Pamela NelliganOwner/Chief Software Architect| Statdash LLCWilliamsville, Ny, United States
Jul 24, 2017 3:26 PM
Replying to Naomi Caietti
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Congrats on your launch.
Culture will dictate the adoption of process, tools and change. Many times tools create efficiency, effectiveness, and improved performance. You have to solve problems with behavior first before a tool will solve these problems. Tools that are easy for team/pms to use and integrate the data into other tools are nice for reporting and capturing just in time data for reporting. Sounds like you are on the right track and best wishes for your launch.
Thank you, Naomi. I appreciate what you are saying. A tool will not change behavior. But sometimes making a person accountable and allowing the whole team to see everyone's status is enough of a motivator to get some people to change their behavior.
I agree about the integration. The hardest part is choosing what systems to integrate with. It would be impossible to integrate with everything out there in a meaningful way. I guess I will have to wait and see what needs arise first and deal with integration as needed.
I really appreciate your input. Thank you! Saving Changes...
Culture will dictate the adoption of process, tools and change. Many times tools create efficiency, effectiveness, and improved performance. You have to solve problems with behavior first before a tool will solve these problems. Tools that are easy for team/pms to use and integrate the data into other tools are nice for reporting and capturing just in time data for reporting. Sounds like you are on the right track and best wishes for your launch.
A tool can be a motivator; obviously your focus is on the C-suite and key staff. A good launch will offer demos, pilots, training, online help, guide etc. You biggest selling point will be price/packages, adoption in the marketplace and what you offer that is different or better than your competitors. Saving Changes...
Deepa KalangiManager, Program Management, Author, Trainer| CVS HealthCharlotte, NC, United States
The tool is pretty good in terms of a holistic view of the project status and reduces a time for PM asking/seeking a number of times if the team is able to take responsibility. I am assuming, you meant by each team rather than by each individual when entering statuses. Otherwise, for large projects, it becomes time-consuming to enter team members and tasks. Again, if it is used by a company, that is not using MS project or sharepoint or servicenow or remedy etc. then it makes total sense to have this tool. Saving Changes...
I will try Statdash for my small projects (involves around 15-20 team members max) it seems to be a painless solution to a very common problem, at least for me.So expect my review shortly.
Love that it is available to try out for free without even requesting a credit card! Hope you the best Pamela! Saving Changes...
Part of my project management plan includes details on how the team members are to report progress against their tasks. For example, 50% might be first cut, 75% second cut, and so on.
We then go over the progress markers during the kickoff meeting.
Finally, I review weekly team members progress and challenge where and when necessary. The challenge might be as simple as requesting a justification or as complex as showing proof of their progress - or lack thereof. This weekly review usually takes 30 to 60 minutes per project. Saving Changes...
I must appreciate your efforts in coming up with a great software and a tool to help people save a lot of time. I will back Naomi that it requires a cultural shift to adopt and implement such tools.
Regarding the answers to your questions, my project management experience says:
1. First make sure that people understand what and when they are required to update the status. If they already do, there can still be a compelling reason ( just as an example, the functional manager is asking them to do some other routine job and PM is chasing a deadline which require complete dedication to the task assigned and the team member is trying to juggle both at the same time). If there is something like this happening than it would be best to resolve this issue first. And if its just a careless attitude than I would suggest counseling first and escalating the issue to a higher level if it doesn't improve the attitude.
2. In small to medium size projects half an hour to an hour should suffice but complex projects do sometimes take an hour to two hours to determine the exact status ( I sometimes divide large teams into sub team representatives to get the status updates) Saving Changes...
Antonio ManningsPMO Director | Head of DEI| Access to GrowthChicago, Il, United States
Hi, Pamela. I have had a similar concern. I worked in an office where my "authority" would be supplanted by the organization leaders by saying things like "I know the PM is asking for this by Thursday at noon but Monday is okay". Thursday, BTW was when I would collecting information to turn around a report on status by Friday for out Monday morning team meeting. I'm sure you can see the problem here. Leadership was unwilling to hold stakeholders responsible for their status and it absolutely affected the project. I am learning from the other responses here as well. Saving Changes...
Al ChenSolutions Consultant| CodaNew York, Ny, United States
One way to handle the first question is have a central location showing the due date for all the tasks for the team and individual team members. By showing the last date in which the team member updated the task, you can create some social pressure for him or her by showing that their task has not been updated in X number of days or weeks. This also leads to more transparency across the team.
We spend about an hour each week to review our goals for that week in Coda as part of the bigger sprint. Again, having a tool that shows data everyone has access to (call it data equality) ensures everyone's on the same page. Saving Changes...
Pamela, this is my daily battle to get the status even it is part of the ground rules with your system saying sending email reminders but the problem my team dosen't check the emails frequently, I was looking for the automatic system having bar code and scanner but again many tasks and activities can not be bar coded also we do have the ERP system of SAP but again the battle is to get everyone check his backlog and close work order.
Thanks for initiation and good luck. Saving Changes...
