Month 17: Managing Small Projects

Presented by by Martin Wartenberg, MBA, P.E.

One size fits one!

All projects are not equal. Trying to execute a small project with the full-up PMBOK approach may turn out to be over kill. Small projects are typically executed by “accidental” or “casual” project managers rather than classically trained Project Managers who have been exposed to the complexity of processes and procedures contained in the PMI PMBOK. The sheer size of the book as well as the complexity of the methodology often frightens the casual project manager into “just winging” it because the formal process appears to be overly complicated. A majority of project run in typical organizations are in the small to medium category (defined as 3 to 10 people for about 3 to 4 months) these usually involve project managers and team members who have had little or no formal project management training.

This pod cast is targeted at this group and provides “just enough” project management to be effective, but not so much that you are overwhelmed with complexity. We will cover all phases from Initiation through Planning, Executing, Control and Monitoring and finally close-out and will discuss the minimum levels of structure and process required for the casual or accidental project manager.