Project management – Knowing when to dig in and when to step back

I just began my first ever project manager position a couple of weeks ago. So how is it going? Well, I really like it. It is somewhat what I thought it would be. It is either a great deal busier than what I initially thought, or I have to just learn a few things first in this new role in order to get better at time management.

Prioritization

In my last position I was not pushed to meet hard deadlines. Honestly, I just didn’t have them.  Awesome, right? Well this new job of mine is nothing like the old job. It is go, go, go; and I love it! However, I am learning to prioritize on the fly – almost every day since I have been given 2 projects to start off with. One is big and is very important to the whole organization, and the other is important but a lot smaller in comparison. I also have other ad-hoc tasks that I complete that take time from my projects. My problem with all of this so far is that I have been a very involved worker throughout my whole career. I want to know everything about everything. I also want to do everything since then I will know that I got it done and there is no risk with someone else doing it. Well that’s a problem when you are a project manager and you a ton of stuff to do all the time and you stay in the “dig in” mentality. Well this type of problem then led me to look around online and I found a great blog with some ideas:

Everything is not important important!

  • Sit down with the boss to have them set you straight or be prioritized directly from them
  • Listen to all stakeholders, including your family to find out what items you are responsible for are holding them up
  • Document all arrangements of work to be completed for people and from people. (CYA)
  • Look backwards from the process diagram to find out your backward times which will give you deadlines you have to meet.

Become Organized (If you are not already)

  • Don’t waste time trying to figure out what you should be doing, let a system deal with that while you actually do something.

Cost, Scope, Time

  • Work backwards from when your deadlines are and how long your tasks will take. Creating a list for this will automatically give you priorities on what should be done.
  • Spend money when necessary to help get you back up above water again in your project’s progress.
  • Communicate with your stakeholders if things just aren’t going to plan and be honest so that they will see that you are working with them to get them everything they need

Delegate as much as possible

  • There may be people who can help you finish a task

Do any of you struggle with some of these problems in your PM roles? Or do you know people who do?

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5877111/how-to-prioritize-when-everything-is-important

on Time with errors

We discussed different aspects of project management during our last class, which are highly important and rewarding if applied properly in real life. However, some projects, if not most, can go towards unwanted directions or results.

In the company I work with, we had a project of launching a new system at a specific budget and within a very short time (6 months). Both cost and time were out of negotiation, so we couldn’t increase the allocated budget nor increase or extend the project period. This was a real challenge and a very stressful situation. So what did we do? We worked together, the project
manager and the functional lead, and put all our effort in planning the project from the different perspectives of a project, such as:

  • Project integration management.
  • Project scope management.
  • Project time management.
  • Project cost management.
  • Project quality management.
  • Project human resource management.
  • Project communications management.
  • Project risk management.
  • Project procurement management.

It might sound a bit complicated, but with the help of PMBOK guide, which is a frame work for project management, we were able to plan and execute the project efficiently.

For more information on PMBOK guide, please click the below link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Guide_to_the_Project_Management_Body_of_Knowledge

Our project was delivered on time and within budget but of course the output quality of the project was not superb. Because the emphasis from the higher management was on time and cost, we had to deliver a lower quality system that suffered from minor issues which were considered as none show stoppers.

Another issue that has contributed to the output quality was the changing requirements of system users. As the project progressed, the end users of the system had a clearer picture of their requirements and how the system should behave in
different cases. Such requests for changing the requirements or adding additional requirements are handled by monitoring and controlling process. Most of the requested changes were considered as chargeable change request, which means that we have to pay additional cost to the system vendor, and this of course was unfeasible, hence, the change requests were declined and the system did not deliver the modified or additional requirements.

From management point of view, they were happy that the project was delivered on time without exceeding project budget, however, from end users’ view; they considered that the project did not fully satisfy their requirements.

I personally think that we could have achieved a better quality results if the project was scheduled for a longer period (more than 6 months) because for any system, it has to meet end users’ requirements, and because it’s the end users who are going to use the system, not the management.

Do you think we should deliver a project on the specified time and cost even if the project’s output suffers from errors?

How would you act if you are in a situation where the higher management is only concerned about time and cost but not performance?