Good Essay Writing

Good Essay Writing In general, the further you progress through your education, the more rote learning will be replaced by the kind of analysis usually best demonstrated by essays. One way or another, essay writing comes to us all. hook readers, tell about the topic and its importance, and, therefore, persuade them to continue reading. Essays and research papers can invoke massive amounts of stress and anxiety. But no matter what classes you take in high school or college, you’re going to have to write an essay at some point. Whether you love or hate them, following these nine steps can improve your essays, reduce your stress, and possibly save you from an expensive dentist degree. Read through some of your old essays and ask yourself honestly whether you find them absorbing. If they’re not, it could well be because you’ve not established the right tone of voice. Only then can you start writing the structure for an essay that builds up to your overall conclusion. Another good source of essays is the broadsheet newspapers. The information and exercises on this page will familiarize you with outlining and writing body paragraphs, and includes links to more information on topic sentences and transitions. This news article interviews UK professors on student essay writing; they point to introductions as the area that needs the most improvement. This page offers concrete suggestions for each stage of the essay writing process, from topic selection to drafting and editing. You probably already have a tone of voice you use for writing essays, but is it interesting and engaging? Essays should be balanced, so you can learn from the best of these writers and pick up some techniques to help you shape a balanced piece. 2) Sit back and look at your diagram, perhaps alongside your notes, and work out the main ‘point’ or conclusion you want to make in your essay. The best essays are characterised by a clear line of argument throughout â€" I don’t really buy the idea that essays should present both sides of a question. I always decide what I’m trying to say; the point I want to conclude with, before I start. Now, the job you’ve got in writing the essay is to set this conclusion up. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence, which expresses the main idea of the paragraph. Each paragraph should contain quotes or contextual information to defend your topic sentence and thesis statement. Start your essay with a thesis statement that will guide your entire paper. Based on the prompt, what do you want to argue in your essay? Your thesis statement should be concise, but incorporate all the main points you’d like to address in your paper. Continually refer to your thesis statement when writing your essay and make sure to never stray from your main points. A good thesis statement can be the difference between an A and a B. I bet some people become dentists just to avoid having to write essays. Even if your teacher does prescribe reading, it’s always worth seeing whether you can find something extra that will add breadth, depth or a fresh perspective to your argument. However, it’s important to think carefully about whether a source is reliable and valuable. The good news, on the other hand, is that the individual skills required to write a strong essay are things you can learn, practise and improve in. This article is all about pinpointing what those skills might be, and giving you some suggestions as to how you might develop them. Some teachers won’t even finish reading essays if they’re not grammatically sound or riddled with spelling errors. Here are a few ways to make your essay/research paper more academically acceptable and better overall. They know when you don’t fully understand the essay topic and when you’re rambling to make it longer. Instead, make sure that every sentence adds substance to your work. Most teachers would rather have a well-written essay that doesn’t quite meet the length requirement than a paper that meets the requirement, but is 80 percent fluff. Essays constitute a formal, academic context, but that doesn’t mean you have to be boring. A confident tone of voice will help show the reader that you know what you’re talking about and reassure them that they’re in safe hands. For each of the subjects you’re studying, start a page in a notebook for important people in that field, with a summary of when they lived and what their views are. That way, you’ll have something to refer to when you’re writing an essay and want to consult appropriate scholars or other writers whose opinions you might wish to include.

The Fundamentals Of Leadership And Ethics Five Ethical Dilemmas - 275 Words

The Fundamentals Of Leadership And Ethics: Five Ethical Dilemmas (Essay Sample) Content: hat you experienced during your field attachment. Explain how you arrived at the final deci KARATINA UNIVERSITY NAME ONYANGO FAITH AKINYI REG No. E107/0984J/13 FACULTY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT SOCIAL SCIENCES COURSE BACHELOR OF ARTS (CRIMINOLOGY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY) YEAR OF STUDY Y4 S1 ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017 COURSE CODE BAS 401 COURSE TITLE FUNDAMENTAL OF LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS INSTRUCTOR DR. PAULINE THUKU TASK Discuss five ethical dilemmas t sion in each case and why. DATE OF SUBMISSION 5TH OCTOBER 2016 KARATINA UNIVERSITY NAME MERCY K. NYABIBA REG No. E107/0982J/13 FACULTY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT SOCIAL SCIENCES COURSE BACHELOR OF ARTS (CRIMINOLOGY, CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND PUBLIC SAFETY) YEAR OF STUDY Y4 S1 ACADEMIC YEAR 2016/2017 COURSE CODE BAS 401 COURSE TITLE FUNDAMENTAL OF LEADERSHIP AND ETHICS INSTRUCTOR DR. PAULINE THUKU TASK Discuss five ethical dilemmas that you experienced during your field attachment. Explain how you arrived at the final decision in each case and why. DATE OF SUBMISSION 5TH OCTOBER 2016 Many people from all walks of life are routinely confronted with ethical dilemmas in dispensation of their duties. Some of the situations are familiar while others obscure each demanding a unique decision that suits each case scenario. The term Ethical dilemma has no universally accepted meaning as different scholars