The dot com era of “blank check” spending is over. Existing home values have softened, and foreclosures and mortgages in default are at an all-time high. Both high-tech and manufacturing companies find themselves competing with lower cost, internationally-based labor and services. In short, today we have to do more with less. Companies we support find themselves under pressure to remain competitive while consuming fewer resources. Competitive organizations are often made “lean and mean,” and project managers are often challenged with executing additional projects that former colleagues once managed.
The natural reaction to this news: fear!
Modern project management advocates a host of strategies to carry you through a project from inception to post-production. According to the PMBOK™ best practices, you must always remain cognizant of scope, schedule, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk, procurement, and integration. There are a plethora of project artifacts that can be produced to support these practices as well, including charters, vision statements, project plans, scope documents, cost estimating documents, project schedule, WBS and WBS dictionary, risk documents, activity sequencing documents, resourcing estimates. My head is spinning. Is yours?
Managing multiple projects can be quite challenging, and each organization may have different ideas as to project artifacts. Even if they don’t, it doesn’t change the fact that you now have additional projects to manage and only one of you, right? Of course not.
It’s natural to feel overwhelmed. When project managers find themselves in these circumstances, they can either seek to master their domains or be manhandled by them. So how does one stay on top of it all? Well, there’s certainly no one-size-fits-all answer, as organizations have different requirements, people have different management styles, and projects can be very different in nature. However, the following key elements may help illuminate what elements are truly essential in projects, and what habits make an already demanding week, month or year more successful and less stressful.
Organization, organization, organization! I am consistently surprised to see individuals using different (i.e., disposable) project notebooks every day for the same project. I’ve also noticed about 50 Post-It® notes scattered across their desks and monitors. I’ve even heard them asking to borrow pens in meetings. Obviously, this type of “lifestyle” will exponentially complicate a project manager’s career, and at minimum, will add about one hour per day (and about 8oz of sweat) to their efforts. Successful project managers utilize hardbound, permanent media for each project and centralize their “to do’s” for the day and week for all projects. Some utilize notebook software to organize all notes for all projects, store all to-do’s, and password protect sensitive project information that doesn’t belong in a paper notebook.
Foster Healthy Relationships- Whether it’s with your project sponsors, internal teams or even your vendors, establishing rock-solid relationships built on respect, integrity and honesty will make a difference in your life, the lives of those you work with, and those who have formulated an opinion about you (i.e., your reputation.) Help executives understand that you’re working in their best interests. Reward, counsel and protect your project teams. Build trust with those around you. Be a leader.
What does this have to do with multiple projects, you say? Think about it. How much time have you spent clarifying misunderstandings, righting wrongs, quelling fears, or managing conflict among people? In project environments, these distractions do happen. It’s time intensive enough to manage multiple projects. Proactively setting a positive atmosphere in your work environment will pay huge dividends from a time perspective.
Know Thine Projects- Some project managers have excellent technical skills, and they manage tasks flawlessly, but they fail to truly understand the strategic nuances of the projects they were entrusted to take over. It’s important to have an in-depth understanding of the ultimate long-term goals of the project. In knowing this, project managers can feel confident that the precious time they are spending is not wasted on efforts non-critical to project success.
Manage proactively- Successful project managers not only manage today, but they manage tomorrow, next week, next month and even next year. It’s much easier to keep your proverbial train rolling by seeing all of the landscape ahead of you. Build bridges over water and tunnel through mountains to ensure your train gets to its station without incident. Avoid desperately throwing track under your train as it steams by, seemingly out of control.
Know Your Project Roadmap and Milestones- When adding a project to your current load of projects, it’s crucial to know exactly where you are in that project’s schedule. If needed, what adjustments need to be made to update or conform to that schedule? If you were on a trip from L.A. to New York, how would you describe where you are? By state? By city? By street? Any one of these answers would be more suitable than “I’ve left L.A. and I’m not in New York,” right? The same logic applies to knowing project progress. I have often heard task statuses reported as “in progress” and “we’re working on it” without specific mention given to phase progress, reference to milestone dates, needed adjustments, etc. How can anyone know if the project is on track if they don’t know where the project is at today? Tomorrow? Next week?
The aforementioned key elements may seem to be common sense to the average skilled project manager, however there are huge numbers of project “coordinators” that have willingly raised the torch in workplaces that do not provide any formal methodology training (e.g., RUP®, PMBOK®, Six Sigma®, Total Quality Management, even SDLC). I dedicate this article to those aspiring project managers that wish, like the rest of us, to be at the top of their game.
