Introduction.

There is currently a wealth of Project Management tools available to the Project Manager. From the usual stalwarts of PRINCE II and MS Project to less well known, but still useful ones, like Basecamp, 5pm and newbies like Asana. However, Project Managers ignore at their peril the fact that these, albeit sophisticated, software programs are just tools to help them perform their jobs and will not, of themselves, secure project success.

PM tools analyze data.

Data input errors are easily made!

The first thing to remember here is that PM tools merely analyze data that’s entered into them. They do not, or at least not yet, gather that data and, so, are reliant on the data being input to it. If the data being input is incomplete, out of date or just plain wrong – then any analysis the PM tool announces will be at best inaccurate if not downright wrong – meaning your project could be seriously out of synchronization with your overall project plan. So, tiresome as it may seem you do need to exert some control and checking over the data being input. Depending on the size of the team you’re leading this might require you to personally oversee the data entry or to at least randomly check data entries – all the way up to having a dual entry system. Just remember the old computing adage – GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out!

You’re the problem solver!

Another potentially fatal trap that Project Managers can fall into is thinking that PM software can solve problems for them. Unfortunately we don’t yet live in a world where software is so clever as to solve problems by itself, despite what you might read in Robert Harris’s excellent “The fear index”. When an unexpected situation arises you need to get out there and determine the solution yourself, sitting in an office staring at a computer screen will not offer you any help. Finally here, don’t be over reliant on using the PM software for all of your communications. Keeping people informed of meetings or formal decisions through the software is fine but, by and large, everyone prefers the personal touch when it comes to being asked questions or discussing their work – so get out there and use your interpersonal skills every bit as much as your software ones.

Project Management Tools Limitations is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

Our final part in this short series of articles about meetings is concerned with how the Project Manager should run a successful meeting. Strange as it may seem there is actually a formula to running successful meetings – which begins with making sure that you don’t begin the meeting in such a way as to guarantee its failure. To begin with, according to the formula, your reasons for calling a meeting should either be to obtain approval for a plan that you have or to seek opinions before formulating a plan to be submitted for approval. Those things could just as easily be labeled as seeking a solution to a problem or discussing problems – but it’s much more proactive to address a meeting in terms of plans rather than problems, as discussing problems will inevitably descend into an opportunity for the delegates to score points over one another.

A good start will lead to a good end.

Meet and greet your delegates to put them at their ease.

Meeting minutes.

The last part of the successful meetings formula is generating meaningful minutes. A verbatim transcript of everything said, or even the majority of what was said, is really of no use as the minutes for a meeting. The purpose of meeting’s minutes for the Project Manager is to express three things. Firstly, the decisions that were made in the meeting – who made them and what the decision were. Secondly, any resultant actions that need to be taken. Following on from a meeting there is inevitably more work to be done, so the minutes need to clearly show what’s to be done and who’s responsible for it. Lastly, the minutes will need to include supporting notes that help to explain the reasons for decisions or actions being reached. Don’t forget too, on a procedural basis, to include in the minutes things like the start and end time of the meeting, who was there, agreement on the minutes for the previous meeting, matters arising from the previous meeting and matters to carry forward to the next one. These procedural points might seem tiresome – but if ever you’re ever challenged on a decision in future a meeting, they could be invaluable!

Meetings – 3 is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

As the Project Manager, your time is far too precious to be wasted in meetings that aren’t productive. So you owe it to yourself, if not the rest of your staff, to make sure that meetings are properly prepared and organized so to not waste anyone’s time. One of the biggest wastes of time in meetings can be when a vital delegate fails to show up. So, give everyone concerned fair warning of meetings and make it very clear from the outset that you expect everyone you’ve invited to attend and that sending substitute delegates is not an option.

The agenda.

Preparing for any meeting, after establishing who needs to attend it, begins with having clear objectives to achieve during the meeting and you can signal to the delegates, who will be attending the meeting, what those objectives are by having an unambiguous agenda to follow The agenda can also include guidance times for how long an item should need discussing allocated to it, in order to keep the meeting moving along. Ideally you’ll be able to send out the agenda before the meeting, as that way you can invite comments regarding the agenda items prior to the meeting being held.

Attending delegates.

