Real World Project Management

Have any of you ever heard of a little thursday party called, “Recess?”

For those of you who have not, I will quickly give you an idea of what this party is.  Recess takes place at a small venue known as Barn & Company (on the corner of Sheffield and Wrightwood).  It is labeled simply as, “the party,” because that is what is it is – a party.  Myself along with a few other young gentlemen began Recess just a few short weeks ago; however, it has been growing and growing each and every week.  This particular event is no where near the size of a nation wide music festival, yet it requires just as rigorous planning.

Every thursday night there is a standard that needs to be met.  This standard would fall apart if proper planning was not set into motion during the weeks prior.  Planning, scheduling, and controlling are three crucial aspects in this process.  When I sit down with my partners and discuss each week, we first begin by planning.  This included assigning specifics roles to each individual involved,  and setting goals (such as how many people we aim to have come out to the event).  After this takes place, we then schedule.  We write out a list of deadlines that we hold ourselves and each other accountable for meeting each week.  For example, this past week we decided to bring confetti cannons to the bar – something to add a little extra kick.  My partner, Max, was assigned the task of getting the confetti cannons.  He was given a specific amount of money, of which we budgeted throughout the planning process, and was to purchase the confetti canons by a designated date.  He carried this task out successfully (if you were wondering).  Following all of this, we began the controlling phase.  This also included monitoring budgets.  Money was initially allocated to each individual for supplies, and the supplies purchased by that individual had to fit within the budgetary restrictions.

This process does not always go smoothly though.  There are times where we in fact fall behind, or a wrench gets thrown into the system.  In these cases we need to restructure our original plans and deadlines.  In these cases, project management techniques help tremendously.  When we initially sit down and write out our list of tasks we note each task that can be done before any other task starts.  For example, when we go to purchase supplies, we set a specific deadline.  However, something such as this has a lot of slack because we just need to ensure that the supplies are purchased before 9:00 pm on a thursday evening (the whole point being though, that we do not wait until the last minute to run around and get supplies).

This event, Recess, has proven to be a prime example of project planning and management.  The phases and techniques will surely help in future ventures as well.

 

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