Cooking for Kim - or the minimum level of project management you need if you want to actually get projects done

Last fall, my longtime colleague Kim Snyder and I taught a six week course on Project Management for Techsoup. We LOVE teaching project management and it was a wonderful course with terrific students. We think of Project Management as a super power skill in the workplace, but it's a skill that is not practiced consistently in the vast majority of organizations with whom we work. And this makes perfect sense. Skill improvement comes through repetition and feedback and, in most organizations, there are just not that many opportunities to do a proper project.

Running a full-fledged PMO (project management office) is well beyond the reach of most nonprofits and wouldn't make sense for the vast majority of nonprofits anyway. But we think the endemic lack of project management is a big obstacle in many organizations and is preventing important work from being done and being done well.

We would like to introduce a possible solution, something we are calling MVPM, or "Minimum Viable Project Management."

In the tech startup world, there is a concept called a "minimum viable product" or MVP. It comes from the book Lean Startup, by Eric Reis, and is used to describe the minimum viable "thing" you need to establish whether or not an idea may have fit, meaning will it work, will it find customers.

MVPM

Minimum Viable Project Management is, in our view, the MINIMUM project management you need in order for a project to succeed. It's just five (5) things.

1. Project Lead - this is the person who is responsible for delivering the project
2. Customer - this is the person for whom the project is being done. They will say, at the end, whether or not the project is completed and successful
3. Problem(s) to be solved - There must be at least one (1) clearly defined problem this project is intended to address
4. Deliverable(s) - Defined outputs of the project
5. Definition of Success - How will we know whether or not the project has succeeded

In our view, each of these five (5) items is non-negotiable. If you do not have them, you do not have a project. That's OK, lots of things are NOT projects.

When I go to brush my teeth at night, it's not a project. I just do it. It's important. It's a good thing to do. It's great that I brush my teeth.

Brushing my teeth is not a project.

But if I cook dinner for Kim:

1. I am the project lead
2. Kim is my customer
3. The problem is that Kim is hungry
4. The deliverable is the food
5. Success is achieved if Kim's hunger is satiated by the food I cooked (Perhaps a rating of how much Kim enjoyed the food is an additional metric...)

The MVPM Framework

So that's the WHAT of MVPM. What about the HOW?

For the HOW of MVPM, let's look at the "Minimum Viable Project Management Framework."

So, putting it together, in order to initiate a project, we must have the five (5) minimum components to start. Then, we follow the process outline in the MVPM framework.

1. Identify - Joshua (project lead) will be making dinner for Kim (customer). Problem is that Kim is hungry. Deliverable is dinner. Success is Kim not being hungry anymore. Additional success is Kim enjoying dinner and maybe even referring Joshua to someone else as a good cook.
2. Plan - Joshua learns when Kim wants dinner, any constraints (dietary restrictions), budget, etc.
3. Perform - Joshua plans the menu.
4. Iterate - Joshua runs menu by Kim for feedback. Kim says she doesn't like eggplant, so Joshua swaps out eggplant for spinach.
5. Complete - Joshua serves Kim dinner.
6. Review - Joshua and Kim discuss what went well and what could be improved for next time.

This is NOT rocket science. It is doable. By anyone. And it makes a difference.

Just five things:

1. Project Lead - This is the person who is responsible for delivering the project
2. Customer - This is the person for whom the project is being done - they will say, at the end, whether or not the project is completed and successful
3. Problem(s) to be solved - There must be at least one (1) clearly defined problem this project is intended to address
4. Deliverable(s) - Defined outputs of the project
5. Definition of Success - How will we know whether or not the project has succeeded

If you do not have these five things, that is OK, it may very well be an important thing to do, but it's not a project.

You are brushing your teeth.