Essential Tips for Successful Project Management(Part-II)!!

So here continues few more tips that will help in managing projects:

6) Follow the process and keep an eye on improvement: Follow the sequential set of activities that will help you bring out the specific output of the project. Skipping steps in order to meet short project timelines may backfire and end up taking more time and rework. Follow the set process to avoid such pitfalls.

An inherent characteristic of processes is that it loses efficiency over a period of time, some processes become obsolete as well since at some point it worked but now it doesn’t. If you see something that fits this description, question it and either a) remove it to save everyone time or b) improve it so it fills the actual needs.

7) Accept Delays Gracefully, Manage Risks: Delays and bad news are part and parcel of project management, what matters the most is to know early. The team should never be afraid to give bad news and project manager shouldn’t panic because the timeline could change. Establish the critical path and assess how much delay it will cause to the final timeline, look for work arounds to address the delays as much as possible. Inform the stakeholders about the same and justify with genuine reasoning.

Every change or delay invariably brings with it inherent risk and challenges associated. Analyze it, Understand the impact and take necessary actions to mitigate it.

8) Ensure that testing is done properly: Many a times there comes a situation that project started late, there was some change, additional scope was added etc. and then project Build is delayed or activities start to run in parallel when it is not intended. Once you get in to this phase its difficult to ensure that the testing has been done enough and doesn’t need to be repeated. Another round of testing means additional cost, impact on timeline and threat to final Go-Live date. No matter how hard pressed you or your team is; please ensure that proper testing is done on pieces of SW delivered at various points in time. Successful testing is key to a successful deployment.

9) Create a positive vibe, empower people, led by example: If you foster negative attitudes, you will end up bringing your team down with you. As challenging as some projects can be, always look for the clichéd bright side. Defuse tense environments with humor. Focus on what’s being accomplished and the success rather than the hiccups. Make the people in the team feel responsible. Empower them with authority on the tasks allocated to them. Whenever possible, lift as much work as you can off them so their path is cleared for achieving the project goals.

One position is not greater than the other, they’re just different roles. All roles are equally important as far as the project is concerned since without any one of them the final objective might be jeopardized. A feeling of subordination might break the unity of the team.

10) Project Closure and evaluation: Once the project is deployed successfully often the project closure reports or gathering lessons learnt are side tracked. This may happen due to number of reasons. But important thing is to take time out and perform the project closure activities and get some useful insights and lessons learnt for future references. You may think some things to be trivial that you solved during project but could prove useful to someone else. You may have solved some critical problems or challenges with your project management skills; make sure this experience is handed over to next project or project manager.

As they say Project management is sometimes a lonely job but a very important one. Project manager is the Leader who Navigates the project & is responsible for success of the project. Do it right and victory is yours!