The truth is you can’t afford not to. Because in a crisis, you have a critical situation that has to be addressed with limited time and resources. You can’t afford to make mistakes, says Stanley E. Portny, author of Project Management for Dummies ((Hungry Minds.) And acting under pressure and emotion--the two characteristics of crises--practically guarantees that mistakes will occur.

The other truth is, that if you could break this endless cycle, you’d be able to do these projects and more with fewer resources, in less time and with less chaos. Instead of management by the seat of your pants, you could do project management--three basic steps that can make the difference between success and failure of your next project. This doesn’t mean you have to create a bunch of charts and graphs. It does mean you:

• Plan: Figure out why you’re doing the project, what results you want to achieve, create schedules and estimate the resources you’d need.

• Organize: Assign everyone’s role and responsibilities.

• Set up controls: Confirm everyone’s expected performance, monitor how things are going and the results, fix problems as they arise and keep everyone informed on how things are going, problems and any revisions in the plan.

No matter what your job, you probably handle projects--making project management something to seriously consider. Projects can be something as large as installing a new subway system that costs one billion dollars and takes 10 years to complete or the preparation of a monthly sales report which takes one day to do, according to Portny.

Projects can be large or small. They could involve hundreds of people, such as the training of your entire company on diversity. Or a project might just involve you wanting to create a new filing system in your office.

Projects always have specific outcomes and dates when the work begins and ends. They also have required amounts of people, funds, equipment, facilities and information--and all of these affect each other. The more thoroughly you plan and manage these, the more likely you are to succeed.

But, you may be saying, your projects require creativity and are unpredictable. Well, some projects are more predictable than others. But people who are awaiting the results still have expectations about what they’ll get and when.

All this advance planning and organizing can help ensure that you’ll meet those expectations, insists Portny. When you try these steps--no matter what size your project--you’ll get the following:

• no more wasted time with unnecessary activities or making up for something you forgot

• doing activities in the right order so people don’t sit around waiting for results to proceed

• ensuring people do things correctly the first time

• anticipating possible problems and work to avoid them or prepare to deal with them efficiently.

Project management does take extra time. But the time is more than saved in the long run, when potential problems are avoided and expectations are met, says Portny. The most successful people--the ones who move up in their careers and are recognized for getting things done well--have mastered project management skills. Whatever your title, today it’s a necessary skill.

© by Andrea Kay