Project Management for an Office Manager or Executive Assistant

We will look at many different frameworks for project management. This framework looks at the conditions that are required to succeed in a project. However, big or small your project is, it is good to check that you meet the 7S model.

Crucial characteristics of ‘successful’ project management environments can be seen below. This is known as the 7S model.

Project management differs in scope from on-going operational management and they demand their own specialised skills and techniques. These specific skills will then be embedded in the wider management environment. The success of the project will depend on its success a range of considerations that will be familiar to you in general terms. These considerations are referred in Maylor’s 7S, which is based upon the McKinsey 7S, these are laid out below.

• Structure

• Style

• Staff

• Skills

• Stakeholders

• Strategy

• Systems

These may seem like general characteristics of management and organisations that are successful.

Below they are explained in the context of a project.

Staff and stakeholders

The most important member of the project staff is the project manager, PM, whose skills are crucial. They perhaps need to have the broadest set of skills. Then there are the members of the project team. Project team members can consist of both permanent allocated staff and those who have a temporary or part-time commitment alongside other responsibilities.

Stakeholders are people who have an interest in or are affected by the operation of the project or its outcomes. Their attitudes, perceptions and influence will vary and they must all be properly identified and dealt with if the project is to be a success.

Structure

Several aspects of structure are important in project management.

(a) The structure of the project itself must be considered i.e the project lifecycle.

(b) Project planning.

(c) Building and managing project teams could require a type of matrix structure.

(d) Follow a formalised and structured approach e.g. PRINCE2.

The project may be regarded as a system in itself, with its own inputs and outputs or, probably more usefully, as a subsystem of the overall system that is the organisation.

In this case you will need to look at project control systems and any type of available, related model.

Strategy

Just as the project system must mesh with the wider organisational system, so the strategy employed to bring the project to a successful conclusion. It is essential that the project strategy compliments the organisation and that the project supports the organisation's overall structure. In particular, the object of the project must support the organisation's strategy, in order to be truly beneficial.

In this model, style can be referred to as being the same as culture. Culture is a very important contributing factor to how a project should be planned and completed. It is also important that you appreciate that there a potential distinction between project operations and continuing operation’s culture and, likewise, this can be a potential source of benefit and conflict.