Project management is deciding what needs to be done, who will be doing it and then making sure that it happens.

Good project management, like risk management, is a team activity.

One of the useful elements of formal project management is that it forces you to bring together the right people to run the project. It also has the advantage of requiring good documentation.

These give us two fundamental rules of project management:

1. Decide who needs to be involved early on (who are the stakeholders) and get them round the table to agree the scope, desired outcomes and time-lines for the project.  This group should formally be designated the Project Board and be responsible for the project.
2. Document everything. You need to write down, and regularly review, your scope, desired outcomes and time-lines, and who is responsible for each task.

It is also helpful to document anything related to the project, even casual phone calls. Keep a book by the phone and get into the habit of writing notes during phone calls. It can also be useful to send an email to the person you have been speaking to after the call noting what you discussed and agreed.

It sounds bureaucratic, but you would be surprised how often two people emerge from a conversation with completely different ideas of what was agreed. Writing it down and clarifying the information on email ensures that misunderstandings don’t happen.