{"id":120,"date":"2019-10-04T05:39:10","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T04:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2023-11-10T05:02:25","modified_gmt":"2023-11-10T04:02:25","slug":"getting-things-done-right-the-essence-of-project-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/04\/getting-things-done-right-the-essence-of-project-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting Things Done Right &#8211; The Essence of Project Management"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Everyone\ntalks about management, but nobody stops to explain what it is. What do we\nreally mean when we talk about managing something? We can understand that best\nif we look at the opposite of management. In a business, if something isn\u2019t\nunder management, then it\u2019s out of control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a\nsituation is out of control, we don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on. We don\u2019t know how\nbad it is, we don\u2019t know what it\u2019s going to cost us, and we don\u2019t know what to\ndo about it. Here are some common out-of-control situations that occur in small\nbusinesses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>The books are not up to date.<\/li><li>You can\u2019t get the supplies or inventory you need.<\/li><li>You aren\u2019t getting the word out\u2014advertising isn\u2019t working.<\/li><li>Your team isn\u2019t getting the job done, and you don\u2019t know why. <\/li><li>You promised work to a customer and can\u2019t deliver on time.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Are any of\nthese happening in your business right now? Or is some other situation out of\ncontrol? Whatever situation is out of control, that\u2019s a problem. It\u2019s a risk to\nyour business. Bringing the situation under control and solving the problem is\na project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When a\nsituation is out of control, we want to bring it under management. There are\nthree basic steps to taking care of any project: prepare, do, and follow\nthrough. Let\u2019s look at these in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>1.1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\nPrepare<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Investigation:<\/strong> What\u2019s really going on?<\/li><li><strong>Evaluation:<\/strong> Is it worth fixing? How big is the problem? <\/li><li><strong>Planning:<\/strong> What do we want to do about it?<\/li><li><strong>Getting ready:<\/strong> Get the people and things you need.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>1.2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\nDo<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Action<\/strong>: Doing the work and fixing the problem.<\/li><li><strong>Tracking:<\/strong> Making sure our work follows the plan and fixes the problem.<\/li><li><strong>Control:<\/strong> If tracking shows us that we\u2019re off track, taking action to keep things under control.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a>1.3&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;\nFollow Through<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Delivery:<\/strong> Finishing the project, delivering the results, and making sure everyone knows it\u2019s done.<\/li><li><strong>Maintenance:<\/strong> Keeping up the good results through production management\u2014monitoring, control, and improvement.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether\nwe\u2019re bringing a situation under control, solving a problem, or making a dream\ncome true, those three steps\u2014prepare, do, follow through\u2014are the essence of\nproject management. In three steps, we get it done right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>REFERENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sid Kemp\n\u2018\u2019Project Management for Small Business Made Easy\u2019\u2019 (2006: Entrepreneur Press)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether we\u2019re bringing a situation under control, solving a problem, or making a dream come true, those three steps\u2014prepare, do, follow through\u2014are the essence of project management. In three steps, we get it done right!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[41],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kleosafrica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}