Know the purpose and goals for the project, and know how necessary resources -- labor, funds, materials -- should be allocated. Outline steps and priorities to carry the project through completion. Establish timelines for each stage of the process, especially an overall project completion deadline. Establish milestones to track the status of the project.
Select team members and leaders the knowledge and experience to handle a project. Assign a leader to to each team to ensure each team has a clear objective. Communicate with team leaders so they maintain focus on goals and deadlines. Motivate teams by offering rewards for work completed ahead of schedule. Management should make sure a project is moving by requesting updates and expense reports. Teams leaders should update managers when goals are met. Team leaders should contact management ahead of time if they think additional funding may be needed.
Many projects involve more than one team working on separate aspects of a project. Know how to multitask and effectively use resources. Select the team leaders who realize each team is working toward a common goal. Know how much work a team can handle. Don't give a team more projects than you feel it can handle to prevent a team from being forced to switch between too many projects, causing missed completion dates.
Solve problems that arise in a timely, cost-effective manner. Reviews during a project may reveal problems. Appropriately analyze the problem and offer a realistic timeline for the problem to be addressed. Troubleshoot the problem in a timely, cost-effective manner, updating all of the project stakeholders on a regular basis with regard to the status of the problem. Avoid taking shortcuts to solve problems, as shortcuts often lead to other problems.