successful project management - Commonwealth of Learning

• Threats and risks should be raised at regular meetings.
• Failure should be recognised by all and confronted in a constructive manner.
• Ensure that ever team member understands the plan, its time scale and
where the individual’s contribution fits.
Regarding risks, it is helpful to assess risks of failure relative to the schedule, the
budget, project quality, and customer satisfaction. The simplest way to conduct a risk
analysis is to ask:
• What could go wrong?
• What could keep us from achieving the project objectives?
It is beneficial to list the possible risks first, then think about contingencies for dealing
with them. Figure 4C gives a template for risk analysis.
Figure 4C Risk analysis template
What could go wrong?
Contingency measures
During the Project
Planning during the project involves re-planning when plans formulated before
project inception need re-visiting. We shall refer to that step as the implementation
stage.
Step 4: Implementation
There are four implementation components that the project manager should account
for, namely, direction, duration, dynamics, and discussion.
Direction
To establish a sense of direction, these questions should be constantly asked, and
answers provided:
• Are the team members complying with the objectives?
• Are we succeeding or failing?
• Is the project moving in the right direction?
• Are the controls being met?
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