The consequences of rushing through a project phase
It’s Friday night when Jason, a project manager at a company specializing in virtual reality software, receives an urgent call from his manager, Mateo. Mateo tells Jason he needs a cost and timeline for a virtual reality training program for Flight Simulators, Inc. This company does aircraft maintenance by the end of the weekend.
Jason spends the weekend working through a proposal for Flight Simulators, Inc. He quickly throws together a proposal estimating that it will cost $200,000 and take six weeks to develop the course. This is the standard cost and time frame for developing training on his company’s platform. He sends the proposal over to Flight Simulators, Inc. so that he can meet their deadline.
When Jason walks into the office on Monday morning, Mateo tells him he got reprimanded for not following the company’s process for building a proposal and including the engineers. The engineers looked at the information presented by Flight Simulators, Inc. and realized that the company’s software wouldn’t work with their platform. It will take six months to develop their platform to meet the needs of the organization’s software and another six months to test the software and platform integration. Developing and testing this software will cost over a million dollars.
This project had failed before it even started. There’s no way to complete the request from Flight Simulators, Inc. without impacting the budget, quality, and timeline.
What should have happened
When his manager calls, Jason tells him that while he understands that Mateo wants to make the customer happy by promptly getting them a proposal, he would like to take a little more time to get it right. Jason tells Mateo that he will draft an email to Flight Simulators, Inc. and request additional time to develop an accurate and reasonable proposal. Mateo is hesitant but agrees.
On Monday morning, Jason saw that Flight Simulators, Inc. had responded to his request. They appreciate that he communicated his concerns about the quick turnaround on the proposal request. They say they will give him a week to work with his team to provide an estimate for the project.
Now, Jason has the time to get all the key players involved in estimating the effort to complete the project, including the cost, schedule, and resources.
Let’s apply the project life cycle to this project.
Initiating the project
This is the phase Jason rushed through in the first scenario. Ideally, in this phase, Jason discusses project goals with Flight Simulators, Inc. to gain a clear understanding of what they are asking for. Once Jason has defined the project goals, he can gather the stakeholders and project team members to determine what needs to be done to create this training for Flight Simulators successfully. Inc. Jason identifies the skill sets required, the timeline, and the cost to develop the training. He remembers and documents the value that this project creates for the company. He presents all the information he has put together to his company’s leadership team, who approves Jason’s proposal. Jason then submitted the proposal to Flight Simulators, Inc., and they accepted it.
Making a plan
Now that Jason has the green light to work on the project, he makes a project plan from start to finish. A program ensures that all team members and stakeholders are prepared to complete their tasks. Jason outlines the critical deadlines and lessons for the project to be successful. He creates a schedule for all resources, materials, and tasks needed to complete the project.
Executing and completing tasks
During this project phase, Jason’s project team puts his plan in motion by executing the work. Jason monitors his team as they complete project tasks. His role as the project manager is not to meet the individual tasks but to help break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing their studies. It is also Jason’s responsibility to communicate schedule and quality expectations. Jason uses his communication skills to keep Flight Simulators, Inc. updated on the project status and gather feedback from them. This keeps the project on schedule and within budget.
Closing the project
Jason’s team has completed the training, and he delivers it to Flight Simulators, Inc. They are happy with how it turned out! Jason is now ready to close this project and move on to the next one. Before he closes this chapter, Jason and his team discuss and document the lessons learned from the project. What worked well, and what could work better next time? Jason also puts together a small lunch gathering for his team to celebrate and recognize their hard work.
Key takeaway
It may seem like a lot of work to go through an entire project life cycle, but its long-term impact on your project is huge! As the project manager, It is your job to ensure that your leadership understands the risk of not properly preparing for a project. Making incorrect assumptions can put your company at risk. Instead, taking the time to initiate, plan, execute, and close your project leads to success and good customer working relationships.
