What's one simple thing that can improve projects and/or project management?

R - A - C - I and a project plan (I'm still SHOCKED at how many PMs avoid using real project plans!). So that is 2 items.

Responsible, Accountable (or approval), Consulted, and Informed.

Build a RACI chart, INCLUDING for the project manager themselves!

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Having a RACI chart creates the underlying requirement for all of the deliverables to be defined and assigned. For a project plan to be in place and managed, etc. Basically it creates an environment where a PM and the project team are both responsible with clear lines of accountability and delivery.

What I have seen over the years is this, when you first start down this path, as with all new things, it will be inadequate. But using the RACI chart and having a project plan will quickly evolve into a useful and meaningful process exercise.

Some PMs who are not that skilled will avoid a project plan altogether and others will build an overly detailed monstrosity with thousands of lines that no one could ever effectively manage. That overly complex plan makes a great "hedge" to hide behind, or from personality or lack of experience they feel the need to micromanage everything.

The RACI chart together with a project plan (no matter how bad) quickly points out an unmanageable project plan and creates the need to adjust the plan. It also creates more direct involvement and accountability for all of the parties, across all deliverables and project activities.

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For more insight on the whole PM thing I've experiened on complex projects see:

SAP Project Manager – SAP Program Manager, Lessons from the Trenches
http://www.r3now.com/sap-project-manager-sap-program-manager-lessons-from-the...

Effective Results from SAP Project Managers – SAP Program Managers
http://www.r3now.com/effective-results-from-sap-project-managers-sap-program-...

If I had to pick one thing,... a clear articulation from the outset to the team on how their work will impact the business and the strategy (degree of definition variable) for the team to fulfill that potential.

Sure, managing the blocking and tackling is important but if your players' heads are not in the game and the game-plan is not well understood, you can kiss that win goodbye. (Sorry, I'm clearly reveling in the heart of football season.)

In a word: LEADERSHIP

The problem is so systemic, it’s embedded in the name “project management”. Project management as a practice is suffering from a lack of solid leadership. Can you imagine if you ran a company with managers alone and no leadership? How successful would that company be? This is exactly what we’ve done with project management.

Project management training is all about the logistical and mechanical aspects of management, but when a project team assembles they also need strong and effective leadership. They need someone to take ownership, make key decisions, and set direction.

MAI-Measurement,Analysis & Improvement

Always make sure the project is and remain aligned with the Enterprise (or Customer) Goals and Strategies.

Engage at all levels, overcome inertia.

Many good tips here already, mine is make sure folks are focused on the next real, tangible action they need to take on any given task. If the next real thing they need to do is not clear, it delays progress.

the removal of egos

Be courageous enough to tell senior leaders the truth about their responsibility to lead and promote the successful outcome, be diligent enough to continuously remind people that you can't ignore the end user and expect to be successful, be tenacious enough to call out the real risks and don't let the group shuffle problems forward in a collusion of 'we'll fix it later'.

FOCUS. With everybody on the team having a "clear mind"
before beginning the project and everyday for that matter,
things will flow more smoothly. Obstacles will easily be seen,
solutions will be better thought of, with greater coordination
and plans are more flexible and accurate that actions
would not take long to get those results...
in short, a more efficient system.

This is @TheGreatLight.

Cloud software ;¬)

While there are a plethora of tools and techniques aimed at project management (and at the bottom lines of the firms selling and supporting those tools), I think a good case can be made for maximizing the chances of project success through the kind of open-minded pre-technology analysis that clearly identifies and describes what is really being attempted and in what environment the attempt is being made.

Most projects do an inadequate job of figuring out just what is in the mix of requirements, resources, constraints, impacts and risks that must be addressed as the need becomes plan becomes project becomes solution. Indeed, the rush to technological considerations is at times so frenzied that the project ends up failing to even address the real challenges (you know... if your most favorite tool is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail to you.)

In today's world, with the incredible evolution of technology, the real questions for most major projects are increasingly organizational, human, procedural, cost and timing-related. Understanding all of this takes time and the involvement of every impacted group within and outside the organization. A true solution cannot be based on a few weeks of interviews by the IT group nor can it be force-fitted into protocols like six-sigma or lean (which are very powerful but aimed at a very narrow slice of change.) Indeed, Peter Checkland's obscure Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) may come closer to being appropriate in many cases.

Interestingly, the same situation obtained in the early days of computing and IT (mid-60s for me when it was called "data processing") when the challenges were just as great but the technology was so limited (IBM's top business mainframe, the 7074 had a 3/4 mhz processor and 100K character-limit memory) that comprehensive and searching analysis and design had to be done to make up for what we all knew technology could not do.

You might say we have come full circle, but in many cases haven't quite realized it yet.

Attention to detail. Given the demands on everyone's time, simple to understand, but often difficult to execute.

A good communication plan that cover:

- WBS
- Schedule
- Metrics of quality
- Status Report

the execution of this plan is 90% of the project manager time. A good leadership with the team.
The right tool for the project and resource management needs.

One thing, but it's not simple, not quick, and not inexpensive is to invest in building alignment, trust, and whole-brained interaction in the team(s) responsible for the project's execution and acountable fo its outcome(s).

MAI-Measurement,Analysis & Improvement

One thing, answered as an entrepreneur who was stuck in corporate jobs for the first half of her career, is for all team members to keep their eyes on the goal. Projects, especially those that involve a large team, can easily get sidetracked by meetings, research, consensus-building, and reporting. A fair portion of that can amount to busy-work that greatly prolong the process. If team members keep asking themselves along the way, "How does what I'm doing contribute to achieving the goal of this project?" that goal can be accomplished much more quickly and efficiently. Perhaps a poster with the project's goal should be placed at the front of the room at every meeting, with small versions made for each team member's work area. However you need to keep that end goal in mind, do it...just don't turn that into another side-tracking project!

For me only one simple and formost Increasing Knowledge and skill of the Project Team Member including the Project Manager.

Hire a proven leader with experience in several types of businesses and many technologies.

It all comes down to Accountability. What needs to be done? Who is responsible for doing it? When does it need to be accomplished? How will we monitor whether it does in fact get done on schedule?

There are many tools available to do this (with varied levels of sophistication). And other issues come into play involving budgets, resource allocations, etc. But they are all meaningless unless someone specifically needs to be accountable for each key task.

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts! There is some really good stuff here. And, depending on the reader's particular project or organizational context, one of these may be more applicable than another. In any case, I enjoyed the way each of you distilled your experiences into an essential "one simple thing" while, between the lines, allowing your deeper, hard-earned wisdom to show through.

I've also been collecting answers to this question in the form of full-blown guest blog posts at my website and in a LinkedIn discussion group. I've just pulled everything together and am sharing it all (your above comments with attribution included) as a free e-book/anthology titled: "One Simple Thing to Improve Projects or PM." It's available in Kindle (mobi), NOOK/Apple iPad (epub), & PDF formats. Here's the link to the article/downloads. Feel free to download any or all file versions and to copy/share this link or the e-book files with anyone. http://michaelgreer.biz/?p=4051

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your wise & insightful contributions.

While this may sound heartless in today's economy, quickly firing under-achievers will boost morale and do wonders for team productivity.

The answer to your questions is simple the Project Management optimize resources use expresed in low cost and time.But only the good quality of the Project Team and Project Manager optimize the Project Management Process.This quality is expresed in Agile Knowledge and Management Capabilities and Skills.