have defined the term differently laying different emphasis on different aspects of the phenomena. The term has evolved over time with its initial conceptualization being a complex situation that requires a decision to be made of right or wrong. According to University of California Levan Institute, ethical dilemmas are situations that challenges one’s ability to choose the most ethical course of action. Ethical dilemma can also be defined as a complex situation that often involves an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. From the above definitions, ethical dilemma in my own words would imply conflict between two or more ethical principles where a choice is to be made all of which are morally correct and neither of which resolves the situation in an ethically acceptable fashion. In determining what constitutes an ethical dilemma, three main conditions must be manifest for a situation to be termed so. First, an individual called ‘agent’ has to make a decision about which course of action is best for a certain situation. Secondly, there must be different courses of action to choose from and lastly, some ethical principle(s) must be compromised no matter what course of action is arrived at. In my work, two main types of ethical dilemma will be manifest; absolute or pure dilemma and approximate dilemma. Absolute dilemma only occurs when two or more ethical standards apply to a situation but are in conflict with each other whereas approximate dilemma involves conflict between values, laws and policies besides the conflicting ethical standards. In holistic analysis of ethical dilemma, I will enumerate examples from the probation department for better elaboration of the concept. The examples are recapitulated as below. Working in the probation department, I was confronted with a client who was referred to probation after having been caught with items that after interrogation were believed to be for witchcraft purposes. This client was caught with neck of a hen, some feathers and some powder-like substances at the court gate and was suspiciously seen to be finding his way through. Being an attachee, I had limited know-how on witchcraft matters and therefore lacked competence in the said area. If I declined to serve the client holding on the argument of lack of competence, this would mean the client would not receive any services. Denying to see the patient will be in conflict with the department’s commitment to promote the well-being of clients. The courses of action were; denying to see the client, seeing the client and explaining present limit of my expertise or give referrals to the chief probation officer. This dilemma was resolved by considering the ethical standard that stated that an individual should only accept a client on the grounds that he/she has the necessary competence or with intention to obtain the necessary competence. I therefore accepted the client and shared with him my present limits of my expertise and followed through on my obligation to seek knowledge in the said area and consequently referred the client to the chief probation officer. (Pure or Absolute) Another scenario of a dilemma was in a counselling session when I had an encounter with a client struggling with bhang addiction and depression. The client later committed suicide after completion of her treatment session. The client’s parent who were faithfully attending the family counselling sessions came to the office and discussed with me the event and the client’s lifelong challenges. The parents thanked me for my tireless efforts and support and tipped me of how it will be a sad moment for them the next day as the burial will be taking effect. Towards the end of our talk, the parents asked me to help in doing the eulogy at the funeral. The ethical dilemma in this case is concerned about violating client’s privacy and confidentiality and that of entering in inappropriate dual relationship with the family of the client. The courses of action were; to go to the funeral and deliver eulogy, go and fail to deliver eulogy and lastly fail to go. The preferred course of action was that of attending the burial and not reading the eulogy. This was grounded under the value of giving clients humane treatment and showing empathy as you try fitting into the client’s shoes in this case the client’s situation. (Pure or absolute dilemma) In addition, a scenario was also encountered where I was compiling a report about domestic violence which involved a husband beating up her wife. As a probation officer, I am legally obligated to compile reports and submit them to court. In this case, tension emanates when I was left to choose between the legal requirement to report and desire to uphold confidentiality. The courses of action that I had were; submitting the report to court in its authentic form, giving the report with minimal confidential information or fail to give the report. In this case, I was guided by the National association of social workers code of conduct that acknowledges obligation to follow legal requirement and decided to submit the report to court though after thorough scrutiny and omitting sensitive information that can be unhealthy for the client. The value of upho...

The Effects Of Dementia On The Incidence And Prevalence

The impact of dementia is a mounting global health problem and through worldwide education the incidence and prevalence can be diminished. Global education is critical with the projected dementia incidence, the lack awareness and understanding of dementia, no dementia cure and the associated stigma. These factors combined have a major impact on the person with dementia and society. No solo country, sector or organisation can encounter this global health problem by themselves. Worldwide dementia numbers will grow significantly over the next forty years and create the necessity for improved dementia education. Today it is estimated over 46 million people live with dementia and projected to escalate to 131.5 million by 2050, a new case every 3.2 seconds (World Health Organisation [WHO], 2015). At present 58 percent of people with dementia live in low to middle income countries, this figure is expected to grow to 63 percent by 2030 and to 68 percent by 2050 (WHO, 2015). In table one it displays the chief projection