Strategic project management workshop IDEA Debate Exchange
2014.docxStrategic Project ManagementBased on a workshop at IDEA
Debate Exchange 2014 - Anne Valkering
What is project management?
Simply put: project management is a way to efficiently make your
ideas into reality and your plans achieve what you want them to
achieve. You can use it for simple things like a daytrip to a new
city, more complicated stuff like a thesis or an event, or to
manage a number of different projects within an organisation (or
group of people).
This introduction to strategic project management tackles some
of the basic questions you encounter when developing and managing
projects, as well as some things you may not have thought of yet.
We start out with the big things and big models, that you might
want to skip if you are dealing with a smaller project. We
basically move from strategy development, to how to create a
project plan, to how to make a planning and then deal with
implementation questions. Youll find links to useful information
and further reading throughout the text.
Strategy development
Assuming you are a group of people that share a certain
preference, or idea of a greater good, you will have a mission of
what you want to achieve. This can be something simple like: we
want to have fun debating every Wednesday, or more complicated
like: we want to promote debate in our society and improve
political debate. You will then also have an implicit or explicit
vision: something like believing that debate is fun, teaches good
things, and is important for society (or people).
You develop a strategy on the basis of this mission, and your
vision. The way to do this is basically by setting a number of
goals for yourselves and then looking backward by looking at each
step you need to take to get there. If you want to do this as
thoroughly as possible, you want to use a method called theory of
change.This is useful because it allows you to deal with
uncertainty and complexity in a better fashion than a
straighforward roadmap from A to B ever could.
The basic idea is that you picture your end goal, and figure out
what you need in order to achieve that. You then figure out what
requirements you need to fulfill in order to get to those things
you need. You look at the different steps you probably need to take
in order to get there. You make explicit assumptions about what
happens when you do certain things, and what possible effects your
actions will have on your goals, on your surroundings and on the
feasiblity of your endeavours.
At that point you take a step back and do something like a SWOT
analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) in order
to see who might be able to help you, what things you might make
use of within your organisation and outside of it, who or what
might be a threat and what might hold you back. You allow for
adaptations of the basic plan in order to remedy any weaknesses and
mediate for threats, and also to make better use of potential
allies and strengths.
For example, you can set the goal that you want to run debate
clubs in 20% of all high schools in your country (or area) 20 years
from now. These are some of the steps you will take:
1. Define why you want to achieve this, what you think will be
the effect of this, and why you think this is the method to achieve
this.
2. Look at what things you need to have or have found by the
time you achieve the goal (a training curriculum, enough trainers,
credibility, a promotion campaign, allies like teachers and
schools, accreditation from the Ministery of Education, some
support program for debate clubs or a coordinator to help the
trainers or teachers) Specify why for each of these aspects.
3. Look at what steps you need to take to get these things
(develop and test a curriculum, train trainers, build up
credibility with teachers and smaller programs, with evaluations
and testimonials, finding a few first schools for tests, finding a
school inspector on your side, building up your organisation
capacity to coordinate the activities, finding funding for all the
work, create a competition to make schools enthusiastic, etc)
4. Then look at what steps you need to take in order to get
there (set up a few first debate clubs, train them yourselves now,
maybe set up a competition to promote the test of the skills, get
yourselves trained as trainers, develop a first curriculum, figure
out means to test the curriculum, etc.)
5. Do a SWOT analysis of your organisation, and figure out what
things you need to work on most and what are potential
opportunities and strengths. Figure out potential allies, as well
as potential threats. Allies could be alumni, youth organisations,
education organisations, teachers, foreign debate organisations,
some funds. Threats might be high turnover, low professionality of
your organisation and a bad reputation of debate in your country.
Adapt the things you need to do according to this analysis.
6. Now put all of this information together into a long-term
plan, in which you define goals and subgoals, and a timeplan, as
well as moments at which you evaluate your progress. This is
approximate of course, but creates goals and motivations. It allows
you to keep an eye on the end goal, and also on why you have all
the numerous subgoals, which should make it easier to adapt your
plan should circumstances change.
Further reading:
Hivos overview Theory of Change
NCDO dealing with complexity
HFRP introduction to Theory of Change
What is theory of change?
Translation of strategy to projects
This is where the broad strokes turn into plans, and you will
start to get a feel of the workload of a project. For many projects
(including theses and events) you probably only need to start here.
For larger organisational goals though, it is useful to do the
above analysis every once in a while (3 years or so).
You now need to make explicit what your project goals are, and
what larger steps you are going to take for those, define the
effort that will take and by what time you want to be done with it.
