Project Management 101

We're relaunching our web site soon. It's all very exciting! The experience brought to mind a few things we think every single project needs, apart from the obvious stuff, like a budget.  Heh.

1. A point person
Every project has key stakeholders, but no matter how big it gets, there should be one or two people responsible for managing--and trafficking all the commentary, feedback, and action items generated by these stakeholders. Yes, it's a big job. But it'll make everything work better.

2. A place to live
Sure, in some cases, this could mean a physical place to live. But in others, just making sure that a project has even a virtual home is a nice place for folks to check-in. It could be something as simple as a bi-weekly status meeting, or even a home on Google docs, which is what we ultimately opted for.  Either way, for stakeholders and project point people alike, it's nice to have one place to "go" to for all the information related to a project.

3. Conversation
Everyone should have all the information they need to complete a project. (This is also where number 2, above, comes in handy.) That's all. In our case, our point person handled our information bank, so it was useful to be able to either go to him when we had questions, or know that we could ask him and he'd track down the information.

4. Solid intentions
What's that mean? It just means that everything in the project should be approached with the project's good in mind, whether that be deadlines or meetings. Set agendas and deadlines with good intention, and they'll usually come to pass. As with anything, the end goal is king, and if you consider all the ramifications--as solid intentions are wont to do--then you'll have a good project in hand, and be yards ahead of the competition.

What are your must-haves for a great project experience? Tell us in the comments below.