Everyone's a Project Manager — Yes, That Means You (Video)
When you think about the term "project manager" who comes to mind? Your boss? A colleague on a different team? The guy who literally has "Project Manager" on his LinkedIn bio? Here's something to think about: we're all project managers — you, your teammate, even the intern on the other side of the office. Whether you consider the client side project manager definition or the definition of a receptionist's role, both have their responsibilities which fall under the umbrella of project management. According to David Allen, father of the popular productivity system Getting Things Done (GTD), a project is ANY multi-step action. Which means that every time you work on something that takes more than one step, you are managing a project. Creating a new ad campaign. Hitting your sales goal. Buying a new car. Making a 3-course dinner for your in-laws. These are the types of daily projects we manage. What does this mean for how we approach work? We need to look at everything we do from a different angle. If we come at our daily tasks and projects with the mindset, "I can do this in a structured, organized way," then the outcome will substantially improve. How to Approach Life Projects Using GTD: 1. Identify what you're working on. Stake your claim that this is now a project you're managing. Simply changing your mindset can make a difference in how you approach the work. 2. Envision your intended outcome. 3. Make a list of the actions it will take to get you to the end goal. 4. Map out the flow for all your action steps. 5. Single out your very next step and set aside everything else for later. See what David Allen says about everyday project managers in a contributed post on his website about the natural planning model, and in our recent one-on-one interview: Interested in managing all your daily projects more efficiently? Start your own 2-week free trial of Wrike project management software today. Related Reads:• 4 Ways David Allen Applies GTD to Teams• How to Set Up GTD Using Wrike
What Does a Project Manager Do in a Marketing Agency?
Within a marketing agency, the project manager is responsible for planning deliverables (including creating a project calendar), communicating with clients, and keeping marketing projects on track. Find out more project manager responsibilities and skills in this post.
What Are KISS Principles in Project Management?
Think about the last time you had a “Eureka!” moment. Was it because you discovered something sophisticated, complex, and hard to understand — with all sorts of bells and whistles along the way? Probably not. More likely, your last lightbulb moment made you slap your forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that before?” Our best innovations and ideas often come when we adhere to a principle with a clear message: “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” The emphasis on simplicity has a long history. Occam’s razor, a problem-solving principle dating to the Middle Ages, holds that all other things being equal, challenges should not be multiplied beyond necessity. In modern parlance, we say: “The simplest explanation tends to be the true one.” In business, the KISS principle serves as a reminder that we human beings tend to overthink things. We like to fix systems that aren’t broken. We like to give input where none is needed. We like to add steps to processes to make them feel more “optimized,” even if those steps will only slow things down. But what does KISS stand for, and what does it look like when applied in the real world of project management? What does KISS stand for? KISS stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid.” The message is just as simple: Don’t make your business processes any more complicated than they have to be. You’ll just end up creating more work for yourself. Even worse, a new initiative you’re launching might produce worse results if you add too much complexity along the way. KISS serves as a handy reminder that complexity doesn’t always reflect improvement. Project managers often like to think that toying with the formula means we’re constantly getting better. But in pursuing diminishing returns, we sometimes make things worse. Leonardo da Vinci once said that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Improvements in business are ultimately about finding those elegant solutions that should make us slap our heads and say, “Duh — why didn’t I think of that?” What is the KISS principle in project management? In project management, the KISS principle or KISS rule is a constant reminder to emphasize the simplest way forward. You adhere to KISS when you avoid attaching unnecessary steps to a process that doesn’t need them. The principle of KISS comes from specific projects in the U.S. military. Some trace the term KISS as an acronym that dates back to the U.S. Navy in the 1960s. According to some, Rear Admiral Paul Stroop had a simple assignment: reduce the cost of naval aerial weaponry under his watch. Stroop could have looked for cheaper equipment and materials. He could have renegotiated with vendors. Instead, he realized that the processes the Navy was using were too complicated. There were too many steps, too much red tape. To simplify, he set an example by asking the people under him to adhere to the acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Another source traces the origins of the KISS project to Kelly Johnson, lead engineer at Lockheed Skunk Works. Johnson let the designers at Lockheed know their designs had to be simple enough that a soldier in a combat situation with basic training and tools should be able to fix it. In battle, there was no room for complexity. Wherever KISS started, the principles hold true today — no matter what kinds of projects you manage. “Keep It Simple, Stupid” examples But that’s the Navy. But what is the KISS principle like when used in business? Consider the example of Tesco, a UK supermarket with a reputation for innovation. Before rolling out one of these famous innovations, Tesco applies three questions: Is the innovation better for customers? Is the innovation cheaper for Tesco? Is the innovation simpler for staff? They’re not game-changing questions. They’re not complex. In fact, they’re all head-slappingly simple. Yet by implementing these questions consistently, Tesco identifies great new ideas and throws out the ones that don’t keep things simple. “Tesco’s secret sauce for innovation simplification was, appropriately, astonishingly simple: the company made people — and held people — accountable for simplicity,” writes Michael Schrage for the Harvard Business Review. “Keep It Simple, Stupid” examples aren’t limited to grocery stores, however. When asked about his “business success formula,” systems manager Thad Eidman said it boiled down to a four-step process: Get a customer Make them happy Get a referral Repeat There’s a reason “KISS” isn’t “KIS.” The final “s” serves as a reminder that as human beings, our knowledge and intelligence have limits. If a simple solution works, our interference can sometimes complicate and distort what would otherwise be an elegant way to handle business. KISS serves as a reminder to remain humble in the face of what actually generates results. Advantages of using the KISS rule Simplicity may sound obvious, but the consistent application of the KISS rule has all sorts of advantages: More emphasis on action: When you keep a process simple, it means spending less time on planning, thinking, and meeting. There are some projects that require consistent dedication to action and nothing else. An easier customer experience: At Tesco, one of the core KISS questions is whether a new innovation will be better for the customers. And if it’s not, Tesco throws the entire initiative away. If you’re just as strict about your KISS principles, you’ll make sure every new initiative passes a similar customer or team experience test. Less opportunity for problematic complications: KISS is just as useful in the worlds of IT and software engineering, where unnecessary complications only add new variables that can throw a wrench in the engine. More creativity: KISS might sound like it’s antithetical to creative projects. How are you supposed to thrive creatively when a project manager wants to emphasize only the practical elements of the project? But consider this quote from jazz great Charles Mingus: “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird; that's easy. What's hard is to be as simple as Bach.” Sometimes, the best solutions — even in creative disciplines — are the simplest ones. KISS in software engineering Software engineers often like to point to a quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” KISS in software engineering is especially important because any unnecessary complication is an opportunity for the code to go wrong. Engineers also stick to a similar acronym, YAGNI: You Aren’t Gonna Need It. This is a warning against adding functionality that people don’t need; it only gets in the way of a simple, clear user experience. Engineers work to avoid “feature creep,” or the slow, consistent additions of new features to software that move it away from its core functionality. A software engineer might point to the best software and how simple it is. For example, Google earned its status as the top search engine, not because of its bells and whistles, but because of its minimalistic home page and delivery of the highest-quality results. In software, additional complexity has real costs. Add too many features, and the software may take too long to load. Add too many bells and whistles, and the user may find it difficult to onboard, leading to less use. In a paper on simplicity in software engineering, Ben Mosely and Peter Marks once said the following: “Considered next to testing and reasoning, simplicity is more important than either.” Their reasoning? An investment in simplicity makes any future consideration for that software easier to understand. Complexity, meanwhile, can make it more difficult to update software, add features, subtract features, or do anything that the end-user might consider an improvement. How to keep things simple with Wrike When KISS was still a new concept, project leaders could make an immediate improvement in their teams’ performance by posting the KISS mantra on the wall. These days, you might need more. Using Wrike to help with your project management efforts, you can use built-in features to perform the following: Eliminate silos by maximizing visibility across the entire team, removing the complexity of sharing files between different teams. Use Kanban boards to organize projects by simple due dates, which gives you one dashboard for reviewing everything that needs to be done today. Build an approval system that auto-assigns files to certain people for review. This will reduce the amount of “red tape” involved with every project milestone. Use your favorite apps. Wrike works well with over 400+ add-on apps, ensuring that you won’t have to use new third-party solutions if you already have a communications tool that’s working for your team. Simplicity looks easy from the outside. But on the inside, it takes real commitment. Complexity quickly crawls into our projects. We think that the more busywork we take on — the more steps we add to our personal formula — the more sophisticated our project must be. But good project management is about finding the elegant solution that simplifies rather than complicates. “Keep it simple, stupid” should be more than an occasional reminder. It should be a way of doing things that informs your actions as a project manager. Want to try using a tool that can help you adhere to the keep it simple principle? Sign up for Wrike today and see how simple project management can be.
