: A key factor in containing cost variance is having a thorough understanding of the project’s needs. Take the time to fully grasp the project’s scope and document and confirm every requirement with all necessary parties. If the project is similar to what you’ve done in the past, take that knowledge and refine it.
2. Plan for the unexpected: Even the most carefully planned budgets can be thrown off track by unforeseen events, such as global pandemics or fluctuations in labor costs, supply pricing, or currency exchange rates. To help mitigate these risks, building some wiggle room into your budget is essential.
3. Manage change effectively: When change does occur, it’s crucial to have communication tools in place to manage it smoothly. This could include email, chat, in-app messaging, or regular status meetings. Keeping the lines of communication open can reduce confusion, limit surprises, and ultimately better manage your budget.
4. Monitor your budget closely: Regular monitoring is crucial for containing cost variance. By keeping a close eye on your spending and making adjustments as needed, you can catch potential issues early on and take steps to bring costs back in line.
5. Negotiate with suppliers: If you’re facing unexpected cost increases due to factors like supply pricing or shortages, it might be worth negotiating with your suppliers to try and get a better deal. This can bring your costs down and reduce negative cost variance.
6. Consider alternative solutions: If you’re facing a cost overrun, it might be worth exploring alternative solutions that could be more cost-effective. For example, could you use a different supplier or a different type of resource to achieve the same result?
7. Communicate with your team: Remember the importance of effective communication. Keep everyone informed about the budget and any potential cost issues, and encourage them to bring any ideas or concerns to the table. By working together, you can find ways to contain cost variance and keep your project on track.

Real-World Examples of Cost Variance

One of the best ways to understand how to manage cost variance in your projects is to see how it has played out in real-world scenarios. This section will explore a few examples of projects where cost variance occurred and how it was addressed.

By looking at these examples, you’ll get a sense of the issues that can arise and how experienced project managers have handled them. Whether you’re facing a negative cost variance or a positive one, these examples can provide valuable insights and inspiration for managing your projects.

Example 1:

You’re in charge of a landscaping project for a client’s backyard. You’ve budgeted $1,000 for the project, but as you’re working, you realize that the ground is more rocky and challenging to dig up than you anticipated. As a result, you end up using more labor hours and materials than you thought you would. Your final bill comes to $1,200.

Calculating the cost variance:
Cost variance = $1,000 – $1,200 Cost variance = -$200
Expressing the cost variance as a percentage:
Cost variance % = (-$200) / $1,000 Cost variance % = -20%

Example 2:

You’re managing a renovation project for a local coffee shop. You’ve budgeted $20,000 for the project, but when you open up the walls, you find more structural damage than expected. As a result, you need to do more work and spend more on materials than anticipated. Your final bill comes to $25,000.

Calculating the cost variance:
Cost variance = $20,000 – $25,000 Cost variance = -$5,000

Expressing the cost variance as a percentage:
Cost variance % = (-$5,000) / $20,000 Cost variance % = -25%

Example 3:

You’re in charge of a marketing campaign for a new product launch. You’ve budgeted $10,000 for the campaign, but when you book the ad space and run the ads, you find that the prices have increased significantly since you first planned the campaign. So your final bill comes to $12,000.

Calculating the cost variance:
Cost variance = $10,000 – $12,000 Cost variance = -$2,000

Expressing the cost variance as a percentage:
Cost variance % = (-$2,000) / $10,000 Cost variance % = -20%

Are you a project manager struggling to keep your design projects on track? Do you feel overwhelmed and need help managing all the different elements of your projects?

If so, you’re not alone. Design project management can be challenging, especially if you’re new to the role.

But don’t worry – we’re here to help. This post will outline the key strategies and tactics you need to master design project management. From setting clear goals and objectives to planning and scheduling effectively to managing resources and communication, we’ll cover everything you need to know to succeed as a design project manager.

So, if you’re ready to take your design project management skills to the next level, keep reading!

Setting Goals and Objectives

Before diving into the nitty-gritty of project management, it’s essential to set clear goals and objectives for your design project.

This will give your team a roadmap to follow and ensure everyone is on the same page. Here’s how to set goals and objectives for your design project:

Define the project scope and objectives

First, take some time to define the scope of your project. What is the project trying to achieve? What are the desired outcomes? Clearly articulating the scope and objectives of the project will help your team stay focused and ensure that the final product meets the client’s needs.

Identify key stakeholders and their needs

Who are the key stakeholders in your design project? These might include the client, the project team, and any other parties who have a vested interest in the project’s success. Identify their needs and make sure they are taken into account as you set your project goals and objectives.

Set clear and measurable goals

Once you understand the project scope and stakeholders’ needs, it’s time to set specific, measurable goals.

These should be SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) to ensure they are clear and achievable. For example, a SMART goal for a design project might be: “Design and launch a new website for XYZ company within six months to increase online sales by 20% within the first year.”

Planning and Scheduling

Once you’ve set your goals and objectives, it’s time to start planning and scheduling your design project. This will help you stay on track and meet your deadlines. Here are some tips for planning and scheduling your design project:

Create a timeline and schedule

Develop a timeline that outlines your design project’s key milestones and deliverables. This will help you keep track of progress and meet your deadlines. It would be best if you also created a detailed schedule outlining each team member’s specific tasks and responsibilities.

Assign tasks and responsibilities

Clearly assign tasks and responsibilities to your team members. Make sure everyone knows what is expected of them and when it is due. Use project management software to help you keep track of tasks and progress. Teamly is perfect for this.

Identify and manage project risks

No project is without risks, and it’s crucial to identify and manage potential threats as you plan and schedule your design project. This might include anything from client changes to unexpected delays or budget overruns. By identifying potential risks upfront, you’ll be better prepared to handle them if they do arise.

Managing Resources

Effective resource management is crucial for the success of any design project. Therefore, it’s important to identify the resources you’ll need and allocate them effectively to ensure that your project stays on track. Here are some tips for managing resources in your design project:

Determine the resources needed for the project

First, identify the resources you’ll need to complete your design project. These include design software, hardware, and team members with specialized skills. Make sure you clearly understand what resources you’ll need and when you’ll need them.

Allocate resources effectively

Once you’ve identified the resources you’ll need, it’s important to allocate them effectively. This might involve assigning tasks to the team members with the appropriate skills and experience or purchasing the necessary software and hardware. Make sure you have a clear plan for allocating your resources to ensure your project stays on track.

Monitor resource usage and make adjustments as needed

As your design project progresses, it’s important to monitor your resource usage and make adjustments as needed. This might involve reassigning tasks or adjusting your budget if you encounter unexpected challenges. By regularly monitoring your resource usage, you’ll be better able to stay on track and meet your project goals.

Managing Communication

Communication is key to the success of any design project. It’s like a conductor leading an orchestra – without clear communication, the project can quickly become disorganized and chaotic. Here are some tips for managing communication in your design project:

Establish a clear communication plan…

First, create a communication plan outlining how you’ll communicate with stakeholders throughout the project. This might include regular progress updates, meeting schedules, and specific channels for communication (e.g., email, phone, and in-person meetings). Then, ensure all team members are aware of the communication plan and adhere to it.

Regularly update stakeholders on project progress

It’s essential to keep your stakeholders informed of your project’s progress. This might involve sending regular updates, holding meetings, or presenting progress reports. By keeping stakeholders informed, you’ll be able to address any issues or concerns early on and ensure that the project stays on track.

Solve conflicts and address issues as they arise

As with any project, conflicts and issues are bound to arise. It’s essential to address these as they come up and find solutions that work for all parties involved. This might include mediating a conflict between team members or addressing a change request from the client. By tackling issues head-on, you’ll be able to keep your design project moving forward.

Managing Changes

Changes are an inevitable part of any design project. Whether it’s a client request to make design tweaks, an unexpected delay, or a budget overrun, it’s important to anticipate and plan for potential changes and to communicate them clearly to all relevant parties. Here are some tips for managing changes in your design project:

Anticipate and plan for potential changes

As you plan and execute your design project, anticipate potential changes that might come up. This might involve creating contingency plans for potential risks or being flexible and adaptable as you move forward.

By anticipating possible changes, you’ll be better prepared to handle them if they do arise. Some examples of changes that project managers might experience include:

• Client request for design tweaks
• Unexpected delays due to unforeseen circumstances
• Budget overruns due to additional resources or expenses
• Communicate changes to all relevant parties: If a change does come up, it’s important to communicate it clearly to all appropriate parties. This might involve holding a meeting to discuss the change or emailing the entire team. Keeping everyone informed will ensure that the project stays on track.

Ensure changes are aligned with project goals and objectives

Finally, make sure that any changes you make to your design project are aligned with your overall project goals and objectives. This will help ensure that the final product meets the needs of all stakeholders and stays true to the project’s vision.

Managing Team Dynamics

Imagine you’re working on a design project, and halfway through, your team falls apart. Morale may be low, or there’s a lack of trust between team members. Suddenly, the project grinds to a halt, and you’re struggling to get things back on track.