rates will occur in low to middle income countries. However, Langa (2015) identified through education that nine studies over the last ten years have shown a declining risk of dementia incidence in high-income countries. So maybe the estimates in table one in high income country will not be accurate. Additionally, the United Nations predicts by 2050 there will be 83 countries where 20 per cent of their population is over the age of 65 (Rubinstein, Duggan, Landingham,Show MoreRelatedThe Need for More Medications for Dementia967 Words   |  4 PagesCurrent medications for dementia are limited and there is a need to explore traditional medicinal system to investigate the agents that can prevent progression of memory loss or improve the existing capacity of learning and memory. Thus present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of Ayurveda drug formulations, Tinospora cordifolia (Tc) Phyllanthus emblica (Pe) with and without Ocimum sanctum (Os) on learning performance and memory of mice. We also tried to investigate the possible mechanismsRead MoreResearch837 Words   |  4 Pagesthat exercise can improve memory skills and delay the symptoms of dementia. According to the American Academy of Neurology, the latest guidelines confirm that regular exercise improves both the body and the mind. This is particularly helpful to older adults and the elderly. The guideline panel was systematically reviewed for the prevalence, prognosis, and treatment of mild cognitive impairment. The results revealed that the prevalence rate was 6.7 percent in people ages 60 to 64, 8.4 percent for 65Read MoreVeterans With Ptsd And Dementia2034 Words   |  9 Pageswith PTSD and Dementia Veterans are dealing with health issues (Musculoskeletal injuries and pain, Mental health issues, Chemical exposure, Infectious diseases, Noise and vibration exposure, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Urologic injuries) upon returning home from combat duty. Also, many veterans have problem assimilating, flashbacks or just talking to civilians in general. The purpose of this paper is to look at the research surrounding veterans with PTSD link to Dementia. First of allRead MoreDementia And Delirium Effect On A Person Is On The Rise1393 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to case studies, the rate at which both dementia and delirium can affect a person is on the rise because of the increasing population worldwide (McCrow, Sullivan, Beattie, 2014). Older adults are one of the fastest growing populations in the world. The first baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) turned 65 in the year 2011 (McCrow, 2014). With the increasing population of elders, there is also an increase in incidence of delirium. Up to 36 percent of aged people admitted to healthcareRead More Effective Dementia Care Essay1562 Words   |  7 PagesDementia care offers support and services to an individual affected by the disease itself, which is dementia. It addresses the right and needs of the person with dementia and their families. Improving quality of life and changing attitudes towards dementia is the main goal of dementia care. Dementia care also provides qual ity of care, maintain dignity and promote health, security and comfort in consideration with the standard of care and ethical guidelines (Adams Manthorpe, 2003). UnderstandingRead MoreElderly Disability Essay example2488 Words   |  10 Pagesburden in years to come. Although there is evidence from many studies that disability rate is declining in the U.S.2, the rapid expansion of the oldest-old age group will continue to pose health care challenges for future generations. Disability prevalence rates are very high in the oldest-old3 and even reached 97% in centenarians4. These high rates of disability will have a tremendous financial impact in the future as people living with disability have much higher health care expenditures5. BecauseRead MoreThe Relationship Between Gender And Alzheimer s Disease1386 Words   |  6 Pagescomes to the disease’s prevalence within the population. Women make up the largest percentage of the entire population of people with Alzheimer’s disease. This could be as a result of numerous factors including women’s general greater longevity as compared to their male counterparts. Another possible explanation is that women are at a greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease solely due to their gender. Majority of studies assert that there is an increase in prevalence of Alzheimer’s diseaseRead MoreThe Parkinson s Disease ( Pd )1058 Words   |  5 Pagesdisease occurs throughout the world, among all ethnicities, and affects both males and females almost equally with only a slight prevalence between males (Zhang and Roman, 1993). The prevalence of PD increases dramatically with age, approaching 3% of the population over 65 years (Moghal et al., 19 94). The highest incidence is among whites, whereas the lowest incidence is among Asians and African blacks (Lang and Lozano, 1998). This pattern of distribution of the disease may suggest that the developmentRead MoreMy First Clinical Rotation As A Nursing Student1314 Words   |  6 PagesDuring my first clinical rotation as a nursing student, I was assigned to care for several older adults suffering from dementia. Although all of my patients ranged in severity from mild to severe progression of dementia, they all experienced moments of agitation, anxiety, or disturbed behaviors related to their disease. It occurred to me after careful review of several patient charts that despite often being prescribed pharmaceutical regimes for other comorbidities, these patients were rarely prescribedRead MoreThe Leading Cause For Dementia, Alzheimers Disease1343 Words   |  6 PagesAs the leading cause for dementia, Alzheimer’s disease –AD-, effects more than 25 million people in the world (Perrone Grant, 2015, p. 1).The neurodegenerative disorder, results in behavioral changes, as well as cognitive including, loss of memory and language skills ( Mayo Clinic Staff, 2014). Researchers have tracked two leading abnormalities resulting in Alzheimer’s. These two are, amyloid plaques-clumps of protein which form in and around the neurons- and neurofibrillary tangles- insoluble

Discuss the Differences Between Beatrice and Hero in the...