48 Experts Share Their #1 Tip for New Project Managers
In our LinkedIn Project Management 2.0 group (you can join us here!), we asked experienced project managers to divulge their #1 tip for newcomers to the field. Not surprisingly, these process fanatics shared a plethora of great tips to help newcomers succeed in this ever-changing area of work. Interested in what kind of advice they had to improve your project management processes and how to get a project manager job? Read through their project management advice below, and see what you can learn as you walk into your first, second, or even tenth PM role. "I think that all the important tips could be summarized with a metaphor: You should be like an Orchestra Director for your team, with a detailed project plan as score." — Jose Ignacio Bernaldo de Quiros Ochoa Everyone Agrees — Excellent Communication is the #1 Indicator of Success Understand the culture Communication is key, and much of that will be informal, so building your network and understanding culture and dynamics are key. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Be accessible to learn more Always allow people to come to you. Be accessible and listen to what project team members will ask or comment all the time. The more you know, the better you are able to make decisions. Buy knowledge and sell solutions unless you want to pay for project deviations. Fábio Issao Watanabe Communicate to identify changes quickly I think that success depends on communication and focus on the goal. Good communication with the team identifies deviations in a timely manner. Good communication with customers can quickly identify changes in scope. Oscar Teran Keep detailed project notes to share Follow up on tasks and Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. Keep detailed notes and make sure everyone on the team is aware of what is happening. Monteau (Montee) Outlaw Discuss challenges, roadblocks, & risks Make sure to be transparent within your core and your extended project team, as well towards your managers, owner, sponsor. Communicate roadblocks, challenges, and risks clearly and in advance for everyone to see. Know and accept: no one cares for, or is as committed to your project as much, as you are/must be. Janos Veres Listen to opinions from everyone, even if you reject them later Keep communication channels open for all stakeholders: the team, the sponsor, the customer, the end user, your boss, etc. I am not saying that you let yourself be manipulated by every party, just try to listen before making decisions. Hear every opinion, then make your route. Mehmet Degirmencioglu Respect every opinion as if it were your own Train communication, create empathy with your stakeholders. Respect and value everybody's opinions, even if you don't completely agree. João Rodrigues Challenge ideas to make them better You are hired to manage projects; your team is hired to be the technical expertise to deliver that project. Therefore, if they are telling you something, it's usually a good idea to take in what they're saying and, in some cases, challenge it. If you're not technical, ask for clarification on points you genuinely don't understand. You can also seek advice from colleagues who are more established as a technical project manager. That's normally enough for technical teams to make them think through their explanations, so they'll carry out an internal check to ensure their thinking is sound. Andrew Hudson Build rapport and trust with clients Build rapport with the client. Build trust and then never lose it. Under promise and over deliver. Plan and communicate. Marc Hammoud Don’t Pretend You Know Everything on Day One Always ask "that question" You may not have the experience needed to do things 100% correct the first time, so keep it real and allow people to give you suggestions. My #1 suggestion to newbies is: Always ask "that question". Finding a balance between asking questions or following up offline is a talent you will learn over time, but for now, don't be shy. You might harm your own project by not speaking up until it becomes a show stopper near implementation time. Speak up and you will find your team is truly on your side! John Skowronski, PMI-ACP, PMP Don't isolate your team with overconfidence Do not think you know everything. I've seen too many project managers take a hard line and push things through because they think they know best. That breeds resentment in the project team. I've seen project managers exert their supposed technical or subject authority on a project, only for that project to ultimately remove those additions at a later and more expensive stage. Andrew Hudson Learn from every experience You don't have to know everything about everything — it's ok to ask questions and learn from each experience. Ann Lynne Dodson To Be the Best, Hone Your Leadership & Management Skills Make sure you motivate and lead your team Soft skills are very important. The people involved make the difference between success and failure. You can have knowledge and methods, but you need skills to motivate and lead. Maarten Verreck Manage your people, not just your documentation Following the PM process and keeping up with all the communication tools like the risk log, issue log, schedule, and deliverables should all take a back seat to leading your team. For years I prided myself in being really good at the documentation side of project management, but it never really mattered that much. The most important skill a project manager must master is Leadership! Larry Sparkman Build a bridge for two-way trust Trust is the biggest thing for me, because if I don't trust my technical team then I'm inherently suspicious of them and vice versa. Building a relationship of trust, and therefore openness, is crucial if you are to deliver multiple successful projects. Andrew Hudson Stay flexible to take on every challenge Keep your knowledge constantly updated, trying to develop new capabilities and remaining flexible in terms of project management methodologies to use, etc. Things can change very rapidly in this field, and as the leader of your team, flexibility and a listening ear are most important to manage the risks and change. Nirmal Singh Delegate wisely and lead by example Learn what you can delegate. Learn who you can delegate to. Lead by example. Work harder than anyone else. Treat everyone you touch with respect and kindness. Lori Galster Train your people to be future leaders It should always be remembered that delegation is not purely about sharing workload. Also it gives the team member a sense of ownership and liability and allows them to learn... Today's team member can be tomorrow's PM. Andy Nelson, AMBCS, P2 Cert Practitioner Think outside the box The key for successful PM is communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. Working smarter and offering solutions. Thinking outside the box and strategically looking at the bigger picture. Kassim Toorawa Protect your team You "Protect" the project team, they do the rest. Onur Karabulut And don't forget to proactively celebrate success! The most important part: celebrate with your team who made it possible! Puneet Gulati, MSP, PMP, ITIL v3 Be the Person Who Keeps Work Organized & Meetings Focused Use templates to stay organized Try to stay as organized as you can, use templates and other tools provided by PMI (you can find them on PMI's website). Bhawna Mundotia, PMP Document! Document! Document! Always keep a track record of the work being done. Pietro Cecere Step up and capture ideas during meetings If you are in a meeting that needs focus because people are talking in circles, step up to the white board or large note pad and start scribing their ideas, requirements, comments, issues, etc. — preferably into actionable categories. Do not speak! Just scribe. If they start to focus on what you are writing, then you can ask them if they want to identify owners for each actionable item. Jerry B. Fisher Learn What Inspires Your New Team, Then Achieve Success Together Know the working culture before you introduce change First understand the work/culture/situation, and then make your moves/changes. PMs always want to do something new and different based on their experiences, which is a good thing, but do it smartly. You can't just jump in and start making changes to the system without understanding it; every company has their own limitations, constraints, and culture. Make changes in such a way that they get absorbed in the right attitude. Santosh Maurya Understand everyone's motivations Learn that project management can be as much about politics as handling projects. Remember that not everyone working on the project is actually for the project. Learn the motivations and intentions of not just your team, but also upwards to the stakeholders and business users. Andy Nelson, AMBCS, P2 Cert Practitioner Build a culture of sharing and innovation to build a strong team Foster a culture where everyone's ideas are heard to allow more innovation to take place. The added bonus is that the project team itself becomes a lot stronger — team members are far more open to suggesting and working through ideas if they know they'll be heard, rather than thinking they'll be shouted down all the time. Andrew Hudson Know the Limitations of Your Project Team — And Yourself Don't forget the human The methodologies are great if well-used, but they won't work if you do not remember that you are working with other people. Human responses are not always logical or predictable. Tiago Prado Know your team's strengths Understand the skill set & mind set of the people that you're going to handle in your team. Prabhu M Leave egos behind Be aware of strengths and limitations in your team and, more importantly, yourself. There is no room for egos. Louie Turcotte, Jr Find what sets you apart Determine your specialization and go for it. The best thing you can do is to decide what sets you apart and make that shine. Remember