This scenario highlights the importance of managing team dynamics. Here are some tips for building a cohesive and productive team:

Foster a positive team culture

A positive team culture is crucial for the success of any project. Encourage team members to work together, share ideas, and support each other. Consider implementing team-building activities or hosting regular meetings to foster a positive team culture.

Encourage collaboration

Collaboration is key to a cohesive and productive team. Encourage team members to share their skills and expertise and work together to achieve project goals. Consider using collaboration tools, such as online project management platforms, to facilitate collaboration and communication.

Set clear roles and responsibilities

Team members need to understand their roles and responsibilities within the project. Make sure each team member knows what is expected of them and how they contribute to the team’s overall success. Consider creating a project charter or job descriptions to clarify roles and responsibilities.

Encourage continuous learning

Encourage team members to continuously learn and develop their skills. This might involve providing training opportunities or encouraging team members to take on new challenges. By fostering a culture of continuous learning, you’ll be able to build a team that is adaptable and ready to tackle any project.

Managing Client Expectations

Imagine you’re working on a design project, and halfway through, your client starts making unexpected changes and demands. Maybe they want to add new features or change the direction of the project.

Suddenly, the project timeline is thrown off, and your team is struggling to keep up. This scenario highlights the importance of managing client expectations and the consequences of not doing so. Here are some tips for managing client expectations in your design project:

Set clear boundaries

It’s important to set clear boundaries with your clients to ensure that everyone has a clear understanding of what is expected. This might involve establishing clear communication channels, setting expectations for response times, or outlining the scope of the project. By setting clear boundaries, you’ll be able to manage client expectations and avoid misunderstandings.

Establish open lines of communication

Open and honest communication is key to managing client expectations. Make sure to regularly update your clients on project progress and address any questions or concerns they may have. Consider using online project management tools to facilitate communication and keep clients informed.

Address change requests and manage client feedback

Change requests and client feedback are an inevitable part of any design project. It’s essential to address these requests and feedback promptly and professionally. Make sure to clearly communicate any changes to your team and ensure that the final product meets the needs of all stakeholders.

Review and Evaluation

As your design project nears completion, review and evaluate its progress. This will help you identify any issues or challenges and ensure that the final product meets your project goals and objectives. Here are some tips for reviewing and evaluating your design project:

Regularly review and assess project progress

As your design project progresses, regularly review and assess its progress. This might involve holding progress meetings, analyzing data, or reviewing completed tasks. By periodically checking progress, you’ll be able to identify any issues or challenges that need to be addressed.

Identify and address any issues or challenges

As you review your design project, be on the lookout for any issues or challenges that need to be addressed. This might involve reallocating resources, adjusting the timeline, or finding creative solutions to problems. By identifying and addressing issues early on, you’ll be able to keep your project on track.

Conduct a final evaluation of the project to determine its success

Once your design project is complete, it’s crucial to conduct a final assessment to determine its overall success.

This might involve collecting feedback from stakeholders, analyzing data, or reviewing project goals and objectives. By completing a thorough assessment, you’ll be able to identify areas for improvement and plan for future projects.

When you’ve got a project that’s brimming with hangups, where team members quit, materials arrive late and bottlenecks delay production, it’s really easy to throw money at it with the hope to speed things up. This may provide some momentary relief as the clock ticks and the deadline looms nearer.

As so many have learned the hard way, however, haphazard spending doesn’t make much of a difference. More often than not, the project is still delayed, with the added bonus of wasted money, labor and materials.

This may easily leave one wondering about an effective plan of attack. How does a complex project meet a fixed deadline, yet still remain within its planned scope and budget?

Way back in the 1950s, a think tank of engineers devised a method that addresses this conundrum. It identifies where to focus energy and resources in a project, and what areas require less attention. Plus, it also pinpoints where a project can create efficiencies in order to speed up its schedule and get things back on track.

This discovery is known as the critical path analysis. Let’s take a look at this method, discuss how to use it strategically and evaluate how it compares to similar project management tools.

A Definition of the Critical Path Method

The critical path method (CPM) provides an estimate for a project’s duration, as well as determines the slack time in individual activities. It achieves this by breaking a project down into individual activities, then evaluating the resources and duration of each, as well as the relationships between them.

The most basic component of the critical path method is the collection of all of the activities required to complete the entire project. Generally, these activities are determined by breaking high-level requirements into increasingly smaller batches of work using a work breakdown structure. For example, in a home remodel a high level requirement might be to repair the deck. This requirement could be broken down into: clean the deck, replace old wood and seal the deck.

Next, the individual activities are studied to determine their sequence and dependencies. A dependency is a relationship between two activities that determines when one activity can begin. Take, for example, the project of decorating a room, where two activities are to paint the walls and to display artwork on the walls. These activities are dependent, as the walls must be painted before the artwork can be displayed.

The sequence and dependencies of all the activities are arranged in a network diagram, or precedence network. The project management glossary defines precedence network as a diagram that “visually indicates relationships between project activities. Boxes and links are used to represent activities and activity relationships. Precedence networks also detail the time relationships and constraints associated with activities.”

The network uses arrows to indicate relationships between activities. Each activity is also assigned an estimate of the resources required (the labor, materials, cost and facilities).

In some projects, activities cannot be parsed out and separated nicely and neatly. It’s still possible to use the CPM in these instances. Rather than boxes representing each step in workflow, arrows are used instead. In the words of James Kelley, an engineer who developed the critical path method,

“Draw an arrow for each job and write its name, duration and resources on the convenient line formed by the arrow’s shaft. If one job is the direct predecessor of another, connect the head of the first to the tail of the second.”

The longest path in the network diagram is its critical path. As its name suggests, the critical path is the sequence of activities that determines the duration of the project, and so it merits the most attention. In the image above, the sequence A, B, E, F, G, and H has the largest sum (where numbers are a measure of time), making it the critical path.

The diagram also indicates any float or slack within activities that are not on the critical path. Float and slack measure an activity’s wiggle room, or the amount of time it can be delayed without delaying the entire project. In the example above, activity D takes two units of time to complete, during the same window as activities C, E and F, which take six units of time collectively. As two from six is four, activity D, then, has four units of slack.

The critical path analysis is helpful in any project manager’s toolbox. It allows for prudent resource allocation, as it indicates where to focus resources in order to keep a project on track. It also improves a risk management plan, as again, it indicates the critical activities that require extra attention. And finally, it generally saves time, as it forces a team to think a project through to completion, and highlights areas that need extra attention at the get-go.

The History of the Critical Path Method

The critical path method has its origins at the duPont de Nemours company, which started in 1802 as a gunpowder manufacturer. DuPont is noted for its rigorous research department, which in the 1900s invented and manufactured nylon, Teflon and synthetic rubber.

In the late 1950s, its internal think tank, the Integrated Engineering Control Group, was assigned the task of reducing expenditures while maintaining the current output. The assignment primarily fell to James Kelley, Morgan Walker and John Sayer. Over a period of 27 months, the trio focused on planning, scheduling and estimating as the means to create efficiencies within the operations.

They proceeded with the assignment by breaking work into individual activities, and assigning it “man days” and then an overall cost by using the employees’ salaries. Then they looked at the entire work process in order to establish sequence between the activities. They soon came to appreciate the ardor of compiling this data manually, and so leased a computer from Remington Rand Univac in Philadelphia. Fortunately, Walker proved a huge asset in this regard, as his skill set included design, construction and computers to boot.

Breaking a project down required making simplifications. It assumed one duration for an activity. It did not distinguish between direct and indirect costs, but assigned an activity one overall cost. It also assumed that expediting an activity increased the cost.

With its compilation of activities, the trio determined which activities it could expedite by adding more resources. To their great surprise, they discovered that expediting certain activities reduced a workflow significantly, with only marginal increases to the overall cost.

“…by cutting average turnaround downtime by some 25% through CPM, production to sales was increased enough in the first year to more than underwrite the CPM development,” writes James Kelley.

Arriving at these conclusions required complex algorithms and algebra, which the trio computed on a UNIVAC I program that listed up to 200 separate activities. With their newfound theory, they honed the algorithm, and started applying the system to small projects.

CPM’s initial applications encountered resistance to change. Listing equipment, segregating activities and estimating durations weren’t part of the current processes for managers and engineers. It took as much as two months to compile the initial inputs needed to create the network diagram and determine the critical path.

But the method did catch on. In 1959, they taught CPM at a five-day workshop in Philadelphia. Participants returned to their businesses, applied the principles, and started requesting more workshops and training.

Over the ensuing decades CPM spread gradually, but its complexity prevented widespread adoption. A manual application was only possible for simple projects with only a few activities. In the 1980s, the availability of project management software allowed many organizations to utilize the method.

Although historically CPM was used to revive a sluggish project, it’s now a fundamental component to project planning, as implicit as the theory of constraints or Gantt charts.

