Marketing Projects

As a PMO, we should be looking for projects all over the company that add value. Regardless of risk, complexity, resources, etc, if the business case makes sense, we must find a way to get them done on-time and within budget.

Here are several projects ideas that I came up with for Marketing a business. The profile of this business is an older manufacturing company struggling in a poor economy and trying to change their business model. The following are several marketing projects that are focused on getting our image, brand, name, etc out there:

• Embrace social networking and launch a project to merge corporate culture with social presence.


• Develop an iPhone or Android app. It doesn't have to be big. Look at putting a game with your company's image out there. Who cares who downloads it, when people have the opportunity to


• Launch a research project to better understand your customer's perception of the company. You can also use this to ensure you are provide products they are looking for. Careful not to survey your customers to death. There are indirect methods to find this information.


• Scope a project to research some keywords used by your customers to find your site and potential keywords that new markets may be using

There is a lot of different ways to scope marketing projects. The key is to follow a project process: state your objectives, build a plan, record the results, and close the project. I would suggest paying close attention to scope creep/change management. It is easy to draw out marketing project because of their nature. Fight the urge. Big change to the scope might need to be looked upon as additional iterations of the project.

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Everything is fun and games until someone misses a requirement

The project is moving along quite well. The team has been assigned and requirements have been gathered from several key stakeholders. To improve the likelihood of success for the project, a couple of high-value consultants have been brought in. The consultants have reviewed the requirements and validate them for the solution. Up until now, this describes a standard process for a generic project.

Now a during a project review, one of the key stakeholders interviewed at the beginning of the project reveals a new requirement. Now what? The construction of the solution has begun and the schedule continues to get tighter and tighter. Thank goodness for that integrated change management process that was defined as part of initiating the project.

This project uses a standard integrated change management process. The first step is to document the description of the change and evaluate the impact to the project; in terms of scope, time, and cost. Second, review the change with the assigned change management review board. The change management review board may be the project champion or sponsor or it may consist of a steering committee if the project is relatively large or part of a program. The third step, based on an approval of the change, is where the “project integration” theme comes into play. Based on the nature of the change, what components of the project plan are affected? In other words, does the change impact the schedule, resources, costs, etc.? If so, what is the plan to integrate the change? For example, does the change constitute re-baselining the schedule? The fourth and final step is to communicate the change. It is very important to keep everyone on the same page regarding the project in terms of scope, cost, and timeframe.

Recap:

1. Document & Evaluate the Change.
2. Seek Approval to Make the Change.
3. Integrate the Change.
4. Communicate the Change.