It's that time of year again, the whole family will be around for dinner soon. Your uncles, aunts, cousins, or perhaps just a small Christmas dinner is planned. Either way you can improve the dinner by having a solid plan in place. You should use Microsoft Excel to create a file to track and plan your dinner. You should have three tabs in your document to help you separate your budget, guest list, and your assignment list.
The first tab should be the budget for your dinner, and it should include individual line items for items you need to purchase. You should track actual spend against your budget and you should update the file as you purchase the items. The second tab should include your guest list and the gifts for those guest. You could also include any key points about those guest, and that could help the night go smoother. Finally, the third tab should focus on the individual assignments you have allocated to people, and you should check with people to see how they are tracking in the weeks leading up to Christmas. If you follow these steps, you will have a better Christmas dinner. Your dinner will be more organized, and you will spend less money. Giving everyone that is attending an assigned tasks spreads the responsibility, and it will help you focus on the most important tasks. Project management can improve your Christmas dinner, and it can help you stay sane during the holidays. Please leave your comments and suggestions.
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You can increase the chances of success for your small business startup by using project management principles. First, you need to come up with a rough idea of the business you want to create. You should then start doing research on the industry the business will compete in, and you should research your potential competitors. You will be able to learn some information on your potential target market by researching your future competitors, and you will be able to learn about the demand for your product. When you have conducted enough research to develop a plan, then you should move on to the planning phase of your startup.
In the planning phase, you need to start developing a business plan. The plan should include information on your business strategy, your target market, the industry you are targeting, and your financial plan. The business plan should be written in Microsoft Word or an equivalent application, and it should be as complete as possible. You should identify your stakeholders and you should have a stakeholder management plan as well. You should develop your engagement strategy which is simply how you plan on attracting customers to your business. After you have written your business plan, you should submit that plan to a bank if you are seeking a loan. If you do not need a business loan, then you can submit the plan to other key stakeholders. The plan should be your guide to how you are going to run your business, and you should update the plan when you make changes. If you follow these steps, then you will greatly increase the chances of success for your small business startup. Please leave your feedback. Your renovation project can finish on time and within budget, and you can make it happen. First, create a word document or write down on a note pad what you want to achieve with your renovation, and that will be your business case. Write down the kind of budget you have in mind, and your idea completion date. Second, create a project plan in Microsoft Excel which covers all of your renovation tasks. Each task should have an estimated time and budget.
You can look up products online or you can visit your local hardware store to ensure your project budget is accurate. You can consult renovation websites to ensure you are covering everything needed to complete the task, and you can also ask the professionals at the hardware store. You need to sequence your tasks to ensure they are in a logical order. You should obtain at least three quotes for any large pieces of contract work you are planning, because that will allow you to get an idea of a fair price for the job. Finally, you should schedule regular progress meetings with any contractors working on your renovation. You should track your budget on a weekly basis at a minimum to ensure your costs are not getting out of control. You can use your project schedule file to track your budget, but you should create a new tab specifically for your budget. You should review your schedule progress on a weekly basis as well, and you should look at options to recover your schedule if you fall behind. You can bring in additional contract resources or you can take time off work yourself. Please leave comments and suggestions, and let me know what other topics interest you. Planning is one of the most important steps in setting your project up for success. No matter what your project is, if you put the time into planning you will find the project is easier to execute. I have managed large projects ($200 million) and small projects ($20k), and planning is a key ingredient to ensure success for projects of any size. The first step you want to do in planning is to setup a project management plan (PMP) which will allow you to cover how you are going to manage the project. You should also record your assumptions and your constraints so that you have less surprises when you execute your project.
Your project plan can be as simple as a checklist, and it can be as elaborate as a thirty page document. It should only cover the basics for what you need to manage your project. You should identify your project’s objective, budget, and schedule in the plan. Your plan should also include a list of all relevant stakeholders, and it should include a communications plan on how to deal with those stakeholders. Effective planning will save you time and money when you are executing your project, and it will help you deliver the project’s desired outcome. You should also develop a project schedule with an activity and work package view during the planning phase. Your schedule only needs to include required activities, and it doesn’t have to be complex. You should always try to use input from subject matter experts in your planning phase if possible, and you should try to cover as much as possible during planning. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. Please post any comments or feedback you have. |
AuthorI have managed over $1 Billion worth of projects successfully, and I have learned a lot along the way. We can make managing projects easier if we share knowledge with each other and invest in one another. Archives
March 2017
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