What is your PMO’s reputation among the PMs it serves? There could be a lot of distrust. Through experience, one manager discovered some potential problem areas that you may want to look at in your own organization.
While many projects may not have to adopt the elements of the Federal Incident Command System, some are set up to resolve a certain time-bound resolution of organizational priorities and can reap the benefits.
Question: My team seldom seems to be able to communicate effectively about project data and reports, even using the most specific common words. And we disagree on whose meaning is correct. How do we find a reputable source to rely on to clear up these misunderstandings?
| A. | Whichever team member has the most years with the organization should be allowed to define terms for the team to adopt. Defer to this person. |
| B. | The field of knowledge management is being used as a common foundation for defining terms for the project management field and beyond. |
| C. | Ask the person who has the most recent PMI certification, as those with older certifications may not understand today’s project management practices. |
| D. | The National Association of Project Management Dictionary should be the standard for all project managers, regardless of where they reside. |
Your project seemed to be going along swimmingly. Suddenly, there was a surprise from a governance stakeholder. Will you avoid the guillotine? In our conclusion, we focus on managing governance stakeholders in requirements gathering.
Every project has an issues log. But what about the PMO? Does your PMO manage issues and maintain an issues log? Do you look for trends across the issues of different projects and take proactive steps to address them? Do you attempt to prevent issues through good communication? In this article, we look at a model for PMO-level issue management and suggest ways that it can improve the quality of projects that your PMO is responsible for.
The project manager should know how to run an effective governance meeting. Using the following principles, you can facilitate productive meetings that will help out everyone on the project and the governance committee.
It was the best of times--your project seemed to be going along swimmingly. It was the worst of times--suddenly there was a surprise from a governance stakeholder. Will you avoid the guillotine?
Agile methods suggest replacing top-down, command-and-control management with empowered teams and shared leadership. That all sounds nice, but what exactly is shared leadership and how do you get it to happen?
Do you have a readiness plan in place for potential pandemics? Even if you feel protected or isolated from such an occurrence, having a readiness plan can also serve as an important reinforcement to customers and stakeholders who are dependent upon your continued performance and success.
The stress of dealing with the governance committee can quickly cause the word “governance” to become a four-letter word. Learn how to work the system to make governance effective and actually helpful to the project.
There are times when it must be accepted that what you do and what you make cannot be accelerated to keep up with or integrate the latest technology transformation. Given the proper circumstances however, these moments can provide the opportunity for a firm to take their own uniqueness and build a strong business that can withstand this kind of change.
There are many ways that a project manager can find or create a community of support--and it extends beyond the project management office. Here we offer a few suggestions and starting points for finding communities for project managers.
For a company and its associates to act responsibly and minimize exposure of data on mobile devices, the following actions need to be considered as a component of a collaborative agreement.
If you're having trouble with your team, this might be a good time to check in on their motivation and take some positive action. Here's a plan to get everyone back on the right track.
On projects where you have more than a handful of issues, it is helpful to have a log that you can use to easily track and understand the status of an each one. The log keeps issues at a very high-level while the details are left to the project issue identification form. Project Issue logs are often used on medium to larger projects.
On many projects, each team is required to submit a status report indicating their progress on their portion of the project. The report ensures the key information required by the project manager is captured from each team in a consistent and complete fashion.
An integral part of a success project is communication. What do you say and to whom? When do you say it? How? Through what media?
Use this form to prepare and organize more useful feedback for team members and other people involved in your team.
This template allows the project manager to fully understand the communication needs of stakeholders on the project. Stakeholders expectations and requirements can be documented ensuring there is a clear understanding of the why, when, how and what of the project’s communications.
To look into the future--more often than not--you must first look back. But if we are to do that and look ahead to envision what the future of project management might look like 10, 20 or even 100 years from now, looking at how the past envisioned the future may help point us in the right direction and show us where that journey into the future is headed. So what did the future look like, in the past?
Meetings are the lifeblood of projects, but they can quickly dissolve into chaos if not facilitated correctly. A few tricks will keep things on track and the meeting finished on time.
Question: My project “teams” are random, siloed people housed all over the building. We never meet, and multiple project managers all use the same departmentalized individuals to complete activities. How do I get them to prioritize my work requests?
| A. | Ask your organization to restructure from a traditional hierarchy to a projectized organization. |
| B. | Offer free coffee mugs, t-shirts and award certificates each time someone completes an activity for your project. |
| C. | Show your manager that having these people moved to a common workspace for the duration of your project will add value to the project deliverables. |
| D. | Transition yourself from a project manager to a project leader and create a sense of connection and personal relationships between these random, siloed workers. |
It would be simple for a development team to use agile software development practices to improve their development process, likely reducing the injection of defects and possibly increasing their productivity. But what happens if they don’t? A lesson in communication and human behavior may help.
Question: My organization outsources to save money, but it creates communication issues and other problems for my agile team. Can offshoring (outsourcing) work effectively for non-collocated agile groups?
| A. | Yes, but success may depend on how far away from your collocated team the outsourced resources are located. |
| B. | No. Agile practices stress collocated teams. If you are not based together, there is no way for an agile approach to be effective. |
| C. | Yes, but only if the teams switch the locations where they live every six months so that each group learns the language and culture of the other. |
| D. | No. Agile was created in the United States, and therefore it is only intended to work for American teams. |
Whether a project manager has a lot of experience or none at all leading teams, there are some basic guidelines they can follow in order to lead people successfully. A trip back to high school shows us three key roles the PM must play.
The project manager should be leading the team and keeping spirits up. But sometimes though they just want to hide. Here we offer a few ideas for keeping a level head in order to keep your entire team staying positive.
Interruptions are one of the main battles we face each and every day. What can a PM learn from them about how to manage personal productivity in a world of digital distraction?
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The smallest feline is a masterpiece. - Leonardo da Vinci |
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