Project management simple checklists

Among the project management tools at our disposal, checklists are probably the easiest and most productive way to consistently build their work. Checklists can be useful in almost any area of human activity. This is especially true for those structures where repetitiveness and systematical form the basis of the workflow. However, they are still not used frequently in planning and project management.

Below is a high-level checklist that can be applied during the project planning phase:

1. Have the interests and needs of all stakeholders been addressed and taken into account?
2. Is there an approved set of goals and objectives for a project that determines its scope, schedule and resources/budget?
3. Have the extent of possible acceptable changes in workload, calendar, resources and budget have been determined?
4. Have clear criteria been set for how the project's goals will be met?
5. Are roles and areas of responsibility defined for all members of the project team?
6. Has a carefully detailed work decomposition structure (WBS) been created (with the participation of key project team members) ?
7. Is there a realistic calendar that takes into account possible options for getting out of critical situations and delaying deadlines? Is it built on the basis of WBS and is it optimized according to the project parameters?
8. What are the key parameters that make it easier to track key events, completed phases, external add-ons, and project results that have been included in the calendar plan?
9. Has a weekly project download been identified and agreed with project team members and managers?
10. Have rapid response strategies been developed in the event of major negative factors that threaten the success of the project?
11. Has a change management system been developed? Has it been agreed with the major stakeholders?
12. Is there a clear project management structure that clearly identifies the role of sponsors and expectations about the frequency and format of reports?

One of the features of checklists is that they can be greatly expanded by an internal hierarchy. In this case, a lower-level checklist can make it much easier for any of the checks (e.g. key-to-key expectations or risk management). PMI, training centers and PMO would do well to promote the use of checklists more. Project managers would be much more comfortable to use this method instead of reading a huge amount of methodical literature. Practitioner managers love this method because it helps to improve quality and consistently build progress.

 

Sample Project Management Checklist