The human body is an amazing creation. It works in total harmony to allow us to engage with life as we desire. When things go wrong, it tells us – the central nervous system sends a warning or alert to our brain and tells us that we have a problem that needs fixing.
We take the medicine. We go and see a doctor. We rest up for a while… whatever it takes, we sort out the problem and move on with life.
We don’t ignore the warnings.
We make sure that we take as good a care of our bodies and minds as we possibly can. We are in tune with ourselves instinctively.
Effective project management is the same. In order for the “whole” to work, we must understand each part of the projects make-up and how they interact with each other towards success.
If we use the human body as an example, the project manager is the brain. It is the project managers responsibility to be in tune with the rest of the team and to be aware of things that are possibly not going according to plan. The rest of the body is the remaining elements of the project management process and the team engaged to make it happen. (more…)
Project managers often have contention with line management when it comes to the allocation of project team members. The skill of the project manager to overcome this contention will directly effect the overall success of the project planning process and indeed the project as a whole.
If the project manager can get a line manager “on-side” from the off-set through early engagement and active communication, in turn the line manager will ensure that the project manager gets the right information needed to resource plan correctly.
Why is this important in project planning?
Simply put, the project manager is reliant on the line managers resources to make the project a reality. The line manager understands;
Project managers the world over, at some point, end up in conflict with the line managers of team members working on a project. This can be especially true when the resources working on that project are operationally focused.
A project resource could be scheduled to attend a critical workshop when suddenly, there is a production based problem and that person is called away to deal with it. The workshop is suddenly pointless and the project manager is aggravated!
When it comes to a “battle” between a project manager and a line manager, the latter will generally “win” when it comes to identifying where the resource ends up unless he or she is over-ruled from on high – which takes time and energy. The other issue for operational people is that, if they are called on for an operational reason, the chances are something is going wrong and customers are being effected so it will generally take priority anyway.
Project planning is something that requires time and focus. Effective project planning goes along way towards completing a successful project with a positive outcome.
Whether you plan using the infamous gantt chart, write the plan down in a notebook, pop it into a spreadsheet or use a project management tool, the accuracy and detail behind that plan will determine how well you run your project.
Project issues are inevitable in any project that is undertaken by you or your business. You will have done your best during the project planning phase to mitigate against the risk of project issues, but they will happen.
When they do, you have to decide when to communicate the project issues out to the rest of the project team and/or the customer depending on whether this is something that will affect their view of the delivery.
If you communicate to early i.e. “cry wolf” and the project issue never occurs, then the team may not be as believing the next time an issue happens and you flag it. They certainly won’t be if this happens a number of times.
If you communicate to late then the team and most certainly the customer will ask you why you didn’t let them know if good time to see if the situation could be addressed. The customer is far more likely at this stage to push back very hard if the issue is going to cause a project change that is going to incur cost to them or a delay to the deliverable date. (more…)
For the dedicated project managers out there, this may seem like a bit of an odd question because you are! However, there are many out there who perform many of the tasks of a project manager but who do not equate what they are doing with being a project manager.
I am talking about the thousands of small and medium business owners who are delivering services or products to their customers. Most have no project management training, nor do they have the inclination to be called project managers. Does this sound like you?
What is project management?
Well if your business, here goes the definition part, is involved in running temporary endeavours to produce a specific result of objective then you are in the business of project management and consequently are a project manager (albeit not necessarily in name). Projects are different to normal day to day operations which tend to be generally amorphous in nature and are often repeated. Normal operations don’t follow the same set of practices engaged in as part of project management.
Change management can often be seen as something that is going to cause nothing but hassle and pain. I found this great little video on the essence of how to manage organisational change on YouTube that I thought I’d share with you.
Change management does not have to be scary.
Communication, openness, planning and team engagement will help ensure it’s success.
Do you engage the rest of your business when implementing change?
Project scoping is a critical element in effective project management. The project scope can often be, if not managed correctly, amorphous in nature with scope creep being one biggest nightmares in any project that is undertaken. It kills budgets and timelines along with frustrating both the delivery team and the client.
SMART Project Scoping
One of the most effective ways to prevent creep is to ensure the use of SMART objectives at the project scoping/objective setting stage. Most of us have seen this mnemonic as it relates to performance management but it has also been used in project management for nearly thirty years.
While all elements are important, to me, the two most fundamental elements of SMART in a project management scoping context are the first two S (specific) and M (measurable).
When delivering any piece of project work to a client, an effective project manager will ensure that the project is broken down into smaller pieces. In project management terms, this is called a work package.
In essence, it allows the project manager to create a piece of work that can be done in isolation and managed as such that will, in turn, make up part of the overall project delivery.
We take the medicine. We go and see a doctor. We rest up for a while… whatever it takes, we sort out the problem and move on with life.