Discuss the differences between Beatrice and Hero in the early scenes of the play Shakespeares play ‘Much Ado about Nothing has two main female characters, Beatrice and Hero, who are cousins. Both appear to be completely different in the beginning of the play but, as things progress and their characters develop, there are also some very obvious similarities between them. Hero and Beatrice have a very close relationship; they are best friends. Leonato is Heros father but Beatrice has no parents, which gives her greater freedom. Where Hero is polite, quiet, respectful and gentle, Beatrice is feisty, cynical, witty, and sharp. Shakespeare uses quite a lot of literary devices and techniques to present the characters of Hero and†¦show more content†¦We see that Beatrice does have a softer side, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. Enhancing the romance in the play and signifying a transformation in Beatrice. Indeed by the end of Act 3 scene 1, Beatrice and Hero are showing certain similarities. They are now both in love and as we see in Act 3 Scene 4, Beatrice has becomeShow MoreRelated Differences between Beatrice and Hero in Much Ado about Nothing1203 Words   |  5 PagesDifferences between Beatrice and Hero in the early scenes of Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ Shakespeare’s play ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ has two main female characters, Beatrice and Hero, who are cousins. Both appear to be completely different in the beginning of the play but, as things progress and their characters develop, there are also some very obvious similarities between them. Hero and Beatrice have a very close relationship; they are best friends. Leonato is Hero’s father butRead MoreThe Relationship between Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing1888 Words   |  8 PagesIn this Shakespearean comedy ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ two similarly obstinate characters of Beatrice and Benedick are presented between the rather normal relationship of characters Hero and Claudio. Shakespeare presents Beatrice and Benedick’s obstinacy towards the rather obligatory act of marriage and also their particularly similar personalities that cause reason for their familiar act of squabbling; he does this whilst a lso presenting two characters that are completely interested in marriage andRead MorePolitical Behaviour Impact to Leadership Excellence11497 Words   |  46 Pagespolitical activity and (2) kinds of political actions that are common to all politics. Political behavior is an area of political activity - the activity that occurs outside the formal and legal organizations of government. The chapters of this volume discuss a progression of concerns: first comes the political activity of large and vague groupings like the community and public; then comes that of tighter groups-the electorate, election constituencies, political parties, pressure groups, and conflict groupsRead MoreSwot Analysis25582 Words   |  103 Pageshave a simple design †¢ they function and perform on par with commercial kitchen appliances. Consumers in this market do not tend to have brand loyalty, and they make most of their purchase decisions at the point of sale. For this reason, packaging plays a crucial part in the marketing strategy of Cafà © Series products. Research has shown that the previous packaging was not effective in communicating the benefits of the product range. In order to connect with its target market, the Cafà © Series packagingRea d MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 PagesManagement, Fourth Edition I. Management 17 17 2. The Evolution of Management Thought Hughes−Ginnett−Curphy †¢ Leadership, Fifth Edition I. Leadership is a Process, Not a Position 51 51 70 1. Leadership is Everyone’s Business 2. Interaction between the Leader, the Followers the Situation Cohen †¢ Effective Behavior in Organizations, Seventh Edition 11. Leadership: Exerting Influence and Power 94 94 Text Palmer−Dunford−Akin †¢ Managing Organizational Change 2. Images of Managing Change Read MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesManagement Skills 8 What Are Management Skills? 9 Improving Management Skills 12 An Approach to Skill Development 13 Leadership and Management 16 Contents of the Book 18 Organization of the Book 19 Practice and Application 21 Diversity and Individual Differences 21 Summary 23 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 24 Diagnostic Survey and Exercises 24 Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS) 24 What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 28 SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 30 SCORING KEY AND COMPARISON DATA

Capital Maintenance for Australian Corporation Law - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theCapital Maintenancefor Australian Corporation Law. Answer: According to the principles of corporation law the directors have been provided with the responsibility to look after the company as it does not have capacity to carry out its functions on its own. As the overall maintenance of the company is under the supervision of the directors the responsibility of protecting the interest of the creditors also vests in them. However providing supreme powers to the directors may give birth to mala fide intentions. Thus to protect the creditors from being exploited by the directors various laws have been enacted through legislations as well as through the provisions of common law. The doctrine of capital maintenance was brought into corporation law when the judges in the case of Trevor v Whitworth 1887 prevented the directors of the company from buying back their own shares. Thus according to the doctrine of capital maintenance the directors cannot issue shares without receiving proper remuneration from them. They are also not allowed to provide any sort of financial assistance which would reduce the capital of the company. However circumstances changed from that time and presently the old doctrine is considered to be too rigid to be used in modern business. The doctrine does not allow the directors to freely exercise their powers with respect to the company. Thus various alterations were made to the doctrine so that its benefits can be used to protect the creditors and the shareholders. The Australian corporation law embeds the doctrine in it through the Corporation Act 2001. Australia has excluded the underlying customary capital maintenance precept as it was not extremely adaptable and was a deterrent in the correct advancement and working of an organization. In the event the directors are completely prevented from lessening the capital of the organization the organization might be subjected to undesirable misfortunes. It might be important for the directors to lessen the capital amid budgetary unsteadiness and powerlessness to do as such would convey hindrance to the organization. In this way so as to guarantee effectiveness the Enterprise Demonstration 2001 permits share capital decrease in restricted conditions (Robak et al. 2014). The directors with respect to bonus shares and profits may lessen the capital of the organization just if the organization makes overabundance benefit with reference to Section 254 A and 254 T of the Corporation Act. The executives can likewise lessen the capital of the organization as far as mostly paid offers. In this manner it can be reasoned that Australia has rejected the precept of capital maintenance yet utilizes the idea of security through different changes. Reference Corporation Act 2001 Council, B.M.D., 2014. Capital Maintenance Programme. Islam, M.S., 2015. The Doctrine of Capital Maintenance and its Statutory Developments: An Analysis.Northern University Journal of Law,4, pp.47-55. Jiang, D., 2016. Indeterminacy, capital maintenance expenditures and the business cycle.Economic Modelling. Robak, A., Landers, S., Bush, S., Hunter, E. and Greaves, R., 2015, June. A Case for Breaking Down the Capital-Maintenance Barrier. In9th International Conference on Managing Pavement Assets.

