Project Management Tip 7

You may not like this one, since it could give you pain if your manager sees it and you’re not managing your projects correctly. But I’m sending it because I care! You need to run your projects professionally, both for the good of you, your organisation, and your customers.

And it means that you can make sure than anyone who is doing a project for you does it properly, which will be good for you and for them in the end!

So here we are: Good Questions to ask a Project Manager.

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How much time are you allowing per week for managing this project?

What’s the key driver, do you think?

How did you get all the tasks listed? - Can I see your WBS?

How much contingency have you allowed for the whole job?
and what’s the best / worst case, on time and cost?

Which are the critical tasks?

Have you planned the loading?.(how many people at the peak?)
Who do you need when, and have their bosses agreed to this?

What are the risks?
(risk analysis – how likely & serious, how to prevent / reduce effect).

Before commencement: can I see the Gantt chart?

Did you do a network diagram or just go straight to the Gantt?
(if no, how did you avoid missing dependencies?)
(if yes, see if it’s very linear or very parallel).

During: can I see the coloured-in Gantt chart?
(are you colouring in when complete or proportionally?).

How often do you have a progress meeting?

Are you going to slip the programme or crash something? (what?).

How are you monitoring the cost? And what’s the estimated final cost at completion?

After: have you done a review? (and what did you learn?)

Where will you keep the review write-up?

Thanks for doing a really good job on this project.

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onwards and upwards!

Chris