Keeping your project on schedule

Keeping Your Project on Schedule

As both an active project manager and a project management trainer, people often ask me what are the fundamental aspects to successful project management. Whilst there have been many great books written on the subject, I always summarise what I believe to be the best practices at the heart of good project management.

Define the scope and objectives

For any project to be successful you need to understand what the project is supposed to achieve. Suppose your boss asks you to organise a campaign to get the employees to donate blood. Is the aim of this to get as much blood donated to the local blood bank? Or, is it to raise the profile of the company in the local community? Deciding what the real objective is will help you to determine how you go about planning and managing the project.

The project manager also needs to define the scope of the project. Is the organisation of transport to take staff to the blood bank within the scope of the project? Or, should staff make their own way there? Deciding which activities are within the scope or out of scope of the project has a big impact on the amount of work which needs to be performed during the project.

An understanding of who are the stakeholders is also crucial if you are going to enlist their support and understand what each person expects to be delivered from the project. Once you’ve defined the scope and objectives, you will need to get the stakeholders to review them and agree to them as well as agreeing who should be on the list of stakeholders.

Define the deliverables

To achieve the desired outcome from the project, you must define what things (or products) are to be delivered by the end of the project. If your project is an advertising
campaign for a new chocolate bar, then one of the deliverables might be the artwork for a newspaper advert. So, you need to decide what tangible things are to be delivered and document in enough detail what these things are. At the end of the day, someone will end up doing the work to produce the deliverable, so it needs to be clearly and unambiguously described.

Once you have defined the deliverables, you will need to have the key stakeholders review the work and get them to agree that this accurately and unambiguously reflects what they expect to be delivered from the project. Once they have agreed, you can begin to plan the project. Not defining the deliverables in enough detail or clarity is often a reason why projects go wrong.

Project planning

This is the time when you define how you will achieve the desired outcome of the project embodied within the objectives and definition of deliverables. Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project. You will need to decide if you will break up your project into manageable phases, decide which products will be delivered in each phase, and decide the composition of your project team. Since you have already defined the deliverables, you must decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.

You can use techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to help you to achieve this. You will need to estimate the time and effort required to complete each activity, dependencies between related activities and decide on a realistic schedule to complete the activities. It’s always a good idea to involve the project team in estimating how long the activities will take since they will be the ones actually doing the work. Capture all of this into the project plan document. You also need to get the key stakeholders to review and agree to this plan.

When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule — one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to deliver the project in a totally unrealistic schedule.

Communication

Even the best made project plans are useless unless they have been communicated effectively to the project team. Everyone on the team needs to know exactly what is expected of them, what their responsibilities are, and what they are accountable for. I once worked on a project where the project manager sat in his office surrounded by big colour print outs of his latest plans. The problem was, nobody on his team knew what the tasks and milestones were because he hadn’t shared the plan with them. Needless to say the project hit all kinds of problems with people going off and doing the activities which they deemed important rather than doing the activities assigned by the project manager.

Tracking and reporting project progress

Once your project is underway and you have an agreed plan, you will need to constantly monitor the actual progress of the project against the planned progress. To do this, you will need to get reports of progress from the project team members who are actually doing the work. You will need to record any variations between the actual and planned cost, schedule and scope. You will need to report any variations to your manager and key stakeholders and take corrective actions if the variations get too large.

There are lots of ways in which you can adjust the plan in order to get the project back on track (rearrange the order of tasks, assign tasks in parallel if the variation is small, or add more staff to the project or reduce the scope if the variation is very large).

All projects require the project manager to constantly juggle three things: cost, scope and schedule. If the project manager increases one of these, then one of the other elements will inevitably need to be changed as well. So, for a project which is running behind schedule to recover so it can be delivered to it’s original planned schedule, the budget might be increased by employing more staff (although this invariably never achieves the desired result of reducing the time left to complete the project), or the scope will need to be reduced. It is the juggling of these three elements — known as the project triangle — that typically causes a project manager to tear their hair out in frustration!

Change management

All projects change in some way. Often, a key stakeholder in the middle of a project will change their mind about what the project needs to deliver. On projects of longer duration, the business environment has often changed since the start of the project, so assumptions made at the beginning of the project may no longer be valid. This often results in the scope or deliverables of the project needing to be changed. If a project manager simply accepted all of these changes into the project, the project would inevitably be delivered late (and perhaps would never ever be completed) and would inevitably go over budget.

By managing changes, the project manager can make decisions about whether or not to incorporate the changes immediately or in the future, or to reject them. This increases the chances of project success because the project manager controls how the changes are incorporated, can allocate resources accordingly and can plan when and how the changes are made. Not managing changes effectively is often cited as a major reason why projects fail.