The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis free essay sample

Yellow Wallpaper There are many symptoms that arise when one is diagnosed with postpartum depression. Among the many is â€Å"obsessive-compulsive features, including intrusive, repetitive thoughts and anxiety. You see this all throughout â€Å"The Yellow Wallpaper,† and it begins when the narrator first describes the strange patterns in the incredibly symbolic wallpaper in the room that was once a children’s nursery: â€Å"It is dull enough to confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to constantly irritate and provoke study, and when you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. The color is repellent, almost revolting; a smoldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow – turning sunlight. † When analyzing the first section of the passage, on realizes that she is referring to the invisible mask she has put on. She tries to hide that she is still deeply troubled by pretending to be happy and in control, however exhausting it may be. We will write a custom essay sample on The Yellow Wallpaper Analysis or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page And yet, this â€Å"disease,† if you will, irritates her to no end, as does the wallpaper. She is angry with her husband in that he believes this disease isn’t as serious as it truly is. Anger towards one’s partner or other family members is also a symptom of postpartum depression. Then†¦ she mentions something rather†¦ striking. She says, â€Å"When you follow the lame uncertain curves for a little distance they suddenly commit suicide – plunge off at outrageous angles, destroy themselves in unheard of contradictions. † Even after a short time of enduring severe depression, one can feel overwhelmed with sadness and grief, and they begin having reoccurring thoughts of suicide. She is afraid she is going to become insane, and take the â€Å"plunge†¦Ã¢â‚¬  perhaps off a bridge? Above all, she is afraid she is going to harm her newborn child. If, by her own hands, her baby is harmed, she will be destroyed from the inside- out because a new child is supposed to be something happy†¦ a joyous occasion, but her depression is preventing just that. She hates feeling this way. She believes it to be â€Å"revolting,† like the awful yellow of the wallpaper. But, if one looks closely, one will see that there is a bit of light in her logic. She says it’s â€Å"strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight. † Through time, all be it slow, the disease will begin to fade away and inevitably disappear altogether. Through pain, and misfortune†¦ through sadness and irritation†¦ there is always hope. The smallest light in the darkest cave, there is hope. And she wishes to hold onto it as long as she can†¦ until the last bit of strength she has left dissipates completely†¦ †¦ There is hope.

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process

The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized. The Complete 16-Step Marketing Project Management Process What if you could help your marketing team do more  in less time? Its a simple question that leaves  a lot to dream about: Youd be  awesome. Like riding a unicorn over a rainbow kind of awesome. Your team  and company would love you because youd finally get everyone organized, on the same page, and focused on super meaningful work. Youd lead a  happier, more fulfilled  career  while nailing every deadline and exceeding every goal. Ah, the good life. But, there are some challenges to overcome first. For starters, project management can feel overwhelming. There are a lot of moving parts that need to be accounted for, especially when managing multiple projects and team members. Fortunately, youre about to learn the secrets behind strategic marketing project management that will help you: Work even faster and collaborate better than ever  by managing your projects with an efficient process  from the get-go. Focus 100% of your resources  on the  right projects instead of weve always done it that way tasks that dont add measurable growth to your bottom line. Boost your productivity  while getting organized and taking control of your entire process. You can be a successful marketing project manager. The Complete 16-Step #Marketing Project Management Process That Will Get You Organizedbut first: Start Managing Marketing Projects With These Free Word And Excel Templates When you read this post, youll discover a need for project documentation. Download this free kit to grab your: Marketing project management template Word document to help you implement every step of this post for a real project youre working through. Sprint backlog Excel spreadsheet to manage the entire scope and timeline of your project. Go ahead and fill out these documents as you  read through this post to make the most efficient use of your valuable time! ... Then Upgrade to the Kanban Project Dashboard in Managing marketing teams is a multi-faceted. There are so many moving parts and dozens of tasks for each project and campaign. So... keeping everyone and everything on track and hitting all your deadlines can be, well, tough. That's why I'm inviting you to check out the Kanban Project Dashboard available in your favorite marketing project management platform. When you manage your  marketing team with , you'll: Get a pulse on every project. Using the kanban-style view, you can quickly see the status of every project your team is working on. Pinpoint bottlenecks in your workflow. Are team members getting stuck in particular areas on projects? Identify roadblocks quickly and keep tasks on track. Holistically manage projects from start to finish. Give your entire team full visibility across every project and manage everything in one place. Get and get organized! Schedule a demo today. What Is Marketing Project Management (For The Sake Of This Post)? The traditional project management method is split into phases: Initiate:  What is the scope of what you'll create? Plan:  How will you create your content  and with what resources? Execute:  Create your content. Monitor and control:  Identify and remove any  roadblocks that are preventing you from executing. Close:  Get approval, publish, and review. That is the approach  traditional project managers learn about as they get started. However, there's a way to layer in another proven project management method to help you move through the phases  even faster.  