Laura Bamberg – Global Sales Administrator

What are the potential pitfalls of a project, especially especially a project where there are numerous tasks? I wonder: even if you have a productive team and a strategic planner for a project manager – if you go back to basics, can you head off these issues at the pass?

In “The Project Life Cycle,” Jonathan Carr wrote about a productive statement of work that leads to an accurate work breakdown structure and how they are critical to a practical, logical budget and schedule. Carr believes that [“one of the primary reasons that projects fail is because they start badly at the work definition stage.”] This is good news, however; if you carefully plan your SOW and WBS your project will run more smoothly.

The SOW and WBS are conceived during the conception of the project, but project managers know  the entire planning phase is just as important regarding the success of the project. These days, project managers may be working with less staff than usual, translating into a greater time pressures. It’s tempting to bypass planning steps, but that will backfire over the life of the project when it’s over budget.  In the latter phases, fixing mistakes is even more costly because the time to have predicted them is long past.

Search on this topic and you will find a lot of posts or articles dedicated to this theme. What does that tell us? It tells us that this is a common mistake; it tells us that avoiding this mistake may take extra time on the front end, but it is obviously time well-spent.

The team needs to fully commit to the project plan as well. This does not mean that they would have handled every decision the way the project manager chooses to; this means that regardless of what they think, they were consulted on the tasks assigned to them (their thoughts and ideas were genuinely heard) and they have a critical level of trust with their project managers, so that they buy into the project even if they don’t fully agree with all aspects of its plan.

Project managers will never be able to receive 100% consensus from their teams. They can, however, receive the necessary commitment if they treat their teams respectfully and do not automatically reject their thoughts and ideas as unnecessary. Even if project managers do not vocalize that sentiment, team members may be able to feel it, and that is a surefire way to derail commitment.

Even the best teams and project managers can’t succeed without the proper software.  In developing our Microsoft Project viewer, we learned that you need to be able to quickly access project information. A powerful, integrated search engine is a must. Customizing your views allows you to avoid wasting time viewing reports with information you don’t need.

Our software is easy to use; otherwise, we would be costing you time, and it’s time that you desperately need and cannot get back.

Laura Bamberg – Global Sales Administrator

All project managers know accountability must be factored into a successful project. I was reading an article from Leading on the Edge – a “rant” in the author’s own words – about how the accountability of project managers has disappeared, replaced by a desperate urge to avoid error by avoiding risk. And I wonder: what is the solution for project managers who are uncomfortable with liability, in a time when staff is reduced due to budget cuts, and therefore resources are scarcer?

Another article I recently read determined the difference between being responsible for a project and being accountable for its completion. Tasks are given to a person, who is therefore responsible for them, but that person may not feel liable for the completion or total follow-through of those tasks, and therefore is not accountable for them. Baseball fans know about Barry Bonds and his current trial and tribulations, which now include alleged perjury counts; obviously, accountability affects us all. Even famous athletes have to worry about that.

To begin with, look at the people involved. These days, there are likely less of those than there were a year ago. Project managers have zero control over this. Right now, downsizing can detrimentally affect your team if you don’t change within it.

Last week, Steelray Software held a companywide two-day conference that focused on how to build an even stronger team. I can tell you that some of the ideas we came up with will not be easy to implement, and that it will take time before we’ll realize many of their benefits.  The benefits are quite real and make the work worth doing.

We have not been affected by downsizing and may not have the same issues as frazzled project managers and their teams, but this approach – teamwork and trust – can cure a multitude of small, moderate or severe ills. Motivation is the number-one key for your team to produce better results, and right now they are probably frightened of the future and their standing in the company, and positive (even non-compensatory) motivation is a great tool to use to that end.

Fear of change will not work well in this regard. We at Steelray consider reinvention as part of the process. This is helping us build innovative software. Change from within your team can help you consistently achieve better results.

Every project has tools that are the most beneficial. Are they the best suited for your needs? If not, it’s time to reassess what you are looking for, what you want, and what you need. For example, can members of your team send you status updates on the completion of their tasks? Do you have a viewer that allows you search within the project for information at you request? If not, it may be time to reconsider this tool. Can you analyze a project based on customized criteria specific to your needs? Can you do so consistently? If not, re-examine this tool.

We believe that with the right tools – in this case, the right software – you can head off some of the “people” problems at the pass. Steelray Software’s products ensure accountability as a standard, and that is something you can’t afford to do without.

Is there room for innovation in your project?

As a project manager, your primary concern is the success of the project – delivering what was promised by the date it was promised and within the budget.  The odds are usually stacked against you because most projects fall short on at least one of these three, if they finish at all.  You're always trying to think ahead, figuring out which risks will become real problems and which obstacles will present themselves and jeopardize the schedule.

Question the Current Methods

If you and your organization keep good records, you know what's worked in the past to help projects succeed or recover when a project falls behind. By all means, do your homework and learn from past lessons, but make sure you don't overlook one of the most important techniques – innovation. In every phase of the project, question the existing ways and look for new ideas, new tools, new techniques, etc. to help you bring the project to completion faster, cheaper, and with higher quality.

Borrow ideas from other industries. Encourage suggestions. Look for ways to streamline. If you find them in the planning phase, great. Once you're executing, though, don't close the door on innovation.  Be open to new ideas.

After all, you may need them to hit your dates!

An Innovative Idea

How many of the people who own licenses to Microsoft Project are actually creating or modifying the project schedule?  If you can identify any people that fall in this group, I'll offer an innovative idea:  replace their copy of Microsoft Project with our Microsoft Project viewer. 

First, since they don't "own" the project schedule, you don't want them to have the ability to modify the file anyway. 

Second, you'll save money in annual subscription renewals. We're talking thousands, not hundreds. 

Third, our viewer (Steelray Project Viewer) adds innovative features that make it much easier to use than Microsoft Project. Think about it:  Microsoft Project is difficult to use.  Our competitors try to clone Project in every way.  Why clone a product that's hard to use?  We build in ease-of-use into every feature, every view.

If you're open to innovation, we just handed you a no-brainer way to trim your software budget and put the right tool in the hands of your project team.