The 6 Key Steps to Optimize Project Delivery

Project delivery is a complicated process with many moving parts. That’s why it’s important to tailor every aspect of the project for success.

This article will help you understand how to do this, giving you six key steps to take for successful project optimization.

Create A Project Plan

Before you begin implementing your project, it’s essential that you create a project plan. The five major components of this are the objectives and strategies, scope, budget, schedule, and risk management strategy (RMS). Once the project plan has been created, begin communication and training at all required levels.

The six steps to creating an optimized project DELIVERY process are as follows: create and review all deliverables, create a work breakdown structure with milestone identification and create a timeline for each individual step of the project. Identify risks associated with your specific situation or industry niche, create plans for resolving any identified risks you haven’t yet addressed, and share these documents with the stakeholders, so they can sign them off before you proceed further.

Constantly Review Your Progress

It’s important to have a handle on every aspect of the project as it unravels. Bespoke reports should be created using software that updates the information in real-time. This should cover all the essentials, including budgets, resourcing, and project progress.

Modern technology can make it easier to know what your staff is doing at any given point. Thanks to all-seeing computer monitoring software, it’s possible to manage remote teams and view staff attendance and timekeeping. You can see which apps and websites your staff are using, view random screenshots, and discover when employees are active or idle.

Understand Your Customers’ Needs

Any marketing professional will tell you that this needs to be the guiding force at all times, whether it’s when you design your website or offer your goods and services. Your project needs to be a solution to their problem, or provide an experience that people want.

Analytical software can help you understand your target audience, and customer satisfaction questionnaires can provide vital information that can drive your activities. When the customer’s interests lie at the heart of your project, the outcome is more likely to generate revenue and inspire customer loyalty.

Conduct User Testing / Quality Checking

User testing is a validation technique to check that a product is what the user needs. It helps identify where a product or item of software has fallen short and provides feedback on how these issues can be addressed. Quality checking helps ensure that the work meets required standards before it’s released into production or is shipped out to customer sites. The best way to do this is by creating an inspection checklist. Quality checks need not take too much time if done correctly but can save you wasting valuable time further down the line.

Both user testing and quality checks act as buffers to protect employees or customers from anything in the project that could be incorrect or faulty. Any issues can then be resolved before the project is completed and the software/product/service is rolled out.

Be Budget-Aware

As you’re preparing your proposal or estimate for an upcoming project, take some time to outline all the costs associated with the work, so they can be included in your budget. This will make it easier to communicate the financial information to the relevant parties, be they, managers or stakeholders.

Budgeting will also help you respond to any issues that could have an impact on costs. You can monitor the money being spent as the project progresses, and review the remaining funds. Needless to say, it’s common for unexpected expenses to occur, so a financial buffer should be put aside as a contingency.

Review And Adapt

When the project comes to an end, it’s essential to conduct a full review. Check the outcome against the original project plan to make sure everything has been achieved.

Change is here to stay, and companies relentlessly strive to improve their products and services. As a result, you will need to schedule future reviews to ensure the customers’ needs are still being met. It may be that more software updates will be required, or a product will need to be altered to reflect the public’s changing needs.

The key takeaway is to conduct comprehensive planning beforehand and to never take your foot off the gas. Make sure the project progresses according to plan, reaches its desired goal, and is recommenced if improvements are required. In turn, this can help bring company costs down and improve customer experience.