Project Manage Your New Major Business Commitments

Taking a new major business commitment is most of the time a fearful endeavor. Plenty of question marks will pop up in your mind about its long-term benefits and also, you know it, its opportunity costs (i.e. committing funds and other resources to one commitment might prevent you to pursue in the future other business initiatives possibly more beneficial for Your business).

I propose today to follow a systematic methodology that should give you a better base to shape all elements related to your future business commitments.

First of all, consider business commitment as a project (defined as a specific business endeavor that has a beginning and an end) Typically, professional project managers would cover systematically the following business aspects both PRIOR to commit AND also DURING project implementation:

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Project Components

* SCOPE: If for instance your new business endeavor is a new product, break it down in its main features and ask yourself if you wish to consider each feature as being "In-Scope" or "Out-of-Scope". By defining precisely the borderlines of your project, you shall have a much better grip on it.

* TIME: In which timeframe do you wish to achieve for instance the official launch of your product?

* COST: What is the cost upfront? Don't forget here to perform a costs/benefits analysis over say up to three years after the product launch.

* QUALITY: Define the quality parameters you wish to have in your product to make it successful on the market.

* HUMAN RESOURCES (HR): How many bodies do you need to add to get to the stage of official product launch and also how many bodies do you need afterwards?

* COMMUNICATIONS: The more detailed/ transparent/ motivational Your project/ future product will be (at least internally), the better it is.

* RISKS: Try to list all major risks associated with Your endeavor and also make a true attempt at finding the feasible corrective actions You would take in case a risk materializes.

PROCUREMENT: Most of the projects will entail some kind of procurement. Make sure you set-up a follow-up system to keep track of procured items.

INTEGRATION: Of course, ALL above 8 components are fully interlocked like a big puzzle, and each time one of the components will be activated, it will impact favorably or not the other project components.

Want to know more about Project Management, you can visit the following Web sites/ Blogs:

1. A.J. maintains a Blog exclusively on Project Management. Moreover, A.J. devotes most of his professional activities to SMBs;

2. ProjectConnections.com is also a Web site exclusively dedicated to provide project management materials. Though ProjectConnections has a paid membership approach, many project management articles are available free of charge and should be sufficient to enhance your project management skills;

3. Finally, even if your future business commitments/ product launch is by no means as complex as launching the next orbital satellite, have a look at the NASA Web site on Project Management. It is very informative and if nothing else, it might be one way to get back some of your hard-paid tax money!