you are turning concepts into realities and it takes creativity to get you there. Develop thick skin and never fall in love with your first draft, no matter what it is. James L Thompson, PMP, CSM, Executive MBA, ITIL Ask Questions to Understand Current Processes, & Keep Them Simple Ask follow-up questions When someone makes a suggestion, I like to follow up with background questions: When and under what circumstances have you implemented that in the past? Why was that approach successful? What made it more efficient, cost effective, etc.? Then I broaden my scope of understanding. Lori Galster Don't make mountains out of molehills DON'T make a huge mind-numbing deal out of the project. Newbies are generally so eager to implement their knowledge or are so psyched up about being in the shoes of a PM, they generally end up overcomplicating simple things. I have seen "accidental" project managers perform better than those who come to the job armed with the whole pedigree of PM tools, techniques, and strategies. It's better to keep work simple and streamlined so that attention can be devoted to planning, actual implementation, and overall scope and quality control, instead of waiting for the heavens to open up and rain down! Trina Moitra Make progress the priority Do not always look at things from a process perspective. Governance is important, but when it impedes progress then there is an issue. Dave Regan Clarify Everyone's Roles & Responsibilities on Every Project Understand your own role first Clearly understand your role and responsibilities and your delegated authority. This will depend on the type of organization you're operating under. Also understand your key stakeholders and their level of influence. Kassim Toorawa Analyze project heartbeats daily I suggest accidental managers follow the RACI model and analyze project heartbeats daily. R- Who is Responsible to do the work A- Who is Accountable for final decisions and ultimate ownership C- Who is Consulted before a decision or action is taken I- Who is Informed that the decision or action has been taken The RACI model is helpful to define/identify/clarify roles and responsibilities. Once you have those, match them up with processes. It's especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional processes. For example, an organization may have a person who performs the role of project manager, and may also perform the role of test manager. Hambirrao Patil Beware of role creep Watch for ROLE creep, which is similar to scope creep in a project. In role creep, your role as a PM might be under constant pressure — from academics, LinkedIn groups, co-workers, and especially those working above you. This is because there are so many forces at work around a substantial project, especially in a non-projectized organization where there is no discipline to comply with standardized and repeatable project management processes. There will be pressure to be innovative, be creative, and be an agent of change, and you will have managers asking you to list all your accomplishments. Your ultimate role is always to deliver what is in the WBS and project plan, use a designated process for scope change, risk monitoring, and issue management, and maintain good communication. Michael Ayres MS, PMP, CISSP, CSEP Make Sure You Have a Full Understanding of the Project Objectives, Assets, & Risks Know the project inside out Understand the project — so the planning, objectives, results that the project wants to achieve, and of course know the monitoring plan: what are the indicators, its tools, etc. Marta Acero Set the goals first Establish the goal and objectives (SMART) of your new project. Once this is done well, I would immediately do the PESTEL analysis and build the SWOT analysis. Then, it's planning, communication, and organization. For your project setup plan, you can also use the What, When, Who, Which, Where, etc. model. Osvaldo Mirante, PhD Understand the project needs Having a clear understanding of both the functional and technical definition/needs of the project upfront, with stakeholder buy-in, is extremely important. Muqtader MBA Make sure the project achieves its original goal Focus on specified project objectives! Muqtader MBA Control the project scope Knowing your exact scope of work very well is the key to controlling the rest. Mohammad Hamdan, PMPⓇ Think about what can outside forces could affect your project — positively or negatively Look for organizational process assets that are available to you. Identify the environmental factors that will influence your projects and how they'll be delivered. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Make work actionable Make sure everything is actionable and responsibilities are assigned and transparent. Henriette Ebbesen Laidlaw Allow time for multiple iterations Plan and drive project activities according to strategic guidelines. Allow the project team a few iterations over viable and plausibly valid alternative solutions. Never be afraid to ask the project owner for clarification or adjustment of target, timeline, resources, or scope. Janos Veres Don't forget to manage potential risks You need to understand the organization's culture to make a roadmap and deliver projects on time and within budget. You should also keep an eye on risks arising during the course of project implementation, with a risk mitigation plan in place. Puneet Gulati, MSP, PMP, ITIL v3 Get Buy-In From Stakeholders Early & Manage Their Expectations Along the Way Identify every stakeholder Identify all stakeholders and develop terms of references. This will align all roles of different individuals in the project and make it easier to relate with them. Lesiba Noah Konaite Sell the project to all necessary parties Involve as many as possible stakeholders at the beginning of a project to gain broader buy-in. Andries Venter, Inclusive Project Manager Hold 1-on-1 project feedback sessions Before kicking off the project, connect with all the key stakeholders in 1-on-1 sessions to get their input on the project, their goals, their level of support, etc. This will uncover hidden "gotchas" and misalignment that may come up later if you don't do this. Tom Treanor Make stakeholders believe in the goal, not just the budget Getting stakeholder buy-in on the outcome and benefit of completing the project is more important than stakeholder acceptance of the scope, schedule, and budget. If decision-makers believe in what the project will achieve, they will be more likely to accept changes to the scope and tolerances if you can show that it will lead to a better outcome. If all you've sold is a budget and a delivery date, you're doomed to failure. Chris Cox Continually manage expectations as the project goes on Manage the stakeholders' expectations within given limits. That would encompass all the necessary requirements such as deliverables, scope, etc. John Mpungu Don't Be Afraid of Failure, Learn From It Fail fast, recover faster Failure is an option. Fail fast so you can recover quickly and learn. Sreekumar Govindan Turn mistakes into learning opportunities Don't be afraid of mistakes — learn from them. They are the building blocks for future success in this challenging and dynamic profession! Susan Kirkpatrick, PMP, CSSBB Deliver what the business actually needs A high percentage of projects fail because they don't deliver what the business needs. Even when you have that nice 400-page requirements document that was signed off on, it does not mean everyone understands what is being delivered. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP Ultimate Success Comes From Careful Management, Not Just Careful Planning Manage the problem, not just the Gantt chart Reality drives the schedule, not the other way around. It's not about wrangling Gantt charts, it's about wrangling people and problems. James Radvan Plan to succeed & persevere Every day there is a chance that you will have your back to the wall. Plan to succeed. Coordinate your priorities, delegate to those in your team, and make the project work. Paul Alwood Keep your eye on the overall objectives No one on the business side cares about the Gantt chart or status reports or the PM deliverables. What they are looking for is the capabilities to achieve the business objectives your project will deliver. Thomas J. Dickie, PMP And Remember: Nothing Beats Hands-On Experience You can't fake experience Experience is the most valued ingredient of the perfect PM brew, and that can either come with the salt and pepper of years or from a very competent mentor. There is no way to fake experience. Trina Moitra Expose yourself to real-life situations early on Gain as much experience in project management as you can. Books, theory, and concepts are all fine, but real-life situations are much tougher. The more you face these situations, the smarter you become. There is no better way to learn project management than to expose yourself to real-life situations. Mangal Pandya Rely on your people skills, and push for the success at the end of the project Don't give up. A Project Manager position is not a rewarding job every day. You have to work really hard to get things done (especially in a Matrix environment), so you have to rely on your people skills a lot. (Keep those sharp!) In the end, you will persevere, and when the project finishes successfully, you will love that feeling of success. Bhawna Mundotia, PMP What advice can you share? Understanding the basics of how to start a project management business and how to manage project managers are necessary first steps to take. Have any additional information on how to improve your project management skills? Let's keep the conversation going here! Share your advice and thoughts in the comments below. Tell us what you'd add to this list, or expand upon a piece of advice that really resonated with you. *Note: Some of the above responses have been slightly modified for clarity, grammar, and length.