Having everyone you invited attending your meeting is of little value if they’re not the people you really need to be addressing. So, do be sure you’re inviting the right people in the first place. Remember too that the bigger a meeting is – the less likely it is to be a productive one. Ideally keep the numbers down to seven or eight, if you can’t bring a secretary along to keep minutes for the meeting – don’t forget to nominate a scribe/timekeeper and give everyone the opportunity to chair meetings on a rotational basis; and certainly don’t always assume the role of chair yourself.

Meeting room arrangement.

Make sure the meeting room is suitable and well arranged.

Never forget he power of a bit of amateur psychology when it comes to arranging the meeting room and where the delegates sit. Do you want people to be able to temporarily switch off from their jobs and really concentrate on the meetings content, if so organize the meeting as far away from any work areas as possible. Using a round table can make delegates feel fully included as opposed to having them sit as if they’re being lectured to. Make sure the technology works, if you need a whiteboard are the pens OK? If you need video-conferencing is it all booked properly etc. Finally here, don’t discount the temperature or lighting conditions. A room that is too warm and dark coukld see everyone falling asleep; too cold or bright and they’ll become restless. In other words – avoid extremes in terms of environmental conditions.

Meetings – 2 is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

By their very nature Project Managers are high achievers with equally high expectations of those they work with. Generally speaking, and if you’re doing your job properly when recruiting staff, those staff who do work for you will be on the same wavelength as you and be equally hard working. However, just because you only intend to take few hours off for Christmas day itself – is it really fair to expect the same of all your staff?

The best secret Santa present.

Be a generous secret Santa and reward everyone with some time off this Christmas.

You’re hopefully not the sort of Project Manager who thinks “bah humbug” about Christmas and will have taken the time to organize some sort of team get together before the festive holiday, if not a proper Christmas meal for everyone. Organizing secret Santas is a great way to help your team bond together as well, even if some folk are left looking a little puzzled at what they receive. However, whilst secret Santas are really only to give presents from one individual to another – you could give a secret Santa present to everyone, that is bound to receive universal approval. That is, of course, some meaningful time off from the project over Christmas. Of course your project can’t grind to a halt and it may be, especially for some transport or construction jobs, that making progress when a lot of other places are on vacation and quieter can be important. But, do take the time to find out if anyone has a young family, if so be particularly generous with them and the time you give them off. Younger workers or perhaps those without a family might not be so concerned about time off at Christmas – but might instead appreciate an extra day or two at New Years. All of which will help to motivate your staff to work as hard as ever for you.

Can you use a skeleton staff?

Remember, everyone likes a break, especially at this time of year. You don’t need to close down the project for a whole week but, with Christmas day falling on a Sunday this year – why not see if you can arrange for just a skeleton staff to be in on the Monday and Tuesday. Similarly, as New Years day is the Sunday too, try and do the same for the first Monday/Tuesday of 2012. Finally here, if you really want to prove you’re not a reincarnation of Scrooge this year – why not arrange it so everyone can get off home early on Christmas Eve too.

Festive Season Break is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

Meetings, meetings and more meetings – there always seems so much to talk about and yet they invariably seem to achieve so little. That could be one view of the meetings that a Project Manager finds themselves attending – but if it is, then they really should do something about who’s scheduling the meetings and why. Meetings should be an important an integral part of your job as a Project Manager, whether its an informal meeting when you happen across someone en route somewhere else or a full-blown board meeting with a secretary in attendance.

The three types of meeting.

As the Project Manager you can expect to be involved in 3 types of meetings. Planning and review meetings, which can be accomplished with individuals or small teams of people, for these although you need to keep everyone informed of the projects progress, you don’t need everyone brought together to look at how well the constituent parts of the project are progressing. Keep these meetings small and you won’t end up being side-tracked and wasting your valuable time. Decision making meetings will pretty well occupy your day, again the smaller the group called together for these the better. Once a decision is made, section leaders can filter the decision down amongst the sub-teams. Finally, you will need to organize meetings that bring together all the departments or sub-teams working on the project. These meetings look at the actual constructive work done so far and are used to plan the next stages. As the various parts of a project are invariably inter-dependent on one another, everyone is needed at these to discuss and agree on priorities for the next stage.

Running the meeting.

Not the way to run a meeting.