The Six Steps to Calculate the Critical Path

Most projects have hundreds if not thousands of individual tasks, and so a calculation of the CPM requires software. A manual development of a network diagram is only possible with very simple projects. However, whether manual or automatic, the process is the same, and it’s fairly straightforward. Here are the six essential steps to calculating a project’s critical path.

1) Identify the Objective

The CPM begins with a summary of the project’s central objective, the completion date and the high-level requirements. For example, if the project is a wedding reception, the first step is to gather key details such as the date, and the central components of the reception, such as a dinner and a dance.

2) Break Down Requirements

The next step is to break the high-level requirements into small independent activities. This is effectively completed with a work breakdown structure.

A work breakdown structure breaks high level requirements into increasingly smaller work packages. For example, at a wedding reception, the requirement for “dinner” would break down into the tasks of reserving a space and tables, hiring a catering company and deciding on a meal.

3) Estimate Duration and Map Out Dependencies

When all the activities are laid out, the next step is to estimate how long each should take, clarify the sequence, and identify dependencies between activities. In a manual calculation, it’s helpful to write each task onto 3×5 index cards.

With a one-off project such as a wedding reception, the duration is an estimate. However, it’s helpful to refer to similar projects or to make an educated guess based on research. In complex projects that require many varied skills, gathering input from key stakeholders and subject matter experts ensures the estimates are accurate.

Identifying dependencies means taking a broad view of the entire project, and noting where activities link together and how they contribute to the completion of the entire project. For example, with a wedding reception, choosing a venue must be completed before sending out invitations. These two tasks have hard dependencies, as one one must occur before the other.

4) Create a Network Diagram

With the sequence and the dependencies clarified, the next step is to arrange all the activities together into a network diagram, connecting sequences with arrows. In the network diagram, each high level requirement has its own sequence of tasks, and oftentimes these tasks overlap or are dependent on one another.

For example, in planning a wedding, one high level requirement is sending out invitations. The first step is to determine the guest list, then create the invitations, then mail everything out. The completion of this activity, as discussed, is dependent first on selecting a venue for the reception. In addition to lengthy activities with multiple steps, a project has several one-offs, such as hiring a photographer for a wedding reception.

5) Calculate the Critical Path

With all of the activities laid out and connected sequentially with arrows, calculating the critical path simply means adding up the sequences for each path and determining the path with the largest value.

6) Calculate Slack

A final step is to calculate the slack associated with each non-critical activity. The slack for a non-critical path is its own length subtracted from the length of the critical path.

For example, say the wedding reception takes 12 weeks to plan, and hiring the photographer, a one-off activity, is expected to take three weeks. A backward pass subtracts 3 from 12, meaning that it can be started as late as week nine in order for the project to stay on track.

These six steps outline the central components of calculating a critical path. As mentioned, when a project involves hundreds of steps, the process cannot be calculated manually. However, sometimes just completing these simple steps yields insight sufficient to reduce the project’s overall expenditures. As James Kelly writes,

“If one does no more than intelligently draw the network and calculate the early and late times and float, one has 90% of the value to be gained from using network methods for project planning and scheduling.”

Additionally, the critical path can change. Projects rarely proceed according to a precise plan, and so delays or an inaccurate estimate may cause the critical path to shift. The network diagram, then, is something to monitor closely during a project’s execution, and to update when changes occur.

Techniques to Compress a Critical Path

Often, a critical path can be decreased with resource allocation and schedule compression techniques. A schedule compression technique is just like it sounds. It’s a method for decreasing the length of time it takes to complete a project. Note that a schedule compression technique simply decreases time; it does not change the scope. The same amount of work is completed, but the project’s duration, its critical path, is decreased.

Two popular schedule compression techniques are known as crashing and fast tracking. Essentially, they entail finding a more expensive yet faster option for completing a task, or completing two normally sequential tasks at the same time.

To fast track means to take two sequential activities on a critical path and arrange them parallel to one another. Rather than complete one activity after the other, the two activities are completed at the same time.

For example, consider the project of making breakfast, something we all do every morning. Say the normal routine is to toast bread and butter it, then boil water for tea. Fast tracking the two activities means boiling water at the same time that the bread is toasting.

Fast tracking is simple and intuitive in this example, but it doesn’t work when two tasks have hard dependencies. This means that one task must be completed before a second task can begin. For example, with breakfast, you cannot steep a tea bag as you boil water. One task must be completed before the other.

Crashing is a schedule compression technique of using additional resources in order to shorten the duration of an activity. Let’s say you’re hosting guests, and need to fry eggs and toast bagels for six people in the morning. Your toaster has the capacity to toast two slices of bread at a time. Crashing the activity means purchasing additional toasters to speed up the task of toasting bagels.

Crashing carefully considers the relative cost increase of various activities on the critical path in order to determine the thriftiest way to shorten the schedule. For example, if the toasters cost $75 each, yet an additional frying pan only costs $10, you’d choose to crash the task of frying the eggs rather than the toast.

Crashing, as you can see, usually means increasing the cost of an activity in order to complete something faster. However, as Kelly and Walker discovered in the development of the CPM, oftentimes the efficiency created by crashing a task actually decreases the project’s overall cost.

Crashing doesn’t always work. The duration of some projects cannot be compressed with the addition of more resources. To put it humorously, nine women cannot deliver a baby in one month.

Although both these techniques shorten a schedule, they also expose the project to risk. Crashing, as discussed, increases cost, and so it needs to be used strategically. In the interest of saving time, a project manager may crash several activities, and cause the project to go over budget.

Fast tracking poses a few more problems than crashing. Sometimes it places two tasks in parallel that ideally should be performed in sequence, and this may lead to rework. Take, for example, the project of planning a party, with the two sequential tasks selecting a venue then hiring a deejay. Completing the two tasks in parallel may lead to complications. Maybe the deejay doesn’t have the sound equipment needed for the selected venue, and someone else needs to be found instead.

Seven Advantages of the Critical Path Method

It’s no accident that the critical path method has grown from an obscure method at DuPont into a popular method incorporated into every project management school’s curriculum. It sprinkles magic powder over a project, so much so that many project managers utilize it with every go-around. Here are some of the CPM’s central benefits.

1. Calculates a Realistic Timeline

It’s easy to set an end date for a big project. “This closet is going to be organized by the end of the week,” we might tell ourselves. While instead, the project drags on for a month, in large part because many of its smaller activities take much longer than we anticipated.

The critical path method does away with this sloppy estimating. It delves into each component of the project, and comes up with a realistic time estimate for each. This results in a timeline you can really lean in on.

This technique is particularly helpful for projects with hard and fast deadlines, such as events. It ensures that all the necessary tasks have been completed before the event occurs.

2. Identifies Dependencies

When all the individual activities in a project are written up on 3×5 cards and laid out on a table, it’s easy to connect dots and establish connections. Understanding dependencies clarifies the sequence of tasks. When planning an event, for example, the venue, date, and time must be chosen before any promotions occur.

Identifying dependencies also assists with risk management. It highlights the critical activities the project depends on in order to move things forward, and focuses risk management strategies around them.

3. Creates a Powerful Visual of the Entire Project

The network diagram lays out every component of a project, from start to finish, in a coherent diagram that’s reasonably easy to grasp. When presented or distributed to stakeholders and subject matter experts during the planning stage, it gets everyone onto the same page, and creates an opportunity to provide critical feedback and identify shortcomings.

4. Provides a Planning Tool

So often projects begin with a foggy “let’s do this” mentality. The project is executed without much of a plan and a team gets itself to a point of no return. At this point, it’s not uncommon to encounter major roadblocks. In a remodel project, perhaps, walls are torn down and flooring is ripped up before the homeowner realizes he doesn’t have the budget to replace them.

The critical path method avoids this dead-end trap. It thinks everything out in advance and puts a plan in place. It identifies dependencies, estimates costs and calculates duration. This careful, deliberate thinking determines if a project is tenable and provides a clear path all the way to the project’s completion.

5. Provides Focus

It’s easy to waste time in a project fixing things that don’t need to be fixed. For example, maybe some materials don’t arrive in time, and the team scurries and frets to find a replacement. However, if the materials are for a non-critical activity, it may well be that the delay won’t impact the overall timeline.

The critical path provides a healthy focus to a project. It highlights those activities that need extra TLC, as well as those non-critical activities that can be overlooked for a time.

6. Identifies Activities With Float

The critical path method not only identifies non-critical activities, it also calculates the float for each of these activities. This knowledge, again, allows a team to put time and energy into the things that matter, and to know how long to delay a non-critical activity.

7. Uses Resources Wisely

The CPM conserves resources. Rather than blindly throwing resources at a project with the hope to speed things up, it identifies those specific activities to focus on in order to save time and money.

With all these benefits, it’s no surprise that every certified project manager understands how to use the CPM. Although the method takes some work to apply, it’s a planning and execution tool that many project managers keep in their arsenal for good reason.

