Finance life seems to be one endless run of project after project with no time to take a breath between them.
If you are new to project management then it can be difficult to find time to look at ways to make sure your projects are successful and stable.
To a large extent it doesn’t matter whether you are implementing new software, introducing a new expenses system or reorganising your Chart of Accounts, a project is a project but whatever type of finance project you are doing, there are some golden rules to ensure it goes well.
So dive into our golden rules and make your project management life a little easier!
The number one tip is to make sure you know where you are going.
This might seem obvious and that’s the problem. You tend find that everyone thinks the desired outcome is obvious but actually they all have different ideas.
Make sure you write down exactly what you are aiming to achieve. You may be surprised at how hard this bit is.
Then go to all of your stakeholders and run through what you think you have been tasked with achieving. Prepare yourself for another surprise as they all expected you to telepathically know that this wasn’t what they wanted!
Make sure also that you define the scope of the project otherwise you could find you think you are putting in an expenses system for one company when actually the CFO thinks you are doing it for the entire group.
Once you have settled on what you want to achieve then communicate it to your team and the people who will be affected by the change (see below).
Once you have decided what you want to achieve then it is time to write it all down in the form of a project plan.
Start with the big headlines and then flesh them out by putting in the sub-tasks. Don’t worry if you don’t get everything at the first pass, you can always go back later and add things.
Your project plan will become your bible and can be used later to fill in things like your project tracker etc.
Larger projects will need more documentation and smaller ones can be a little less formal but making a list is an essential part of running a good project.
So by this point, you have a huge list of things to do and probably insufficient resources and not enough time but don’t panic.
Sit down and work out what you need to happen and when. Work out your dependent tasks and decide who will do them.
Allocating tasks in this way will help you to see that little by little you will be able to achieve what you need.
One of the most common reasons why projects fail is not an inherent problem with the software or the project team but the fact that nobody knows what is going on.
Communication is really important. It will bring your project team together and allow them to understand where they fit in and how important their role is.
Making sure that the people affected by the project know what is going on and how to feedback will help to increase engagement and reduce change resistance.
Great communication will result in people who think that the change has been done for them and not to them.
So you think that your project is going to take X weeks and cost X pounds?
Think again.
Projects will always overrun or will go over budget so make sure you include contingency because, with the best will in the world, there will always be something that comes along.
If you don’t need the extra money or your project finishes early then happy days!
You are better to have resources and time left at the end rather than be scrabbling around and delivering something that isn’t of the required quality.
At the start of a project, everyone is excited, enthusiastic and gung-ho.
At the end of the project, people are happy, relieved and proud.
But at the 2/3rds point people are lethargic, apathetic and can’t see an end in sight.
Every single project starts to lose its way at the 2/3rds point and the skill of a great project manager is to spot this and be able to buoy everyone up.
Think of team-building activities, random days off and celebrating successes as ways of reinvigorating the team.
Chocolate also works. Lots of chocolate.
So you are ploughing on, well ahead of time and under budget and then your CFO grabs you in the corridor and says “can I have a quick word?”.
It turns out they have had a great idea that you can ‘roll into’ your project as it is going so well.
Scope creep is a project killer and once you allow one addition then there will be the temptation to add more and more.
Resist with every fibre of your being. Instead suggest that it would be a great idea to put the extra functionality into phase two which you are currently planning.
By the time you get there, your CFO will have forgotten what they wanted anyway!
So you’ve finished your project, you have a CFO who is busily taking the credit in a board meeting and you are breathing a sigh of relief, but your work doesn’t stop there.
Take some time to do a ‘lessons learned’ exercise to understand what went well and why you delivered a successful project and make sure you write these down.
But be honest and make sure you also analyse the things that didn’t go so well. Think about how you could have handled situations better, who thrives in a project atmosphere and who doesn’t.
As Yoda said, “The greatest teacher, failure is.”
Projects are the most annoying and rewarding things
A great project is a thing to behold. It fills you with confidence and pride and an insufferable feeling of invulnerability.
A bad project makes you want to crawl under a rock or start a commune in the country where you can knit your own yoghurt.
But in reality, any project is just a process and really good project managers know this.
They know that making sure you understand what you want to achieve and having a great plan of how you are going to do it are the foundations.
Being calm, communicating readily and being able to motivate your team when they want to give up is vital together with a large supply of chocolate.
But most of all you should see your finance project as a learning experience. Nobody ever gets their first project completely right so your lessons-learned exercise can form part of your training process.
Great project managers are made and not born so using our golden rules will help you develop into a finance professional with an extra string to your bow. If you'd like to find out more about how Caxton helps accounting firms then check out our accounting hub.
Good luck with your next project.
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