Get ready, get set, go! Getting to the project finish line

Identifying process and conflict

Processes to create deliverables. Now that you've identified the deliverables and their acceptance criteria, move ahead to identify existing processes — if any — that need to be used to create your interim deliverables. Team members who have been through this drill before can lend insight into what processes exist and work well versus what processes do not exist or just do not work well.

Conflicts that affect creating the deliverables. Identify conflicts with other projects that might affect creating the final and interim deliverables. This part of the planning section is the place where you specify what else is going on in your environment and identify how it will affect your project. The team members should communicate how that will affect the project and offer a solution or work-arounds to continue moving forward. By including the team in these decisions early on, they will be vested in solving issues and keeping the project afloat throughout its lifetime.

Smart tools: Tree diagrams and milestone reviews

Building a tree diagram. You're almost there! Next on the agenda, examine and assess the responsibilities for the entire project. This will help you distribute work evenly and match it up with the ability of the project team members to complete the interim deliverables. One smart tool is a tree diagram. This exercise summarizes each team member's task for creating each interim deliverable. The team can use a tree diagram to check for overlap or duplicate deliverables. The team can also identify situations where one team member is better suited than another for an assigned interim deliverable.

Milestone review. If one to two people are relying on the successful completion of an interim deliverable to move their part forward, the project team should consider having a formal review of the deliverable. To do this, create a chart with five columns:

• Project Milestone Review (interim deliverable)
• Purpose of Review
• Reviewers
• Approval to Move Forward
• Date of Review

Formal reviews are perfect for keeping an open dialogue between the team members to discuss what is or is not going well.

Taking a risk

The last step is to assess and quantify the risks for creating each of the interim deliverables. This is an important step, as it allows the team to take the findings and apply them to whether the project agreement needs to be revised. Studying the risks also puts you in the driver's seat to troubleshoot any issues that could arise through the duration of the project.

An hour of your time

This project-planning plan should take a little over an hour to complete:

• 30 minutes — Identify deliverables and acceptance criteria
• 10 minutes — identify processes
• 10 minutes — identify conflicts
• 10 minutes — tree diagram
• 20 minutes — milestone reviews

The next time you hear the gun go off, make a beeline to your desk and identify what's up ahead. Not only will you save time and aggravation for you and your staff, but you will also save money and resources, which will provide a greater impact on the company than racing through the finish line first.

Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, is the founder and CEO of Cheetah Learning and author of Cheetah Negotiations and Cheetah Project Management.