Hi,
I'm about to retire from the military after 20yrs and currently during a internship with a major cooperation as Project Manager to some projects already in progress. As a new project manager and coming into a project that is already in progress, what is the best course of action to take first. To note, this particulary division has never had a project manager so there is PM plan or documents to acquire. Any advise would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Natasha Saving Changes...
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Biren ParekhDirector| CRISILMumbai, Maharastra, India
Hi Natasha,
The answer is very subjective depending on what all you know.
However let me try to list down some of things you should get hold of as soon as you get into any new project
- First try to identify who are key stakeholders, who is sponsor, what is budget allocated, how much money spent, how much work done compared to plan. If plan is not there, prepare one and get agreement with stakeholders
- Get hold of SOW /contracts with vendors, SLAs etc. If not there, start creating one to ring fence & establish accountability. Identify lessons learnt from past PMs & try to incorporate in the process.
- Prepare list of agreed scope required to deliver the project.
- Start holding weekly or fortnightly meeting with stakeholders to appraise the project status & publishing minutes
- Identify key performers & start holding 1-2-1 meeting with team to identify impediments if any and then escalate with Portfolio manager
and the list goes on..
It all depends on what you know about the org & project. Saving Changes...
Milena IlievaProgram Manager Global accounts| VMWareVienna, Austria
Hi Natasha,
Start building your view on the project, document your findings, get approval and agreement on the documented project constraints (scope, time, costs) and start regular monitoring and reporting of the project status.
First - what is the project about? what is the scope, what is the timeline, who is involved (stakeholders), who is the project owner / sponsor, budget?
Plan meetings with all stakeholders to build your picture of the project and status (scope, timeline, costs).
Document all your findings, send them to main stakeholders for their approval. Prepare project charter and get it signed by the sponsor.
Plan and start having regular status meetings - project team, or people involved, if it is internal. if it is external project - with external customer, start status meetings and regular reports to the customer. Monitor your contract(s) - main contract, suppliers' contracts
Good luck!
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1 reply by Natasha Bibb
May 24, 2020 3:37 PM
Natasha Bibb
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Milena,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I've started to reach out and plan daily stand-ups with team members to gain better traction and status on the projects.
Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Natasha,
welcome to the profession. Most of us stick with it for life.
I understand PM is relatively new to you and also to the division you work in. So I would take it easy and grow into the profession, gain knowledge, understanding and experience. This takes time. A mentor would help.
In the meantime, for your new job and project, my advise would be to strive to provide safety for the team and the management. With safety I mean to give them trust into the future.
PMI or a local Chapter may also have some resources for veterans, in any case, build your professional network (to learn, try out and get help).
From the information given by you there is no formal PM role in the project and it is difficult to get details or may not be even available.
In this case first important thing would be to collect the all the possible information.
Based on the collected information you can do a gap analysis to identify what is missing.
Focus on the gaps and try to get the answer from key stakeholders (people who are managing the project till now). This will give you an entire picture about the project and ensure that you know enough to go ahead.
Document your findings and communicate with key stakeholders to get their acceptance.
Keep sponsor informed about critical topics and findings. This will help in ensuing that things are not going out of control when you have less knowledge or influence over project and stakeholders.
In parallel you need to build the (if not available ) the possible key issues or known risks and see the need of priorities. Saving Changes...
Natasha, I've made a career getting dropped into other people's problem projects. The basic recipe is pretty simple: Where are we now? Where would we like to be? How do we plan that change?
1) Where are we now? This is understanding the fundamentals of the project, as well as the people. Both are equally important. Never change a damn thing until you understand how things got the way they are. Sometimes the issues are product related. Sometimes they're people related. Sometimes there is even a good reason for why you're wondering, "Why the heck did they decide to do it this way?" Sometimes there isn't. Always do your best to understand the current state before you decide to change it.
2) Where would we like to be? This also relates to the project, and the people. For the project, consider the KPA's. What really differentiates good from bad? Is it all about time and money? Are we developing a portfolio, employee skills, or customer goodwill? Are you a hired gun here to fix the problem and move on, or do you plan to stay and work with the same people in the future? You need to know the difference between a good solution and a bad one, and there is no one-size-fits-all.
3) Develop an action plan. This now deals both with the project deliverables, and your emotional intelligence regarding the team. A great technical solution that alienates your entire team is not a great solution, at least if you ever want to work with them again. When developing the best plan to go from point A to point B, you must always consider the landscape. Your ideal solution may not work with the people involved. If recommending changes, you need to sell them to the people, some of which may be the obstacles. The solution always depends on the problem, and the problem will change over time, so be agile and ready to adapt the plan when the plan doesn't fit the current situation. You need that plan to engage the team as a leader, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, so be ready to change the plan as soon as your plan no longer fits the current problems. Saving Changes...
Hi Natasha,
Start building your view on the project, document your findings, get approval and agreement on the documented project constraints (scope, time, costs) and start regular monitoring and reporting of the project status.
First - what is the project about? what is the scope, what is the timeline, who is involved (stakeholders), who is the project owner / sponsor, budget?
Plan meetings with all stakeholders to build your picture of the project and status (scope, timeline, costs).
Document all your findings, send them to main stakeholders for their approval. Prepare project charter and get it signed by the sponsor.
Plan and start having regular status meetings - project team, or people involved, if it is internal. if it is external project - with external customer, start status meetings and regular reports to the customer. Monitor your contract(s) - main contract, suppliers' contracts
Good luck!
Milena,
Thank you for taking the time to reply. I've started to reach out and plan daily stand-ups with team members to gain better traction and status on the projects. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
The point is: who needs to manage the project following some defined way/method/approach? Because the project is running then why do you need to get documents, plan or things like that?. If the project is running then a project strategy is in place to start/execute/monitoring/control/close projects. The strategy could be explicit or implicit defined, but it is there indeed. If not, the project will not exists. Saving Changes...
