12 Rules for Project Management | Video

Does Project Management have rules? Well, not really. But this set of Project Management rules is valuable guidance to all of us. So, take a look at my 12 rules for Project Management and let me know yours, in the comments below.

This video is safe for viewing in the workplace.

This is learning, so, sit back and enjoy

We start with something that is not a rule, but a prediction:

Failing to Plan is the same as Planning to Fail

President Eisenhower said:

‘In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.’

He was riffing on an earlier quote from Helmuth von Moltke:

‘No Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy’

Here are my 12 Rules:

1. Save your arguments about what a project is for the coffee shop. Focus on the characteristics of what needs to be done.
2. The one thing a Project Manager craves, above all else, is control
3. Scoping is the most difficult part of Project Management
4. You can please all of your stakeholders some of the time, and some of your stakeholders all of the time; but you can’t please all of your stakeholders all of the time
5. Projects would be easy if it weren’t for the people
6. Stakeholders will determine the success, or not, of your project
7. Milestones are your best friends
8. Shift Happens! things change
9. Fizzing bombs will explode if you don’t deal with them
10. An absentee project manager is a contradiction in terms
11. If it isn’t right, it isn’t finished (not: if it isn’t perfect…)
12. The level of attention to details can often make the difference between success and failure

Please use the comments to tell me what Project Management rules you like to live by…

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