As a consultant in the state of Missouri, I have noticed that on alot of my projects....I am the entire team. And I bet a lot of you are too. So how do you handle that? The PM documentation still has to be generated. You still have to make the weekly reports, even if they are only going to yourself. So it takes a bit of a split personality.
When I am the project team, I allocate at least a half hour a day to update all the PM documents that are associated with the project. When I calculate how long the project will take, I will add 20% to cover the PM side of the project. That assures that I will have enough time to handle the weekly reports, document archive, end user documentation, etc. that is required.
"But why bother when it's such a small project?" Good question. The answer is that in the future it will benefit you. Do you remember exactly how a project that you took on five years ago went? Most of us will embellish the bad or good memories depending upon the outcome of the project. However, if you have your project documentation to lean upon, the history of that project can provide you with valuable lessons to apply to your future projects. That's why we bother with documentation on even the small projects.
