My 10 Golden Rules for Effective Project Delivery

My 10 Golden Rules for Effective Project Delivery
By Ron Rosenhead

I was running a project management course when someone said to me: ‘Ron, what are your golden rule for effective project delivery?’

What a great question. I picked up a marker pen and wrote the following on a flip chart. Here are my golden rules which should help you deliver more effectively.

  1. If it’s a ‘big’ project then it’s a risk and if it’s a change project then again it is a risk
  2. Assessment of project risks needs to be detailed, deep ,realistic and should be managed.

  3. It is doubtful whether you would go on holiday without knowing where you are going. Why start a project without clearly agreed objectives

  4. Is there a solid business case that really tests the viability of your project? If there is no business case, do you have a project?

  5. Deadlines need to be worked out and not guessed at (senior managers take note)

  6. It’s people who deliver projects so we need to work with them as much as possible. This includes investing in project communications

  7. If one person does not play their role effectively they can impact the whole project – this includes contactors, project board members, the project sponsor, project manager and project team members. In other words; some leadership is needed to ensure roles are fulfilled

  8. The project plan needs to be realistic, manageable and aid project delivery. It should be easily understood by your stakeholders

  9. Processes need to be set up to monitor how you are doing. Use the monitoring process to adjust the plan to deliver (or kill off the project)

  10. What have you learned and what has the company learned and how is this shared to save time, money and angst next time someone does something similar or maybe linked to it?

The above, with a bit of editing is what I suggested. Of course, there could be a lot more written about each. However, statistics for effective project delivery are poor, the need for more project management rigour within companies ever greater, so the above golden rules (built on many years’ experience of consultancy and training), if applied, will help guide project delivery or at least increase the probability of project success.

Let me know what you think about the above and what you think should be included – or excluded.

Ron Rosenhead is a trainer, consultant speaker and coach all in the area of project management. He has vast consultancy and training experience and you can read his blog at http://www.ronrosenhead.co.uk

PMHut Team

PMHut Team

PMHut.com is a website dedicated to providing PM articles, detailed project management software reviews, and the latest news for the most popular web-based collaboration tools.

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