How do you leverage project management tools and frameworks to enhance your project leadership skills?

1 SMART goals

One of the first steps in any project is to define your project goals. A good way to do this is to use the SMART criteria, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART goals help you clarify your project vision, align your team and stakeholders, and track your progress and outcomes. To use SMART goals, you need to ask yourself questions such as: What exactly do you want to accomplish? How will you measure your success? Is your goal realistic and attainable? How does your goal relate to your project purpose and benefits? When do you expect to complete your goal?

2 Work breakdown structure

Once you have your SMART goals, you need to break down your project into manageable tasks and deliverables. A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a hierarchical diagram that shows the relationship between your project scope and the work required to achieve it. A WBS helps you organize your project into phases, sub-projects, work packages, and activities. It also helps you assign resources, estimate costs and durations, and identify dependencies and risks. To create a WBS, you need to start with your project goal and work backwards, dividing it into smaller and more specific components until you reach the lowest level of detail.

3 Gantt chart

A Gantt chart is a visual tool that shows your project schedule and progress. It displays your project tasks and milestones along a horizontal timeline, with bars indicating their start and end dates, durations, and dependencies. A Gantt chart helps you plan and coordinate your project activities, communicate your expectations and status, and identify and resolve any schedule issues or conflicts. To use a Gantt chart, you need to list your project tasks and milestones, assign them to your team members, estimate their durations and dependencies, and update them regularly.

4 RACI matrix

A RACI matrix is a table that shows the roles and responsibilities of your project team and stakeholders. It stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed. A RACI matrix helps you clarify who does what, who makes decisions, who provides input, and who needs to be updated on your project. It also helps you avoid confusion, duplication, gaps, or conflicts in your project roles and expectations. To create a RACI matrix, you need to list your project tasks and deliverables, identify your project team and stakeholders, and assign them one of the four RACI categories for each task or deliverable.

5 SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis is a strategic tool that helps you evaluate your project strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It helps you identify your project advantages and disadvantages, as well as the external factors that can affect your project positively or negatively. A SWOT analysis helps you leverage your strengths and opportunities, mitigate your weaknesses and threats, and adapt to changing circumstances. To conduct a SWOT analysis, you need to brainstorm and list the internal and external factors that relate to your project goal, and categorize them into the four SWOT elements.

6 Lessons learned

The last step in any project is to capture and share your project lessons learned. These are the insights and recommendations that you and your team gain from your project experience, such as what worked well, what didn't work well, what can be improved, and what can be replicated. Lessons learned help you evaluate your project performance and outcomes, celebrate your achievements and challenges, and learn from your mistakes and successes. They also help you improve your future projects and contribute to organizational knowledge and best practices. To document and communicate your lessons learned, you need to collect feedback from your team and stakeholders, analyze and summarize your findings, and disseminate and store your results.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?