4 Disadvantages of the Critical Path Method

At the same time, the critical path analysis isn’t the be-all and end-all. Although an excellent method, it cannot be used in isolation. When applied to a project, it’s necessary to understand the limitations of the CPM and of network diagrams in general.

1. Cannot Handle Complexity

The CPM falls flat in a complex project with thousands of interrelated activities. In this instance it’s certainly not possible to create a network diagram manually. Even with a sophisticated software, the simplifications implicit in the method make it ineffective in calculating dependable estimates.

2. Makes Many Assumptions

The critical path method is brilliant in its simplicity. But this simplicity means assuming only one value for both the duration and the cost of an activity. It doesn’t consider direct or indirect costs, or longer or shorter durations.

This over-simplification may well lead to inaccuracies, particularly in a project with many unknowns. If an activity is assigned an inaccurate estimate, it can throw off the entire diagram, and the project manager ends up focusing on the wrong tasks and assigning slack in the wrong places.

3. Requires Upfront Work

Creating a network diagram and determining the critical path means looking at every step in the entire project. Generally, this requires knowledge well beyond one or two people on the planning committee. In order to be accurate, it requires input from many stakeholders, skilled team members and subject matter experts.

Gathering all of this input is time consuming and sometimes just not possible during a short planning period, resulting in a weak network diagram that doesn’t serve as a powerful planning tool.

4. Requires Rework

As every project manager knows well, a project almost always changes during execution, even with an excellent plan. And any significant changes in a project’s scope or requirements means that the entire network diagram must be redrawn. Even small delays in tasks can change the critical path.

This re-work is time consuming, making the CPM so labor-intensive that much of a team’s energy is put into working then reworking the diagram rather than actually doing the project.

As you can see, the critical path method isn’t an end in itself. Although it provides key benefits, it’s a tool that’s best complemented with other methods in order to properly estimate a schedule and allocate resources.

In projects with changing requirements late in development, the limitations of the network diagram may even make it a no-go. Projects that incorporate an agile methodology, for example, welcome change. In this instance, the CMP constantly needs to be worked and re-worked, making it too time consuming to be worthwhile.

The nature of a project, then, determines whether or not to use the CPM. It makes a lot of sense in a project with many up-front costs, clear deliverables, and a fixed end-date. In a project where the requirements are subject to change, the CPM may be something to shy away from.

CPM Versus the Critical Chain Method

The critical path method is one of many techniques utilized by project managers to assist with end-to-end project management. Another popular tool is the critical chain method. Like CPM, the critical chain method yields a more efficient work process and conserves resources.

The critical chain method originated out of Eli Goldratt’s 1997 book, Critical Chain. It leans heavily on the theory of constraints Goldratt developed in his 1984 book, The Goal. The theory of constraints is a manufacturing principle that seeks to eliminate bottlenecks and create a more efficient workflow. It constructs an entire workflow around the slowest steps in the process by placing extra resources at these steps.

Whereas the CPM is activity focused, the critical chain method is heavily resource focused. It’s closely related to capacity management and focuses on building idle capacity at the slowest places in a workflow. Resource leveling, which distributes resources evenly along a work process, is central to the method. The critical chain is determined by the longest sequence after all resources have been assigned to tasks and then leveled.

Here are some key differences between the critical path and critical chain methods:

• The critical chain doesn’t identify dependencies between activities.
• The critical chain doesn’t look for an optimal work path like the CPM. Rather, it finds a “good enough” work system.
• Whereas the CPM is determined from a static and fixed diagram, the critical path is a dynamic process, where change is welcome and anticipated.
• The CPM focuses on activity completion, whereas the critical chain monitors progress by evaluating resource consumption.

The critical chain provides these benefits to a project:

• The critical chain uses a pull workflow, meaning that tasks begin just as the previous task is completed. This eliminates “student syndrome,” or the tendency to put something off until the last possible moment.
• The critical chain encourages swarming in order to complete a task before moving onto the next thing. This hyper-focus on one activity reduces a tendency to task switch or multi-task, two processes that slow a project down.
• Activities in the critical chain don’t have fixed start and end times, which reduces a phenomenon known as Parkinson’s Law, where the length of a task is determined by how much time is allowed for it.
• Unlike CPM, critical chain considers both short and late start times for activities, which yields more realistic estimates.

Both the critical path and the critical chain develop out of a work breakdown structure. The critical path method is great as a planning tool, as it looks at a project in broad overview and thinks everything through. The critical chain, on the other hand, assists with the project execution. It creates efficiencies in workflows. A work process with huge bottlenecks might benefit more from the critical chain method over the CPM.

CPM Versus PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique)

PERT is another method for calculating project duration. In many respects it’s almost identical to the CPM. PERT is an acronym that stands for program evaluation review technique.

Although PERT and the CPM evolved around the exact same time, they developed independently from one another. PERT was developed as a planning tool for the U.S. Navy’s Polaris nuclear submarine project in 1957. The navy propogated the method in a publication the following year. Since its development, it’s been used as a planning tool within many industries and for many events, including the 1968 Olympic Games.

The work breakdown structure developed out of PERT, as a means to parse a project into individual units of work. The work breakdown structure is a hierarchical grid that breaks high-level requirements into increasingly smaller units of work.

Here are some key differences between PERT and the critical path method:

• PERT primarily focuses on activity duration, whereas CPM looks at both the duration and cost of an activity.
• PERT assigns each activity four time estimates (optimistic, expected, most likely and pessimistic) whereas the CPM assigns only one. This difference ranks PERT above the CPM in projects with a lot of uncertainty around duration.

PERT provides many benefits, many of which are similar to the critical path method:

• A central benefit is that PERT lays out an entire project from beginning to end, and identifies a clear completion date. For this reason, it’s commonly utilized in event planning.
• PERT evaluates all the processes and activities in a project before execution. It highlights those activities and processes that require extra attention, and allows a project to proceed as scheduled.
• PERT identifies a project’s critical path.
• Just like the critical path method, it reveals the slack in certain activities and also identifies dependencies.
• It provides a powerful visual display of the entire project that’s useful for collaboration and decision making.

PERT is complementary to and in many ways almost interchangeable with the critical path method. However, PERT is the preferred method in a one-off project with a fixed completion date, such as planning an event.

However, neither method addresses bottlenecks or analyzes workflows as a means to create efficiencies in a project. For this reason, they serve as excellent planning tools but not stand-alone methods.

CPM Versus Gantt Charts

The Gantt chart is another popular project scheduling technique. Rather than creating a diagram like the CPM, it lays out a project and all of its various tasks in a bar chart. The Gantt chart was developed by Henry Gantt around 1910 to use as an operations tool within his company. He wished to identify the productivity levels between his employees.

The Gantt chart achieves many of the same ends as the CPM, but by different means. It’s a bar chart that lists a project’s tasks on a vertical axis, and time on the horizontal. The chart notes interdependencies between activities, and each task is sequenced in relation to other dependent tasks.

The visualization of a project was novel at the turn of the century, and many adopted the method. Gantt charts were used in World War I and with the Soviet Union’s economic planning. However, Gantt charts were cumbersome to create and difficult to adjust as a project changed. The availability of project management softwares in the 1980s made Gantt charts easy to create and adjust. Since then, they have become almost ubiquitous in project management. However, a Gantt chart’s inflexible approach to project management makes it undesirable to agile enthusiasts.

Here are some key differences between Gantt charts and CPM:

• The Gantt chart does acknowledge dependencies, but not so clearly as the critical path method.
• The Gantt chart is primarily a scheduling tool. It does not identify the resources utilized in activities.
• The Gantt chart does not identify a critical path, making it unclear where to utilize schedule compression techniques and so shorten a project’s schedule.

A Gantt chart provides many of the same benefits and challenges as CPM:

• It identifies slack and dependencies within activities.
• A Gantt chart is easy to understand, perhaps even more so than a network diagram. It’s also a powerful visual. For these reasons, it’s an effective planning tool, allowing many stakeholders to grasp the overall plan and offer expert opinions.
• Like the critical path method, a Gantt chart needs to be redrafted when requirements change or scope increases. This is particularly cumbersome when it’s drafted manually. In projects with many changes, or where change is fundamental to the process, Gantt charts quickly become useless during the execution phase.

Like the CPM, the Gantt chart serves as an effective scheduling tool. However, due to its many limitations, it certainly shouldn’t be used exclusively, but along with other project management tools.

Imagine you’re working on a large software development project, and one of the developers reports a critical bug in the code. This incident must be dealt with immediately, as it could significantly affect the project timeline and budget.

So, what do you do? This is where the incident management process comes in. In project management, an incident is any event that disrupts the normal flow of work or causes problems for the project team. The goal of incident management is to lessen the impact of these events and get the project back on track as quickly as possible.

But how do you go about managing incidents in your projects? The incident management process typically follows a set of steps designed to identify, classify, and resolve incidents efficiently and effectively. We’ll be discussing these steps in more detail later in this post, but for now, let’s look at some of the key benefits of having a solid incident management process in place.