It's called agile product  management. Ever wonder what agile marketing was? Now I know.This process is how developers typically approach creating software (like your beloved  project management platform). Agile product  management helps developers complete lots of work in  short bursts  of time by providing intense focus and removing obstacles that might  cause them to miss deadlines. So, for the sake of this post, you're going to combine traditional project management and agile product  management together to create marketing projects more efficiently than ever before. Here's your definition: Marketing project management is the efficient process that helps you organize, create, and publish your content as fast as possible. The beautiful thing is that you can use this process for planning any type of content- and you should. Let's get into the details: Initiate Your Marketing Project By Defining  The Purpose Step 1: Choose The Highest Priority Project From  Your  Marketing Project Backlog Part of the agile project management process involves creating and maintaining a product backlog. For your  purposes, that's a fancy definition for a prioritized list of marketing projects. Project management starts by strategically choosing  to complete the highest priority project on your list. Since that's the case, we wrote an entire post to help you create your own marketing project backlog: Recommended Reading: The 1-Day Marketing Planning Process To Organize Your Next 6 Months What you're reading right now assumes that you've chosen one project  and that it's your highest priority for 10x growth. Step 2: Explain  The Project Background With A Creative Brief You may  already have detailed notes  from your marketing project backlog to help you implement your biggest priority project. If not, there are a handful of things to get straight before you get too much deeper: Who will this project benefit the most? Pinpoint  a subset within your audience. What do you need to create?  Define the end deliverable. Why will this project  benefit the audience you've specified? Write your value proposition  that answers your audience's  question, "What's in it for me?" What kind of resources might you need to  complete the project? Estimate the time and tools involved. What does done look like? Help your team know  what you'll accept as a successful final product. The background will serve as the foundation for all of the remaining steps in your project management process. As you write your creative brief  to answer these questions, you'll immediately be able to spot areas of potential challenges that you can work to resolve now- before your team starts executing the project. For example, if you need a developer's help to create a landing page or don't have a budget to complete the work, now is the time  to solve the roadblock before slowing up your entire team as they take on the project. Recommended Reading: How to Build a Concise Creative Brief Step 3: Define Your Project's Requirements To Fulfill The Business' Needs Requirements are the standards your content needs to meet before you publish. Every marketing project may  need different requirements, yet some examples to help you brainstorm your project's requirements should include: Automation: Is this a way to automate  a part of this project to prevent manual work during execution or afterward? Anything to cut out  unnecessary, tedious manual work a robot could do will immediately boost your productivity. Elimination: Can this project eliminate something else you're doing as a new and improved replacement? Removing work from your future to-do list will help you find time to execute  even more projects from your backlog a whole lot faster. Maintenance: How can you make this project as successful as possible now with the least amount of daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance? Think 10x  growth now that continues to provide long-term results without having to touch it. All of those may sound similar. But let that advice soak in a bit more as you look at your project idea and break down what you want it to do to benefit your team and business. If you can create requirements based on those three fundamentals, you will save you and your team time during and after  project execution. And when you don't have time to spare, that matters a lot. When you don't have time to spare, solid #ProjectManagement matters a lot.Another way to look at this  is by defining a set of  requirements your content must meet before you publish. For example, we've analyzed data to help us define standards of performance for our content. These standards literally help us predict how successful the content we execute will be based on four requirements: Topic: Is the topic similar to your other top-performing content? Is  the angle something your audience deeply cares about? Keyword:  Does the  main keyword have high search volume and low competition? Is there an opportunity to include latent semantic indexing to  help even more of your audience naturally find this content through search engines? Research: How can you  include deep research in this content to publish something the internet has never seen before? How can you  use research to factually back up your claims? Comprehensiveness: How can you tell  the most complete story on your topic on the internet? You could  apply this standard of performance to your project, or you may find your most successful content has different traits that make it awesome. The point is to really  define what the project will look like before you start working. In project management terminology,  a set of requirements is called a specification. So, if you follow this  guide, you will have two specifications (time-saving specification and content specification) with multiple requirements under each. If you think of more requirements, you can plan even more specifications for your projects. These two specifications are just a  minimum viable starting point to produce successful content. Define your content's standard of performance and demand it during execution.Step 4: Write  Your Stories To Focus  The Project On An Audience-Valued  Outcome Stories are how you'll  put yourself into your audience's shoes  to focus on how the project will benefit their lives instead of just creating a deliverable. Unlike traditional story-telling, these stories help define requirements of satisfaction. It's like asking yourself, "How will my audience benefit from this project?" Here's the template of how to think about stories: As an {audience type}, I want to {do something} so that {I get this value}. For example, let's say the  project you want to take on is a new e-book about content strategy that you'll publish on the Amazon store to reach a new audience. One story for your project may look like this: As a marketer, I want to learn how to  implement a better content strategy so that I can get more organized. One project  will likely have multiple stories to help you and your team understand your audience's needs. To continue the e-book example, a second story could help you write a specific chapter in the book: As a marketer, I want to learn which types of content our team should create so that we can maximize lead generation from every campaign. Since the e-book project example also requires  you and your team to create additional content, you could also use stories to define your audience's needs for a deliverable  like the  landing page where you'll promote the