Risk management

Risks are any events which can adversely affect the successful outcome of the project. I’ve worked on projects where some of the risks have included: staff lacking the technical skills to perform the work properly, hardware not being delivered on time, the control room being at risk of flooding in a major thunderstorm and many others. Risks will vary from project to project but it is important to identify the main risks to a project as soon as possible and to plan the actions necessary to
avoid the risk, or, if the risk cannot be avoided, to at least mitigate the risk in order to lessen its impact if it does occur. This is what is known as risk management.

Do you manage all risks? No, because there could be too many to manage, and not all risks have the same impact. So a simple way is to identify as many risks as you can, work out how likely each risk is to occur on a scale of 1 to 3 (3 being the worst), estimate its impact on the project on a scale of 1 to 3 (3 being the worst), then multiply the two numbers together. The result is the risk weighting. A high risk weighting is the most severe risk. Just manage the top ten risks i.e. the ones with the highest risk weighting. Constantly review the risks and constantly be on the lookout for new risks since they have a habit of jumping up at unforeseen moments.

Not managing risks effectively is also often cited as a major reason why projects fail.

Summary

So, in a nutshell, these best practices are the main things that I would expect all project managers to do. They are applicable on all projects big or small. Project management is not rocket science. Applying best practices on your project cannot guarantee that your project comes in under budget, on time and exceeds all the expectations of the stakeholders, but applying them will certainly give you a much better chance of delivering your project successfully than if you don’t apply them on your project.

Importance of electricity

Importance Of Electricity

Electricity can be made in a number of ways. Each method involves the use of a turbine to spin and convert kinetic energy into electricity. The three important ways in creating electricity are sun, wind and water. Water is a source of energy. The flow of water is used to make electricity in a hydroelectric power station. The flowing water can be used to turn turbines and produce small amounts of electricity. The force of water must be very strong. You get electricity in your house through wires, generators, batteries and cells. Sun is another source of energy. The heat from the sun burns fuels that can create electricity. Wind is another cheap ways of creating electricity. When the wind blows, the blades of the windmill begin to spin. The stronger the wind blows, the faster the blades go. This makes electricity.

Without electricity we cannot live. If you take a look at your house, you will see that different devices need electricity in order to work? Electricity is needed for television, computer, air conditioner etc. Electricity from batteries keeps your car running and makes your flashlights shine in the dark. Electricity is made up of atoms. Atoms are made up of three smaller particles. The three main particles are protons, neutron and electron. Electrons spin around the center, or nucleus, of atoms, in the same way the moon spins around the earth. The nucleus is made up of neutrons and protons. Protons form a positive charge and electrons a negative charge. Neutrons do not have a positive or negative charge. Electrons can move from one atom to another in a flow. When these move between atoms, a current of electricity is created. One electron is attached and another electron is lost. Like that electricity passes along a wire and circuit. The charge is passed from one atom to another when electricity is passed. This is how a current of electricity is created.

Nuclear energy is used to create steam to turn turbines. Uranium is split apart to create heat energy. The heat energy is applied to water, creating steam for use in turning a turbine. Once electricity is created, it travels through a transformer and changes from low to high voltage electricity. High voltage electrical current moves within thick transmission lines. Traveling current is kept high above the ground by transmission towers and insulators are employed for the purpose of keeping electricity in the transmission lines. Transmission towers and insulators are vital for ensuring the safe transportation of electricity.

How logistic and transportation companies can differentiate themselves and improve profitability

How Logistic And Transportation Companies Can Differentiate Themselves And Improve Profitability

In today’s competitive environment, Logistic Companies can no longer simply rely on door-to-door delivery and warehousing services in order to rise above the competition. Today, the more successful logistic and transportation organizations are differentiating themselves by offering services following the delivery, such as in-home and in-store product assembly and display set-up. And not only are these services adding value to the offerings these companies already provide, but they are also adding revenue to the bottom-line as they are able to build these charges, along with an added percentage, into their overall cost structure.

The benefits of a partnership between a 3rd party logistics (3PL) or transportation organization and a provider of assembly and set-up services may be obvious, but the question then becomes how do you select such a company? The answer to this question is not so clear. Specific questions you need to ask include:

1. Does the company provide services nationally and in Canada?

2. Does the company employ all it’s workers as W-2 employees? This will result in a more committed and dedicated worker than utilizing independent contractors for employees.

3. Does the company have staying power? Have they been in business for 25 years or more, or are they simply a “Johnny-come-lately”?

4. Does the company have existing relationships with major retailers and other organizations? This also demonstrates stability and experience.

5. Does the company employ numerous field managers located throughout the country? This becomes important for accountability as well as local contacts.