What is a SIPOC Diagram & How is It Used?
At first, creating a new business process seems simple. But even if you’ve identified a complete, linear path from your suppliers to your customers, you may start to notice complications. Wrangling a list of departments that need to get involved. Figuring out how to transfer a product from one department to another. Finding a way to simply codify it all so you don’t end up with 40 versions of the same basic business process document. To solve the problem of complexity, many companies turn to the SIPOC diagram. Working from a SIPOC template helps create a “blueprint” for any new business process you want to create. Done right, you’ll gain a clear understanding of what needs to happen to launch a new product or service, down to the smallest details. But it won’t work until you know how to mold that SIPOC diagram into a rock-solid plan. What does SIPOC stand for? SIPOC stands for Supplies, Inputs, Processes, Outputs, and Customers. It refers to an A-to-Z approach to the entire business process. This is useful for high-level management because it helps you document any new business process from a bird’s-eye view. You might have also heard COPIS, which is the entire process in reverse. Why start with “Customer” at the beginning? Some companies want to emphasize the customer’s experience and reverse-engineer their business process around that. For others, SIPOC’s chronological order makes more sense. Without supplies and inputs, there are no outputs and customer-facing products or services. Think of SIPOC as an essential way to distill the business process down to its core steps, from A to Z. What is a SIPOC diagram? A SIPOC diagram is a workflow chart that illustrates every stage of your SIPOC. This brings the SIPOC meaning in your business from an abstract acronym into a visualization of workflow. According to some statistics, visualization like this can boost performance by as much as 89%. In other words, SIPOC diagrams help you see a new business process before you implement it. A SIPOC process can be as comprehensive or as simple as you like. But at the very least, it will need to include a component part of each of the following: Supplies: What are the tools, products, services, or raw materials that need to be a part of the business process to create an end result for your customer? List them all here. Inputs: Are there data inputs that need to go into the process at this stage? What do you need to add or modify to the existing supplies? Processes: Here’s where you’ll list the essential functions of your business as you carry out the new directive. What processes can be automated? Which ones will be manual? Will you have to hire new workers to handle the processes and inputs? Answer those questions here. Outputs: This is where you should think about maintaining standards, as well as installing processes for quality control. Any testing you do with your products/services before they go to market will take place here. Customers: This stage doesn’t simply refer to the point of purchase. Think about the entire customer experience. In fact, you might even want to consider doing a few COPIS exercises just to get a sense of what you want the end result to look like before you build the process around it. SIPOC diagram example We’ve put together a step-by-step illustration of a SIPOC diagram below: Keep in mind that a SIPOC can be as big or as small as you need it. This is just a high-level diagram dividing the key components into five steps. But under every step, you can list all sorts of essential variables to create the comprehensive results you’re looking for. If that’s too abstract, let’s take a simple but specific example. Let’s say your business process is going to the grocery store. Here’s what that could look like: Supplies: Fully stocked grocery store, address of the grocery store, car to drive you there, money to purchase groceries. Inputs: List of ingredients. Scheduling a time to visit the store. Process: Purchase groceries, return home, put groceries away. Outputs: List of recipes. Food preparation. Customers: Happy, well-fed family. It might not translate to something as complex as a 500-employee business. But a trip to the grocery store helps solidify exactly what a SIPOC diagram is: a blueprint for getting things done. What are the benefits of SIPOC diagrams? Dwight D. Eisenhower once said that plans are worthless, but planning is essential. The idea? You may need to adapt your plans when the rubber meets the road, but the act of preparing plans is what prepares you to handle any obstacles. The SIPOC diagram forces your business to do the essential work of planning. By creating a SIPOC diagram, you see the entire workflow from beginning to end. Along the way, you can fish out blind spots, brainstorm new ideas, and reduce red tape that isn’t necessary to create the end results you want. But the act of sitting down and planning isn’t the only benefit of SIPOC diagrams. Here are a few more to consider: Cost savings: There’s a reason you don’t build a house until you have blueprints in place. When you make a mistake in the blueprints, you can erase them and not lose thousands of dollars in labor and costs. Think of SIPOC as your blueprint for business processes and you’ll understand why you want such a clear picture of a business process before you begin. You’ll identify many of the potential bugs before they have the potential to cost you serious money. Beginning the process: With SIPOC diagrams, you’re already beginning the planning stages of developing your business. You’re already brainstorming suppliers, considering which departments need input, and thinking about the key people who will be part of the process. When you’ve effectively built out a SIPOC diagram, your end result will be a blueprint that’s ready for feedback and adjustment. Making strategic decisions: Along the way, a SIPOC forces you to see business processes as a result of cause and effect. Some data suggests it helps you identify patterns as well. This puts you in the position of making strategic decisions at the outset. How will the supplies you acquire affect which customer segments you target? Will you need to hire people to provide key inputs that you don’t already have at your company? What challenges should I be aware of with SIPOC analysis? A SIPOC analysis is low-cost and high-benefit — it only takes advanced planning. But it doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges along the way. One key challenge: untangling knots. With a SIPOC diagram, you have to answer cause-and-effect questions. And sometimes, it can be difficult to handle these without the ability to experiment in action and see which solutions work best. The temptation is to skip the SIPOC analysis and get straight to taking action, but this can lead to its own problems. The best way is to complete the SIPOC as much as possible. You might also refer to a Gantt chart to help supplement this issue. Another key challenge is communication. You have to keep key decision-makers in the loop with SIPOC diagrams, and if you make business process decisions without their input, it can not only introduce complications but friction. Visualizing data has a way of making communication effective — after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Harvard Business Review refers to data visualizing as “visualizations that really work.” How is SIPOC used in project management? You’re probably already getting a grasp of how a SIPOC diagram can help make project management more streamlined, efficient, and stress-free. But, there are a few more things to keep in mind to reap the benefits for your projects. Use specifics: Don’t say, “we will need enough graphite to put in our pencils.” Get specific about how much graphite you need if you’re building pencils. A good template for handling the Supplies and Inputs variables is to use formulaic statements. For example: “We will build X-quantity of Y-material into Z-units before moving to the next stage of the process.” Don’t leave the work of estimating quantities to the future. That’s what SIPOC is here for: to create your blueprint. Document the types of customers you have and what they need: Project management without an emphasis on the customers’ experience is ultimately an internal-facing process. But it’s not completely SIPOC unless you include customer considerations. Make sure you know who your target customer is. What are their concerns? What problems are you solving? Knowing these questions and feeding them into the rest of the process will help you innovate in ways that wouldn’t be apparent if you were solely focused on the first four stages. Record your progress: Even if you don’t nail a SIPOC analysis on the first try, record your progress every time you and your team sit down to discuss the details. Remember to think of your SIPOC diagram as a blueprint. You wouldn’t get halfway through sketching the plans for a house and then say “we’ll remember this when we sit down again.” Document every step you’ve specified, including any key numbers and people you’ve identified as part of the new process. Gather feedback: Once you have a SIPOC ready to go, it’s time to involve any key decision-makers who might have a say, even if they’re not going to make key decisions in the process itself. Take a scientific approach. Your goal is to poke holes in the process and come up with solutions before implementation. Once you have a thoroughly vetted SIPOC diagram in hand, you’ve defined your new business process in full. This isn’t to say it will go perfectly smoothly when you launch. But when something does go wrong, you’ll have a much clearer picture of what needs to be done to get back on track. Rather than making your processes rigid, the end result of a SIPOC diagram is that you make yourself more flexible and adaptable. You’ll build a business that can adjust on the fly. You might throw out old plans once in a while. But if you approach it the right way, the simple process of planning can take you anywhere.
