Project Management for Mere Mortals: The Rhythm of Project Execution
- Aug 3, 2007
This chapter is from the book
- Furious activity does not necessarily equate to progress and is not a substitute for understanding.
- —Anonymous
Topics Covered in This Chapter
- All About Execution
- Creating the Baselines
- Getting into a Rhythm
- Quality Audits
- Teaming
- Politics
- Summary
- Case Study
This chapter is all about what has to be done when you execute your project. It seems pretty straightforward that your team will be performing the tasks of the project. But you will be amazed by all the activities that need to be done while those tasks are being performed. One of the activities that you might not be familiar with is the concept of quality audits. I introduce that concept in this chapter and talk about what gets audited. I also cover the subject of how many quality audits you might consider on your project. I finish that topic with the timings of quality audits.
First, though, you have to set up a baseline. I talk about each type of baseline and then cover how to use them and the purpose of baselining in general. Next comes the idea of getting into a rhythm on your project.
In "Teaming," I talk about another element to use to develop the project team: training. Team members will not perform effectively if they are not trained to do the job properly. I cover the different types of training that might be needed.
In "Politics," I talk about obstacles to executive communication. You might run into a couple executive types you have dealt with before: the Mad Hatter and the Executive Ostrich.
In the case study, Chris spends most of her week getting ready for the meeting with June. She still has to complete the budget and the schedule to properly brief June. She gets caught up in a lot of meetings, though, and has a lot of details to work through to finish in time.
