Keys to the Success of a Project

1. Importance of Project:-First of all, ask for the business case for the project. Assess
thoroughly how important is this project to the company. What are the ultimate goal and
objective of this project? Find out if this project is well support by the Top Executives
level (in terms of budget and consultancy) or otherwise.
2. Project Requirements:-Analyze all the project requirements submitted by the project
stake-holders carefully. This is important as the project manager need to make sure
there are no requirements which are unable to be fulfilled or if there are any
requirements which would require additional resources or time to work on. The Project
Manager need to study all these before the project timeline can be worked on
accurately.
3. Keeping Stake-Holders Posted:- Always keep the stake-holders well posted on the
status and potential risks of the project. Making sure that their feedbacks and advise are
often seek for. They should be invited to the monthly project status meeting where they
would share their inputs and thoughts on anything which will be discussed in this
meeting. The key here is to have the top executives feel like they are part of this project
and have the responsibility to ensure that it is successful.
4. Excellent communication:-Excellent communication is in place, where all
necessary information is well cascaded to all the team members. Everyone in the
project team is aware of the project priorities and status at all time. When all of the
participants and leaders are well engaged, it is easier to drive for changes and it is also
more manageable even if there are pending unsettled issues in the project.

5. Get Source of Problem:-When problems or gaps exist , always get to the source of
the problem and fix it there. Find out what have been impacted by the problems and
what can be done to clear these issues. Distinguish between true problem and noises,
for it is the true problem which needs attention to resolve and not the voices.
Understand the problems well before calling out the proposed solutions will avoid a lot
of unnecessary confusion.
6. Timeline, Resource, Budget, Scope of the Project-Always enforces and adheres
to these 4 key elements: These are the guidelines and constraints which every project
need to have to keep the projects on the right track.

7. Assessment of Team Members Skills:-Carefully assess the skills, potential and

strength of each team members so that effective allocation of tasks and responsibilities
can be done effortless and successfully.
8. Resolve Conflicts and misunderstanding:-Resolve and stop any potential
misunderstanding or conflicts among the team members (should there are any) as soon
as possible. Conflicts and misunderstanding will lead to unnecessary arguments where
the feeling of unity is not achievable in such case. If there are uncooperative team
members whom cannot work in a team, it is encouraged to replace him with someone
who is more suitable.

9.Clear Scope of the Project:- Avoid scope creep, it is one of the most common
reason for a project to over run its budget and timeline because of last minute requests.
The project manager need to set the right expectation in the first place for the project
and call out clearly on what are defined as Out of Scope. Document all the formal
communications done for the stake-holders and key business teams and if possible, try
to get acknowledgements from the Business leads on what have been communicated.

10. Preparation for Worst Possibilities:-Having a properly defined Risk management

plan is essential. The project team needs to be prepared for the worst possibilities. For
this, each and every risk possibilities need to be assessed and reviewed. And all the
consequences which might happen, possible alternatives need to be proposed and
documented out-front.