Any meeting is only successful if it runs well, so what do you need to do in terms of running the meeting. We’ll look at this in more detail in our next article but essentially this requires you to; prepare for the meeting so that you know what needs to be achieved, use the objectives from your preparation to keep the meeting flowing and not getting side-tracked and, finally, follow-up the meeting – making sure clear and concise minutes are issued, so that you can reinforce the decisions made in it.

Meetings – 1 is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

Having got the right staff appointed and organized them into a highly productive unit – how do you make sure that they all know not just what they’re doing – but where they’re going with it. The answer to that is, of course, through your leadership skills. As a Project Manager your leadership skills begin with having a clear and coherent plan of action for yourself and the project as a whole – which you can then refer to in terms of leading your team(s) towards and through the objectives they need to meet.

The five essential skills for leadership.

Is this a good leader?

There are five key skills essential for a good leader to posses. The first is knowing the facts of any given situation, in order to be confident that what you say or advise is correct. There’s no problem with admitting you’re wrong over something – but if you’re constantly corrected by subordinates or apologizing for errors, your credibility as a leader will be lost. The second key skill is being honest. Honest about what you’re doing and honest but tactful when correcting others. Skills three and four pretty well go together as they are setting a good example and never giving up. As the leader people want to look up to you. However, if you don’t constantly present yourself to the best effect, that high regard you’re held in will quickly evaporate. Also, if you quit something part way through, expecting someone else to pick it up for you – others will soon follow that lead too. Finally, remember you don’t have to be despotic to get the best out of your staff. People will respond well to an even handed and friendly approach, much better than being dictatorial with them.

Problem solving and leadership.

A Project Manager has to be a problem solver – which is a capability that will also serve you well in terms of your leadership. Any project will have its points of crisis. If you want to find a culprit to blame for the crisis, you’re probably not a good leader. A good leader will treat any crises as an opportunity for problem solving – not blaming someone else. How do you do this? Simply by having a total knowledge of the project, being prepared to roll your sleeves up and help out with something you’d normally leave to others – but without seeming to dominate it.

Leadership Skills is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

Whilst it is essential to motivate your whole team, by far the easiest way to achieve this is by actually motivating the individuals first. As someone new to a project and being in the role of Project Manager, do not fall into the trap of believing that a few well chosen words or bonding sessions away from the project will motivate your staff. Sure, at the time you’ve giving the talk or engaging in the team building activities all the staff will be engaged and the feed back will be great but, unfortunately, such sessions do not motivate at a personal/individual level – and we all like to be treated as individuals.

Do some research.

Motivated individuals make motivated teams.

If you’re motivating individuals don’t think that one approach will suit all of the staff. You need to some research to find out what makes them tick as individuals. What gets them up in the morning, what do they hope to achieve through their work, where do they see themselves in the future? The answers to questions like that will fall into two categories – the intrinsic and extrinsic needs by which they are motivated. Most of us require a mixture of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to get the best out of us. Intrinsic ones could be something as simple as being praised for doing something well and extrinsic ones could be something like there being a clear bonus structure for meeting/exceeding targets etc. Find the ‘needs’ the of the individuals and you will soon be able to motivate them as individuals and, ultimately, galvanize them into a team.

Long-term motivation.

With the best will in the world any motivational techniques and tactics you apply will need to be revised and re-visited, to maintain the motivation of your workers. This requires you to also formulate a longer term motivational plan to keep your staff motivated. Setting clear and achievable targets and expectations is one way to maintain motivation; as will giving staff the opportunity to take increased responsibilities for the work they do within the project. Finally, having got the individuals motivated you can then turn to galvanizing them and motivating them as a team. This is the time for organizing staff treats to say well done if they’ve been prepared to work beyond their normal hours, perhaps by paying for them and their partner to enjoy a meal out. News of what’s available for those who go that extra mile will soon filter through. Or, you could now organize those informal staff occasions, again including partners, in things like an evening at a bowling alley or perhaps something like a karaoke bar?

Motivating – Part 2 is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

Whole books can be written about motivation and motivating people – so please do accept that this is very much an overview of the topic. However, having said that we are more than confident that here we’ll be able to give you the essential tips necessary to make sure that you, as a Project Manager, know all about what is required for and how to approach motivating your staff.

Why motivate staff.

A question to ask is just why should you need to motivate your staff if, to all intents and purpose, they’re working well and the project is progressing well. The answer to that is simply that any staff/personnel working on any job can always give that bit more or, put another way, will be working at least a little below their capacity. The way to ensure that they are all working to 100% capacity is through motivating them and that way you will also ensure that project productivity is truly maximized.

