Project management is a full-time role in many businesses, sometimes involving whole teams, all involved in managing the same major project. Keeping track of all the elements of a project can be difficult. Think of all the separate components of a project: dates, staff, resources, skills required, meetings, deadlines, budgeting etc. You may well want to plan your project on bits of paper or in one Word or Excel document, but before long you'll have swamped yourself. Also, what if the parameters of the project change? You don't want to be crossing out scribbles on paper or combing through your one big spreadsheet to make corrections. With Project Management software such as MS Project, you can easily manage all the separate elements.

The Project Trap

A common mistake made with programs such as Project is that it will effectively do your job for you as you sit back and click the odd command or two. Although Project will undoubtedly make your job a lot easier, it can only work with the quality of the data that you enter into it in the first place. There are several elements of your project that you mustn't neglect yourself. For example, you'd be shooting yourself in the foot if you set yourself (and Project) an unrealistic deadline that will only be met if you overwork your staff (it's well worth noting that a software program cannot gauge morale - only you can!). It also doesn't know the different skill sets of your staff, or whether you have the correct balance of money and resources. That's Project Management, and that's your job.

Tips for Inputting Your Project

Giving the software as much information to work with can only benefit you - the more it knows about what you're trying to achieve, the more it can suggest changes, modifications and suggestions that may not have been immediately obvious to you as you beaver away, trying to get the job done. The primary consideration is what the software definitely needs to know and without which, your project would fail. Break down your tasks into order of urgency and load on your time - making sure the biggest, hardest work is given the correct priority. Milestones can be added as a morale boost - decide how you will reward your team for passing each one.

Using your own knowledge of your team, note down the people who have transferable skills - for example, if one person is off sick, it's something you can't predict, but you can certainly plan for it and add "damage control" as appropriate - making sure you have one or more other team members who can do the same job. This also applies to you - do you have someone who could deputise and who is also across the information you're putting into the Project Management software? Enter all the information in a way that can be interpreted and followed by any other team member.

Remember to enter your deadlines! You'd be surprised how many times people slip up by omitting this, only realising it as the deadline approaches and it's too late to wrap up. Resources and cost are two things that you may have to consult with team members about - make sure your accountant or external suppliers are aware of your project and what you have set out to achieve.

Flexibility is key when the project is ongoing. Just because you've entered a set deadline or milestone, or assigned a person to one task, it doesn't automatically mean that it can't change - this is another example of using your own judgement - not the computers' - to get the job done.

A useful idea to use when completing the project is to save it, using it as a template in case you ever have a similar task again. There are other project templates that you can download from the web for common business tasks, so if you're a bit overwhelmed with using Project Management software the first time around, there's plenty of help and training available.

Overall - have fun with the program. Practise makes perfect, and switching a large amount of your perceived workload to a computer can be daunting at first. Take a deep breath and dive in - you'll be glad you have another team member, albeit a virtual one, to help you get that project finished.