6 Tips for Becoming a Successful Freelance Project Manager
Freelancing has its perks: be your own boss, enjoy work flexibility, work in a private space with everything from the tilt of your desk to the room temperature and lighting exactly how you like it. What we can often overlook are the immense challenges that come with going it alone, especially as a freelance project manager. Finding work is only the beginning. There are numerous different types of project managers. How much do project managers make? How much does an IT project manager make? Or, for a more specific role, how much does a construction project manager make? There are so many other factors to consider: the ebb and flow of your income, managing multiple deadlines that don’t inform each other, and making a mistake means fully owning your actions. You alone are accountable. It can be both scary and liberating! If you’re thinking of stepping into the life of a freelance project manager, here are 6 things you need to know to succeed. 1. Keep Your Skills Sharp Even if you’ve been in the industry for years, you are now looking to re-enter on your own terms. The problem is, rapid advancements in technology, changes in company structure, and new management approaches make keeping up-to-date a constant battle. Staying attuned to new ideas (and ways of thinking) is absolutely crucial. This doesn’t mean you have to read a pile of academic journals every morning; it can be as simple as reading project management blogs or enrolling in a leadership and management course. Ongoing learning (and up-to-date certifications) is what will set you apart as a forward-thinking, innovative professional — the exact traits that companies look for in project management consultancy. 2. Get Your Name Out There A freelance professional with minimal experience and limited connections is unlikely to be a front-runner candidate in the eyes of an employer. This doesn’t mean your case is hopeless! Although it is always better to begin freelancing as an established professional, there are other ways to set yourself apart from the crowd. Expand your network by attending conferences, connecting with industry leaders on social media, and joining established online project management communities. Promote your name and work online, and most importantly, always take a confident stance — even if you don’t feel that way. Chances are someone will repost your social content, your LinkedIn request will be accepted, and that phone call could put you on the right track to a job. 3. Build Your Portfolio That being said, if you don’t have the work to back up your statements then you may not be taken seriously as a project management consultant. It is imperative in this field that you have proven experience in: leading both short- and long-term projects, risk and crisis points, team management, and effective communication skills. This is where case studies, personal references, and hard data are your best friends. Whether you’ve been in the industry for a year or a decade, you should be adding to your personal portfolio from the moment you’re hired on a new job, and should continue until you walk out the door. 4. Set Remote Work Hours Freelancers inevitably spend long periods of time working remotely; it is part and parcel of the job, and remote work has its own challenges. Set clear, consistent working hours from the get-go to save yourself from stressful, late-night sessions. Any experienced project manager will tell you that delays are probable, problems likely, and mistakes inevitable. Running yourself ragged by working long hours will not only make these roadblocks more likely, but diminish your ability to handle a situation deftly when the time comes. Be sure to keep track of the hours you are working, and compare them to the average billable hours for consultants in your field — and when the project becomes too large, communicate this to your contact. 5. Keep Communications Clear Good communication is the best tool a freelance project manager has. Making the effort to maintain an open dialogue with stakeholders across all aspects of a project is a must. Anything from a daily wrap-up email to a weekly status update meeting will save you headaches later on, and demonstrate your confidence and reliability as a freelancing professional. An extra tip; be upfront in sharing your challenges and setbacks. It will make your successes all the greater in the eyes of your stakeholders. 6. Understand Who You’re Working With The only way to understand what a project needs to deliver is to have a clear grasp of the organization's goals and principles. (It's also crucial in knowing whether the project is a good fit for your skills and freelance portfolio.) This means being able to identify whether their needs align with your own professional ambitions and values. A good working relationship is based on mutual trust and understanding, and freelancing is no different. If you don’t thoroughly understand your client, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage before you even start. Set Yourself Up for Freelance Project Management Success It can be easy for freelance project managers to buckle under the pressure of working remotely, especially when the role is so closely tied to teamwork and communication. But with these steps on how to become a project manager and how to start a project management business, you can equip yourself to hit the ground running and build a successful consulting career that will take you places you never thought you'd go. Author Bio Helen Sabell works for the College for Adult Learning, and is passionate about lifelong learning. She has designed, developed, and authored many workplace leadership and training programs, both in Australia and overseas.
What Is Swarming in Agile and How Can It Boost Productivity?
For Agile teams, flexibility is the name of the game. Team members are always prepared to change focus or alter their working style to achieve the best results for their project. And this flexibility works in their favor — the 2018 Standish Group Chaos Study results showed that Agile projects are statistically twice as likely to succeed than Waterfall projects. Agile methodologies, tools, and processes have seen a significant boost in organizations worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic, with adoption doubling in non-IT teams between 2020 and 2021. Agile’s flexibility and adaptability have proven crucial to modern project management, so it can feel odd to imagine Agile teams focusing their sole attention on one task. But that’s exactly what a new concept, swarming in Agile, does — and it can prove essential in managing fast-moving projects. In this article, we’ll explore the swarming Agile definition, examples of how to succeed with swarming, and the advantages and disadvantages of this technique. What is swarming in Agile? Let’s start off with a swarming Agile definition. Agile swarming takes place when multiple team members with available time and appropriate skill sets all direct their attention to work together on one feature or user story, i.e., they swarm the task until it is complete. The goal is to deliver high-quality results quickly by directing all available people power until the feature is up to scratch. Agile swarming is a very useful technique for fast-moving projects, as targets of swarming can be finished quickly before smoothly moving on to the next priority. Kanban teams are especially likely to use swarming, as it helps them ensure workflows are continuous and maintain Work-in-Progress (WIP) limits. Swarming is also closely linked to Scrum. Evaluating the tasks in their team’s sprint backlog and swarming a top priority item is a skill that most Scrum teams will be used to applying to their projects. Example of an Agile swarming scenario To visualize how swarming in Agile works, let’s take an example where it could be used. Imagine a large organization that has suffered an IT systems failure that affects most of its departments. The IT team needs to focus on fixing the problem to get the system back up and running for the rest of the business. Swarming enables teams to engage in cross-functional collaboration, meaning that every team member can play to their strengths to get the issue fixed as soon as possible. In this scenario, that may look like the marketing team engaging with IT to get regular updates on the situation to relay to the business’s website and social media visitors. Those in sales may work with IT to reschedule their calls and meetings with clients or use an alternative system to engage with them. Employees in other departments will redirect their usual queries and tasks away from IT, allowing them to focus fully on fixing the issue at hand. In this way, swarming allows the entire organization to band together, getting tasks done quickly and efficiently. Advantages of swarming in Agile So, what are some of the advantages of swarming in Agile? Time-saving: The most obvious advantage of swarming is that it saves valuable time for Agile teams. When multiple team members are involved in completing the same task, it reduces the potential for reworks and edits down the line. Encourages collaboration: If your teams have been struggling to work cross-functionally, swarming may be a great exercise in encouraging them to collaborate effectively. Workers come together from various backgrounds to work on a common goal, allowing each team member to gain an insight into the others’ way of working. Increased quality: Having workers from many different teams reviewing work means that the target of your swarm will be of higher quality than if just one person was proofing the final result. Potential challenges of swarming in Agile However, as with any approach to project management, there are potential disadvantages to swarming in Agile. These could include: Disorganization: The saying “too many cooks in the kitchen” can often apply to swarming in Agile. If there are too many team members multitasking at once, processes can get messy, and the overall project may become derailed due to a lack of organization. Potential for conflict: With so many people from different teams suddenly forced to work together, it’s natural that conflict may arise when working with swarming. Managers should be aware of this and be ready to act if and when conflict occurs. Not suitable for every task: Swarming is a great method for overall goal-oriented work, like an entirely new user story. But swarming is not a suitable method for every single task in a project’s life cycle. Resources should be better dispersed and teams should keep in mind that staying goal-focused, not task-focused, is the key to swarming success. How to succeed in Agile swarming with Wrike Wondering how your work management platform can help with swarming in your organization? An all-in-one solution like Wrike can be invaluable in bringing a fast-moving project to completion. Wrike offers: Agile templates, including sprint planning and Kanban projects, so that your team can hit the ground running with every new project Unified communication tools, including @mentions and over 400 app integrations, for your team to update and collaborate instantly 360° visibility, including team dashboards and shared calendars, so that your team can see exactly where your efforts are needed and prioritize with ease Interested? Try Wrike for yourself with a two-week free trial.
