There are certain skills which are incredibly useful for small businesses. If the business has someone on staff knowledgeable about ‘accounting’ for instance, or ‘taxation’, better decisions can be made consistently in those areas. For example, business equipment would be purchased knowing already in advance what kind of depreciation will leave the business in a better tax position.
If the business performs projects for customers, the same is true for the skill of Project Management. Small but important project management concepts can be the difference between a profitable or an unprofitable project. Let’s say that the customer wants to add items of scope to the project. What would be the correct response, according to tried-and-true project management methods? If the time duration of the project needs to shrink, what would be the best course of action, and still be successful?
Most of us have heard the adage “the customer is always right”, or “we must delight our customers”. But in businesses which perform services, one must be very careful and qualify these statements with some limits. Otherwise, we could find ourselves delivering a project with unlimited scope and unlimited liability!
Recently, a new and easy tutorial has been released for just this purpose. It is a video made specifically for professionals whose main job is something other than project management, but who must still perform projects for others. Without using complicated project management jargon (such as “Earned Value” or “Project Charters”), and in plain conversational English, this video walks a person through the stripped down, absolute key concepts for delivering projects successfully. Such that the projects end up with win/win outcomes: the customer walks away happy with his/her priorities fulfilled, and the small business walks away with profits in the bank. The details on how to get this tutorial can be found at www.theartisanpm.com . Check it out. So far, every small business which I have heard got it, has improved the delivery of their projects.
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For more resources, see the Library topic Project Management.
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