e-book: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. Later, when you plan, you'll break down the stories into manageable tasks you can assign to individuals on your team. Plan The Details Of Your Projects As Sprints Step 5: Break Your Stories Into  Manageable Tasks Your Marketing Team Members  Will Execute Stories are something a team  works on together, while  you assign tasks to your team members. Tasks are important because they break down a large project- which may seem difficult to even know where to start- into manageable pieces. And tasks help you divvy up the work among your team to use your resources as efficiently as possible. Let's look at an  example story again for your e-book landing page: As a marketer, I want to  be reassured that this e-book is worth my valuable time so that  I can really reap the benefits it promises after I download the e-book. To  build  a landing page that fulfills this story, you'll simply list the tasks  you need to complete in chronological order: Research landing page designs that convert. Write the landing page outline based on the  research. Write the text. Design  the wireframe. Design the landing page. Develop the landing page. Review the landing page. Publish the landing page. Promote the landing page. You get the idea- the point is to break down a story into the step-by-step process you need to complete to check this story off your sprint backlog. Smaller tasks make it easier to estimate how much time it will take to complete the story (and subsequently, the project as a whole). Step 6: Thrash Your Project Into An MVP (Minimal Viable Project) It's time to take a critical look into your stories. You want to find  where you might have frivolous uses of resources that could be used better for creating  a minimum viable project rather than an extremely polished deliverable. The real question here is this: What  stories or tasks could you cut to create a great project with the least amount of effort? You probably want your project to be the most perfect thing  in your niche, so this question might seem counterintuitive at first. However, the idea behind a minimum viable project  is to eliminate risk by helping you: Create and publish quickly Measure your success Learn to improve You can steal the idea of an MVP by cutting excess stories and tasks that  don't negatively impact your specifications.  This will save your team valuable time during execution while helping you complete your project faster. Remove excess work from your to-do list before you start your projects.Step 7: Estimate The Level Of Effort For Every Story It's one thing to give your team  a deadline to complete a project and another to know that the deadline is realistically achievable. By understanding how much time each task takes to complete (and subsequently rolling that estimation into the story), you'll be able to further understand what stories or tasks you'd like to cut from your project to complete it quicker while also being able to set practical due dates. To do this, you need to know two things first: Who will be accountable for completing each task. These are the team members who'll work together to complete the stories. The level of effort for each task. In other words, how much time will it take the person  you'll assign the task to complete it? For each task,  write down who on your team you think is best suited to complete it the fastest. Then visit with each team member  to ask how much time they'd estimate for every one of  their tasks. Step 8: Plan The Scope Of Your Project As A Sprint Backlog Scope helps you define how much work you'll complete in a certain amount of time. It's the big picture of the project. Your marketing project may  have many specifications and stories, so you may need to break the scope  into phases, which agile marketers call  sprints.  Sprints often occur in two-week bursts in which you prioritize a specific number of stories to be completed. Since you estimated the level of effort for each story- and understand how much time each individual needs to contribute- you can realistically plan your sprints and subsequently know your deadline when the project  will be 100% complete. A great way to  show your entire project scope  to your team is with a project schedule- aka sprint backlog. Step 9: Demand  That You Ship On Time You know that your project will fulfill the specifications and stories.  You also know your deadline is realistically achievable. So make sure you publish on time by preventing project thrashing- otherwise known as scope creep and last-minute changes- before you begin executing. Seth Godin has the best advice I've ever seen on this topic. Read  Linch Pin  to get the full scoop- and  for your marketing project management, start here: Set the date when you'll publish. This is when  you'll launch your project no matter what. Involve others in your initiation and planning process and write everyone's ideas down. This is important for your big wigs because, as Seth says, "This is their big chance." Show what you plan to do.  Give them the opportunity to thrash your plan before you start executing. Changes now are alright, but once your team starts executing, this  thrashing  will dramatically impact your deadline. Give them  an opportunity for one final review. Seth says, "Make sure everyone understands that this is the very last chance they have to make the project better." Revise the project blueprint into a final, comprehensive outline. Show your plan to the  big wigs and ask, "If I deliver what you approved, on budget and on time, will you ship it?" Only start executing once you get your yes. No maybes. Then deliver what you promised, thrash-free. This  simple process should prevent scope creep, last-minute modifications, and other nitpicking  with small details because you've nailed the big picture. Execute Your  Marketing Project With A Clear Content Creation Process Step 10: Assign Tasks For Your Upcoming Sprint To Your Team It's finally time for your team to start creating content for your project! You just need to assign them the tasks to complete. The best way to begin is by choosing a marketing project management tool that will help you: Manage your entire team  and easily assign them their specific tasks to complete. Assign specific deadlines for tasks to be completed on specific calendar dates. Automatically notify your team  that  you've assigned them a task to complete. Automatically remind your team as a due date for a task approaches. If you're planning a recurring project- like blog posts or social media campaigns- it's also helpful  to find a tool that helps you create your ideal workflow and save it to reuse on similar projects. Well, it just so happens that is a  marketing project management tool designed to help you collaborate with all of those things. ;) Agile product managers refer to this kind of functionality as a task board. Whether you use to  efficiently manage your process or not,  you're looking for