Does she look motivated or demotivated?

How to demotivate staff.

Just as important as knowing how to motivate staff is avoiding demotivating them. That means not being inconsistent, one day being all smiles and the next day all grumpy, asking team members advice and then completely ignoring it, expecting others to work late whilst you slip off for a round of golf – not to mention failing to give praise where and when it’s due.

Easy motivational techniques.

Conversely there are some very easy and basic motivational techniques you can apply. Motivation is concerned with the specifics of achieving a particular job and to do that you must set clear and concise objectives to be met, in order that the team(s) productivity levels are maximized. Staff are also more likely to be fully engaged in a project when they too can see the bigger picture of what is to be accomplished. So don’t unnecessarily restrict their access to the project but do involve them in decision making and value their input. Finally, for the moment, when maximizing productivity levels make sure that no one person or team is burdened with more that their fair share of work, nothing will demotivate staff quicker than them feeling they’re being overworked compared to others.

Motivating – Part 1 is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

There’s not a Project Manager in the world that doesn’t want to just get on with the project and get away from all those admin tasks, that seem to be getting in the way of making progress on the job. The fact is that showing impatience or avoiding those administration tasks is just one of the bad errors of judgment you can make as a Project Manager.

Planning errors.

Avoid errors of judgement when it comes to the paperwork

OK, so making a planning error is nothing new and, by and large, if we’re totally honest we’ve all made planning errors. That’s not a problem providing you fully understand why the error occurred and take preventative steps to avoid repeating it. However, the best and easiest way to avoid making errors of judgment in the first place when planning is to fully involve others in your work. Although you’re the Project Manager and have responsibility for bring the project in on time and to budget – that’s not to say you’re the only one who should be planning it. So bring in other specialists to help you with the planning and be prepared to make several revisions to your work plan, in order to fine tune it as and when more information becomes available.

Maintain your project charter.

As alluded to in the introduction – failing to maintain an up to date project charter is a serious error of judgment to make. Sure you know exactly what stage the project is at, sure you know what everyone is currently working on and sure you know all the staff working for you know all about what to do. The problem is – what if one of those key workers is suddenly ill or quits the job! Can you afford the time to take the newcomer through everything that’s happened to date and what they should be doing – or can you refer them to a fully up to date and fully documented project charter? Keeping project documentation up to date is a chore – but ignore it at your peril!

Errors Of Judgement is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com

Introduction.

By and large Project Managers in the past tended to be more concerned with delivering what they said they’d accomplish – rather than accumulating and showing off any certificates or qualifications they might have. Times change and today having Project Management experience alone may not be all that is required to get that next job, better job or even your first Project Management job. So what Project Management Qualifications should you consider taking?

Professional body Project Management qualifications.

You're never to old to go back to school to gain PM qualifications.

If you want to get ahead in Project Management these days you’ll need to have some qualifications that are directly relevant and applicable to Project Management. The national PM professional body, the Project Managers Institute, offers two nationally recognized qualifications – the CAPM and the PMP. CAPM – is the Certified Associate in Project Management certificate, it is really intended for those entering PM as a career or those with some previous experience. You must hold a high school diploma to get on this and have either 1500 hours of PM experience behind you or – be a higher education graduate and have completed at least 23 hours of PM education. For more experienced Project Managers, those with 7500+ hours experience, you can go for the Project Management Professional credential. The PMP is also available for those who are hold a least a Bachelors degree and have at least 4,500 hours experience and 35 hours of formal PM education. An alternative to these two would be an IPMA qualification. IPMA – International Project Managers Association – offers certificates at four levels, A to D, where level D is the entry qualification and would award you the title – Certified Project Management Associate.

IT qualifications.

Spreadsheets, graphics, databases even word-processing play a part in the Project Managers life – but when it comes to IT skills there’s really only one IT qualification to bother with. Depending on whether you’re using PRINCE2 or MS Project – that’s the IT qualification you need. Sure, most folk can ‘pick up’ how to use these software packages as they go along, but to truly understand them, get the most out of them and prove to a potential client you know all about them – you need either a PRINCE2 or MS Project qualification.

Project Management Qualifications is a post from: Enterprise-PM.com