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Project Management 101

Prepared by Trent J. Keenan, PLS & Kristina Poulter An abstract of The Geoholics Podcast –
Episode #66.5
Are you a project manager?

Even if your title doesn’t include those words, chances are you’re
responsible for some elements of project management.

Like anything, project management is a skill set that can be practiced
and honed. It involves things like visualizing the steps ahead, getting
buy-in from key stakeholders, and managing team members and
vendors.
Glen Abramowski, Supplier Program Manager at Boeing, has spent the
last three decades in the realm of project management. Tony Mintrup is
an IT and project management professional at Klein Tools.

As guests on surveyor Kent Groh’s Geoholics podcast, the two men
broke down how they conceptualized project management from start to
finish.

Read on to hear their four-step thought process, and gain tips to help you whether you are running a survey firm or are considering a
proper project manager role.

Step 1: Project initiation

The first phase of kicking off a new project is the initiation phase. For Tony, this is what he calls the project charter.

“Number one for me is project charter. You’ve got to define what the scope of the project is. Who the stakeholders are, a rough timeline,
what your objectives are with the project. If you start with that, you can run any project,” he said.

Yes, there are certainly more steps that follow to enable pulling off the project itself. But if you are able to encapsulate the key details
summarized below, you’ll kick off the project in great shape.

1. Project goals
2. Project stakeholders
3. Project timeline
4. Project risks

There are lots of fancy project management organizational tools out there. But Tony’s tried-and-true system is to get the above four
details summarized in a 1-2 page Word document.

Use that document to get buy-in from all key stakeholders, getting their literal sign-off if necessary.
Tony also takes time in this first phase to think through any risks associated with the project.
Risks can include things like:

● Critical vendors
● Critical funding
● Critical resources
You need to think through what happens if you can’t get the specific vendor or funding that you need. What will be the Plan B course of
action?

Sometimes the project manager isn’t the one spearheading the very start of the project. If that’s the case, try to make sure you’re at
least in the proverbial room and looped into these key conversations. Otherwise, it will impact your ability to do your job well.

“Ideally, the project manager’s involved from the start. They’re the one that’s doing the initiation,” Tony said. “But if that’s not the case
and it’s handed to you, I do the same thing. I say, whoa, we don’t even have a charter yet. Let me see what you got here. Let me build the
charter, and let’s go from there and think through all these things because if we don’t, that’s the number one risk.”

22 The Nevada Traverse Vol.49, No.1, 2022