Social Control

08 February 10

To be a successful project manager, it seems like you need to have a crystal ball: "Oh magic crystal ball, how can we complete this project on time and on budget?" There are lots of projects that are started and finished that way. The project manager draws a line from today to the deadline, fills in a fishbone diagram of tasks that need to be done, and combines luck and force-of-will to move the project forward. Sometimes it works.

At Social Control, we like to be backwards. (Not about everything, but definitely about our project management!)

We start with the ideal project outcomes: What would we define as a super-successful project. Then, we figure out what needs to happen to get there. Basically we put the project management truck in reverse and slowly back up.

We need to have the website or social media app (or whatever the project is) tested by such-and-such a date. Which means it has to be completed by such-and-such a date. Which means its major components need to be completed and ready for assembly by such-and-such a date. Which means each major component needs to be started by such-and-such a date. On the way, we build in review cycles, contingency branches, and budget review points. And, I should also mention, that these dates get padded with an extra day built in here or there because we don't want to tempt fate by cutting it too close.

We back up all the way to the beginning and discover ourselves at the point of the project initialization.

Creating a project in reverse helps to develop more excellent projects because it's a system based on real life instead of arbitrary scheduling in of dates. And it helps to have experience, too, which we've derived from a portfolio of several successful projects.

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