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Managing Effective Projects

Global Awareness Skills

This GLP workshop was given by Nigel Bray, who was previously a project manager for BA Systems. I do not wish to work as a Project Manager, however, many of the skills involved in Project Management match with the skills I need to become a Producer in Radio or TV.

 

The workshop started by exploring what a project is. A project must have: a set time, a clear start and end date, have specific requirements to measure against, related activities, a team which might not normally work together, and is not going to be repeated. A Project Manager is in charge of the planning and organisation of the project, specifically in relation to the people, money, time and risk. These key skills are useful for many roles and organisations, for example being a Producer or an Events Organiser.

 

In groups, we explored what causes projects to go wrong, our ideas included:

  • Poor time management

  • No clear goal or changing requirements

  • Lack of communication with the customer

  • Lack of leadership

  • Conflict in teams/interpersonal issues

  • Poor work ethic

  • Lack of organisation

  • Unattainable targets

 

Once we had highlighted these possible issues that could impact managing an effective project we thought about ways to try and avoid these problems. We then looked at examples of projects that had gone wrong, such as the Hubble Space Telescope which ended up taking blurry images, and also the Y2K Bug.

Next we looked at the flow of a ‘project life cycle’. The first stage is Initiate, this is when the business requirements are laid out, the reasons affecting time and money, and what will signify the success of the project. If there are not clear business requirements Nigel warned not to take on the project, as it would only lead to failure. Business requirements allow boundaries to be created where the Project Manager considers influence and authority, identifies relevant stakeholders and builds an understanding of the risk and plans mitigation. This is followed by Plan and Execute occurring after the boundaries have been established and is when who is responsible for what is decided and the planning occurs. Next is Control, for this we looked at the use of a Gantt Chart and how one is made and can be utilised. Then lastly comes Review, this is often overlooked, but is the most valuable part, as it allows reflection on the project and a chance to work out how to improve on the next project.

To understand the ‘project life cycle’ better, in groups we were given the guidelines for a project, and went through the different stages of how we would manage the project. This involved working out stakeholders, creating Gantt charts, prioritising and finding out parallels and focusing on the amount of time and people the project would take.

 

Overall, the workshop was very interesting and opened my eyes to the skills needed to be a good Project Manager. I will continue to work on these skills so that I can be a better Producer in the future, as managing an effective project is key to the role.    

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