Top 3 Essential Technical Project Manager Skills
Technical project management is a growing field and a distinct subset of project management. Do you have the tools to keep pace with a world growing more digitized by the day? Learn the top three essential technical project manager skills you need to succeed as a TPM.
The Project Manager Shortage is Coming: 3 Ways to Prepare
Have you told your project manager how much you appreciate them lately? You probably should, because in a few years, you might not have one at all. Experienced project managers are in higher demand than ever. As the economy continues to recover, organizations worldwide will need to take advantage of this growth with projects that successfully support their strategic goals. But with the increasing shortage of experienced project managers, the very people companies rely on for project success will be the most difficult to find. Almost 90% of respondents to an ESI survey said it was either "very difficult" or "somewhat difficult" to find qualified project managers for hire — and it's only going to get worse. The PM Shortage is Coming The Project Management Institute (PMI) reports that 60% of its members are age 40 or older, and 30% of project managers are projected to leave the workforce by 2018. They'll leave a huge gap in their wake: according to PMI, the shortage of experienced project managers will reach "critical levels" as early as 2016. That’s right around the corner! Get ready: Develop a culture of knowledge sharing and/or mentoring in your company to help junior project managers learn from their more experienced peers. And if your company is one of the almost two-thirds of businesses that hire temporary project management consultants, give your internal team the tools to capture that knowledge to guide future initiatives. PMI’s Pulse of the Profession 2014 report shows that organizations with effective knowledge sharing in place have a 70% success rate for strategic initiatives, compared to a 45% success rate for organizations without it. Find a collaboration tool that will help your project team and managers (whether internal or external) share knowledge, learn from one another, and improve their capabilities. Ongoing Training is Essential Your junior and mid-level project managers may be qualified PMPs with impressive education and credentials, but they may not have the extensive experience it takes to manage increasingly complex, ambitious projects. And with the landscape constantly shifting to embrace a new methodology or project management application, they need to stay on top of the latest trends. You can bet your competitors are. Most companies haven't put enough of a focus on training and development in recent years, and although the economy is rebounding, budgets are still tight enough that devoting funds to training hasn’t been a top priority. But that’s starting to change. This ESI survey shows that companies offering training see an ROI of 501% for entry level project managers, 268% for mid-level, and 358% for senior-level. Get ready: Start a training program now. Helping your project managers gain more experience and certifications will put your company in a better position once the shortage hits, since you’ll be able to draw on your own internal talent rather than resorting to combing the classifieds. And don't just focus on traditional project management skills like risk analysis and project planning — consider where do project managers work best in your organisation. Soft skills like communication, cultural intelligence, virtual collaboration, and servant leadership are becoming increasingly valuable and key to project success. Projects are Becoming More Complex As the economy improves, the number of projects companies are undertaking is growing — but on top of that, projects are also becoming increasingly complex. They involve a larger team, distributed offices and workers, external departments and partners, and multiple stakeholders. And with a significant majority of experienced project managers leaving the workforce, junior project managers won't have the experience they need to confidently navigate these projects. Get ready: Give junior project managers a variety of smaller projects to help them expand their skill sets, learn how to work with different types of teams, and successfully complete all kinds of projects. As your company grows, you need your project managers to grow with it and be able to take on different types of work and more complicated initiatives. If you've noticed the impending project manager shortage, what has your company done to prepare? Share your wisdom in the comments below.
Everyone's a Project Manager, But Not Everyone Can Manage Projects (Infographic)
You see a calendar alert for a meeting with your boss to review client deliverables. It's 1 P.M. and the meeting is scheduled for 2 P.M. The deliverables aren't ready yet. You search rapidly through your email looking for the latest version of the deliverable. You start pinging other teammates asking who made the latest edits. You spend the next 45 minutes looking for the file, editing the file, trying to request immediate feedback until... ...your boss pushes the meeting to tomorrow. Sound familiar? Believe it or not, you're acting the role of a project manager. Connecting with people, bringing together all the pieces of the puzzle, managing the final success. We surveyed 1,464 workers about their work management processes and discovered that 94% of respondents manage projects on a regular basis, but only 47% have "project manager" in their job title or description. This tells us that project management is becoming a shared responsibility, no matter what role you're officially in. However, as managing projects becomes a common practice in the workplace, the sheer lack of training in standard project management practices is setting many people up for failure. Without a process in place to handle many projects across different teams, meetings get canceled, deadlines pushed, stress levels rise, and projects die. Client project manager roles and responsibilities need to be clear from the outset, to avoid this inevitable project failure down the line. Take a look at the infographic for more interesting findings from our recent 2015 survey on work management practices: Enjoy what you read? Share this infographic with your fellow colleagues, or use this embed code to post it on your own website: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Read the complete 2015 Work Management Survey Download the full report to see all of the results from our Work Management Survey.
