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Define Project Requirements from the Outset
To reach success in project management, you need to make sure that when you initiate a new project, the requirements are defined thoroughly and formally described. You need to know exactly what is expected to be produced and within which deadlines the project should be delivered.
Tip #1: Design and document a project plan which clearly describes the requirements of your project and also outline the definition of both success and failure -
Ensure Customer Involvement
You should involve your customer throughout the entire project life-cycle. The customer must be proactive in project analysis and planning, as well as must monitor the project implementation process. In order to reach success in project management, you do not actually have to seek the customer’s approval, but just keep them aware of current progress.
Tip #2: The more your customer is involved in the project, the greater their level of buy-in is achieved and the easier it is for you to manage customer expectations. -
Define Time-frames
One of my project success tips says that it is reasonable to keep project delivery time-frames short and realistic. You should never tend to set lengthy time-frames which indeed cause “project success failure”.
Tip #3: Just break your project down into smaller stages or “mini-projects”. Then assign each of the mini-projects to less than 6-month duration phase – this will keep everyone motivated and focused. -
Establish Milestones
When defining project success, it is important to break your project time-frames into milestones, which are manageable pieces of the project work. You need to add completion deadlines to project milestones and try to deliver project activities, following every deadline.
Tip #4: Use milestones to track project status; when the project is out of schedule, notify your customer of the delay as early as possible. -
Ensure Good Communications
If you want to reach success in project management, you need to keep everyone informed of the latest project changes, by providing the right information at the right time. It is recommended to develop and submit weekly status reports to the stakeholders.
Tip #5: Schedule regular team meetings on which you will report on project status. Also remember that better organization of project meetings can be achieved by using templates created in project management software. -
Analyze Scope Changes
This project success tip says that whenever a change occurs, you should review it in detail and decide whether it can be added to your project scope. At the same time, achieving success in project management means that only authorized changes can be added to your project scope.
Tip #6: It is recommended to get customers approval before making important scope changes and extending/shortening delivery dates. -
Measure Quality
One of the key success drivers refers to project quality. You should keep the quality level of your deliverables as high as possible. You must constantly review quality of your project and never let it decrease.
Tip #7: Follow quality assurance and control best practices to ensure that the quality of your project product meets the customer’s requirements. Read Project Management Guidelines to learn more on this point. -
Define Deliverable Acceptance Criteria
When setting project success criteria, you must consider each deliverable of your project as a formal result to be produced to meet your customers’ needs.
Tip #8: Design a deliverable acceptance form in which your customer will agree that a given deliverable meets their needs and expectations.