How to Manage a Personal Project

What do you do when you are the sponsor, the customer, the end user, with only one or two team members?

hen you're trying to manage a personal project of your own and the people involved are relatively few, you probably feel you don't need a formal process. Your communication requirements are likely to be just casual conversations between yourself and one or two of the other stakeholders.  The directives you issue to team members are often just verbal instructions. Your team is likely to be friends, family members, or one or two contractors.

Even in this small project situation it can be helpful if you try to follow a project management process. You have similar requirements, similar issues, the same kind of risk and the same opportunity for disaster as much larger projects -- only, in most cases, not so costly. I have found that, even when I have to manage a personal project where I am the only stakeholder and the only team member, that the project is more likely to get done on time and to my satisfaction if I have a written plan.

If you think about it, even a recipe for chocolate cookies is a basic project plan. It contains a goal, usually the title: Chocolate Cookies. It contains a bill of materials or ingredients. It contains a task list that indicates what must be done to achieve the goal and in what order. It even has a schedule of sorts and constraints: bake at 375 degrees for ten minutes. It is possible to make cookies from memory, without a recipe -- but then you open yourself up to risk, forgotten steps, incorrect ingredients, timing errors, and possibly cookies that no one will want to eat.

Bare Essentials

At the very least, to manage a personal project you should have at least a proper to-do list consisting of the following:

1. A clearly written goal at the top of the list 
2. A List of materials, components, or parts with totalled costs, if any 
3. A list of clearly named or described tasks, in the proper sequence with approximate durations 
4. the person responsible for each task 
5. the deadline for each task, when appropriate 

Working from a plan like this, you know what has to be done, how much it should cost and approximately how long it will take. That will likely make any project seem less onerous to those who may be reluctant participants. Your capacity to manage a personal project will be much greater because requirements will be more predictable and tasks more easily scheduled around other personal or family activities.

- Jake Alexander

next article: Art of Project Estimating