How to Manage Small Projects

Managing small projects is challenging but rewarding. There's satisfaction in being able to help a group of people accomplish something important.  You don't need a certificate in project management or knowledge of complex planning software to do it. You just need some basic knowledge and a few management skills.  Here's how you do it:

1. Accept the Project Manager role
   
   "The first thing to do is to accept the Project Manager role... Talk with the stakeholders, initiate project communication, get agreement, and let everyone know you're on the job... "
2. Create a Project Communication Plan
   
   "Creating a project communication plan is an important part of your job as project manager. You should have a plan for communicating information to stakeholders and for ..."
3. Define the Project Scope
   
   "Define the Project Scope. Discover what results the customer is expecting, then get everyone to agree on what you are trying to accomplish."
4. Determine Required Project Results
   
   "Determine Required Project Results by identifying what you need to accomplish or deliver in order to make good on the project's goals and objectives"
5. Define the Project Work Plan
   
   "Define the Project Work Plan by defining the tasks you have to complete in order to fulfill the requirements and deliverables of the project."
6. Develop the Project Risk Plan
   
   "Develop the Project Risk Plan by identifying those tasks where your estimates are most likely to be wrong and, of those, the ones with the most adverse impact ..."
7. Create a Resource Loading Plan
   
   "Create a resource loading plan to allocate the resources to your defined workloads by involving your team members in the planning process, and then identifying ..."
8. Create a Task and Cost schedule
   
   "Create a Task and Cost schedule by listing the tasks on your time table along with the fixed and variable expenses that go with them..."
9. Implement Project Status Tracking
   
   "Implement project status tracking so you can track project status against a baseline and determine how well you are doing against the plan..."
10. Implement Issue and Problem Tracking
    
    "Implement Issue and Problem Tracking so your customer or stakeholder can report, and you can track and resolve, problems, issues, unsatisfactory deliverables and other..."
11. Take Corrective Action Promptly
    
    "Take Corrective Action Promptly on status variances that indicate cost overruns, schedule slippage, deterioration of results, and other problems. Delays on taking action will only result in ..."
12. Report Project Status
    
    "Report Project Status to stakeholders, including variances, corrective actions taken, and results of the corrections. Keep everyone informed..."
13. Perform a Formal Project Close
    
    "Perform a formal project close when all tasks are completed and all deliverables have been met. Announce the completions, conduct an official turnover and signoff ..."