LetchWood Business Management.           

     Project Mgt.                 
 

Project management can be a daunting prospect, particularly for the smaller organisation. So we have two objectives here, the first is to put project planning and project delivery on a more formal footing that will make it easier for the council to prioritise what it wants to do. The second is to allow the council to support the clerk in an appropriate manner that respects the different roles of Office and Council. You can do this by introducing a simple project planning system. This is not intended to be a complex or difficult affair, it is simply a way of dividing projects into simple phases and making sure the right person tackles the right part.

The distinction is important because there is a very clear difference in the strategic role of the Council and the operational role of the Clerk. Understanding this distinction will make it easy to manage projects in a structured way and make it clear how the Council can support the Clerk without taking part in operational issues.

One of the main failings of project management is lack of planning in the early stages. In other words the desired outcomes are not thought through, or there is no clear goal. To get round this, it is helpful to put more thought into the planning stage and formulate clear goals and objectives that will be considered by the Council. This is the strategic part of the project and it belongs to the Councillors. Once strategy has been agreed, it will become easier to hand the work over to the Office for delivery. To see how this works in practice think about the project having three phases; the business plan, the project plan and the project delivery: to take each in turn look at the tabs on the left.

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To download a printable version of our project management guide click here
 

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Last modified: 08/31/11