Now is the season of fireworks and bonfires. The literally bonfire is great fun for a family evening out and a good opportunity to get rid of any scrap wood you have hanging around. The figurative bonfire, in this case a business burning through of time, energy and money is much less fun.

Many projects run the risk of becoming a bonfire, not least IT projects. However, we’ve identified some common areas to focus on to try and keep your next project on track and in check.

Let’s dive in.

If you take one thing away from this blog let it be the need to plan properly when you are setting out on a project. All of the next things that we talk about can be to an extent negated if proper planning is implemented.

Be clear on what your objective is and the specific steps you need to take to get there. Just having those two things clear in your mind, and written down, will help ensure that you don’t go into your project blind and end up flailing from one thing to the next.

Take some time to identify the risks that might arise from your project. Risks can come in many forms and will be specific to the project that you have in mind.

It’s best to map out possible risks with multiple colleagues as they will help you to identify issues that you don’t immediately see. You can do an exercise as basic as just brainstorming on a bit of paper, or a more thorough SWOT analysis.

Your project will be more successful if you ensure that you have the right buy in. This buy in should ideally happen at all levels of your business from management all the way down, especially if it’s a project that is going to affect everyone.

Take the time to explain what the project is and what it is seeking to achieve and give the opportunity for people to ask questions. Ideally put in time to discuss different teams as this will help people feel engaged and could also help identify risks you don’t spot yourself.

This final point goes back to the advice on ensuring you have a good plan in place. It is very easy for scope creep to occur in projects. If you’ve done the work before hand to put a plan in place then with luck you should have a clear idea of what your project is doing (and by extension what it won’t do).

Be very quick to pump the breaks if your project seems to be expanding beyond what it was originally intended to do, as its unlikely new aspects will be planned in the same way and will bring their own risks.

One of the best things that you can do to ensure that all of these risk don’t run away unchecked is to work with IT professionals who are well versed in what you are looking to achieve.

WebbyTech is here to help in that respect and you can find out more about the specific support and services that we offer here. Alternatively contact us directly for a no obligations conversation.