6. Does the company employ individuals who have been extensively trained and have had complete background checks?

7. Does the company provide detailed reporting of the services they provide, along with having digital photograph capability?

So there you have it. In summary, today’s most successful logistic organizations are differentiating themselves by offering services following the delivery, such as in-home and in-store product assembly and display set-up. Not only are these services adding value to the offerings these companies already provide, but they are also adding revenue to the bottom-line. Don’t be left behind in today’s competitive logistic environment. Look for a company with whom you can partner with confidence.

If you would like to be introduced to an organization that can provide these services, check out:

http://www.natlmktg.com/home.htm

How to make the right choice to buy used forklifts

A forklift which are also known as lift truck, a high/low, a stacker truck, trailer loader or a side loader is a powered industrial truck used to lift and transport materials from one place to another. The forklift has become a most essential equipment in all manufacturing, warehousing, construction units etc.

While buying and owning a new forklift is always recommended, many company owners and managers are now discovering the fact that owning a used forklift can also be a great investment for their business and is also a way to reduce their capital costs by investing in a used forklift.

However, while buying a used forklift it may be a very difficult to make the right choice unless there is some qualified person in the company who can find out the actual condition of the used equipment. This is because a forklift may appear to be in a good condition but the used forklift parts may be worn out and the hydraulics may start to leak within a few hours of use. Some unscrupulous dealers may fix the “Hours meter” and also provide unreliable information about the condition of the forklift. Therefore a trained personnel who has the experience in assessing the mechanical condition of used forklift may find out how well the unit has been maintained and what are the condition of the other components and parts of the machine. Many lift trucks come off fleets and were fully-maintained on a strict service schedule. All used forklifts that are sold are inspected by qualified forklift technicians and guaranteed to be in good running condition when sold.

These dealers offer used forklifts sales for every budget and every need and offer a wide range of used forklift trucks from renowned forklift brands. When it comes to quality and dependability, qualified forklift technicians inspect the entire used forklift and lift trucks so that customers are provided with used forklift and lift trucks that are guaranteed to be in good running condition when sold

The dealer fixes a deal that fits your budget for outright purchase, conditional sale, true lease, rental, long-term rental, with or without maintenance. Flexible terms and conditions are also followed to match the actual need of the customer. Finally, the dealers may ship the forklift anywhere for a remarkably low freight charge.

How to find the best deals on buying sunglasses wholesale

How To Find The Best Deals On Buying Sunglasses Wholesale

If you are looking for buying wholesale sunglasses, we have a solution and can provide you one of the best deals in wholesale sunglasses. No one wants to buy sunglasses, without making a comparison and looking for different styles and trends. Keeping this requirement in mind, wholesale sunglasses are designed, after making a thorough comparison of style and trends. You will find several hundred of designer sunglasses and styles to make your choice from, so that you get that desired confident look, when you sport those trendy sunglasses. This is perhaps the best deal in buying the trendy sunglasses wholesale.

If you are looking for some stylish and trendy sunglasses wholesale, then WDS is the best place to look for them. The staff of the company is always ready to assist you in your choice of sunglasses, in every possible way. The company also offers Live help through its website and orders are accepted through phone calls or even through fax. It is important that you know, that the sunglasses you are buying from the market are not fake. There are many fake sunglasses available in the market, which people buy thinking them to be our original products. These sunglasses usually have the names and logos of original designers, but are completely illegal. Why use fake products? Everyone needs good value for whatever amount they are spending, and how do you feel to know that your hard earned money is lost in the fake sunglasses. So the best deal is to purchase the sunglasses wholesale, right from the place where they originate.

When you are purchasing sunglasses wholesale from WDS, you will feel confident within yourself. The sunglasses of WDS are usually of good quality material and are surely a range apart. Sunglass display stands are available along with sunglass racks that will surely help to increase your sales within a very few days. Customers are usually confused with such a display, as to which products to choose from. The displayed products are great and customers will be surely like the choices. But, they can be sure, that no one else, they will have such a huge display of products. There are many kinds of displays, such as top and floor model racks. The display racks usually hold 3 pairs of sunglasses to 120 pairs of the sunglass wholesale. You may be looking for any kind of sunglasses; the company stock has it all. The company has everything that shall suite your business and requirements.

If you are worried about the transportation of the sunglasses wholesale, the company offers shipping all around United States. Shipping is carried on daily to several countries, with the help of Fed Ex and USPS. The company will be happy to offer its customers shipping quotes, before any order is placed. This is perhaps the best deal you can get in case of wholesale sunglasses. So next time, you are stuck with sunglasses, you know where to get the best deal. Just go ahead and enjoy the difference.