Top things you MUST do if you want to stay on track with your project
Are you struggling to stick to your project timeline?
Every project manager has been in a position where they’re struggling to keep their project on track when things get busy… But it doesn’t have to be that way.
How do you ensure that you stick to your project timeline, no matter what?
Here are a few tips about how to stay on track:
1. Create a Master Milestone Project Timeline
What are all the major milestones and activities that are happening throughout your project from start to finish?
Even though you may not necessarily have all the details, you should know what your high-level major milestones are, and you can lay all those out.
This will give you a good idea as to your over-arching timeline and will help you determine whether the timeline you’ve laid out is realistic or not.
That way, you won’t get halfway through the project and suddenly realize you can’t stay on track!
This is something you can also share with other project stakeholders (particularly your Steering Committee and Sponsor) because they’ll want to know when you’ll be delivering everything you need to deliver.
So, having that high-level understanding will help ensure you’ll actually stay on track.
2. Realistic Timeline + Buy-In = Solid Schedule
Creating a realistic timeline is obviously an essential component of having a timeline that you can actually stick to.
But to take it one step further, if you get input from your Subject Matter Experts on how long various tasks will actually take, not only does this ensure that your timeline is realistic, but it also contributes to your ability to get buy-in and agreement from everyone involved on your timeline.
When you have buy-in for your project timeline, everyone has already agreed that they will stick to this timeline. So, you have the assurance that your project team will pull their weight.
More Tips for Sticking to Your Project Timeline
If you’re really committed to keeping your timeline on track, head over to YouTube with me and we’ll keep chatting about this. I made a video all about it to explain the tips that I use to stay on track with the projects I manage!
Plus, if you want even more project manager tips on every aspect of managing a successful project, make sure you check out my SLAY Project Management course where I give you all the templates, tips, and techniques to implement if you want a 100% project success rate going forward.
-Adriana
