Communicate, even when time is limited
Communication and documentation are the two biggest keys to Project Management success.
Your initial contract for a project may not include a clear set of requirements. Often, these details will come from conversations with your client or other stakeholders. Any time one of these conversations leads to a decision, follow up with an email to get that decision documented. These individual decisions can also be collected in a Client Requirements Document (CRD). This does not have to be formal, it’s just something to help you keep track by collecting all of the information in one central place.
As soon as you have a clearer picture of what the client expects, make sure to have a meeting with your internal partners. This meeting will ensure that everyone is on the same page in-house. And it will also provide you with some clearer expectations for your client.
During this whole process, follow up each meeting with at least a brief set of notes. These notes should capture any decisions that were made and any action items that remain.
These steps are especially helpful for projects with short turnaround times and vague requirements. At times it can seem challenging to set time aside for creating project plans/timelines, documenting requirements, and sending out follow-up emails after every conversation. What I would recommend in these situations is to at least get a high level list together. Your project plan might only include 10 tasks, and your requirements list might only be a list of a dozen bullets in an email – but it’s always best to have at least some high level documentation.