Incident Management Process Overview

So, what does the incident management process look like? It typically consists of several vital steps designed to identify, classify, and resolve incidents promptly Categoriesand effectively.

Here’s an overview of these steps:

1. Incident Detection and Notification: The first thing you need to do when an incident occurs is to detect using YOLO object detection algorithm and report it. Incidents can be spotted in various ways, such as through monitoring systems, error logs, user reports, or the project team’s observations. It’s essential to have a straightforward process for reporting incidents, so you can get them dealt with as quickly as possible.
2. Incident Classification and Prioritization: Once you’ve reported an incident, the next step is to classify and prioritize it based on its impact and urgency. This will help you determine the appropriate allocation of resources and attention devoted to resolving the incident. Factors that influence the classification and prioritization of incidents include the severity of the impact, the number of users affected, and the potential consequences of the incident.
3. Incident Resolution and Recovery: After you’ve classified and prioritized an incident, the next step is to resolve and recover from it. This typically involves identifying the root cause of the incident, implementing a fix or workaround, and testing to ensure that the issue has been resolved. Sometimes, it may also involve rolling back changes or restoring systems to a previous state. The incident management team should work closely with the project team and other stakeholders to ensure that the resolution and recovery process goes smoothly.
4. Incident Documentation and Communication: It’s essential to document and communicate incidents effectively to ensure they are correctly recorded and understood by all relevant parties. This might involve creating incident reports, updating change logs, or communicating with stakeholders about the status of the incident. Effective communication is crucial to keep the project team informed and focused on the tasks at hand.

STEP 1: Incident Detection and Notification

The first step in the incident management process is detecting and reporting incidents. But how do you go about seeing incidents in a project? Here are a few ways to spot incidents:

• Monitoring Systems: Many organizations have systems in place to monitor the performance and health of their systems, applications, and processes. These systems can detect incidents automatically and trigger alerts when something goes wrong. For example, a monitoring system might see a server outage, a software bug, or a network problem.
• Error Logs: Another way to detect incidents is by reviewing error logs or event logs. These logs record events on a system or application, including errors, warnings, and other issues. By examining these logs regularly, you can identify incidents that might otherwise go undetected.
• User Reports: Sometimes, incidents are detected by users who experience problems or issues while using a system or application. It’s important to have a transparent process for users to report incidents so they can be dealt with promptly. This might involve using a ticketing system, email, or a dedicated incident reporting form.
• Observations: Finally, incidents can be detected through the observations of the project team or other stakeholders. This might involve noticing strange behavior on a system, hearing about user problems, or simply noticing that something isn’t working as it should.

Once an incident has been detected, you or your team need to notify the appropriate parties as quickly as possible. This might involve sending an alert to the incident management team, emailing the project team, or updating a status board. By having a straightforward process in place for incident notification, you can ensure that incidents are dealt with promptly and efficiently.

STEP 2: Incident Classification and Prioritization

Once you’ve detected and reported an incident, the next step is to classify and prioritize it based on its impact and urgency. This is an essential step in the incident management process. It helps you determine the appropriate resources and attention devoted to resolving the incident.

To classify an incident, you’ll need to consider the severity of the impact and the number of users affected. For example, an incident that involves a critical system or service might be classified as high severity. In contrast, an incident that affects a less critical system or service might be classified as low severity.

Consider other factors, such as the potential consequences of the incident or the complexity of the problem.

Once you’ve classified an incident, the next step is to prioritize it based on its impact and urgency. This might involve assigning a priority level to the incident, such as high, medium, or low.

Factors that influence the prioritization of an incident include the severity of the impact, the number of users affected, and the potential consequences of the incident.

There are a few tools and techniques that you can use to help classify and prioritize incidents. One standard tool is the incident priority matrix. This grid enables you to assign a priority level to an incident based on its impact and urgency. Other tools and techniques might include risk assessments, impact analyses, or decision trees.

By classifying and prioritizing incidents effectively, you can ensure that the incident management team can focus on the most pressing issues first and allocate resources appropriately. This can help you resolve incidents more efficiently and minimize the impact on your project.

STEP 3: Incident Resolution and Recovery

Once you’ve classified and prioritized an incident, the next step is to resolve and recover from it. This is an integral part of the incident management process, as it helps you minimize the impact of the incident and get your project back on track as quickly as possible.

You’ll typically need to follow steps that involve identifying the incident’s root cause, implementing a fix or workaround, and testing to ensure that the issue has been resolved. Here are some key considerations to keep in mind when resolving and recovering from incidents:

• Identifying the Root Cause: One of the first things you’ll need to do when resolving an incident is to identify the root cause. This might involve gathering and analyzing data, running diagnostics, or consulting with experts. By identifying the root cause, you can determine the best course of action for resolving the incident.
• Implementing a Fix or Workaround: Once you’ve identified the incident’s root cause, the next step is to implement a fix or workaround. This might involve making changes to the system or application, rolling back changes, or implementing a temporary fix until a permanent solution can be implemented. It’s important to test the fix or workaround to ensure it resolves the incident effectively.
• Testing and Verification: After implementing a fix or workaround, it’s essential to test and verify that the incident has been resolved. This might involve running diagnostics, conducting user acceptance testing, or monitoring the system or application to ensure it functions properly.
• Recovery: In some cases, it may be necessary to recover from an incident by rolling back changes or restoring systems to a previous state. This might involve reverting to a prior system or application version, restoring data from backups, or implementing other recovery measures.

The incident management team should work closely with the project team and other stakeholders to ensure that the resolution and recovery process is seamless and efficient.

Step 4: Incident Documentation and Communication

So, what does adequate incident documentation and communication look like? Here are a few things to consider:

• Documenting Incidents: It’s important to document incidents thoroughly to ensure they are correctly recorded and understood. This might involve creating incident reports, updating change logs, or maintaining a database of incidents. By having a clear and comprehensive record of incidents, you can better understand patterns, identify trends, and identify areas for improvement.
• Communicating with Stakeholders: Effective communication is also vital regarding incident management. This might involve sharing with the project team, updating stakeholders on the status of the incident, or providing users with information about how to access workaround solutions. By keeping stakeholders informed, you can ensure that the project team can stay focused and productive.
• Maintaining a Status Board: A status board can be a helpful tool for communicating the status of incidents to the project team and other stakeholders. A status board might include information about the incidents’ status, each incident’s priority level, and the actions being taken to resolve them. By keeping the status board up to date, you can provide a clear and transparent view of the incident management process.

Documenting and communicating incidents effectively ensures that the incident management process runs smoothly and efficiently. This can help you resolve incidents more quickly and minimize the impact on your project.

Best Practices for Incident Management

Now that you have a good understanding of the incident management process, let’s look at some best practices that can help you manage incidents more effectively in your projects.

• Establish Clear Processes and Procedures: One of the critical things you can do to improve your incident management process is to establish transparent processes and procedures. This might involve defining roles and responsibilities, setting up monitoring systems, and creating incident reporting and notification protocols. By having clear and well-defined processes in place, you can ensure that incidents are dealt with promptly and efficiently.
• Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Another best practice for incident management is fostering continuous improvement. This might involve regularly reviewing and analyzing incidents to identify patterns and trends, implementing corrective actions to prevent similar incidents, and identifying opportunities for process improvement. You can minimize the impact of incidents on your project by continuously improving your incident management process.
• Build a Strong Incident Management Team: A robust incident management team is essential to an effective incident management process. This team should be knowledgeable, skilled, and responsive. It should work effectively with the project team and other stakeholders. It’s crucial to provide the incident management team with the resources and support they need to do their job effectively.
• Invest in Monitoring and Alerting Systems: Monitoring and alerting systems can be valuable for detecting and reporting incidents on time. By investing in these systems, you can ensure that incidents are dealt with promptly and efficiently.

By following these best practices, you can improve your incident management process and minimize the impact of incidents on your project.

Have you ever tried to cook an elaborate meal without a recipe? It can be overwhelming and lead to disastrous results. The same is true for project management – a project will likely falter without a clear plan and expectations.

That’s where a statement of work (SOW) comes in. Like a recipe guides a chef, a notice of work sets the project’s scope, objectives, and expectations. This article will explore creating a winning statement of work for your project management needs.

What’s a Statement of Work?

A statement of work (SOW) is a document that outlines the scope, objectives, and expectations for a project. It serves as a blueprint for the project, providing clear direction and guidance for all parties involved.

An SOW typically includes the following elements:

• A description of the project, its goals, and objectives
• The scope of work, including tasks to be completed, deliverables, milestones, and timeline
• Required resources for successful completion, such as personnel, budget, materials, and equipment
• Payment terms, including how often invoices will be expected and payment due dates
• Quality assurance, including performance standards and how quality will be monitored and maintained
• The desired outcome, a description of the desired results from the work
• Contingency plan, steps to take in case the project deviates from the original plan
• Signatures of all parties involved in the agreement.

