Your ultimate goal in rendering a project is to finish on time, below budget and with a happy client. But how do you perform it? Here are five tips to assist you.
Be Honest
As the saying goes “Honesty is the Best Policy”.You have to be honest all the time in dealing with your customers. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t acquire all of the resource, cash and time involved to carry it out successfully from the start. Set their anticipations by saying to them what you will carry and by when. And if it eventuates that you can’t render on your promises, then state to them about it directly. By having an “open book” policy, you’ll have your client’s confidence. And if you involve them early enough, they will be a lot supportive to your cause.
Hand it over
Managers oftentimes fall into the trap of believing that they can manage things much efficiently than staff. Of course in a lot of cases they may be right, but the problem is that they don’t have the time to perform everything themselves. So a bright manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It presents them the time needed to supervise the project and support their team. It’s a delicate task, but even if you recognize you can do a job more expeditiously than others, delegate it anyway.
Become a leader
When you economize time by delegating your jobs, you have time for leading and motivating your group. Make this by regularly communicating the project to your team, honoring them for progress and accrediting their accomplishments. Have their respect by showing them you care. Build Up team liveliness by bringing them to lunch on a daily basisand uttering about what they accomplished unitedly. Remember, there is no “i” in “team”.
Expect the unexpected
Always expect matters to change and be ready for it when it comes. People have ideas, your client may require changes, and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s significant, it’s how you react to the transformation that weighs. Always handle change, but be suspicious of it. Question it, double-question it and only when you’re positive it’s for the greatest, apply it.
Work smart, not hard
Attempt not to begin from scratch. Give yourself a head-start wheresoever feasible by using tools like project management guides. These templates encourage the quality of your deliverables, while keeping you time and effort.
Jason Westland has been in the project management industry for the past 15 years and is the author of the book “A Project Life cycle” if you would like to find out more information about Jason or his project management software you can visit projectmanager.com.
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{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
Nicely written piece of common sense, Jason.
You may want to pick up a copy of David Allen’s “How to Get Things Done- The Art of Stress Free Productivity”.
It ranks up there in my “Top 10″ List of “Project Management” books and reflects many of the same “common sense” statements you advised above.
Keep up the good work and best of luck to you with your company. I am sure you will do well!!
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta, Indonesia
http://www.build-project-management-competency.com
Nicely written piece of common sense, Jason.
You may want to pick up a copy of David Allen’s “How to Get Things Done- The Art of Stress Free Productivity”.
It ranks up there in my “Top 10″ List of “Project Management” books and reflects many of the same “common sense” statements you advised above.
Keep up the good work and best of luck to you with your company. I am sure you will do well!!
BR,
Dr. PDG, Jakarta, Indonesia
http://www.build-project-management-competency.com
My comments echo Dr. Paul’s, but tell me, did you mean take your team to lunch every day? I advocate it now and then, but not daily.
My comments echo Dr. Paul’s, but tell me, did you mean take your team to lunch every day? I advocate it now and then, but not daily.
Nice Tips..In a virtual team environment it is not possible to get to team lunch. However try to have one on one as much as possible.
Thanks
Weekly one-on-ones I say, virtual or not.
Thank you for bringing the point about one-on-ones into the discussion! They are very important to me.
Nice Tips..In a virtual team environment it is not possible to get to team lunch. However try to have one on one as much as possible.
Thanks
Weekly one-on-ones I say, virtual or not.
Thank you for bringing the point about one-on-ones into the discussion! They are very important to me.
I beg to differ … “on time and below budget” should NEVER be the place to start a discussion of success. You MUST define and document your success criteria, get agreement from your major stakeholders, and then work to satisfy the success criteria.
Just to illustrate … why not “on budget and ahead of schedule”? What does “on time” mean? Is a day late a problem? Which customers are supposed to be happy? What about the rest of your stakeholders? Does it matter if your whole team quits?
I have a good friend who works for a new drug development team who just fired 5 project managers because they kept focusing on cost and schedule performance and delivering study results that were unacceptable.
Duncan
Good point Bill, I had a bit of a reaction to the “below budget” point as well.
Sure, it’s great to finish at lower cost, but if you’re doing that consistently it’s probably an indication of a systemmic issue with your estimates and/or budgeting processes.
I beg to differ … “on time and below budget” should NEVER be the place to start a discussion of success. You MUST define and document your success criteria, get agreement from your major stakeholders, and then work to satisfy the success criteria.
Just to illustrate … why not “on budget and ahead of schedule”? What does “on time” mean? Is a day late a problem? Which customers are supposed to be happy? What about the rest of your stakeholders? Does it matter if your whole team quits?
I have a good friend who works for a new drug development team who just fired 5 project managers because they kept focusing on cost and schedule performance and delivering study results that were unacceptable.
Duncan
This is a great article. We truly believe in everything you have listed here as tips for better project management. We work hard to bring these solutions to others as well. Thanks for sharing!
This is a great article. We truly believe in everything you have listed here as tips for better project management. We work hard to bring these solutions to others as well. Thanks for sharing!
Hi, Newbie PM blogger here from Chennai, India. Useful tips Jason. Thanks.
Hi, Newbie PM blogger here from Chennai, India. Useful tips Jason. Thanks.
Hi Jason,
One of the most important things I have discovered in software development projects is to have a very clear and straight-forward communication. Very often the projects fail due to different view of the scope. So, good communication i think is the number 1 priority.
/Daniel
http://www.my3plive.com
okay
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