For larger, more complex projects (or programs), consider a temporary project office to manage the initiative. This enables you to take a high level overview ofthe project – plan, manage, communicate, execute and control the project from one central location. The project office becomes the place for everyone involved on the project to get information, share information, and review all project documentation. It can be a meeting place for all project team members. The project office can be an actual location (if the team is co-located) or provided via a virtual platform (I’ve used SharePoint successfully.)
The benefits of the temporary project office include:
- A “meeting” place for everyone working on the project. Project team members and stakeholders can use this temporary project office to ask questions, check in on the project status, brainstorm with others to solve problems, etc.
- A repository for all project information/documentation. If anyone needs information on the project – templates, updated project plan, reports, etc. – they can get it from the temporary project office. It will be the central communications location for the project.
- A central location for oversight of the project. The project manager can use this temporary project office to take a high level view off the project to ensure that the project keeps moving forward and stays on track.
A temporary project does not take much effort to set up and get running and provides tremendous value to the project manager managing larger, complex projects.
