Hello all! I'm new to this site and am very anxious to get feedback from seasoned vets as I'm new to Project Management. I need help. I'm working for a company that has never had a project manager before.
I've been here for three weeks now, trying to get to know the team's practices and protocol. I want to start implementing better time management and look at deadlines. The team is very respectful but not very enthusiastic about the changes. Any advice to show them how beneficial this is going to be? Any pearls of wisdom would be appreciated.
I am new too on gantthead, which is very interesting to read experiences and knowledge shared by the community.
As a quick introduction, I've started as a new PM within a team of two developers, they was developing the application by them self and had their habits well rooted (good and bad ones), the first few month had been really tough, I had to learn the core business (Health care / Infectious decease) and tried to slowly implement tools for managing projects more efficiently, willingness for changes was not often there, this has been a slow process that has been more and more accepted as the team was growing and projects going.
It is now three years, we are now seven and soon more developers joining the team. We're using an Agile/XP approach with International Stakeholders, with 3 big projects ongoing and many side projects.
My advice from current experiences:
- Understand and master the core business.
- Be nice, they certainly knows the core business much more than you at present, learn from them.
- Shows them what they will benefits from your knowledge.
- Ask advice, suggest and explain to the team your plan.
- Get out of the office for a lunch with your team.
- Have the support of your upper management.
- PM is a continual process where past knowledge build more efficient PM for the following projects, Lesson Learned.
- Takes the time to know the people you're working with, your team but also the stakeholders.
Best of luck to you,
Cheers, Saving Changes...
Sharon CurtisSenior Project Manager | World Archipelago London, United Kingdom
Hi Charile
Its interesting to hear about the company you are working for - I worked in a similar style web design and development agency last year - what you say about design problems is right and we had to learn the hard way to. Often what seems to happen is
Your client doesn’t normally know exactly what they want - but they will have expectations (but sometimes aren’t that good at telling us what those expectations are)
Design briefs are usually quite poor so sometimes designers have little to go on - designers have different skills some are better at interpreting the customers brief than others - this can lead to time spent on the design which is often ultimately wasted.
However there are some things you can do to help avoid unnecessary wasted design time. Here are some things I did and I really think it helped reduce wasted design time. - So I hope it’s helpful for you.
- Look at competitors before you start - make sure the designs will be better and different.
- Make sure you understand and the designer understands the objectives of creating this design.
- outline the design brief to the customer and to the designer
- let the customer know that you operate an evolving design process show them the design at 20%,50% 75% complete - they will be able to tell you if you are going down completely the wrong track and there will be less time wasted.
- Ensure designer understands brief by going through it verbally as well as providing the written brief - sometimes I ask them to sketch out what they will do first if there is no wireframe. Alternatively if the layout is set by the client I may draw out a wireframe to form part of the brief
- Provide clients with a design rationale provided by the designer - the horse’s mouth so to speak this will have validity and credibility. (let the designer know he is going to need to provide a design rationale at the beginning !!)
- Research best design practices show the client how you have used best practice as part of rationale.
- Always check the work has met the brief before sending to the customer and have regular reviews of the work with the designer as its being done so that there are no last min problems.
- If the customer doesn't like the work find out why its not suitable and what they would like to see changed in the new version. - ensure this is communicated to the designer in a constructive manner - make a log of what that customer didn’t like so that you can ensure that it doesn't happen again on future projects with that client.
- Become friends with the designers they can help you learn a lot. Always treat them as the expert, always give the designer feedback on their work credit where credit is due and be constructive and fair with any criticism that you give.
- Break down work and give small deadlines rather than large projects large deadlines - this will increase productivity.
I hope some of these tips will be helpful to you - some I am sure you do already - good luck. I am sure you will do great.
Saving Changes...
