Hanh VuPrincipal Project Manager| solo.ioChurchville, Md, United States
Hi all,
If you were a PM with too many projects to look after and keep on track, getting additional experienced PMs to share the project load is is not an option, but you do have access to administrative resources and some project coordinating resources, what would you do in terms of delegation so that you can increase your own bandwidth to deal with the too many projects?
It's the situation I found myself in currently. I'm currently juggling 3 software development projects of varying sizes, in varying stages. But there are at least that many more that needs project management effort from me. When I said I can't take on more projects without dropping the balls somewhere, I'm told I need to figure out how to delegate some of what I do to others, so that I could "take on" more projects, while keeping my eyes on all of them.
It's a challenge I'd like to meet. I'm still trying to formulate my own ideas, but I would love to know your thoughts and suggestions.
Hanh VuPrincipal Project Manager| solo.ioChurchville, Md, United States
Hello,
Without going into too many details, I can't get new staff (at least for a few years). I have been trying to train up the available staff, but have not had much success. The reasons could be:
a. I haven't done a good job training - entirely possible
b. Staff lack the ability to learn either in domain knowledge or in critical thinking skills
I can't change b. So I can work to improve upon a. - I'd love and appreciate suggestions. But I also need find the tasks with non-technical elements to delegate to available staff, because the projects aren't waiting for my/their readiness. And I'm kind stumped on coming up with a list of non-technical things to delegate on. So that's where I am... I've gotten some suggestions i need to try out. I hope to be able to report back something productive.
...
1 reply by Luis Branco
Oct 30, 2019 1:07 PM
Luis Branco
...
Hi Hanh
The delegation process has two components:
- One related to the work to be done
- Another related to the confidence you have to get the job done.
Sometimes it takes a while to gain confidence.
On the other hand, the pace of learning varies from person to person.
Finally, in order to delegate, it is essential that we first organize
I wish you the most success
I would like you, when appropriate, to share with us the lessons learned
Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Oct 30, 2019 11:48 AM
Replying to Hanh Vu
...
Hello,
Without going into too many details, I can't get new staff (at least for a few years). I have been trying to train up the available staff, but have not had much success. The reasons could be:
a. I haven't done a good job training - entirely possible
b. Staff lack the ability to learn either in domain knowledge or in critical thinking skills
I can't change b. So I can work to improve upon a. - I'd love and appreciate suggestions. But I also need find the tasks with non-technical elements to delegate to available staff, because the projects aren't waiting for my/their readiness. And I'm kind stumped on coming up with a list of non-technical things to delegate on. So that's where I am... I've gotten some suggestions i need to try out. I hope to be able to report back something productive.
Hi Hanh
The delegation process has two components:
- One related to the work to be done
- Another related to the confidence you have to get the job done.
Sometimes it takes a while to gain confidence.
On the other hand, the pace of learning varies from person to person.
Finally, in order to delegate, it is essential that we first organize
I wish you the most success
I would like you, when appropriate, to share with us the lessons learned Saving Changes...
Hanh, It sounds like you're acting both as engineer, and a project manager i.e. as a Project Engineer. When technical people get pulled into that role, we tend to gravitate to the techie stuff because it's the fun part. If you're a PE actively managing 3 projects and you can't think of administrative stuff for staff to do, I'm willing to bet you're focusing on the tech part and managing a lot of the administrative aspects in your head.
Just updating the work statements, schedules, action items, status, and budget is time consuming. I feel bad about delegating that stuff because much of it is tedious work, but when I support a project and none of that critical information is clear and current, it is a complete nightmare.
I don't support PM documentation for its own sake but when the right things aren't documented, the more people join the effort, the more will be off-plan and you will spend more of your time as the PE fixing things rather than planning things that don't need fixing.
Obviously you can't delegate things you're not doing, but are you not doing things you should and could delegate? Saving Changes...
