The Sum of the Parts
A successful project is the result of various components interacting positively. If your project is to arrange and run a book sale to raise money for your school, you'll need to divide up the tasks. First, determine the scope or size of the project. Does the budget set forth by the sponsors (the PTA) allow you to buy 300 children's books to sell over two days, or 3,000 books to sell over two weeks?
Next, evaluate your budget. If $2,100 has been allocated for purchasing the books and you can purchase the average children's book for $3, then you are looking at about 700 books. If previous book sales indicate that books sell at an average of about 250 a day, you'll be looking at a three-day sale. Keep in mind that some of the parameters may have been decided beforehand. Make sure the numbers work. If, for example, the sponsor wants you to buy 700 books for a one-day sale, then you'll have to find a way to maximize sales by choosing a bigger location, using better promotion throughout the school, and having more volunteers on hand to sell books. You might, however, also propose a three-day sale to the sponsors, using your research to illustrate the possible benefits of an alternative plan.
Often, projects fail because key details were omitted from the project plan. It may help you to remember all the factors if you start listing everything you can think of. Once you have your team in place, they will be able to fill in the pieces you may not have considered.
Once you've determined the overall scope, you can start addressing the details. On smaller projects, you may be able to do several of the tasks yourself. Nonetheless, even for your own organization, it's important to have a list of all the details involved.
Using the PTA book-sale example, here's what your list might look like:
Set the date of the sale.
Set the timeline of interim deadlines.
Get volunteers.
Those who will help you plan and promote the sale
Those who will help you sell books
Those who will help clean up after the sale
Find the “in-school” location for sale.
Determine how books will be brought to the school and where they will be stored until the sale and after the sale. Are you buying books that can be returned to the publisher? Are you buying books on consignment? Are unsold books being donated to the school library? Always think about what happens to resources after the project.
Arrange for all necessary supplies, including cash register or cash box, receipts, etc.
Consider other items for sale, such as bookmarks, etc., but stay within your budget.
Set up day-of rules and guidelines; for example, “No refunds, but books can be exchanged on same day as sale,” “Cash or personal checks only,” etc. Also, determine who will be the cashier and handle the finances.
Coordinate all setup, including day-of and cleanup activities.
Day of sale: Set up and price the books (you may have already established a set formula for pricing, such as
x percent above cost to you).Sell books.
Shut down and clean up. Break down at end of sale; return books to storage or wherever they are supposed to go. Don't forget to think about this part of the project.
Make sure money is accounted for and in a safe place.
Turn over funds to PTA treasurer.
Meet to debrief. While the event is still fresh in your (and your sponsors') mind, evaluate the success of this year's sale. Consider what you did differently that was better, what you did the same that always works, and figure out what didn't work (and why). Documenting this process will give next year's project manager a great foundation.
It's important that you cover all bases in your detailed plan of action. Your team will help you find gaps, if there are any, in your plan. They may also make additional or supplemental suggestions, such as, in the previous example, “How about having some refreshments on hand?” This was not a significant detail, as the project could proceed without refreshments, but it was evaluated nonetheless. Considering the limited space and manpower needed (or willing) to clean up, refreshments would not have been the best way to use the project's resources.
If, at the end of the book sale, everyone started walking out, and someone turned around and said, “What are we supposed to do with all of these extra books?” one of two things could have happened. It could be that no one planned the follow-through and closeout details, or the details weren't clearly communicated (or understood). In either case, it's clear that someone didn't accomplish his or her task regarding breaking down the sale.
Plan the delegation of tasks carefully to avoid any overlap. You don't want three people in charge of ordering bookmarks, or you'll have too many. Review all of the details with your team beforehand to make sure every task is covered and everyone knows what their responsibilities are.
Some projects will be broken down into numerous levels of details. You may have someone doing a task, someone else doing a subtask, someone doing a sub-subtask, and so on. Often, the more details you're working with, the more you may need to subdivide. Breaking down a project into smaller tasks is called a “Work Breakdown Structure.” It is a systematic, prioritized account of all the work that needs to be completed, including the fine points necessary to plan, carry out, and track the project.
Some people are comfortable handling an entire task, but may feel more comfortable if the task is broken down into multiple parts. As a project manager, you can break down a task in any number of ways — whatever is most efficient in terms of time, money, and effort. For example, the person ordering the books can order storybooks on Monday, nonfiction books on Tuesday, and reference books on Wednesday. On the other hand, she may order all books from publishers ABC and DEF on Monday, from GHI and JKL publishing houses on Tuesday, and MNO and PQR publishers on Wednesday. She could also get all the books she can from a distributor one day and from Internet sources the next. It's important that you divide tasks realistically. Buying 600 books on Monday and 100 on Tuesday morning is probably not realistic unless your volunteer works for a publishing house.
Many factors must be taken into account when dividing a project into tasks and subtasks. Make estimates regarding the resources you have based on all logical and reasonable factors. For example, if someone works for a publishing house but would clearly lose his or her job by ordering 600 books at an employee discount without prior arrangements, you cannot make this a realistic task.
Detailing tasks is helpful because tasks can be easily understood and accomplished. The majority of people work better when they are working on smaller, more manageable tasks. However, it's important (and not always easy) to determine how much breaking down of a project you need to do. Yes, you may have a list of tasks and an order in which they should be done. You may have it broken down by days, perhaps by morning and afternoon. Should you then break each task down into how many hours or even minutes it should take? It depends on the overall time structure. If the project requires you to do a complete inventory of your business in one day before the potential new buyer shows up, then you might have to break down the project into an hourly schedule.
You can determine how many pieces of the puzzle there need to be by evaluating the following:
The overall time frame of the project
The complexity of the project
The expertise of the person doing a particular task
The complexity of the task
The last two items on the list are perhaps the most important. If a person is new to the job he has been assigned, you may have to detail the task more carefully. For instance, if someone ordering the books for the book sale has never ordered books before, you might detail who needs to be called, what needs to be filled out on the order forms, and how long each order should take. The complexity of the task will also be factored into the equation. More technical or detailed tasks such as those found in an engineering project may need to be further subdivided. This will tie in to the skill level of the team members.
When estimating how long a task will take, always allow extra time for external factors. Projects have been delayed by power failures, technical glitches, weather, illness, and various other factors. For every story about how a computer has facilitated the completion of a project much faster than it could have been done a decade ago, there's a story about how the computer crashed, lost a file, or otherwise caused a project delay.
The person planning the project needs to find team members who can work at the rate required. Sure, an author who works at a slower pace could easily handle the job with a six-month due date, but not within this particular time frame.
Sometimes the project sponsor will ask you how much of a given resource you need. If you are a contractor working with an assistant, you might have the opportunity to assess the project and give the sponsor an estimate of how much time it will take. You may not get the project if your estimate is not in line with standard rates and time estimates for the job you've been asked to do. If you're in the position of being able to set parameters for a project, get an idea of what other people would ask to do a similar project.