You can do this for one project, or for all the projects your
organisation is considering. The easiest way to get an overview is
by creating a logframe and using SMART criteria.
Using SMART criteria for your plans means that you should have
projects with clearly defined goals, that are specific, measurable,
assignable, realistic and time-specific. In other words, you can
assign the goals and tasks to specific people, you observe the
results, you set deadlines and they are more clear than: we want to
have good debates.
Once you have done that for all of your projects, and all of the
goals, you can put them in a logframe, which is basically a matrix
that captures a number of things in its columns:
the activity itself - as specific as possible
the input you need to get the activity done - in terms of money,
people, things, allies
the goals you wish to achieve - both outcomes (i.e. general
things like making people aware of X or improving critical thinking
skills through debate) and outputs (i.e. giving trainings to X
number of people, having an audience of X number of people or
training X number of trainers)
and the deadlines, and time it takes (from August to
December)
The logframe will give you an overview of when you will be
busiest, it will give a better indication of how much work things
are and whether everything is realistic. It also gives you
automatic input into how to evaluate your progress on the basis of
the results you intend to achieve.
Example:
Activity
Input
Results
Time
Tournament
X amount, Y coordinators, Z volunteers,WV judges, CA team, tab
team, location, food, crash, socials - with university and other
allies
Promoted debate: Participant number and audience number
final
Promoted debate society locally and (inter)nationally (see
above)
Build links with new partners (have x new participating
organisations)
To be organised in March, organisation starts in September
(random dates)
Public Debate
X amount, Y coordinators, Z volunteers, location, speakers,
promotion, partners
Raise awareness of a topic - have an audience of X people talk
about subject
Spread knowledge of debate - showcase strength of debaters in
front of X people
Increase visibility debate society - promote with X people
Find new partners - link up with X new organisations
To be organised in November, preparation starts in July,
promotion in October
Training
Trainer, curriculum, location, training facilities, X amount,
printed material, promotion campaign
Increased debate strength of society (trained X amount of
members in Y, Z, W skills) or new debaters (see above)
Promoted debate society (outreach to X number of potential new
members)
Tested curriculum (done evaluations with X number of
participants)
Training starts in July, preparation starts in April
Planning
Now we get to the actual planning phase of one project. The
trick is to again think backwards from the activity and the greater
goals in the logframe. Visualise an activity. Be a participant who
experiences an event or a training and think what you want them to
experience. Think of all you need to have and make happen in order
to do that. Then think what you need to do to have these things in
place. Then figure out how long this will take you. And figure out
what things you need in order to do these things. Imagine a few
problems that might occur and the possible solutions so that you
have them in mind as well. Thats when you have a list of tasks that
need to be done in an approximate time frame. This will be the
basis of your planning and action plan in which you canpture who
does what when.
You basically start out with a list of actions in a somewhat
particular order (probably grouped on the basis of theme and
timing) and then you put them into a planning that looks
approximately like this:
Planning for a tournament
When
What
Who
Comments
September 1
Make budget
X
Need info on locations, prices, number of participants, intended
budget for CA team, socials, etc.
September 8
Make fundraising list
X
Decision on main targets, what we will sell how we will target
sponsors
September 15
Make fundraising booklet
X
Need info on approximate dates and location, intended number of
participants, goals, reach, some pictures, budget
September 20
Make basic sponsor options
X
What can sponsors get for different amounts
September 25
Create master letter
X
Basic letter with motivation that can be adjusted according to
sponsor. Need design for tournament for that
September 30
Create sponsor tracking system
X
Track all sponsor contacts and attempts and add deadlines for
important funds
September-January
Fundraising as we go
X
Keep track of progress, answer all letters, refusal or
acceptance,keep track of all requirements we need to fulfill, make
sure communications and others know
January 31
Go-no go
X
If not enough funding, stop the tournament
March 1
Announcement to sponsors
X
Announce to donors that tournament will be happening and what we
will do for them, invite to final
March 1 - March 20
Continuous contact with sponsors
X
Finetune visits and requirements
March 25
Thankyou letter
X
Letter thanking donors with preliminary results and reference to
website
April 20
Sponsor report done
X
Basic report to donors done, include promotion materials,
evaluation results, plans for future, outreach, pr results, topics,
soundbites
April - May 15
All donor forms filled out
X
Donors have all sorts of requirements, make sure you check off
all the boxes and fill in all reports
May 1
Financial realisation done
X
If possible, depending on all partners.
May 30
Reports sent to sponsors and donors
X
Need the previous few documents for that: report forms, your own
report, the budget, pr materials
As you can see even from this very brief attempt, a lot of
things depend on other things to be done. It is imperative to count
on time wasted due to so many different reasons you cant count.
