Balance structure and flexibility so you can meet stakeholder expectations, stay within budget, and drive the long-term success of your association.
Working in IT, I naturally associate “project” with a system implementation or a piece of development work. But in an association, a “project” can cover a lot of things, including:
You could maybe summarise this tip as “Plan,” but in the context of a project, “Plan” typically means a large list of tasks, timelines and dependencies. While having a structured plan is crucial, this tip is about thinking at a higher level.
We’re probably all familiar with the concept of the elevator pitch. You should be able to summarise your project in a 30 second elevator pitch, what you’re doing and why.
Then use that simple statement to keep your project on track and deliver what it was intended to deliver. Reiterate it at key project meetings and ask your team if it still holds true. If the answer is “no” or “maybe,” then either your requirements have changed, or the project has drifted. In either case, it’s time to review the objective so you can adjust it or take corrective action.
Every project I’ve every worked on has had limits of some kind. Limits on time (deadlines), budget, resources, and scope. The key is identifying all of these constraints as early as possible and resisting the urge to “fudge” the plan to fit them.
For example, if you initially thought that a task would take 80 hours to complete, don’t cut it to 50 to make it fit the budget and timeline. Suddenly, you're running late and going over budget, even though you knew it would take 80+ hours.
Instead, have the difficult conversation upfront with the people who are imposing those limits. “This project doesn’t fit within the current budget” or “We can’t meet the deadline unless we adjust the scope or allocate more resources.”
These discussions are never easy but they are essential. A well founded plan should be defended. The outcome should always be either an adjusted constraint (more time/money) or a revised scope.
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So you’ve got your project approved and are ready to start! Next up, ensure everyone knows their role, when they should start, and when they must finish. Communication should be two-way. You communicate expectations to your team. In return, your team communicates progress and flag issues early.
A project team is a little like having small children – if you can hear the chatter and noise things are likely ok. But the real danger time is when things go quiet – that’s never good! Ok, kidding (mostly)! You don’t want to hover unnecessarily over your team. But setting expectations for regular updates helps keep things on track and ensures everyone stays accountable for communicating.
Using project management tools can help with this. Depending on the size of the project, you may want to use a dedicated project management tool. If you're an iMIS user, you can manage tasks assigned to your team to make sure everyone understands their responsibilities. You could also look at using our Connect Action Hub extension to give a more advanced task assignment interface in iMIS, allowing you to monitor who’s working on what and when.
But you also need to communicate. If you’re asking for staff resources, you’re potentially pulling them away from other responsibilities. Whether those are resources from within your organisation or you’re using your association’s membership within the project team, there’s still someone else who needs to know what’s going on. So make sure that you supply that information either by sending it to them directly or allowing them access to your planning system so they can view it themselves.
We started my list of tips by talking about having and monitoring an objective statement. And we talked about what happens when that statement changes.
The most likely reason your objective will change is that a myriad of small changes to individual requirements. And all those little changes add up and cause the overall project objective to drift. If the objective has drifted, then it’s more than likely that some of your limits (normally time and money) are at risk.
To prevent this, proactively manage change. Make sure your documentation clearly states what each part of the project should do and what the acceptance criteria are. This is what everything should be measured against. When something doesn’t match, it’s either a fault in what was done in the project, or a change in the requirement.
If the requirement has changed, then that’s an ideal opportunity to discuss whether the change needs to stand (with revised time and/or budget) or if the project should be done according to the original specification. In either case, manage that change process and make sure you document the decisions.
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Agility means more than just following an Agile project methodology. Even if you don’t adopt the Agile methodology in full, you can apply its principles to improve project success!
There are many things that Agile can teach us to help make our projects more successful. One key aspect is the idea of “sprints” – breaking the project into smaller deliverables that are completed and reviewed within a short period of time. These bite sized sprints mean that you’re constantly testing your project’s objective and requirements. It gives you the best opportunity to manage change and stay within your limits.
Agile also means not being afraid of change. I’ve talked about the importance of a clear and regularly-reviewed project objective and the need for change control. Well I’d suggest that this needs to be balanced with the idea that change is to be expected and can be good.
Every project I’ve worked on has uncovered something we didn’t know about at the beginning. Our success has come from being sufficiently agile to recognise this change and adjust our approach to accommodate it.
At the heart of successful project management lies the ability to balance structure with flexibility. To complete projects efficiently and effectively, your association should:
The goal is not just to deliver a project. You also ensure it meets stakeholder expectations, stays within budget, and contributes to the long-term success of your association.
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