a system to help you: See  which tasks are completed, which should be  in progress, and which are coming up. Understand which tasks are overdue that may cause you to miss your deadlines. Step 11: Communicate With A Tool That Keeps Collaboration In One Place While emails serve nicely as notifications and reminders to help your team get into the system where you manage your projects, they're not so great for managing project communication. That's where it's nice to manage your team communication around the project in the collaboration tool where you manage everything else. There are a few qualifications to make this work for your project: Avoid email to manage your project communication. Email forwards and strings  can miss some replies to sender only, which can cause team members to miss critical information on your projects. Agree as a team  to communicate consistently with the same tools for your specific purpose. This will help you maintain  one version of the truth for all project communication to help the team collaborate more efficiently. Keep your comments, notes, and progress reports in  the same tool where you manage your task board or workflow. This is especially important if you manage multiple projects at once. You can rock that advice with  nearly any  project management tool, but there's one designed to help marketers like you manage their projects better.  It's *ah hem* . Monitor And Control Your Project To Meet Your Deadlines Monitoring and controlling happens at the same time as your team executes the project. Step 12: Hold Daily Scrum Meetings To  Monitor Your Progress Scrum is a daily meeting everyone working in a current sprint attends. These informal touch points are most effective with small teams who are collaborating on completing a story together. You'll lead the touch point  with a simple itinerary with everyone sharing: What they did yesterday to make progress on your sprint. What they're going to do today for your sprint. Any roadblocks that may prevent them from executing. This helps your team stay accountable while giving them the chance to ask for help as needed. As the project manager, it's your job to proactively prevent those roadblocks from happening if you can. Otherwise, it's now your job to react and  remove the obstacles from your team's ability to execute. At each daily scrum, end the touch point by asking, "Who has roadblocks that are already or might prevent you  from executing?" Sometimes, this is when someone will speak up, even after they've already shared their progress reports. Step 13: Manage Your Burn Chart To Estimate How Much Work Is Left In Your Project Your project burn chart is a  graph that  compares your completed work to how many sprints are remaining in the project's scope. Another way to visualize  this is to analyze your percentage of tasks completed. Your marketing calendar shows a handy percentage completion rate for your project: This practice- combined with reviewing which tasks should have been completed in the past but have not been checked off your task board- will help you  keep team members accountable for completing their work and will keep your project on tack to hit your deadline. Agile product management processes often suggest that you  spell out  the definition of done for your project to help the entire team understand when the project is complete. The percentage completion rate is an excellent way to explain this to your team: A  story  is done when you  complete 100% of your tasks. A sprint is done when  you complete 100% of the tasks for the stories that make up the sprint. And a project is done when you complete 100% of the tasks for all of the stories within the sprints that make up the project. Step 14: Fail Fast To  Get Back On Track ASAP Even the best project managers hit snags that  take their team's focus away from the tasks and stories that will fulfill their project's specifications. Those are moments when you, as a project manager, need to step in immediately to get your project back on track. You can do that by identifying whom on your team  needs a guiding hand, and  asking them four simple questions: What happened? Why did this happen? How can we make sure this doesn't happen again? How can we get this project back on track? These questions help your team member identify the issue and the method to solve the problem now and in the future.  You just helped them self-correct! Step 15: Host Sprint Reviews To Celebrate Your Accomplishments Toward Project  Close-Out While you took Seth Godin's advice on getting approval to ship your project on time no matter what, your stakeholders probably want to see the progress you're making as the project continues. That's  exactly what sprint reviews are for. Schedule a half hour touch point at the end of every sprint to review  the stories  you've completed. Gather feedback from those who need to know what's going on. Just remember that you're employing Eric Ries' theory on the minimum viable project. That means you should document what your big wigs are saying, but that will not impact your upcoming sprints  or modify your deadlines because they've already signed off for approval. Later, you can plan the notes you take in this meeting as a post-project sprint to button up the outstanding items after you publish if necessary. However, these modifications aren't in scope for your project now, so you should not change your direction. Make this review fun for everyone- it's a celebration of accumulated hard work with 100% of your tasks done for an entire sprint! Close Your Marketing Project And Move On To The Next Step 16: Host A Retro To Learn From Your Success Your project is done when 100% of the tasks within the  stories that make up your sprints are complete.  Ship it now! There's just one thing left to do... and that's to learn how to improve your  marketing project management process before you initiate your next project. Traditional project management often calls for a post implementation review. It's a meeting where you invite your team to ask them three simple questions: What went well? What went wrong? What could we improve for the next project? Agile product management follows a similar approach, calling their post-project touch point a retrospective. The goal is the same- - but the questions you ask in the meeting vary slightly: What should we start doing? What should we stop doing? What should we continue doing? Combine those two sets of questions together for a 30-minute meeting, and you'll leave with dozens of lessons learned that will help you improve your marketing project management process next time. How Do You Manage Your Marketing Projects? Whether you use as robust of a marketing project management process as this or not, I know you've found at least a few helpful takeaways from this post. If you're ready to manage the execution and monitoring phases better than ever, try ! It's your marketing project management software designed to  get you organized.