Assume something takes a lot more time than you think it does
(unless you are good at guessing how long something takes. A simple
test is to see whether you estimate walks or supermarket visits or
other simple tasks correctly. If so, you can add less time than if
you are really bad at estimating how long something takes).
It is best to figure out a way in which you do not have bursts
of activity followed by a lot of slow weeks. Try to figure out
groups of activities that fit together and make sure that a high
activity level in one group will mean lower activity levels in
another group if possible. Set deadlines for tasks you can complete
in advance long before an event, for example, so that you do not
have to bother with it at the last minute. As soon as you set the
deadline, it is more than just something you wish youd do.
Once you have the task list and the timing, it is time to divide
tasks in the team (assuming you have one). Most people have things
they are good at or less good at and it probably helps to make use
of this. It is best to make one person responsible for a task or
group of tasks. Even if the work is shared, having one person check
the progress prevents the common problem that everyone is
responsible so that no one feels responsible.
Lastly, set times for evaluation of progress, for example in
weekly meetings, or monthly reports, or something like that. As
soon as you institutionalise these checks, no one feels like they
are being criticised while the project manager is able to stay up
to date on progress. Also make sure you put the things in the
program
Implementation
Implementation is just a matter of doing the things you planned
to do, keeping track of what is happening, keeping each other up to
date, dealing with difficulties that arise, and keeping everyone in
the team happy and motivated. Implementation is made more difficult
by problems within a team, procrastination, problematic partners or
lack of information, external delays and unreliable team
partners.
The way to deal with unreliable partners really differs per
situation: sometimes and in some countries, creating legally
binding tools is all you need. Sometimes, however, you need to keep
them in constant check and the best idea is to threaten to move to
new partners (unless its your university, in which case going to
the university press might be the only thing you could do).
Two things worth paying somewhat more attention to are how to
share information, and how to keep the team motivated. Then,
finally, well look at what happens afterwards.
Sharing tools
Sharing of information is essential for a project to succeed. It
is also difficult as everyone has their own preferred ways of
sharing information, and what they think is relevant for others to
know. Here are a few common methods of sharing information:
Regular team meetings:
To update each other on progress (brief) and discuss questions
and future decisions, preferably only discusses issues of general
importance and ignores details, if it occurs on a weekly or
biweekly basis, this should not be longer than 1 to 2 hours. It is
best if people can be brought up to date with written statements
for new decisions/information.
Online sharing tools:
Basecamp: paid for sharing tool with calendar, filesharing,
discussion board and task assignments in one.
Microsoft projects: similarly paid for sharing tool, not just
online but partially on your computer
Dropbox: online sharing of files and folders, also on your
computer, no calendar
Google drive: online sharing of files and folders, possibliity
to share task lists and a calendar
Trello: task list and simple project management tool,
possibility of sharing task boards and assigning tasks, creating
check lists, and a simple calendar
Wunderlist: task list and simple project management tool
Regular Reviews:
Check at a regular basis whether everything is going well,
and/or whether you need to adjust goals or plannings. It is best to
build in moments (for example on a quarterly basis) at which you do
this, so that you do not suddenly face surprises and it builds in
some clear pressure points/deadlines for a team.
Team management
Keeping a team motivated and the individuals in it can be
difficult, particularly on long-term projects. Motivation helps
dealing with difficulties and prevents procrastination, at least to
some extent. Here are at least a few things that make life easier
when working in a team:
Create clear goals and midterm goals and mention (or celebrate)
reaching those goals. Keep everyone clear on where they are, and
where they are going.
Assign clear responsiblities to one (maximum two) people for one
task.
Have regular one-on-one meetings where you discuss progress and
how individuals feel about the team. They dont have to be
formalised.
Talk to people who seem to miss deadlines a lot, but approach
procrastination from a helping point of view, set new goals, design
first steps to help them get on their way. Do be clear on the
importance of keeping to deadlines though, and be stronger and more
forceful when people keep in missing deadline.
Criticise in private, praise in public.
Listen to input and adjust projects accordingly (or explain why
you cant), there is nothing worse than not being listened to
Done, what now?
You are done, congratulations! What do you do know? After taking
a bit of a break, here is a reminder for a few things:
Be sure to thank everyone involved
Be sure to evaluate
Check whether you achieved your goals, see if they were the
right goals, if you achieved other things with your projects
Write reports, to your organisation, to your sponsors, for
yourself
Make sure you reflect and learn
Start all over again, have fun!
