Budget

Your ultimate goal in rendering a project is to finish on time, below budget and with a happy client. But how do you perform it? Here are five tips to assist you.

Be Honest

As the saying goes “Honesty is the Best Policy”.You have to be honest all the time in dealing with your customers. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t acquire all of the resource, cash and time involved to carry it out successfully from the start. Set their anticipations by saying to them what you will carry and by when. And if it eventuates that you can’t render on your promises, then state to them about it directly. By having an “open book” policy, you’ll have your client’s confidence. And if you involve them early enough, they will be a lot supportive to your cause.

Hand it over
Managers oftentimes fall into the trap of believing that they can manage things much efficiently than staff. Of course in a lot of cases they may be right, but the problem is that they don’t have the time to perform everything themselves. So a bright manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It presents them the time needed to supervise the project and support their team. It’s a delicate task, but even if you recognize you can do a job more expeditiously than others, delegate it anyway.

Become a leader
When you economize time by delegating your jobs, you have   time for  leading and motivating your group. Make this by regularly communicating the project  to your team, honoring them for progress and accrediting their accomplishments. Have their respect by showing them you care. Build Up team liveliness by bringing them to lunch on a daily basisand uttering about what they accomplished unitedly. Remember, there is no “i” in “team”.

Expect the unexpected
Always expect matters to change and be ready for it when it comes. People have ideas, your client may require changes, and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s significant, it’s how you react to the transformation that weighs. Always handle change, but be suspicious of it. Question it, double-question it and only when you’re positive it’s for the greatest, apply it.

Work smart, not hard
Attempt not to begin from scratch. Give yourself a head-start wheresoever feasible by using tools like project management guides. These templates encourage the quality of your deliverables, while keeping you time and effort.

Jason Westland has been in the project management industry for the past 15 years and is the author of the book “A Project Life cycle”  if you would like to find out more information about Jason or his project management software you can visit projectmanager.com.

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by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

I’m relatively new to Twitter, but I think I’m officially addicted. It’s a great way to connect with like-minded people (if you use it correctly!) I decided to ask my “followers” (I call them my “tweeps”!) on Twitter to “tweet” me their own personal top lesson learned in 2008 regarding project management. Here are some of the responses…I’m not going to comment on them in this post, but I would love to start a dialogue in the comments section where you offer your opinion on what they’ve said, and your own lessons learned from last year!


pmstudent: Calling all project managers and project team members! What was your most important lesson learned in 2008?

Lessons Learned

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kelvinzhao: 1.The corporate culture should be concerned carefully. 2. To make your plan works, find the right key man.


simon_g: That I have to learn to say ‘no’ to a client if a risk item is too high


vigilant: Your project will only go as well as it’s weakest link


rainaterror: if you successfully pm X# of projects, on time, under budget, improving UX, communicating clearly, you can do anything.


corneliusficht: not to run with scissors?


EddeBu: leaning on suppliers, in such a way that they deliver on time but don’t get annoyed.


ppolsinelli:there is no longer a substantial difference between project management and personal productivity



stacijshelton: Get a good handle on the baseline data for your intended business impact. Some clients have no clue.


JasonBailey: I learned that PMI is useless and that the PMBOK is as outdated as a Model-T.


lech: Don’t do planning with the sponsor [only]. Involve others. Think in products – never actions. Celebrate, celebrate…


NathanaelB: Write the contract as if you expect the other party to screw you over

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Estimating Effort: Part 1

by Bill Duncan December 5, 2008 Estimation

This series of articles is extracted from a similar series I wrote for Projects@Work a couple of years ago. I’m posting it here in reaction to my review of Josh’s articles on Earned Value where he (in my opinion) used the term “estimate” when he should have said  ”budget.” Many of the terms related to [...]

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Project Termination Modes

by Biswamohan.Routray October 9, 2008 PMP

All projects have fixed start date and completion date. Project termination is a process that occurs whether a project is successful or not. The major aim is to document the “lessons learned” and store it in the organizational process assets. In this post I will focus on the different ways to close or terminate a project.

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