A good friend at work recently asked me for help. “How do you project-ify things?” She asked. Outside of meeting with her and coaching her through her first few projects, here are some of the things I shared with her.

Making a project: Why, how, what, when, and who

To turn something into a project, start by defining your goals (the why) and scope (how much/how long), create a detailed project plan (how and what) with a timeline and budget (when/cost), assemble your team (who, for what), and then initiate the project (decision from above or the team).

To fill in the blanks on some of these particulars, I recommend seeking answers to the following questions.

Questions to answer when defining a project

1. What are your goals and objectives? Why is this important?

   • Goals are your specific outcomes for the project, defined as: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

   • These are the results you want to achieve by doing the thing.

   • If you aren’t clear on this, then you shouldn’t undertake the project.

2. How will you know you’re successful? What are your measures of success?

   • Break down your goals further, or identify other KPIs that will be relevant to understanding success or failure.

3. Who should be involved and in what capacity?

   • Clarify stakeholders and roles.

   • Who should be involved and how?

   • Who will be responsible, accountable, consulted, or informed? (RACI)

4. What kind of budget do you need? What other resources do you need? How long will this take?

   • Define your budget or needs

   • Time, money, resources

   • Rationale

5. What are the major milestones, deliverables, or project dependencies?

   • What are the key milestones when something should be celebrated, measured, or communicated?

   • What is actually produced when you reach a milestone?

   • Do you need a Work Back Schedule (WBS)?

6. What would the overall timeline and schedule look like? How will you ensure that people are accountable for it?

   • Whether it’s a project timeline, roadmap, or Gantt, you need to map out as much as you can with what you have.

   • What kind of rituals or review cycles will you use to ensure the schedule is adhered to?

   • A Gantt chart can help outline key timelines and dependencies.

7. How will you communicate your plan, as well as any changes to it, once it’s in motion?

   • How many project-related meetings do you need to have? What are their goals? Could they be async?

   • How will you manage project status updates? Where will you share them?

   • What tool will you use to manage the project and communicate progress and updates?

I hope this helps some of the folks out there who are new to project management and looking to get started!