Managing Small Projects

Whether it’s one person with no budget or five people with a six-figure budget, small can be beautiful, if
the project manager doesn’t skip any steps in the process.
by Geza Fuezery, PMP

EW PROJECT MANAGERS are often overwhelmed by the vast supply of trained and skilled professional project managers cannot

N amount of knowledge that has been collected and can be

applied in project management. Even experienced project
managers sometimes face a dilemma, when running smaller projects,
keep up with the demand. This necessitates that more and more
“technical” people become familiar with project management prin-
ciples and take on managing projects. Indisputably, the number of
as to what portion of their routine tool set they should apply. With the small opportunities that require project management is growing.
full set applied, productivity and profitability may suffer; with no con- What Is a Small Project? There are only subjective answers to this ques-
trols applied, the project may be a failure. The focus of the project tion. To me, a three-to-five-month duration, $300,000 budget project with
management industry is mainly on the large projects that can provide a staff of three-to-five is a good example of a small project. For organiza-
many lessons to all of us, and rightly so. The problem is, however, that tions handling long-running, capital-intensive outsourcing projects the
cookbook tips for smaller projects are rare. Here are some practical answer may be much different. An indication of a small project situation
tips on what is vital when managing small projects and what may be may be remarks like these by the sponsor: Why do I need a project man-
handled more casually. ager to do this? We need some structure here; can you come and help us
Are There Small Projects Out There? Yes, and plenty of them! Despite to start? John, Liz and Kathy will help you with this; can you get it done by
the lack of focus on small projects by the industry, a study by RHI Con- the end of next month?
sulting (see PM Network, November 1996, p. 43) indicated that 88 per- The really important thing, however, is not to label it small or big,
cent of those companies that intended to add IT staff in 1997 had 100 but to recognize the initiative as a project. The definition in A Guide
or fewer employees. This, by itself, means lots of new, small projects. to the Project Management Body of Knowledge clearly states: “a proj-
Also, the need for project management is gaining recognition across ect is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product
all industries. With the world around us clearly getting projectized, the or service.” Every time you start an assignment, even if you are the
only person involved, con-
sult this definition and do
not hesitate to recognize
and run your assignment as
a project—apply the proj-
ect management frame-
work to it! For the novice
project manager, this is an
invaluable opportunity to
build a standard project
management tool set that
will be readily applicable to
future projects. For the ex-
perienced project manager,
it makes the smaller project
a routine job to manage.
Also, it provides the oppor-
tunity to fine-tune those
project management areas
that have not been strong
points in recent assign-
ments. There are two fur-
ther characteristics of small
projects that make the
recognition and the proper
running of them particular-
ly important:

