Last week I learned how to build a nuclear submarine. In my quest to prove that you can teach an old dog new tricks, I found myself in a project management workshop run by the Institute of Directors. (And just to be clear, when I say ‘learned how to’, what I actually mean is ‘grasped a rudimentary understanding of the basic project management processes involved in the building of a nuclear submarine’ and when I say ‘an old dog’ it’s self-referential and therefore OK in this instance).

The workshop was run by a highly experienced project management consultant, Mary McKinlay, who has spent most of her career making sure that big expensive pieces of defence kit cost what they were supposed to cost and ended up where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there.

Mary believes that the success of a project lies in about 20% ‘hard skills’; the processes and tools used to run a project, and 80% ’soft skills’; the attitudes, behaviours and personalities of the people involved in the project.

I would have to agree with her on this point. From my own personal experience, proficient project managers rely heavily on good old fashioned common sense, fantastic communication skills and the ability to ask the question ‘what if?’ at the right time. For the most part, it’s not rocket science – (unless you are actually building a new rocket – and then it probably is).

Everything we do at Remedy is project-based in some way and I like to think we are pretty good at it too. But I have to admit that when Mary started talking about ‘master resource plans’, ‘responsibility assignment matrix’ and ‘logic networks’, I did start to wonder whether project management is really a ‘dark art’ – something to be practiced within high-tech industries by those who are more comfortable working somewhere without windows. If you need further convincing of this, take a look at the Project Roadmap produced by the International Project Management Association. Here are some of my favourite bits for your bewilderment….

So where does this leave us fluffy, creative-type companies? We too have to meet our clients’ expectations; deliver projects on time and on budget and do it all with our usual creative flair and unwavering sense of humour.

We could choose to take the Sir John Harvey-Jones approach to project management:

‘Planning is an unnatural process – it’s much more fun to get on with it. The real benefit of not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by months of worry.’

However, no-one really likes surprises, least of all bad ones and what’s a few months of worry between friends, if the end result is a cracking ad campaign or a first-rate website?

So here are my top ten project management tips for all of you eager to learn how to do it better. Some are courtesy of Mary McKinlay and others are simply pearls of wisdom picked up from other equally talented folk along the way…

1) Take your time to define the project – what is it and what does it need to do?
2) Work out how to do it and who will do it.
3) How long will it take and how much will it cost?
4) How will progress be tracked and when will we know when the project is finished?
5) Identify risks and opportunities (what happens if?..).
6) Make sure everyone on the project team understands their role and responsibilities.
7) There are three main components to any project ‘quality, time and cost’. Understand that changes to any of these will impact on the others.
8) The ability to use project management software does not equal a good project manager.
9) Monitor costs throughout a project and flag any concerns.
10) Learn from your mistakes – don’t hide your head in the sand when things go wrong, and hold a de-briefing session to work out how to do things better next time around.

In the workshop, Mary pointed out that a good project manager has to wear many hats. Planner, organiser, controller (read control freak in my case), motivator, diplomat, negotiator, communicator, accountant, problem solver, psychologist… to name but a few.

To be honest, we are not big on wearing hats at Remedy, but some of this does sound very familiar. Maybe we’ve got the project management thing covered after all!