The 13 Things You Need To Know To Run A Successful Project
- Nov 21, 2024
- 2 min read
Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
If you want to run a successful project, there are thirteen skills you have to have. These are skills – abilities you need to have. These are very different from the steps you have to follow, which is what a methodology gives you. Without these skills, whatever methodology you use is going to feel underpowered.
These skills are necessary and sufficient:
Necessary – you need these.
Sufficient – these are all you need.
You need to know:
How to deal with impossible projects and irrational stakeholders.
How to scope a project. We call it ‘boxes and clouds.’
How to establish the best possible outcome of a project. As part of this, how you’ll know when you’re done.
What to do when changes occur over the project’s life. How to deal with so-called ‘constantly changing goalposts’.
How to estimate accurately.
What the project manager is (and is not) responsible for.
How the concept of supply and demand applies in project management.
Why you have to have contingency in your plan and how to include it.
How to do risk analysis.
How to deal with different kinds of people.
What to do daily to progress the project with the least effort.
What makes for a good status report (and what makes for bad ones.)
How to capture lessons learnt after a project is over.
You can:
Learn all of these skills in 6.6 hours of teaching time, or
Practise them on a 2-day workshop described here.
Read more from Fergus O'Connell
Fergus O'Connell, Novelist, Project Manager, Teacher, Speaker
Fergus O'Connell is one of the world’s leading authorities on project management and getting things done. He is the author of eight novels and sixteen business books, including Simply Brilliant, a book about common sense and how to use a power you already have.
He founded his first project management company - ETP - in 1991. His disruptive, common-sense project management method, The Ten Steps, has influenced a generation of project managers. In 2003, this method was used to plan and execute the Special Olympics World Games, the world’s biggest sporting event that year. Fergus’ new company, Fast Projects, is again disrupting the project management space by focusing on speeding up projects / shortening time to market.