In short, an SOW is a critical tool for defining and managing a project, ensuring that all parties are on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Types of SOWs

Just like a chef has different recipes for different dishes, a project manager has different types of SOWs for other projects. Here are four types of SOWs you might encounter in project management:

• Functional: A functional SOW is like a recipe with detailed instructions on what a team or individual must do to complete a project. It includes timelines and performance measures.
• Technical: A technical SOW is like a gourmet recipe with specialized instructions on the methods and materials used to complete a project. It is often used for complex projects that require specialized skills or knowledge.
• Operational: An operational SOW is like a cookbook with detailed instructions on how work should be performed and expectations for output and quality.
• Management: A management SOW is like a chef’s hat, defining the roles and responsibilities of those involved in managing a project. It includes information on who will be responsible for what and how decisions will be made, and progress will be monitored.

Why Use an SOW?

The Importance of an SOW

A statement of work is a crucial document for any project manager. It provides a clear and concise plan for the project, outlining the scope, objectives, and expectations. This ensures that everyone involved in the project understands the work and how it will be done.

Providing a Clear and Concise Plan

For example, let’s say you are working on a web design project. The SOW would include details such as the number of pages to be designed, the specific features to be included, and the timeline for completion. This ensures that everyone on the team knows what is expected of them and can work together towards the common goal.

Acting as a Legal Agreement

A well-written SOW also serves as a legal agreement between the parties involved in the project. It outlines the payment terms, quality assurance measures, and contingency plans, protecting all parties from potential misunderstandings or disputes.

For instance, let’s say you are hiring a team to develop a new app. The SOW would include details such as the payment schedule, the performance standards for the app, and the steps to take in case of unforeseen challenges. This ensures that you and the team are clear on your obligations and can avoid any potential disputes.

Tracking Progress and Making Informed Decisions

In addition to defining the project, an SOW can help project managers track progress and make informed decisions. It provides a reference point for monitoring performance and identifying potential risks or issues. This allows project managers to take timely action and course-correct as needed to ensure the successful completion of the project.

For example, suppose you notice that a particular task is behind schedule. In that case, you can refer to the SOW to see if any contingency plans are in place or if additional resources are needed. This helps prevent delays and keeps the project on track.

Setting Your Project Up for Success

In short, a statement of work is essential for defining, managing, and tracking a project. It provides a clear and comprehensive plan, protects all parties involved, and helps project managers make informed decisions. Creating a winning SOW can set your project up for success and ensure its completion.

Remember, a statement of work is like a recipe for your project. It provides clear direction and guidance, ensuring everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals. By investing time and effort into crafting a winning SOW, you can ensure the success of your project and avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes.

Writing an Effective Statement of Work

Crafting a winning statement of work requires careful planning and attention to detail. Here are some critical steps to follow when creating your SOW:

Step 1: Define the project

Start by clearly defining the project’s goals, objectives, and scope. This will provide a foundation for the rest of the SOW and ensure that all parties involved have a shared understanding of the work. Be as specific as possible, outlining the same tasks to be completed and the expected outcomes. This will help ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same goals.

Step 2: Outline the scope of work

Next, provide a detailed description of the project’s tasks, deliverables, milestones, and timeline. This will give all parties a clear understanding of what is expected and when it is expected. Include specific deadlines for each task and milestone and any dependencies or constraints that may impact the project. This will help everyone stay on track and avoid potential delays or setbacks.

Step 3: Specify required resources

Identify the personnel, budget, materials, and equipment that will be needed for the successful completion of the project. This will ensure that all parties have the necessary resources to complete the job. Be as detailed as possible, including information on the number of staff members needed, the budget for each task, and any specialized equipment or materials that will be required. This will help ensure that everyone has the resources they need to complete the project on time and within budget.

Step 4: Define payment terms.

Include information on how often invoices will be expected and when payment is due. This will ensure that all parties have a clear understanding of the financial aspects of the project. In addition, specify the payment schedule, terms, and any penalties or incentives that may apply. This will help avoid potential disputes or misunderstandings around payment and ensure everyone understands their obligations.

Step 5: Establish quality assurance measures

Include performance standards and how quality will be monitored and maintained throughout the project. This will ensure that the project meets the agreed-upon quality standards. Specify the specific quality standards used to evaluate the project, and outline how quality will be monitored and measured. This will help ensure that the project meets the required quality standards and delivers the desired results.

Step 6: Describe the expected outcome

Provide a detailed description of the expected results from work. This will give all parties a shared understanding of the end goal and how it will be measured. Be as specific as possible, outlining the exact metrics that will be used to evaluate the project’s success. This will help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals and that the project delivers the expected results.

Step 7: Develop a contingency plan

Include steps to take in case the project deviates from the original plan. This will ensure that all parties are prepared for potential challenges or changes. In addition, outline the steps to be taken if the project encounters delays, challenges, or other unforeseen events. Again, this will help ensure that the project stays on track and that everyone is prepared to respond to potential challenges or changes.

Step 8: Obtain signatures

Finally, obtain signatures from all parties involved in the agreement. This legal agreement will protect all parties from potential misunderstandings or disputes. Ensure all parties have read and understood the SOW and are clear on their obligations and responsibilities. This will help ensure that everyone is committed to the project and that all parties are protected.

By following these steps and including the critical elements outlined above, you can create a winning statement of work that will set your project up for success. Remember, a well-written SOW is like a roadmap for your project, providing clear direction and guidance for all parties involved. By investing time and effort into crafting a winning SOW, you can ensure the success of your project and avoid potential misunderstandings or disputes.

Tips for Crafting a Winning SOW

Crafting a winning SOW takes time and effort, but it’s well worth it. Here are some tips to keep in mind when creating your SOW:

• Clarity: Be clear and concise in your language, so all parties involved understand the scope of the project and what is expected of them.
• Communication: Discuss the project with all parties involved and ensure that everyone is on the same page before finalizing the SOW.
• Attention to detail: Include all necessary details in the SOW, such as timelines, deliverables, and performance measures.
• Flexibility: Be prepared to adjust the SOW if needed, as the project may evolve and change over time.
• Collaboration: Work with all parties involved to ensure that the SOW aligns with their needs and expectations.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Your SOW

Mistakes will be made, but you want to avoid as many of them as possible when crafting your SOW. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

1. Leaving out important details: Make sure all important elements are included in the SOW, such as timelines and deliverables.
2. Skipping the collaboration process: Before finalizing your SOW, be sure to discuss the project with all parties involved and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
3. Being too vague: Be as specific and detailed as possible when outlining the project’s scope, tasks, timelines, and deliverables.
4. Ignoring contingencies: Include steps to take in case the project deviates from the original plan. This will ensure that everyone is prepared for potential challenges or changes.
5. Failing to clearly define roles and responsibilities: Be sure to clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of all parties involved in the project. This will help ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals.
6. Forgetting about quality assurance: Don’t forget to include performance standards and quality assurance measures in your SOW. This will help ensure that the project is completed to a high standard.

Using an SOW Template

Creating a winning SOW can be time-consuming, but using a template can make the process much easier. An SOW template provides a pre-designed format that you can fill in with your own project’s details. This can save you time and ensure that you include all necessary information in your SOW.

Here is a basic SOW template that you can use as a starting point for your own projects, such as hiring a lot of customer support people for the holidays:

Project Description:

Provide a brief overview of the project, including its goals and objectives. Would look something like this:

“Hire and train a team of customer support representatives to handle the increased volume of customer inquiries during the holiday season.”

Scope of Work:

Outline the tasks that need to be completed, the deliverables, and the timeline for completion. Example tasks, deliverables, and timeline:

Task 1: Post job listings and review applications.
Task 2: Conduct interviews and select candidates.
Task 3: Provide training and onboarding for new hires.

Deliverables: A team of trained customer support representatives ready to handle holiday season inquiries.

Timeline: October 1 – December 15.

Resources Needed:

Identify the personnel, budget, materials, and equipment that will be needed for the project’s successful completion.

Personnel: A team of 5 customer support managers and 20 customer support representatives. Budget: $50,000 for hiring and training costs.
Materials: Training materials and onboarding packages.
Equipment: Computer equipment and headsets for each new hire.

Payment Terms:

Include information on how often invoices will be expected and payment due dates

Invoices will be expected on a monthly basis and payment is due within 30 days of receipt.

Quality Assurance:

Outline the performance standards and how quality will be monitored and maintained.

Performance standards: Customer support representatives must maintain a minimum satisfaction rating of 90% based on customer feedback.
Quality assurance: Customer satisfaction surveys will be sent out weekly to assess customer experience.

Signatures:

You’re now ready to include the signatures of all parties involved in the agreement.

Signatures:
________________________
Client Signature
_______________________
Project Manager Signature
______________________
Team Member Signatures (if applicable) _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ _________________________ ____________
Date of Agreement ___________________.

