Managing Small Projects

Large companies have large projects. They put together a team, hire a project manager, get the latest project management software and run it on expensive equipment which outputs large-format PERT and GANT charts to show progress along critical paths. In a small business, you will not be able to and should not even want to take this approach. You want to use standard spreadsheet software like Excel to track the project and you want to do it in such a way that it doesn't take a lot of time or computer expertise.

Let's take a simple example: you want to set up a network so that you and four employees can share data, share the company's Internet connection and share printers. You start your analysis by breaking down what is required to get to your goal and you break it down until you have a series of manageable jobs.

To get to your goal, you need the equipment, the cabling, the Internet connection and training. For the equipment, you'll need the computers, one or two printers and a server. For each package which you buy, you'll need to prepare a spec, get quotations, place the order, get a confirmation, monitor progress, arrange for delivery and installation, and set up each component. Finally the whole system has to be put into service. You can break these jobs down further if you like. For example, the "get quotations" job can be broken down into the following: identify potential suppliers, send out the spec, follow up request, evaluate prices and choose supplier; the "identify potential suppliers" job can be broken down into list past suppliers, add new suppliers from yellow pages and newspaper ads, phone suppliers to check if they will quote, prepare final list of potential suppliers with contact information. For a project this size, you will probably not need these extra levels of break down but the idea is to get to a level where the individual jobs are easy to manage in the sense that the cost, time required and who will do it are clear.

Once you're comfortable with your breakdown, enter all your planning into an Excel workbook. Use a sheet for each major job category, list the jobs in the first column and list who is responsible for getting the work done in column two. Use column three for the projected time each job will take, column four for actual time as the work is done, column five for projected cost and column six for actual cost. Make Excel add up the columns for each category and insert a summary sheet at the beginning which will show totals across all the sheets. Excel also has a sophisticated graphing feature which allows you to show progress and actuals versus projected values on pre-programmed graphs. If you are not experienced enough with Excel to set this up or don't have the time, anyone with basic Excel knowledge should be able to do this so ask your people or send someone on a course.

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