What is the nature of the technical work you are doing? If these are software development projects are there other developers working on the projects? Would it be possible to delegate to the developers the technical things you are working on? Or are you doing Business Analyses? Are there BAs on the team to which you can delegate some of your work? Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Hi Hanh
Interesting problem .
Explain the project to them on a high level . You may need to give them an overview of the Software Development Life Cycle.
Show them the Business proposal or project charter. Get them to understand the business case and the problem statement and encourage them to ask questions.
I would start with delegating minute taking and report writing as the first things to do for a Project coordinator / Project Assistant .
Make them attend Daily stand-ups, sprint planning , retrospectives and show cases and shadow you everywhere.
Then step back after a couple of cycles and let them run those meetings, Observe and then have a one-on-one with them to explain how they can improve and what they should keep doing. Give them honest, open and Constructive feedback and encouragement.
During the meetings , you will be better served by listening and focusing more on the stakeholders, scope , risks , issues while getting them to take notes .
If it's a structured meeting in a meeting room or a workshop, you need to point out to the Coordinators where things need to be noted down and "highlighted" and where actions need to be assigned.
Then make them approach whoever owns the action [ any available communication mechanism] to follow up on the progress.
Get them to run the risks and issues workshops or go through these logs once a week with you and to highlight the key ones to you.
Give them individual work packages once confident of their abilities .
It's a very gradual progression if you are mentoring someone from scratch from within the company.
Otherwise there are seasoned Project coordinators out there in the market and you need to recruit them to assist you.
...
1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Oct 31, 2019 12:12 AM
Adrian Carlogea
...
I don't think this would work. Hanh said that she is doing technical work (probably related to writing the code) so she probably needs people with software development background. This is what she said:
"b. Staff lack the ability to learn either in domain knowledge or in critical thinking skills "
So she needs people with domain knowledge (software development background). It is much harder to train someone to become a software developer than to train a project coordinator/project manager.
Since she said that the staff is not trained in domain knowledge I suspect that the software development is done by an external company and she is the customer's PM.
Explain the project to them on a high level . You may need to give them an overview of the Software Development Life Cycle.
Show them the Business proposal or project charter. Get them to understand the business case and the problem statement and encourage them to ask questions.
I would start with delegating minute taking and report writing as the first things to do for a Project coordinator / Project Assistant .
Make them attend Daily stand-ups, sprint planning , retrospectives and show cases and shadow you everywhere.
Then step back after a couple of cycles and let them run those meetings, Observe and then have a one-on-one with them to explain how they can improve and what they should keep doing. Give them honest, open and Constructive feedback and encouragement.
During the meetings , you will be better served by listening and focusing more on the stakeholders, scope , risks , issues while getting them to take notes .
If it's a structured meeting in a meeting room or a workshop, you need to point out to the Coordinators where things need to be noted down and "highlighted" and where actions need to be assigned.
Then make them approach whoever owns the action [ any available communication mechanism] to follow up on the progress.
Get them to run the risks and issues workshops or go through these logs once a week with you and to highlight the key ones to you.
Give them individual work packages once confident of their abilities .
It's a very gradual progression if you are mentoring someone from scratch from within the company.
Otherwise there are seasoned Project coordinators out there in the market and you need to recruit them to assist you.
I don't think this would work. Hanh said that she is doing technical work (probably related to writing the code) so she probably needs people with software development background. This is what she said:
"b. Staff lack the ability to learn either in domain knowledge or in critical thinking skills "
So she needs people with domain knowledge (software development background). It is much harder to train someone to become a software developer than to train a project coordinator/project manager.
Since she said that the staff is not trained in domain knowledge I suspect that the software development is done by an external company and she is the customer's PM.
...
1 reply by Deepesh Rammoorthy
Oct 31, 2019 1:19 AM
Deepesh Rammoorthy
...
I think Hanh is working on trying to delegate Non-technical tasks as per her latest update :)
Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Oct 31, 2019 12:12 AM
Replying to Adrian Carlogea
...
