Planning

Project Management

The worst part about a failing project is that, the project leader is unaware of it happening until it is often too late. Some project leaders live in denial mode while others are unaware of their mistakes.

At the beginning, project managers must clearly link projects to their company’s goals. For a project to be successful, the management and the team members must agree on the project goals. 

The project manager and team must develop a clear plan to achieve project goals.  The plan establishes responsibilities for the various phases of the work and sets milestones that serve as deadlines and demonstrations of progress.

Team members must play an important role in determining project milestones and completion dates. They often have a better idea than the project manager of how long it will take to achieve milestones. A good plan also provides the framework for estimating the resources necessary to accomplish each milestone. 

The project managers should determine the most likely points at which something could go wrong and prepare contingency plans to fix it. In project management, the worst project plan is no plan. If the objectives and scope of the project were not clear, it is impossible to measure if they were accomplished.

But if there is no plan in a project, there is no way to improve it. It means, there are only people doing whatever they have understood to be done, and no way to compare and contrast at the end if they completed what was required.

A project road map or timeline with identified milestones will help everyone to gauge progress toward the final goal. Team members will feel more committed if they can meet intermediate, short-term goals that are clearly related to the project’s overall success. The most common reason for failure is unclear goals and goals that fail to meet organization vision.

Promising achievement of an unrealistic goal will damage the project manager’s credibility with team members and reduce their commitment to the project.

Aiyan Thiruvalluvar says

தெளிவி லதனைத் தொடங்கார் இளிவென்னும்
ஏதப்பாடு அஞ்சு பவர். (464)

अपयश के आरोप से, जो होते हैं भीत ।
शुरू न करते कर्म वे, स्पष्ट न जिसकी रीत ॥ (४६४)

Explanation by Scholars

Those who fear reproach will not commence anything which has not been (thoroughly considered) and made clear to them.

களங்கத்துக்குப்  பயப்படக்  கூடியவர்கள் தான் விளைவுகளை  எண்ணிப்  பார்த்து  அந்தக்  களங்கம் தரும் காரியத்தில் இறங்காமல் இருப்பார்கள்.