How to Rock Small Projects I get where you are coming from. This is how “accidental”, project managers like us get started. Small businesses, small projects and small teams. I have worked in similar environments in the past and currently volunteer for many non-profits. My activities with pmStudent fall under this category, as they are smaller projects that involve a few people or me. Even though good PM skills can still be used in such an environment, they must be tailored to the specific situation. For a week-long project, waterfall processes that include a fancy charter and detailed project plan are not worth the overhead. There is not much space for formality or overhead. Rock Your PM Skills! Create a checklist or an excel file that will be your project plan. This is what I did years ago when I worked in a MIS department. Many of the projects were one week to four weeks long. I had an excel spreadsheet that I used as a “1-page project plan” and also as a status report for my stakeholders. You can adapt it to your environment and make improvements as you go. A post I wrote a while back called “Good Project Management is Common Sense” that you might find useful.

• Let’s start with the why.
• Then, figure out what.
• Then, figure out how it will happen and who will do it.
• These things are the reason that when comes out
• Then, we go through a process called iteration where our draft plans are updated in light of real life, including funding.

One-page Project Management You could start with a template that only has fields:

• Why (this is your charter).
• What (scope statement, PBS/WBS/task breakdown in list format)
• How (project plan)
• Who (resource plan).
• A very simple schedule

The One Page Project Manager is a concept that I have used on small projects in the past. Check it out! Kanban is a paradigm that I find extremely useful and versatile in managing work flow. I highly recommend it for small projects. ?I’m putting something together at?http://pmStudent.com/kanban to share my experiences with Kanban and I’ve just learned about?http://www.leankanbanuniversity.com/ which looks like an excellent new resource from some of the top people in Lean-Kanban. If you want to gain some more knowledge about the concepts and practices on larger-scale projects (perhaps so you can scale them down to your needs) I do offer in-depth training at?http://learn.pmStudent.com as well. Some people prefer to stick with small projects. What about the other challenges that come with managing larger projects? More stakeholders, team members, communication channels, and communication channels? You can still rock, regardless of how small or large your project is …..