By Simran Kaur Wadhon

This is a transcription in English of Part 1 of the Project Management Simplified talk on Modlingua's YouTube channel, covering the basics of project management and how they apply to translation work. Watch the full talk on Modlingua's YouTube channel.

What is project management?

Today we are going to understand what project management is, and we will also understand how we apply this concept in translation management. In the first part we deal with the basics of project management, and in the second part we will deploy that into the translation business and translation activities.

So what is project management? It deals with converting a vision, a dream or a need into reality. If you have an idea and plan to execute that idea, you create a project; it has a beginning and an end, it has some scope of work, and it has some level of performance and quality, and it certainly involves cost. With time, cost and scope, one thing always comes into the picture: quality, the prime factor. A project can have two characteristics: it is temporary, with a starting and finishing point, and it is unique; every project is different.

When we talk of project management, it is a technique of understanding problems and needs, and of controlling the use of resources, cost, time, scope and quality. When you manage resources, cost and time, define scope, and do all these activities with quality control in place, that is called management. But how does it become project management? Because in project management you apply certain knowledge, skills, tools and techniques in order to execute projects and meet stakeholder requirements. The need is to start a project; the expectation is to understand each and every part and effectively execute them in order to meet the task with quality merit.

Why companies use project management

Companies use project management for many activities, but primarily they want to bring effectiveness into the organisation. They want to define what the project is and on what terms they are agreeing with the customer. They have to assess the resources for which they are planning to execute a project. They have to estimate the cost and make proposals accordingly. They also have to estimate a schedule: a plan for how and when the project is going to be delivered. They have to allocate the right resources for delivery of the work in time. They need to have an understanding of the risk and failure involved; if they are able to cover those risks and failures, it is always good to go ahead, otherwise they need to create a backup plan. And last, and equally important, is to maintain communication with the team, not in a haphazard manner but in a planned way; the idea is to maintain a communication channel.

There are certain keywords that always come into the picture, and the first is "why". Why are you doing the project? What is the management planning, and what are the success criteria? If somebody is paying you for something, they expect you to do something, and that must be defined. Once this definition has been agreed between the person who is doing the project and the person who is sponsoring it, we have to define who is going to do it, when it is going to happen, how you are going to do it, and how much it is going to cost. Once this basic framework of the project is in place, we can call it a blueprint; we are ready to go.

Common challenges

It is not as simple as it appears. Billions of dollars get lost because of the mismanagement of projects. Project management is important not only for business; it comes into factory production, infrastructure development, road and metro development, everywhere. And all of these have equally challenging points.

The first challenge is an accurate definition of the project. Many times people tell you, "we have a project and we want to do it", and unfortunately many times we say yes without knowing what we have to do, and all those points are discovered once you start doing the project. For example, if a project that we have not planned properly is costing $50,000 and we simply start it, we may come to know that the cost has doubled to $100,000. Those who have good purchasing power may have the capacity to extend their budget, but that can happen only when they are doing it under their own direct supervision. Suppose instead it is a contractor who has taken up the work; when the new and unexpected demands of the client start coming into the project after a certain phase, the contractor will run into trouble, and people will panic. This panicking has to be avoided, and it is avoided when we have made a detailed plan of the scope and the basics of the project.

Other challenges include a scope that is not tightly controlled, which hurts the return on investment; a lack of visibility about resources and the demands on them; an inability to review existing projects against changing priorities, because many times the client's priority changes mid-project; the time factor; a lack of communication between stakeholders; and a lack of understanding of quality assurance and documentation. All of these result in failure.

The project management process

In the points I have just given, there are four phases that must come into the picture. After you enter, you initiate the process; you plan; once you plan, you execute; once the execution is done, you close. So the terms we must understand are: entry, initiating, planning, executing, closing; above all of these, monitoring and controlling of all the processes; and at last, when everything closes, you exit the project.

Planning is the most important phase. In planning you define each and every aspect of the project, because planning matters not only for budgeting, time management, resource management and quality management, but also for the final aspect of delivery. Who is delivering? Who is selecting? At the time of getting those deliveries, who is going to check that everything has been met? If there is any issue, who is going to control it, who is going to give feedback, and how will that feedback be implemented? All of these come under planning.

After planning we enter scheduling. Scheduling means phases of development, phases of delivery, phases of quality control, phases of feedback mechanism, phases of payment, and so on. Scheduling of every phase of work is important, and it should not be decided unilaterally; it has to be done in consultation with the client as well as the person doing the work, because unilateral scheduling can create big problems in execution.

Once scheduling has been done we need control, because schedules and plans are never 100 percent fixed; they all have certain open ends. People try to be as precise as possible, and for that precision there has to be a control mechanism, so that if someone is lagging behind they can be helped or pressed to speed up. If one schedule is delayed, it can delay the whole project, so monitoring and controlling is very important, not only from the client's perspective but also for the people executing the work. Once the controlling is done and everything goes smoothly, the work goes into delivery mode, and once the delivery occurs, it closes the project.

Closing and payment

Closing means you deliver the work in time as per schedule. If there is a gap in the schedule, you consult with the client; if any penalty is involved in delaying the project, the client is informed. Once the work has been done you raise the invoice and you are paid. Many people believe that once the project is done, the project is closed, but closing does not happen unless and until you have received the payment.

It is always good to remain in good relations with the client and to clearly define the payment terms: 10 days, 15 days, one month, and so on. Generally, in India and globally, one month is accepted. In many places it may extend to 60 days, and in some even to 90 days; depending on your comfort level you may agree or not. There are companies that work even on a six-month basis, so you have to clearly understand where you stand, and whether you are in a position to work on credit for 60, 90 or 180 days. There are very good clients, including government ones, where you may have to accept that the payment will come only when the closing of accounts comes; it may take a year. There have been times when I received my payments after one year. If you keep panicking and writing mails or messages to the client after the deadline is crossed, that does not help; you need to create a balance first. Getting payment into your account is one of the toughest tasks.

Knowledge areas and documentation

Apart from what I have explained, the most important points that come into the picture for project management are Project Cost Management, Quality Management, Human Resource Management, Communication Management and Risk Management. You have to cover the risks; if you cannot cover the risks and you take a project, you are at the mercy of the client. There is also Procurement Management. And if there is a sudden change, for instance a management change or big changes from your end, you have to be prepared for all of this.

Most importantly, everything must be documented. The moment you have documented everything, you have the opportunity to go through all your documents clearly and understand where you stand; at the same time it will help you in quality management and continuous improvement.

How do we implement all these activities in our system? For implementing there is another term, Project Integration Management, which means you introduce these points into your system; only then will you be in a position to bring project management into your system and make it run smoothly. The most important part, as explained, is documentation, and the most important document is the project charter. A charter means the broad outlines of your project: What is the purpose? What is the scope? How are you going to do it? Who is going to do it? How much time will it take? All these points are included in the plan; then you plan, you execute, and execution is done by controlling your project flow. If needed, you integrate changes and synchronise all the activities, and you will get a good project; a smooth landing of your project.

This is how we introduce ourselves into a project management setup. In the next part, we will apply all these concepts to translation management and the execution of a translation project.