Do you ever spend an entire morning doing something completely pointless, like cleaning up dog food spilled across the kitchen floor? And then, when you leave for work, nothing is accomplished. You haven’t worked out, checked emails, or even had breakfast.

If this is one isolated episode, that’s one thing. But sometimes entire days proceed in this fashion, and build into weeks full of bustle and activity where nothing significant ever gets done. The meaningful, value-adding work sits in the “to do” pile, like laundry waiting to be washed.

The 24 hours we have each day seems like a lot of time, but with deadlines to meet, bills to pay and projects to complete, time quickly becomes a scarce resource. And just like money, it’s so easy to squander and waste.

But don’t go thinking that productivity and time management are beyond you, because a solution is simpler than you think. For many, a four-box grid known as a priority matrix is the ticket to generating the momentum to focus and finish tasks.

Want to get in on this project management hack? That’s what we’re going to cover in this post.

The When, What & How of a Project Priority Matrix

A priority matrix is helpful whenever you need to sort and prioritize a multitude of diversified tasks, so it works well within teams, for community initiatives and even in personal planning. The matrix determines what to work on now, in the present moment, and what to postpone for later.

Steven Covey, the renowned businessman and keynote speaker, developed this matrix and its underlying principles in his bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

In its simplest form, the matrix is four quadrants that categorizes work according to two criteria: important and urgent. Urgent work requires immediate attention. These tasks have no workaround; if it doesn’t get done, then the lights turn off. Important works, rather, include tasks that bring value to the business or initiative. They contribute to a project’s overall goal.

In delineating work according to this criteria, Covery drives home the lesson that not everything that’s important is urgent, but more significantly, not everything that’s urgent is important. It’s easy to be allured by “urgent” tasks that have no importance at all, and fail to do things that really matter.

Utilizing the method, essentially, means parsing through an assortment of tasks and activities and categorizing them according to these criteria.

1. The Important and Urgent Quadrant

The tasks that fall into the important and urgent quadrant are critical. These are consequential tasks that have no workaround, and include things like paying bills and meeting deadlines.

Clearly, anything that’s both important and urgent must be completed right away. Ideally, however, the tasks in this category don’t usurp all your time.

2. The Important But Not Urgent Quadrant

The tasks in this quadrant lay foundations and build systems. They include things like strategic planning, networking and researching. They don’t have immediate deadlines, but if neglected, they may well move into the urgent and important quadrant.

As this work positions a project for success, ideally the bulk of your time is spent working on tasks in this category.

3. The Urgent But Not Important Quadrant

This is the category for time-wasters. The urgent but not important quadrant includes things like long-winded conversations in chat boxes, people who need favors, phone calls and back-to-back meetings.

This is a deceptive category, as it’s easy to spend a lot of time on these tasks and feel occupied. Yet all the while, none of the busyness adds any value or serves any overall business goals.

Ideally, you’d spend the least amount of time on this work. If this category is brimming with tasks, then delegation may be the solution.

4. The Not Important and Not Urgent Quadrant

These are the activities that you look forward to at the end of a long day. This final quadrant includes things like watching TV, scrolling through a FaceBook feed, or taking a long leisurely walk. Niksen, or doing nothing with intention, captures the essence of these activities.

Although enjoyable, ideally these activities consume only a small portion of one’s overall time.

How to Use the Matrix

These “urgent” and “important” criteria are benchmarked against the project’s overall objectives. A personal goal to develop a healthy lifestyle would classify urgent and important much differently than a development’s team’s objective to create an app.

A healthy lifestyle, for example, might have “lose weight” in the urgent and important category and “create healthy meals” in the important but not urgent category.

A software team who’s developing an app centers its important goals around the client’s objectives. What are the functional and non-functional requirements for the app? The urgent and important goals might center around meeting deadlines, while the not important and not urgent work might include generating reports that no one looks at anyway.

Creating the matrix is a process. Within a team, ideally, it’s developed and modified in face-to-face meetings. After mapping out the initial designations, the team engages in discussions and possibly moves things around. Then, it’s time to run water though the pipes and take action based on each task’s classification. This is the real test to identify if the activities have been categorized accurately.

Generally, each box ends up with multiple tasks, which presents a prioritization challenge all of its own. Sometimes the principle  “eat the frog” provides the best approach to determine what to tackle first. This means selecting the dirtiest, hairiest work and getting it done, right out of the gate.

Other times, it’s best to focus and complete several small tasks and save the larger work for later. Whatever method, the objective is to create a plan that generates and increases team momentum.

The 5 Benefits of a Priority Matrix

The priority matrix is a deceptive little diagram. It looks almost too simple to be effective. But despite its simplicity (or perhaps because of it), it benefits a project in many ways.

1. Breaks Down Complex Projects

In a long or complicated project, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of playing whack-a-mole and constantly putting out fires. But the matrix provides an opportunity to step back and determine a plan of action that considers the project’s overall objectives.

2. Encourages Fast & Clear Collaboration

The concept of the matrix is easy to catch onto. This makes it an effective go-to at an all-hands meeting, where each stakeholder contributes to priority planning. The simplicity of the method allows everything to be prioritized quickly, providing a clear action plan.

The matrix is also a powerful visual. When the four quadrants are displayed on a large white board, everyone grasps the overall picture right away.

3. Provides Useful Signals

The method also provides key indicators around where to switch up a workload. After organizing work into the four categories, it’s possible to analyze how much work falls into each quadrant.

As discussed, ideally most work falls into the important but not urgent category. If the majority of the work, rather, is in the urgent and important category, this may indicate that work isn’t being completed in a timely fashion. When the urgent but not important category carries most of the weight, it indicates that the team may be focused on low value work requests.

4. Creates Momentum in a Team

The priority matrix aligns a team around its true north. It allows everyone to understand what is most important and what’s going to add value. This clarity creates efficiency and momentum around the completion of tasks.

5. Maximizes Value

Any project, whether personal or work-related, is about delivering value. The priority matrix places the things that matter most over the things that matter least, and so ensures the completion of value-adding work.

As you can see, there’s several clear benefits to incorporating a priority matrix into planning and strategizing. When combined with some other project management strategies, the matrix can really deliver a powerful punch.

The Matrix Supersized With Agile and Kanban

Generally, the prioritization matrix is an effective tool on its own. However, due to its simplicity it can run into trouble. For example, most projects evolve over time, and so the priorities it has at the beginning may change. And so it’s useful to combine the matrix with principles from other project management methodologies in order to make it relevant and increase its capacity in a variety of scenarios.

The Matrix With Agile

The Agile methodology emphasizes continual change. As its Manifesto states, it “welcomes changing requirements, even late in development.”

Within an agile framework, then, the priority matrix may be approached not as a fixed chart, but as a continually evolving diagram. With each retrospective and sprint planning session, the team revisits and reevaluates the chart and possibly makes adjustments based on recent developments.

The Matrix With Kanban

Kanban is a pull system that establishes work-in-process (WIP) limits. It creates a continual work flow within a team, as tasks must be completed before a new task is begun.

Fusing the priority matrix with Kanban doubles down on this focus and finish mentality. It clarifies to everyone what tasks need the most attention. The WIP limits forces the team to complete tasks, and move through the work at an energized pace.

As you can see, the priority matrix needn’t be used in isolation. Combining and adapting it with other methods actually increases the value it brings to a team.

The Matrix in Contrast With Other Prioritization Methods

The priority matrix certainly isn’t the only prioritization method out there. Let’s compare and contrast it with a few other popular methods.

The MoSCoW Method

The MoSCoW method was developed in 1994 by Dai Clegg, a software developer working at Oracle. “MoSCoW” really represents the acronym, MSCW. The vowel sounds are added to make it easier to pronounce. Each letter in MoSCoW represents a separate layer for task prioritization: Must, Should, Could, and Won’t. By organizing tasks into these categories, a team finds clarity around what it needs to work on right now, and in the near future.

MoSCoW is very similar to the priority matrix, except that it goes a step further and actually determines work to cut out completely.

While MoSCoW works particularly well in project planning, the matrix can be used at any point as an effective time management tool. MoSCoW is not a visual chart, and so the priority matrix has a step up in this respect.

The Four Ds (Eisenhower Matrix)

The four Ds is also known as the Eisenhower Matrix. It’s a simple system that’s also designed to sort through a myriad of tasks. The Ds stand for “do, delete, delegate and defer.”

For example, when we open our inbox to dozens of unread emails, the “4 D” system lets us identify those emails that need to be responded to right away, those we can delete, messages to forward, and those to put off until later.

The Four Ds helps with personal task management, while the priority matrix works within teams as well as in personal planning.

The RICE Scoring Model

The RICE model takes a different approach and evaluates a project by its Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort.

While the priority matrix combines all kinds of tasks, both operational and project-related, the RICE model focuses primarily on a singular project. While the priority matrix is good for queuing the next activity, the scoring model serves to contrast the value of one project relative to another.

While each of these four methods are all very similar, each has its own strength, making it best suited for particular scenarios.