Interview with Lazy Project Manager
Working on this collaborative project was a very valuable experience for me, as I met lots of interesting people, who have profound expertise in project management. Today I want to introduce you to one of them, Peter Taylor, also known as "the Lazy Project Manager". Peter is a dynamic and commercially astute professional who has achieved notable success in Project Management; currently as head of a PMO at Siemens Industry Software Limited, a supplier of global product lifecycle management solutions. He is also very interested in maintaining a good work/life balance. Peter has very impressive project management background, which also allowed him to come up with his own methodology that helps project managers become more productive. Read our conversation below and find out how lazy project managers can be efficient.Peter, could you please tell us a few words about your pm experience and background? My background is in project management across three major business areas over the last 25 years; MRP/ERP systems with various software houses and culminating in a role with KPMG, and then Business Intelligence with Cognos, and now as Head of a PMO within product lifecycle management (PLM) with Siemens Industry Software. I have spent the last 7 years leading PMOs and developing project managers. Why do you call yourself a lazy project manager? It all began with an insult from my manager. At the time I had been working on a training program for our project managers and one of the common questions people asked me was ‘how do you manage to seem so relaxed and yet run a large business operation with hundreds of projects? I was on my way back from Milan, Italy, and travelled with my manager. Now we have worked together for the last 15 years across three companies and he does know me very well. As we chatted about what would we like to do in life I mentioned that I enjoyed writing and speaking/presentations and that sort of thing could be fun to do. He agreed saying that I would probably be very good at this but that I was too ‘lazy’. And there you have it – an insult? Perhaps but more an insight really, he had identified the key to describing my approach to work and life. From this came ‘The Lazy Project Manager’ and the world of productive laziness. Now have I always been ‘lazy’ – no I don’t believe so. Certainly in my early days of project management I worked long and hard and definitely was a ‘busy, busy bee’ but after completing a major three year project I looked back and reflected on the effort I had put in to make the project successful. I realised that that much of what I had done was unnecessary and that I often created work for myself that was either not really essential or that others could have done (probably better that my efforts if truth be told). The Lazy Project Manager was first a website in November 2008 and then a book in September 2009. Now I would love to share the world of productive laziness with the world through speaking engagements. What is Productive Laziness? 'Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.' Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988) By advocating being a 'lazy' project manager I do not intend that we should all do absolutely nothing. I am not saying we should all sit around drinking coffee, reading a good book and engaging in idle gossip whilst watching the project hours go by and the non-delivered project milestones disappear over the horizon. That would obviously be plain stupid and would result in an extremely short career in project management, in fact probably a very short career full stop! Lazy does not mean Stupid. No I really mean that we should all adopt a more focused approach to project management and to exercise our efforts where it really matters, rather than rushing around like busy, busy bees involving ourselves in unimportant, non-critical activities that others can better address, or indeed that do not need addressing at all in some cases. The Lazy Project Manager explores the science behind ‘productive laziness’ (yes there is some) and the intelligence behind ‘productive laziness’ (and yes there is some of that as well). It attempts to share with the reader some of my own experiences that have led to my style of project management where, it is often observed, that I appear to be less stressed, less busy and yet more productive. ‘Productive Laziness’ is the term that I use to express this approach and it is a style of working that is beneficial to an individual, through a better work/life balance, and to the project(s) that they are leading. How did you arrive at these ideas and came up with a whole methodology? As I explained the origins of the term were as a result of an insult but having created the Lazy Project Manager title I just worked through the typical lifecycle of the project and considered Productive Laziness at each step. I am not sure that I would describe it as a methodology but more of a way for project managers to better manage themselves when they are managing projects. The book does describe The Lazy Project Manager's Theory of Projects, from a Productive Laziness aspect: 'All projects are thick at one end, much, much thinner in the middle and then thick again at the far end. ' The point here is that, working with the productive lazy rule, a smart project manager should apply time and effort at the critical stages of a project, i.e. the start and the finish, and less time in the middle or the less critical stage. At this point it should be the project team that are productive and mostly self-sufficient. Does a project manager’s productivity depend on a project size? The size of his team? On the fact that the team is distributed across several locations? I don’t believe that it does. All of these factors complicate the process of project delivery but the principals of Productive Laziness remain the same. One of the biggest challenges to projects these days is the virtual project team. We all know about the Tuckman defined team phases, ‘forming - storming - norming - performing – (and these days mourning; the experience of leaving a good team at the close)’ – if you don’t there is plenty of information on the topic out there in ‘Google-land’. For virtual teams the forming part works pretty much as any team. Resources are identified and there you have a team. Some members will be happy and others less so. It starts getting tricky just after that. The ‘storming’ phase is important in preparing the team for working together, resolving character imbalances, sorting out territorial issues and generally getting everyone to know everyone else. Now without a face to face session (or two... or three) this will be very challenging and so you have to compensate somehow. At this time decisions don't come easily within the group and team members will no doubt vie for position as they attempt to establish themselves in relation to other team members. Clarity of purpose increases but plenty of uncertainties will persist. Typically cliques and factions form and there may be power struggles. The team needs to be focused on its goals to avoid becoming distracted by relationships and emotional issues. Compromises may well be required to enable real progress. Now in a virtual situation a lot of these issues can be hidden so, as the leader, you almost have to force the matter. It is also very easy to jump to a wrong conclusion about a fellow team member, apply stereotypical attributes and miss tensions hidden by a reduced communication process and lack of physical visibility at how people are behaving. If at all possible make the investment in a ‘hothouse’ face to face. By this I mean an intensive, almost 24/7 5 day team experience. Use an external facilitator to drive the storming process harder and faster to a conclusion. Make the business case that this is an investment, no matter how significant, that will pay off. If this is financially impossible then you may just have to accept that the ‘storming’ phase will be longer than usual. Can a team (not only the project manager) also be made more productive in a lazy way? Absolutely! In fact being a lazy project manager demands that you share the knowledge with your project team and teach them how to work in this way. For example in communications I talk about the importance of allowing yourself time to focus and concentrate at times. That the ‘open door’ policy is good but that there are times you, as the project manager, and your team should feel it acceptable to take time out and not get distracted by other matters. What would be the first 3 steps to becoming more productive, according to your methodology? Well where better to start than to focus the art of ‘productive laziness’ in the area of communication within the project. The would be ‘lazy’ project manager will think very, very carefully about what they need to communicate and how they need to communicate it and why they are communicating what they are communicating. The general guidance is that some 70-80% of a project manager’s time will be spent in communicating. That is 70-80% of your time! So, if you play the productive lazy game at all, and you only apply it in one area of project management it makes blinding sense to do it here, in communication. This is by far the biggest activity and offers the greatest opportunity of time in the comfy chair. Imagine if you would able to save some of that 70-80% of your time, how much more relaxed would you be? Beyond this then consider how you are using your project team. Are they being truly utilised in the sense of applying their combined knowledge and skills? Could you use them more, delegate more, trust them more, and benefit from their experience more? I bet you could. Try it. Finally, something I have always advocated if having fun. Whilst this does not necessarily allow you to be more ’productively lazy’ it does bring a very positive feeling to any project and thus should encourage the wider team to more ‘lazy’ (in a good way of course). ‘I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by’ Douglas Adams (Author of ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’) You have to laugh; well I think you have to laugh. Without a little bit of fun in every project then the project world can be a dark and depressing place. Setting a professional but fun structure for your project can really be beneficial for when the problems start to rise up to challenge your plan of perfectness. And problems will inevitably arise. I'd love to finish my statement with a funny story: A man in a hot air balloon was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a little bit more and shouted: 'Excuse me madam, can you help? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am.' The woman replied: ‘You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above alkali desert scrub habitat, 2.7 miles west of the Colorado River near one of the remnant populations and spawning grounds of the razorback sucker’. ‘You must be a biologist’ said the balloonist. ‘I am’ replied the woman. ‘How did you know?’ ‘Well’ answered the balloonist ‘everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far’. The woman below responded ‘You must be a project manager’. ‘I am’ replied the balloonist ‘but how did you know?’ ‘Well, said the woman ‘you don't know where you are or where you're going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise to someone that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but somehow it's now my fault!’ Thank you, Peter! It was a pleasure. For our readers I’d like to note that, if you liked Peter’s ideas and want to find out more, you are welcome to visit his site at www.thelazyprojectmanager.net and hear his free podcasts on iTunes. Also make sure to check out his book: "The Lazy Project Manager: How to be twice as productive and still leave the office early".
