Hi
I work as a Project Manager in a small IT (software) company.
I have been asked to perform the appraisal of the team members.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what parameters I should be assessing? Saving Changes...
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Alan CaseySenior Project Manager| Ford Motor Credit CompanyDewitt, Mi, United States
Let me think about this a bit - perhaps this is an item for a new blog post.
First thought: If you are appraising performance for completed periods (e.g., 2010) you are too late! You really need to state your priorities and measure in a visible way. It never feels fair for your teams to be graded without knowing in advance what the standards / goals / objectives were.
Second thought: It would be great if you can come up with some metrics that are easily measured, calculated. Another big issue with teams is a performance appraisal that is mysterious and may be a popularity contest.
On the other hand; consensus of subjectivities is what defines objectivity.
So I think one good idea is to ask each one of your team members what do they think about each others performance. If it does not means an inconvenient of course. May be anonymously. From this exercise you can see which parameters they use for their own appraisal.
Could you find this useful?
I would love to learn your opinion about this comments as well as yours Alan.
All the best!!!
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Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
Hello Shahriar. You should be assessing them for their performance against their objectives, which should have been set at the beginning of the year. I'm guessing they weren't, which is why their line manager has asked you. When they started working on the project, did you sit with them and talk to them about their contribution and what was expected of them? If so, go back to that discussion and see how well they have done against it.
Failing that, you can assess on two groups of parameters: project management competency and behaviour. Competency could be defined by the job description of a project team member, or against a project management competency model (check out SFIA which is an IT skills model which could be a great resource for you as it shows what people should be doing for every IT job at every level).
'Behaviour' is whether or not they acted in the best interests of the project and team, how punctual they are, do they communicated well with stakeholders - all that stuff. If they are failing in this area you should have picked them up on it when a problem occurred, and not left it until now to mention it. But that's easy to say with hindsight!
Good luck with the appraisals - let us know how you get on.
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JANICE POWELL BRYANTDirector, Project and Portfolio Management| Clemson UniversityClemson, SC, United States
I have attached some characteristics our HR office lists for reviews. I agree that the staff member's supervisor should have discussed expectations upfront and then the review is showing how well they met those expectations. Being a small company, that may not be the case for you but it would be a good goal to strive for this year.
Totally agree with Elizabeth my views are similar too. I would also add not to wait for Line Managers\Project Managers or similar to set-up meetings to discuss performance; the best advise I can give is to manage your own performance by slotting a meeting with your Line Managers every 3 months to formally review performance, gain constructive feedback and make adjustments for improvements. There should be no surprises and ongoing feedback is imperative. Agreeing general organisational objectives these could be max 5 and no more, and then specific project objectives for performance appraisals. Project Managers should also do same from their stakeholders. Meeting all the objectives does not make us superstars what really counts it is the way we do things the way we delivered and the way we communicated. Saving Changes...
Alan CaseySenior Project Manager| Ford Motor Credit CompanyDewitt, Mi, United States
Hernan - I'm struggling with "consensus of subjectivities is what defines objectivity." I guess I'm not a natural philosopher.
Elizabeth - I assume we are talking about a PM evaluating software developers and business analysts, not project office staff. Shahriar - can you confirm?
After stewing on this for a while, here are my additional thoughts.
1. Hernan's concept of a 360 degree review is interesting - may be worth a try.
2. Gather metrics from the project schedule (Plan v Actual) to get a profile of performance against plan for each team member's tasks.
3. Gather metrics from the defect tracker or log to get a profile of both a) rate of defect identification in a developer's code, and b) turn around time for identified defects. This is also a great place to get an issues identified metric for business analysts doing software testing.
4. Gather any details of the team member's professional development - additional tools learned, certifications gained, or classes completed.
If I was starting from scratch for a prior period, this is how I would proceed.
Best of luck, I hope you will come back and tell us what you did and how it worked . . .
Alan, thanks for letting me know, may be somebody else did not understand what I am trying to say though not everyone is willing to write it down. :P
What I want to transmit is; If most of the people has the same idea about something, e.g. Homer is lazy, that is a consensus of individual opinions, so understanding that an opinion is always subjective. An objective fact would be something we are all agree about it.
Hope I was clear enough. I may like philosophy a lot but I know I can be very bad at expressing my self in English, I am not native speaker, anyways, I try my best and hope my contribution can help. Saving Changes...
BUBU TRIPATHYPM I| Siemens Healthcare Inc. USAFrazer, Pa, United States
You should appraise your team members on "Results" and "Capabilities".
Results are what they have achieved till the day of appraisal in the current financial year. Capabilities are evaluation parameters of what they will be able to deliver in the coming FY. it's as simple as that !!!
Some Examples of "Results" KPIs are: Financial, Customer, Employee, Processes, Training etc.
Few examples of Capabilities KPIs would be:
Unlimited Thinking, Enterprenurial spirit, Self Determination, Initiative, Ability to Learn, Communication Skills, Team Player, Decision Making, Customer Focus, Professional Ethics etc. Saving Changes...
