Feeling Overwhelmed? Outsource Executive Projects.

You don’t give away your power or control when you outsource a project or scope of work. You simply pass along the required responsibility and time for attention to the details.

Outsourcing allows you to focus on business issues at hand while having the details managed by experts who are not full-time employees of your organization. Delegate special tasks that require more time than you can afford, a special set of skills that you lack in-house, and those that can cost less when outsourced. Redirect your resources through outsourcing to make efficient use of labor, capital and resources.

Organizations that outsource are often motivated by

• Cost savings
• Desire for change
  
• Higher quality work
• Special knowledge or experience
• Staffing issues
• Restructuring
  
• Time pressure

Executive Project Managment

When we talk about project management, we’re referring to a project that is a one-time event or an activity that your office or organization is considering. It might be a temporary effort to build awareness or capacity. It might be a trial project to study the process and outcome and determine whether or not to incorporate the project into your organization’s regular scope of work. It might be a collaborative project that will require time and process to bring diverse agendas into forward focus. It might require a skill set that you don’t have in-house right now.

While the scope of work varies greatly from industry to industry, the basic steps in project management are similar to those in problem-solving:

1. Define the problem
2. Weigh the options
3. Choose a path
4. Implement
5. Evaluate

Generally, project management is identifying, organizing, allocating and managing the resources (people, time, money, space, energy, communication and materials) to complete a clearly defined project within a defined scope of time, quality and budget.

"I admire Joan's strategic thinking, her marketing knowledge and
her perseverance. I first worked Joan when I co-chaired the Big Pig Gig
and she led the marketing and publicity committee with a budget
of just $5000. Her strategy was new and bold to many of us on
the steering committee, but it worked! Joan's enthusiasm, energy
and collaborative approach to problem solving inspired the team
and created awareness beyond anything we originally imagined. "

Kaup Pender works closely with clients to define the project and to allocate and manage the resources.

Traditionally, the defined limitations of a project are scope, time and cost. The scope is what must be done to produce the project’s end result. Time refers to the deadline, the amount of time available to complete the project. Cost, of course, is the money required or budget allocated to the project.

These factors have a three-way inverse and often competing relationship. Increased scope often means increased costs and time. A short timeline could mean a reduced scope of work. A tight budget could dictate increased time and reduced scope. Each project has it own parameter and an ongoing scenario that shifts as the project in often a work in process.

The discipline of project management is about providing the tools and techniques that enable the entire project team (not just the project manager) to organize work and resources. Most successful projects have one thing in common – they are adequately defined and documented, with clear objectives and deliverables. These documents are a mechanism to align sponsors, clients and the project team’s expectations.

A good project manager must be able to envision the entire project from start to finish. Stephen Covey advises, “Begin with the end in mind”. The real skill comes in being flexible with all the curve balls that are thrown between start and finish.

Kaup Pender Associates will work with you to make you special project a success. Contact us at jkaup@kauppender.com or 513.421.9453.