You were selected to manage a project but you have always been a part of a project instead of the cat herder you will become. Let me help you figure out your very next steps and how to navigate to a successful completion.
There are many pieces to a successful project all of which are used to various degrees and sometimes even skipped. Let us help you with the necessities of your project and help you get valuable deliverables completed
Changes can happen at critical times but it's not the end of the world. Let us help you explore strategies to stay or get back on track in the midst of your resource challenges and staffing surprises.
As you know, deadlines are important and thus you need to ask for them or suggest them for every task you discuss. It’s the only way to ensure there is an agreement for delivery and you reduce you learning curve for common tasks to your project. You will have team members that consistently self assign,
You might be tempted to have a threshold for documentation, meaning “when they re-labeled that field for us from Customer to Client, no big deal” and skip noting this in your log but don’t skip it! Especially since everything is essentially a “version 1”, you need to have a log in case there is ever
This is a common happening, someone is unaware an application or process is being eliminated: I knew they were looking but I never got an email it was final I though instead of ABC we were going with XYZ Wasn’t that put off until next year? And so on. For a roll out, you need
Now that the application or system has been purchased and finalized, how to proceed? The next few posts will outline some considerations when rolling out a system, application, or process. One of the most important items is to review, once finalized, the contract: What is the vendor promising? What is the SLA service level agreement
A word that replaced the popular “same page” which means ensuring everyone not only understands the goal but is also ready for the goal. It is one thing to agree you need to replace the financial application and entirely another to be willing to add staff and overtime hours to accommodate the change. This of
More an more project teams are dispersed throughout the globe. All in one room is becoming more and more rare so you will be to be creative. One fun easy thing you can do is whenever a teammate has a birthday or a baby or other fun event, you can have everyone on the call
Awkward but necessary title meaning, you need to periodically re-diagram your processes. When you first take on a project and because to document the as-is, working toward a to-be state, you will not doubt in some way draw this out. If it’s simple PowerPoint and Visio for the more complex processes. But you should not
Loving data, I usually error on the side of too much research. It is always useful in the way that I can follow a very technical vendor meeting, for instance, but sometimes it’s clear that time could have been better spent elsewhere. Especially if we decide not to buy the item. If this is happening
One easy thing you can do to learn about your company, other peers and their jobs, and be an overall good team player is to offer to sit in on meetings. Whenever someone gives you a kudos or compliment on something you do in your project and it can help them in their project, offer
As a PM, you probably don’t have any direct reports but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a one-on-one meeting with your teammates to: Encourage them in their job Give them a personal kudos See how their are doing work/stress-wise Inquire after a difficult time Just say “Hi” how ya doin? With more online meetings,