PM Network • July 1998 33

` Success expectation. For a small project,
this is always 100 percent. Because the un-
dertaking is considered to be relatively sim-
ple, usually with few resources, anything oth-
er than a totally successful delivery is seen as
failure. And failure with a small project looks
far worse than with a big one.
` Skills development. Small projects provide
excellent opportunities for new or less expe-
rienced project managers to develop or en-
hance their project management skills, and
to prepare them for the big tasks.
Do Project Management Processes Apply?
Yes! All project management principles and
processes can and should be applied to
small projects, too. It is the extent of their ap-
plication that can be tailored to the size of
the project. Let’s look at the processes in the
PMBOK Guide knowledge areas for applica-
bility to small projects:
Project Scope Management. No compro-
mises here; every step has to be executed. If
the scope is not properly defined, docu-
mented, and changes to it maintained, it
may be very difficult for a small project to
justify missing the original date, budget (be-
cause of changes, retrospectively viewed as
very minor—if remembered at all—by the
client). For small projects, the effort to man-
age the scope can be minimal, though—
scope definition may be just a few lines. The
emphasis is on getting it done properly.
Project Time Management. Some kind of
schedule activity list is unquestionably need-
ed. The rule still applies that, for control pur-
poses, work must be broken down to the lev-
el where activities do not exceed one week
in duration. Depending on the extent of the
project, it may not be necessary to use an au-
tomated, sophisticated management tool;
manual scheduling and controlling may be
appropriate. But it is essential that control of
the schedule be maintained.
Project Cost Management. At planning time,
it is often said that the small projects are in-
cluded in some departmental budget, so the
project manager need not worry about costs.
Don’t believe it! I have yet to see a small project
where costs didn’t really matter. In most cases
a simple spreadsheet will do for both planning
and controlling the cost management effort.
Project Quality Management. Whether the
project is small or large, quality is important.
Everything said about quality management
in general is true for small projects. Of
course, not every small project environment
PM Network • July 1998
Every time you start an assignment, even if you are the only person
involved, consult the PMBOK Guide definition of a project—and
don’t hesitate to recognize and run your assignment as a project.
is ISO 9000-compatible, and it may not al-
ways make sense to apply sophisticated
methods to plan quality for smaller situa-
tions, but the trio of planning-assurance-qual-
ity must be observed. Quality must be
planned in, not inspected in. In small IT pro-
gramming projects, for example, plan ac-
cording to the answers to questions such as,
What standards are applied to design, cod-
ing, documentation? To what extent does the
programming methodology ensure stable
code? For the novice project manager, small
projects are the way to recognition and big-
ger assignments, and delivering excellent
quality will help to build that reputation.
Project Human Resources Management.
Organizational planning and team devel-
opment may be trivial exercises for small
projects. With small projects, I usually con-
centrate on staff acquisition. I look for a
firm commitment of the resources. In many
small projects, resources are assigned to the
project on a part-time basis. As soon as there
is another critical situation, or just a work-
load issue, the small project disappears from
the priority list in an instant. (This is partic-
ularly the case with internal company re-
sources. With a contractor, there may be le-
gal issues, so it happens less frequently.) Try
to anticipate what is coming by knowing
what’s going on in your teammates’ lives out-
side the project—an important aspect of
team development.
Project Communications Management.
This is a vital area regardless of project size.
At least two communication channels are ex-
tremely important:
` Small projects tend to lack visibility. Per-
formance reporting is an excellent means to
let the world know that the project is alive and
that valuable work is being done. Be meticu-
lous with reporting. Make sure performance
reports are short and to the point, but make
sure they are there. Avoid the temptation to
just drop in at the sponsor and chat a little
about progress—words disappear into thin
air; you may not have a chance to regularly
drop in due to your sponsor’s busy schedule;
you may catch your sponsor at a bad time or
in a bad mood. Just-dropping-in can be used
as a good complementary method to formal
reporting, but should not replace it.
` Closure to big projects comes almost nat-
urally; not so with small projects. In many
cases, work just stops being done, or the last
stitches are left to the project manager to
work on. Wrong! This is how individuals end
up with life-long jobs, or, at the very least,
working on past topics long after becoming
involved in a new project. Take the time to
formally close the project, however small.
Write that closing report to let the world
know that the project has been successfully
completed. It is in your best interest.
Project Risk Management. This is also in-
dispensable in small projects. Consequences
of adverse events may impact smaller proj-
ects to a lesser extent (less money lost, small-
er delays of deliverables, and so forth), but
the expectation of success for small projects
is much higher; therefore, the project man-
ager should be prepared to avoid or avert
failure. Risk identification and quantification
are a necessity. One-page risk profiles, rather
than complex calculations and forms, can
be used effectively. In most cases, the forms
can also contain the risk responses.
Project Procurement Management. This is
an area that seldom plays a role in small proj-
ects. If resources (including people) are to be
obtained from the outside, the project man-
ager is typically involved in the planning step
(preparing the statement of work and specifi-
cation of requirements for the resources).
Most organizations have functional units that
deal with procurement; the project manager
can rely on them for most small projects.
Project Integration Management. Even
small projects need the full project manage-
ment cycle implemented; the only difference
may be the extent to which automated (and
sophisticated) tools are used to do the job. To
increase productivity, it may be a good idea
for the experienced project manager still to
use the customary tools and be selective in
the features rather than thinking of some-
thing different just because the task at hand
is smaller. Since managers of small projects
35
do not have the luxury of a Project Control
Office performing most administrative tasks
(such as plan maintenance), any tool is wel-
comed. A manual integration method is also
fine, as long as the cycle is followed.
Documentation is one project manage-
ment aspect that is not a separate major proj-
ect management process, but is embedded
throughout the whole project. Documenta-
tion has particular significance for small proj-
ects because it is usually neglected, and of-
ten omitted. To neglect documentation is a
big mistake, for which the project manager
could pay a price later. PM Network pub-
lished an excellent article by Michael G.
Petko (“Documentation, Documentation,
Documentation,” September 1996) summa-
rizing the kinds of documentation that are
critical to the success of any project.
The Role of the Project Manager. Managing
a small project is rarely a full-time occupa-
tion. Instead the small-project manager gen-
erally falls into one of two categories:
` He or she takes on this management in
addition to participating in the technical
36
project work and performing tasks like any
other team member. Frequently a technical
expert has the project leadership role as-
signed because of either the small propor-
tion of management tasks relative to the tech-
nical aspects or the unavailability of other
project managers. He or she is expected to
fully return to the technical field after project
completion. A common pitfall in this situa-
tion is that the project manager gets bogged
down in the task work and does not give
enough attention to managing the project.
The first warning sign is when a status meet-
ing is skipped or a report is delayed because
“I did not have time to do it; it was more im-
portant to have this critical piece tested.” At
this time, the person in the project manager
role must step back from the details and re-
turn to management mode.
` He or she takes on a portfolio of small
projects, managing each in part-time mode.
For a professional project manager, this is
what I recommend. It may be interesting to
delve into the technical world occasionally,
but I believe that, from the personal devel-
Reader Service Number 5133
opment point of view, it is much more bene-
ficial to build up a project portfolio and ob-
tain the experience of managing multiple
projects. The challenge here is to find the op-
timal number of projects to take on and still
bring value to each of them.
MANAGING SMALL PROJECTS is somewhat dif-
ferent than managing large ones, although
the same project management processes
need to be applied. In small projects, how-
ever, the extent of applying those processes
is more limited. It is the project manager’s
productivity decision whether to apply the
full repertoire of processes and tools, select-
ed components, or a manual management
system. In any case, the project manager
must ensure that all nine project manage-
ment knowledge areas are considered when
managing a small project. `
Geza Fuezery, PMP, a senior project manager with IBM
Canada Ltd., has over 16 years of experience in man-
aging small and large projects. He is a member of the
Southern Ontario PMI Chapter.
PM Network • July 1998
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