Project Management is defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements and achieve the desired outcome. This introduction to project management will show how to efficiently utilize skills and tools to successfully lead a project from start to finish.
What does a PM do? Project managers require a large set of versatile skills. Planning, budgeting, organization, delegation are some of the more commonly known skills for project management, but in reality, project managers do so much more. Communication, risk assessment, coordination, problem solving, prioritizing, paying attention to detail, and multitasking are just a handful of the many skills used in this field. To learn more, see What Qualities Make a Project Manager in a Design Agency Successful?
Introduction to Project Management Key Topics
Adding value to projects
Working with cross-functional teams
Flexibility and handling ambiguity
Project Phases
Waterfall and Agile Comparison
Lean & Six Sigma
Adding Value to Projects
Focusing on the customer
Building a great team
Fostering relationships and communication
Managing the project
Breaking down barriers
Focusing on the customer
The customer or client is at the center of a successful project. To deliver a project successfully a PM needs to clearly understand the client’s expectations in order to meet their standards. This can be accomplished by building relationships (using interpersonal skills) and making sure the client is heard and satisfied with the result.
Building a Great Team
When building a team, it is important to consider the skills needed and the resources that are available. Additionally, a clear understanding of the client’s expectations and requirements is imperative.
Fostering relationships and communication
In order to successfully build and work with a strong team, project managers should focus on building relationships both internally and externally, communicate clearly and concisely, and be respectful, empathetic and considerate. Checking in frequently with your team can help identify what the team needs to be successful. A balanced combination of all these actions can make your team feel valued and heard.
Managing the Project
When working on a project, each team member is responsible for their own specific tasks based on their skill sets. Because of this, the team members may not always see the big picture and how their tasks impact others.
PM’s operate successfully when they are able to see the whole picture and are able to communicate the impacts of each task or stage of a project to the team
Breaking Down Barriers
Avoid the thought barrier, “We’ve always done it this way.”
PM’s add value by finding new ways to help their team complete tasks. Innovative and creative thinking is key. It’s important for PM’s to support their team.
Step in when needed. For example, if your team members struggle getting a response from a client, you can reach out to the client directly.
Working With Cross-Functional Teams
A cross-functional team is a team that is composed of members who have different skills, backgrounds, expertise and job functions. They may even work in different departments.
Skills to manage Cross-Functional Teams:
Clarifying of goals
Finding members with the appropriate skills
Measuring progress
Recognizing efforts
Clarifying Goals
Make sure team members understand their role, the role of others and common goals
Communication
Be clear, concise, direct. Avoid irrelevant details and encourage your team to bring you questions and to ask for clarification
Key details to share upfront
Timeline of project
Resources
Budget
Client expectations and communication style
Finding members with the appropriate skills
This is a crucial step for every project in order to ensure that your team is composed of members with the right skill sets required for a successful execution of each project.
Measuring progress
Communicating the progress of a project can help motivate your team as well as help them better understand the big picture. Setting milestones and meeting goals are great tools to measure progress. To do this successfully, PMs should communicate accomplishments as well as issues, delays, or other hurdles that the team will need to work to overcome.
Recognizing efforts
Certain roles or skill sets may be more or less seen than others. Making sure each team member is recognized for their hard work and accomplishments that help move the project closer to successful completion keeps team members motivated and helps them feel supported. Building relationships with your team and being mindful of their work & communication style is a great tool to achieve this
Flexibility and Ambiguity
Flexibility
When working on a project there are external constraints like national holidays and team member time off. Plan for these events and consider them when agreeing to deadlines
Be prepared for risks and challenges. In the event a team member can no longer continue work on a project, plan to have a another employee or independent contractor to bring on board whether internal or external.
Gauge the amount of time you can wait to start a task or stage of a project before it conflicts with deadlines or impacts the results. This is known as calculating slack.
Handling ambiguity
Trust your team- Communicate what you know clearly with your team, pinpoint what information is needed, and form a plan of action to gather more information
Don’t second guess decisions- Changing course is common, but instead of second guessing yourself in front of your team, explain clearly the change being made and why you have made that decision.
Be empathetic- Let your team know you understand the struggles that come with ambiguity and make sure they know you are there for support
Remain calm- Be a role model and conduct yourself through challenging times with poise. Expressing stress or anxiety over an issue is not going to be beneficial
Project Phases
Initiate
Plan
Execute
Close
Initiate
Questions to ask
What are the client’s goals?
Who are the stakeholders?
What is the project trying to improve?
What is needed to complete the project?
When is the deadline?
How much will the project cost?
What resources will be needed?
What is the purpose of the project?
Plan
Create a plan to get the project successfully from beginning to end and build a schedule to help manage budget, resources and deadlines.
Execute
Put planning and initiating into action. Monitor your team through the completion of tasks. Break down barriers that might delay or challenge project goals and deadlines. Communicate deadlines and deliverables to the team. Adapt to challenges and changes as the project progresses.
Close
When closing a project, make sure the team has completed all required tasks. Depending on your company and culture you can direct your team to be available to work on other projects. Celebrate your teams successes. Pass off deliverables to the client or appropriate department. Communicate with the stakeholders for feedback and approval. Take note of lessons learned from the project to use in the future and find ways to improve down the line.
Waterfall & Agile Comparison
The Waterfall methodology is a linear and sequential process that flows through each stage of a project. Unlike Waterfall, Agile is a process that approaches several phases at a time which allows for use in projects that are likely to experience a lot of change and re direction. Waterfall is commonly used for projects like construction. For example, a linear approach is needed to build a multi-level apartment complex. Early on the foundation needs to be completed and there can not be further movement until that phase is done. Similarly, when building an apartment complex, the number of floors has to be decided in the planning stage and is not able to change once construction begins.
Lean and Six Sigma
Methodologies that can be used to organize and manage projects.
Lean
Lean was born in the business of manufacturing. The leading principle of Lean is the removal of waste within an operation. This process is great for projects when using limited resources, there is need to reduce waste and a desire to streamline processes.
The 8 types of waste
Lack of proper documentation
Lack of process standards
Not understanding customer needs
Lack of effective communication
Lack of process control
Inefficient process design
Failures of management
Lean 5S quality tool
The 5 pillars required for success
Sort- remove everything not needed leaving the bare essentials
Set in order- arrange everything for ease of use. Label and communicate so others can easily find and utilize
Shine- Keep everything neat and tidy
Standardize- Perform processes in the same way each time
Sustain- Maintain correct procedures and direct your team to do the same
Six Sigma
This methodology is used to reduce variations by ensuring that quality processes are followed every time. It can help identify measurable aspects of a project like time, cost, or quantity. Once these are found, inspect and remove any processes or items that do not meet the Six Sigma standard.
The 7 principles
Focus on the customer
Understand how work gets done
Make processes flow smoothly
Reduce waste
Remove variation to stop defects
Involve and collaborate with your team
Approach improvement in a systematic way
Lean Six Sigma
The tools used in Lean (Kanban & 5S) can be used to build quality into processes and can then be inspected with the use of Six Sigma standards. Any process that does not meet these standards should be rejected and reviewed for improvement before being put back in use
Conclusion
Project management consists of many intuitive aspects. When diving into the fundamentals, it becomes clearer how to best organize and utilize the many skills needed in a project management role. Different projects require different skills and processes. It’s important to be able to identify which approaches to apply for the most efficient and successful execution.
