Small-scale project management

For SME’s and micro-businesses, especially in the creative industries, the running of small projects may be an essential component of their core business.

Individuals and groups regularly use small-scale projects as a means to delivering a range of outcomes from organising a village fete to building a garden shed.

On small-scale projects it is not always possible to use standard quality management approaches due to limitations of time, budget and resources.

[2] Insight, intuition and creativity are indicators of quality that on a small-scale project are perhaps better evaluated on an instinctive level i.e. "is it good enough".

A level which does not overburden the project with unnecessary administration and does not commit scarce resources to a quality management approach that constricts the ability to be creative and innovate.

Risk assessment can easily be combined with an exception planning procedure to manage tolerance to changes in a project.

Such a tool offers a method for interrogating the project brief during the implementation phase and should be used as part of the planning and review process.

Thus the Project Manager is able to make judgements about change and can be given a degree of autonomy taking into account their level of experience.

Risk tools promote group discussion and reflection and are iterative across project life cycles or time boxes.

A template for a simple set of tools which are the optimum required for the management of a small-scale project would include: A final issue of some importance is the need for underpinning support from the host institution or organisation.