Managing Smaller Projects: A Practical Approach

Mike Watson
Multi-Media Publications Inc. (2006)
ISBN 1895186854
Reviewed by Kathleen Dowdell for Reader Views (10/06)

The purpose of Mike Watson’s guide “Managing Smaller Projects” is primarily to help people manage smaller projects logically and effectively. This might seem like a simple task, one that could be applied by studying prior project management methods used by large corporations on large projects. This is not so. Watson explains the what, why and how of managing smaller projects so that these smaller projects are not overlooked and left to their own devices and ultimately become a financial burden to the company.
 
One of the 16 chapters in the book discusses the challenge of managing a project alongside your normal work load. This is extremely useful in evaluating your time commitments by measuring where you spend your time. The author suggests completing a time sheet for 3-4 weeks to get an actual account of how you spend your time at work. Additionally, a chapter on project initiation outlines eleven strategic project factors that are a useful, practical approach for tackling your project. Once the answers to these project factors are drafted and out in the open, two things are accomplished. First, you can communicate the conditions surrounding the project. Second, the project plan (developing a strategy) can be built around these conditions. Then these strategies can be listed in “pieces” or “chunks” which will make it easier to manage the project.
 
When beginning a small project you must be very clear about what area of your current operation you are trying to improve. In reviewing your objectives, the goals of your plan, the roles and responsibilities, and resources your target will be in sight and you will not waste time scattered about in every direction.
 
Some practical information that the author shares is to resist the desire to buy project management software thinking it will manage the project. “People manage projects, not computers” is the author’s viewpoint on this. I would agree with this theory. I have purchased software programs that I thought would cut down on my work only to find that the programs caused more work and were not appropriate for what I wanted them to do. A computer is more useful for documenting and holding the many tasks but it will not manage the project. As the author quotes “you wouldn’t buy an accounting package, give it to a novice and then rely on them to produce company accounts for the next month end, would you?” What it can do for you though, is keep track of your task list, break the list into doable units, keep spreadsheets on your progress, and organize your resources. There are seven standard forms included at the end of the book along with two checklists to remind you of useful techniques for each stage of the project
 
Mike Watson has been a consultant, project manager, and trainer for over 30 years. His practical approach makes “Managing Smaller Projects”  an invaluable tool for people who lack formal management training as well as those who work in formal management who want to control smaller projects without the formal corporate burden that is often felt in that environment.

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