Last week we learned about How to Create Project Managers the Right Way. But successful projects require much more than just good project managers. In fact, you could argue that the success (or failure) of a project is determined before the project manager ever gets involved. That is the topic of this week’s video.
“By the time a project gets to the project manager, the die is cast,” says Brad Malone. “So, it’s really about the executives and sales. Sales is the first project manager because they set it up. I always say that ugly babies turn into ugly adults and yet, most sales people have never seen an ugly baby. All of their babies are beautiful.”
“They might be pretty when they’re babies but when they get to be teenagers – that’s when sales hands projects over to project managers – it all breaks loose,” declares Malone.
The key to good project management is, knowing how the company is going to execute. It’s not just how a project is sold. “In the technology integration industry, I look at project management as a series of handoffs across silos. We don’t want them to be silos but they’re often silos. We need to make sure that we’re setting the next person up for success,” explains Malone.
Beyond project managers and sales, the executives play a key role in determining the success of a project
Discipline is the main role of upper management to make projects successful
“Executives need to do what they’re supposed to do – the best practices are out there,” says Malone. “We share best practices with every client we talk to and I find again and again, clients don’t use them or they say, ‘Wow, those are really great,’ and then they say, ‘Did you give them to our competitors?’ And I say, ‘Yes, they don’t use them either.’”
“The really neat thing about this industry, is this is simple stuff. It’s not rocket science!” proclaims Malone. “You have a needs analysis questionnaire, fill it out. You have a site survey, fill it out. Then you have a scope, fill it out. There’s about 20 things you have to do but you don’t have to do all 20 at once.”
Watch the video to learn more about the Keys to Successful Project Management
Brad Malone and David McNutt on the keys to successful project management