You may have heard the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail.” This statement couldn’t be more true when managing a project. A well-defined and carefully executed project schedule is key to the success of any project.

But what exactly is project schedule management, and why is it so important? In this blog post, we’ll explore the ins and outs of project schedule management and how it can help ensure the success of your project.

What is project schedule management?

Project schedule management is defining, creating, and maintaining a project schedule to ensure the project is completed on time and within budget. A project schedule is a document that outlines the tasks and activities that need to be completed to achieve the project’s goals.

Essentially there are 3 types of project schedules:

1. Master schedule

This is an overarching project timeline detailing all tasks and activities.
A detailed schedule. This outlines each job’s individual tasks, dependencies, and resource requirements.

2. Milestone schedule

This tracks the completion of significant milestones throughout the project life cycle. Such as the completion of a phase or deliverable.

3. Detailed schedule.

This outlines the individual tasks, their dependencies, and any resource requirements for each job.

How does a master schedule differ from a detailed schedule?

You might ask yourself, what’s the difference between a master’s and a detailed schedule? The answer is simple. A master schedule is more of an overview of the entire project, while a detailed schedule provides more granular information.

A master schedule typically includes high-level tasks and activities, such as milestones and key deliverables. On the other hand, a detailed schedule consists of all functions and activities related to the project—including their duration, resources required, and dependencies.

Benefits of project schedules

So, why is having a detailed schedule important?

Well, by having a detailed schedule, you can:

• Better track the progress of the project
• Improved project efficiency and productivity
• Reduced risk of project delays and cost overruns
• Identify potential problems before they arise
• Adjust resources and timelines as needed
• Reduce stress and frustration for the project team
• Improve communication

Components of a project schedule

A project schedule is a document that outlines the tasks and activities that need to be completed to achieve the project’s goals. It typically includes the following components:

• Project objectives: The high-level goals and outcomes the project aims to achieve.
• Project scope: A description of the boundaries and limitations of the project, including what is included and what is not included.
• Project tasks and activities: A list of the specific tasks and activities that must be completed to achieve the project’s objectives.
• Task dependencies: The relationships between tasks, indicating which tasks must be completed before or after other tasks.
• Task duration and resources: An estimation of the time and resources (e.g., personnel, equipment, materials) required to complete each task.
• Project timeline: A visual representation of the project schedule, showing the sequence, duration, and overlap of the tasks and activities.
• Milestones: Key points or events in the project timeline that mark significant achievements or stages of the project.
• Risks and assumptions: A list of potential dangers or assumptions that could affect the project and the strategies to address them.
• Communication and reporting: A plan for how the project team communicates and reports on the project’s progress and status to stakeholders.

Creating a project schedule

Imagine your project as a journey – you know where you want to go, but you need a map and a plan to get there. That’s where a project schedule comes in! A project schedule is like a roadmap for your project, outlining the tasks, dependencies, and resources needed to achieve your goals.

Step 1: Define the project scope and objectives

The first step in creating a project schedule is to define the scope and objectives of the project. This involves determining what the project is trying to achieve and what it is not trying to achieve.

For example, if you are building a house, you need to decide what features and finishes are included in the project and what is outside the scope (e.g., landscaping, furniture). This helps clarify the project’s boundaries and limitations and ensures that everyone involved has a shared understanding of the project’s goals.

Step 2: Break the project down into tasks

Once you clearly understand the project’s scope and objectives, the next step is to break the project down into individual tasks.

Start by brainstorming a list of all the activities needed to achieve the project’s goals. Then, organize these tasks into logical sequences and group related tasks together.

Step 3: Estimate the duration and resources for each task

Once you have a list of tasks, the next step is to estimate how long each task will take to complete and any personnel, equipment, or materials needed. This helps to better understand the project’s timeline and resource requirements.

Step 4: Create a project timeline

Once you have estimated the duration and resources for each task, the next step is to create a project timeline. Start by mapping out the sequence of tasks, showing which tasks must be completed before or after other tasks.

Then add milestones to mark critical points or events in the project timeline. Finally, add an estimated timeline to the project schedule so that you can track progress and identify any potential delays or roadblocks.

Step 5: Assess risks and assumptions

No matter how well-planned a project is, there will always be some degree of uncertainty. That’s why it’s essential to assess any risks or assumptions that could affect the project and develop strategies to address them. This will help ensure the project runs smoothly and is completed on time and within budget.

Step 6: Communicate and report

To ensure everyone involved in the project is on the same page, it’s essential to have a plan for how the project team will communicate and report progress and status to stakeholders. This could include regular project updates, status meetings, or a dedicated dashboard to track progress and deadlines.

Maintaining a project schedule.

Maintaining a project schedule is different from creating one. Once your project schedule is created, it’s essential to update and monitor it throughout the project’s life – adjusting tasks and timelines as needed. This will help ensure that you stay on track.

Here are a few key steps to help you maintain your project schedule:

1. Regularly review the schedule.

Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, review the project timeline and make sure everything is on track.

Monitor progress and adjust as needed. As tasks are completed, check to see if there is any room for improvement and adjustments to stay on track. Monitor resources and priorities. Make sure that all vital personnel, equipment, and materials are available when they are needed.

2. Monitor and track progress

Have you ever heard the saying “what gets measured, gets done”? It’s true. Monitoring and tracking progress helps ensure that tasks are completed on time, and that goal is achieved. Use a project management tool to track progress and generate reports.

One of the best tools to use is the Gantt chart. This type of diagram helps to visually display the tasks involved in a project and how they are related, as well as their estimated duration and completion date.

3. Communicate and collaborate

Effective communication and collaboration are vital in maintaining a project schedule. This means regularly communicating with the project team and stakeholders about the progress and status of the project, and working together to identify and resolve any issues or challenges.

It’s also essential to keep the project schedule updated and available to everyone who needs it so that everyone understands the project’s goals and requirements.

4. Update the schedule as needed

As the project progresses, there will likely be changes to the project schedule. This might be due to changes in the project scope, delays or issues with specific tasks, or changes in the availability of resources.

When these changes happen, updating the project schedule to reflect the new timeline and requirements is essential. This helps ensure the project stays on track and meets its deadlines.

Examples of project schedule management

One of the most important tasks when managing a project is creating a realistic project schedule. Let’s take some time and look at a few examples of how project schedule management can be used in the real world.

Software development

Regarding software development projects, some key tasks include setting deadlines for different phases of the project, assigning resources (personnel, software tools, money $) to each task, scheduling regular team meetings, and creating detailed plans for each project stage.

To create an effective software development project template:

1. Begin by listing all the tasks that need to be completed in order of importance.
2. Assign deadlines for each task based on how long it will take to achieve them.
3. Assign resources (people or money) needed for each job.

A comprehensive SOFTWARE PROJECT SCHEDULE should encompass the following tasks:

• setting deadlines for different phases of the project
• assigning resources (personnel, software tools, money $) to each task
• scheduling regular team meetings
• creating detailed plans for each stage of the project

Launch of a new product

When launching a new product, many steps must be completed before launch day arrives. These include researching competitors, designing the product, producing samples, setting up distribution channels, marketing the product, and launching.

To create an effective launch of a new product project template, start by listing all the necessary tasks in order of importance and then assign deadlines for each task based on how long it will take to complete them.

Next, assign people or money resources needed for each task, and finally, make sure there is enough time allocated between each step so that nothing is rushed or overlooked during the process.

A PRODUCT LAUNCH PROJECT SCHEDULE should encompass the following tasks:

• researching competitors
• designing the product
• producing samples
• setting up distribution channels
• marketing the product
• launching

Developing a new website

It may sound simple, but developing a website is quite complex and requires careful planning.

Developing a new website includes several steps: designing the site structure, coding pages, setting up content management systems, testing compatibility across different platforms, and launching.

To create an effective developing new website project template, start by listing all necessary tasks in order of importance and then assigning deadlines for each task based on how long it will take to complete them.

Next, assign people or money resources needed for each task. Lastly, ensure enough time is allocated between each step so that nothing is rushed or overlooked during the process.

A complete WEBSITE PROJECT SCHEDULE should encompass the following tasks:

• designing the site structure
• coding the pages
• setting up content management systems
• testing the site for compatibility across different platforms
• launching.

Construction of a new building

Construction projects are complex and require a great deal of planning.

The process of constructing a new building includes several steps, such as securing permits, designing the structure, acquiring materials, hiring contractors, erecting the building, and finally, completing inspections.

To create an effective schedule, the new building project template begins by listing all necessary tasks in order of importance and then assigning deadlines for each task based on how long it will take to complete them.

Next, assign people or money resources needed for each task and ensure enough time is allocated between each step so that nothing is rushed or overlooked during the process.

A BUILDING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT SCHEDULE should encompass the following tasks:

• securing permits
• designing the structure
• acquiring materials
• hiring contractors and subcontractors
• erecting the building
• completing inspections.