MyProjectTracker – The Blog

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.
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The end of the project has been reached.

During the course of the project, things went well and things went badly. This is the nature of the beast.

There have been numerous meetings during the project and indeed after to reflect on what happened and why it happened in than way.

• Actions have been taken to address what went wrong.
• Actions have been taken to share what went right within the project with other project teams so they can benefit.

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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.

So how can a project manager plan for this?

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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.

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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).

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Your business has survived the first couple of years and is still viable (well done, that’s a great achievement). You were a one man show and now there are three of you and the odd sub-contractor when things get really busy.

But, everything is still done in your head. Your business is still small, so you are getting by like this where you seem to intuitively know how things are going – what’s been done well and those things that perhaps aren’t.

You also know that it’s time to expand and perhaps keeping all of the business processes and operational information in your head is not such a good idea.

So, decision made, you need to put some decent business processes into place.
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I was perusing the Small Business News earlier and came across this post on business planning and how it applies to your blog and/or website. I have to be honest, the concept of a business plan for the blog was something that struck me as being slightly over the top.

What was actually being suggested was ensuring that you have goals and plans set for your business blog rather than the full scale monster business plan that we are all familiar with.  This made complete sense to me.

Unless your blog is a hobby and you are literally writing purely to share your ideas/views with the world, then the chances are you are hoping that your blog will bring customer traffic to your site. If this is the case, then the message that you need to put on it should be relevant and compelling to the person reading it – especially if you are going to convert them into a paying customer.
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Operating a truly effective fighting team of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can be daunting. It requires skill, dedication, tolerance, an ability to rebound from failure, and a desire for righteousness. Mastering many Martial Arts is also useful. You’re probably asking how did “Splinter, a giant rat become Sensei and paternal figure to the most incredible fighting Turtles the world has ever seen?”
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Painting techniques, the odd things that go through my head at times. However, this has stemmed from my need to prepare and paint my side gate before it starts to rot.

It’s my annual “sort out the woodwork in the garden” time of year. You know, that list of stuff that never seems to get done – the panel fence, the garden shed, the fascia on the house (for those of us without uPVC…).

Painting techniques, isn’t that a little over the top as a description?

Perhaps approach would be a better word. I have to think about how I’m going to approach each piece of woodwork that needs to be sorted out.  (more…)

This morning, I was reading a post on Bloggertone that reminded me of our own journey to get where we are at the moment.

When Eoin and I presented the concepts for MyProjectTracker to our friends in Contrast, we had already written down to an implementation level i.e. dictating (almost), how we wanted the product to be built. We had gone the direct route to come up with an answer for how the product should be put together based on our own experiences up to that point. Oh, and to ensure it was deployed as fast as possible (in our eyes).

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