Essential Project Manager Toolkit

From previous posts we know there are many facets of project management and many lessons to be learned from both troubled projects and successful projects, yet there is an essential set of tangible tools that any project manager needs to have to best manage any project.

Let’s see what these essential tools are and why they are important.

Project Charter– Authorises project and the project manager and provides official notice to the organisation.

Project definition document– Defines project purpose, objectives, success criteria and scope. Its important for managing expectations, controlling scope and completing other planning efforts.

Requirements– Defines specifications for the product/output of the project. It is important for managing expectations and controlling scope.

Project schedule – Shows all work efforts properly estimated, with logical dependencies, assigned to responsible resources scheduled against a calendar. This is key for directing all project team work effort; for managing expectations. It allows for impact and what-if situations when things change.

Status report – Periodic reviews of actual performance versus expected performance. It provides essential information to stakeholders and allows for timely identification of performance variances.

Milestone chart – A summary of the detailed project schedule showing progress against key milestones. It allows stakeholders to see high level project progress on a single page.

Project organisation chart – This shows all stakeholders and working relationships among them. It allows team members to have a better understanding of the project roles and the organisational dynamics.

Responsibility matrix – Defines all project roles and indicates what responsibilities each role has. It is important for managing expectations and establishes accountability.

Communication plan – Defines the how, what, when and who regarding the flow of project information to stakeholders. It is important for managing expectations and establishes buy in.

Quality management plan – Defines the approaches and methods that will be utilised to manage the quality levels of project processes and results. It is important for managing expectations regarding quality, performance and regulatory compliance matters. It impacts work efforts and project schedule and establishes accountability.

Staffing management plan – Lists how project resources will be acquired when they are needed, how much they are needed and how long they’ll ne needed. This is key for building schedule and properly managing resources.

Risk response plan – Lists each identified risk and the planned response strategy for each risk. It communicates potential issues in advance and its proactive measures help reduce impact to project.

Project plan – It is a formal approved document that is used to manage project execution. It includes all other supplemental planning documents and output of project planning.

Deliverable summary – Defines and lists all deliverable to be produced by the project. It helps in managing expectations, ensures proper visibility, tracking and reporting of targeted deliverable.

Project log – captures essential information for each project risk, issue, action item and change request. It ensures proper visibility, tracking and reporting of items impacting the project.

Change request form – Captures essential information for any requested change that impacts scope, schedule or budget. It allows change item to be properly assessed and communicated before action is taken.

Project repository – The location where all pertinent project information is stored. It is important as it manages project information. The project team knows where to find current project documents.

Project notebook – Used by the project manager to maintain official record of the important project documents and deliverable. Thus, this is a part of managing project information.

The important principles to remember regarding project management tools are as follows:

• Any planning document needs to be reviewed and agreed to by appropriate project stakeholders and team members.

• Separate documents are not always needed. Smaller projects might combine relevant information (especially “plan” documents) into a single “grouped” document.

• The essential tools represent the key information and thought processes that are needed to effectively manage the project.

Here I am ending this post where we discussed the essential project management tools and their importance. The next post will focus on Project planning. Till we meet next keep reviewing and exploring this world of Project Management.