Day 20 Methodology

All right, our last day of project thinking and we've talked about objectives starting with the end in mind, milestones so you can measure progress and get buy in and developing a communication plan so that everybody knows what's going on and you can move quickly. Today we're talking a little bit about methodologies and I'm just going to tell you this is all opinion because certainly if you're doing a big project or a formal project, you need a methodology and a structure about how you're going to operate that project. But when we're talking about projects that maybe you're doing for career development or maybe a personal project, you don't need a methodology. What we talked about, objectives, milestones, communication plan are great tools that will get you a long way. And then what I think you're going to do is think about how your personal management style and your personal leadership style will guide the project. If you want a good model, I like the Agile Software methodology or Manifesto which talks about how they value certain principles over others. Not that those other principles aren't important, but they just are going to choose to value certain aspects higher than others. And I think that same thing will happen to you when you're applying project thinking. You will naturally put certain attributes or behaviors or ways you're going to structure the project above others. And making that a little bit more deliberate, a little bit more visible to people will help them understand why you're doing things the way you are. And pretty soon you'll start crystallizing a methodology. As you get more advanced in projects, you can research and build tools and build expertise. But for now, objectives, milestones and communication plan will be three great tools that will help you have success in projects. I look forward to hearing how it goes for you and I thank you for this week of project thinking. See you soon.