I don't think this would work. Hanh said that she is doing technical work (probably related to writing the code) so she probably needs people with software development background. This is what she said:
"b. Staff lack the ability to learn either in domain knowledge or in critical thinking skills "
So she needs people with domain knowledge (software development background). It is much harder to train someone to become a software developer than to train a project coordinator/project manager.
Since she said that the staff is not trained in domain knowledge I suspect that the software development is done by an external company and she is the customer's PM.
I think Hanh is working on trying to delegate Non-technical tasks as per her latest update :)
...
1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Oct 31, 2019 1:45 AM
Adrian Carlogea
...
Maybe, but she said that she needs her software developing knowledge in her work: "In software development projects, on which I work, I find myself regularly relying on my knowledge and experience of software development to perform my PM tasks: to ask the right questions, to understand issues descriptions & reports, to facilitate discussions, to identify emerging issues, to generally communicate with the team."
So I think she should delegate to software developers from the project teams. I wonder why she is not doing this. Maybe she is not allowed to do this but this would be the best thing in my opinion. Perhaps she will tell us why she doesn't do that.
It is better to delegate project management tasks to a software developer that does not have project management knowledge rather than delegating to someone that has neither project management nor software development knowledge.
I have seen software development project managers with no domain knowledge and they just look dumb and the developers usually make fun of them and call them glorified secretaries.
I think Hanh is working on trying to delegate Non-technical tasks as per her latest update :)
Maybe, but she said that she needs her software developing knowledge in her work: "In software development projects, on which I work, I find myself regularly relying on my knowledge and experience of software development to perform my PM tasks: to ask the right questions, to understand issues descriptions & reports, to facilitate discussions, to identify emerging issues, to generally communicate with the team."
So I think she should delegate to software developers from the project teams. I wonder why she is not doing this. Maybe she is not allowed to do this but this would be the best thing in my opinion. Perhaps she will tell us why she doesn't do that.
It is better to delegate project management tasks to a software developer that does not have project management knowledge rather than delegating to someone that has neither project management nor software development knowledge.
I have seen software development project managers with no domain knowledge and they just look dumb and the developers usually make fun of them and call them glorified secretaries. Saving Changes...
Deepa KalangiManager, Program Management, Author, Trainer| CVS HealthCharlotte, NC, United States
Hi Hanh,
I was exactly in the same situation as you are!! And was given PC's who are like Junior/Entry level PM's that are learning and willing to learn. Here is what I have delegated to them,
1. Creating standard meetings and following up with the stakeholders on their attendance.
2. Gathering data related to project status, budgets(pulling reports, entering the data into my templates, etc).
3. Become a scribe whenever needed. For large projects and large teams, you running the meeting and also taking notes will consume a lot of time.
4. We forecasted bi-weekly, they would help me enter the data, maintain the budgets, etc.
5. Sometimes, creating powerpoint presentations based on my guidelines and rough notes.
In a nutshell, anything that is a time-consuming process and is preventing you from problem-solving, issue resolution in any project. Some companies use tools that take forever to enter the data into and generate reports from for budgeting purposes. You could leverage them for those tasks. Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
Milena IlievaProgram Manager Global accounts| VMWareVienna, Austria
Hi Hanh,
You said it yourself, and you actually gave solution to your situation.
You have administrative staff which can help you. As said by other people earlier, assign them project administrative tasks - setup your project PMO team - you can assign people per projects or assign common tasks to people across the 3 projects. It is up to you which way works best for you, keeping in mind people, their interest, skills, and let us not forget you need to keep them motivated. Especially if they will be helping you at the top of their normal jobs.
Very often administrative tasks are underestimated in projects, but they are important too and very time consuming. Having such support can help the PM to really focus on the management tasks.
You can delegate tasks like - scheduling meetings/calls, maintaining project documents, creating reports, writing minutes from team meetings, small tasks on demand, which do not require specific knowledge. I am sure you can come of other ideas once you start thinking.
On the other hand, there is also benefit for you and your career, as this can be a step towards program management, as you will learn to think more strategically.