How to Boost Productivity Using Parkinson's Law
In 1955, Cyril Parkinson created Parkinson's law. The concept centers around the idea that work is like gas; it expands to fill whatever container it is placed in. For project management, this means that if you give a task five hours, it will take five hours to complete. But if you give that same task five days, it will take five days to complete. Understanding this basic principle is key to improving productivity for both yourself and your team. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what Parkinson's law is and how it can be used to boost productivity (or hinder it). Keep reading to explore examples of Parkinson's law, plus some tips on how and when to use it in Agile project management. What is Parkinson's law? Parkinson's law is the theory that work will expand to fill the allotted time. So whether you think a task will take one week or one month, if you schedule it accordingly, that's how long it will take. Much of this has to do with the way our brains are wired. In general, even the most put-together of us wait until the last minute to fulfill a commitment. In fact, it actually feels good for some people and gives them an adrenaline rush. That's because the farther out a deadline is, the lower it is on our priority list. And with good reason. If we prioritize all of our project-related tasks at the same level, we can almost guarantee a decrease in productivity. This is especially true if employees attempt to multitask. But if you follow Parkinson’s law, you’ll be able to boost the productivity of your onsite and work from home teams simply by limiting their allotted time. What does allotted time mean? Allotted time means the time assigned to a task in project management. Often, this is determined by the project manager when they are creating the timeline and schedule. Some project managers prefer to use historical data to calculate mini-deadlines for individual tasks. Others gather input from subject matter experts and talent to estimate how much effort each task requires. These guidelines may also be determined by the needs of the project itself. So whether or not you believe a task requires more effort if there is a short deadline, Parkinson's law dictates that the task can be achieved within that given time frame. Of course, this isn't true in every case. Some tasks really do require additional time for creation, revision, and approval. That's why this law works for the opposite issue, too — providing too much time for a task can lead to the task being done with more effort than what is required, making it more complex than it was to begin with. When we talk about Parkinson's law and productivity, we have to strike a balance between allotting the time necessary to complete a task and not overdoing it so that the extra time makes the task harder to complete. Trimming the fat is a good analogy for this. When you trim the fat off of your project schedule, you make it easier for team members to get to the meat of the assignment. Examples of Parkinson's law A great example of Parkinson's law in action that most people can relate to is student syndrome. Student syndrome is when a person waits to complete a task until the night before it's due. In some cases, that could mean the hour before a meeting for even a day or two later if they can sense the deadline won't be enforced. If we can assume that most professionals still succumb to student syndrome from time to time, then we can apply Parkinson's law to help them deliver work as needed. Here are some examples: Asking someone to return a signatory form within 24 hours of receipt rather than leaving it open-ended. Assigning a task that normally takes a week and giving it a three-day window instead. Condensing a client project timeline from six months to three months. Is it possible to overcome Parkinson's law? Yes, it is possible to overcome Parkinson's law. Aside from knowing that the work itself can become more complex the more time you give it, understanding the psychology behind procrastination is also a key factor in using this idea to your advantage. Procrastination is not a modern concept. In fact, even the ancient Greeks and Romans warned against it. So we know this has more to do with the way our brains function than modern vices such as social media and cell phones. Procrastination plagues all of us at some point. However, there are some telltale signs of whether or not someone is likely to put things off until the last minute. The biggest of which has to do with mental health. People who are prone to procrastination tend to have higher levels of stress and anxiety. This translates to their personal lives (missing appointments, putting off large yet necessary purchases, etc.) and their professional lives (delaying follow-ups, sending work in late, etc.). If a project manager is able to identify some of these symptoms among their team, they can strategically apply Parkinson's law in a way that helps these individuals prioritize. Project managers can take this a step further and ensure that the work environment they’re curating allows employees to feel relaxed. That is because procrastination isn't simply a mental obstacle — it's also an emotional one. If project deadlines are unrealistic and tasks are mounting, a strategic product manager would be wise to consider the emotional state of their team before using Parkinson's law to boost productivity. How can you boost productivity using Parkinson's law? The concept of Parkinson’s Law is that by setting deadlines that are significantly shorter than they were previously, you can become extremely productive and avoid getting bogged down by deadlines that are too long. It helps you find shortcuts, avoid procrastination, and focus on actions that matter. But how do you actually use it to boost productivity? Cut your estimated project timelines and task allotments in half. This will allow you to complete your tasks or projects in half the time it normally would take. If you or your teammates still can’t make a new deadline, it means that everyone is too busy and you need to loosen up the deadline for the next time. When you give someone half the amount of time they are used to completing a task, they will likely still turn it in as requested, thanks to creative solutions they wouldn’t have thought of before. Aside from focusing on your daily tasks, applying Parkinson's Law can also help you reach bigger goals and projects. If you decide to cut the deadline for a project or goal in half, it may seem impossible at first, but it can be done. For example, instead of giving yourself a deadline of one year, try to reach your goal in six months instead. This strategy will help you save time and make you more productive. Remember, the more time you give yourself, the more time you waste doing non-essentials. Another great way to apply Parkinson's law is using your project management solution. With visual timelines, your team will be able to see how much work is left. They will also be able to see the difference between how much effort one task takes compared to another. You can even set micro deadlines within individual tasks. In Wrike, users can add due dates to individual tasks within a project. Productivity coach Alyssa Coleman has suggested in her goal-getting workshops that you can go a step further and add reminders at the halfway point of your goal. If that task or phase hasn’t started by that date, it will kickstart your team into remembering that they now only have half as much time as they did before. This can help overcome the psychological barriers of procrastination. Wrike users also have the ability to automate reminders within their project planning to save you time on following up at the beginning, middle, and end of every major task. Using Parkinson's law in project management Remember, it’s never too late to improve productivity, so give your team a helping hand by using Parkinson’s law the right way. Here are some practical ways to use Parkinson’s law in project management. Apply these tips to active and ongoing projects now or in the future: Cut deadlines by 50% for every project and related task. Use historical data, team input, and task timers to find out how long each step normally takes, then cut it in half. Add buffer room for each task without putting it on the schedule. For example, if you absolutely need a deliverable by Friday, ask your team to deliver it by Wednesday or Thursday. That way, even if they are behind, you’ll still be on track. Encourage employees to work smart, not harder. If the point is to get the test done, make that clear. If the task needs to be done with an extra amount of detail or complexity, make that clear too. Remember to read the room. Imposing tight deadlines on an already overwhelmed team and further procrastination rather than support productivity. Encourage employees to keep a productivity journal. This offers holistic benefits for their life as a whole and keeps them in the right headspace for work. Start a free two-week trial of Wrike and use the Parkinson’s law productivity tips we provided to overcome procrastination and reliably deliver products by working smarter, not harder.
The Ultimate Guide to Project Management
If you're learning about project management for the first time and you've come across our Wrike blog, you'll realize we've written quite a lot of articles on IT project management, methodologies, and leadership strategies over the years. We collected the best of the best into one ultimate guide to help you understand and learn all about project management. Great for knowing where to study project management as a beginner. It's organized here by general topic, so it's easy to find what you need. Project Management Fundamentals: Learning the Basics There is much to learn in the art of managing a project. For beginners to the field, (and for those willing to review the basics) here's a list of common methodologies, terms, and tips on where to study project management as a beginner. These will also be helpful for learning how to teach project management and introduce the basics to your team! Project Management Basics: A Review of PM Methodologies (Part 1) Project Management Basics: A Quick-Start Guide to PM Methodologies (Part 2) Fundamentals of the Scrum Methodology Project Management Basics: A Quickstart Glossary for Newbies (Part 1) Project Management Basics: A Quickstart Glossary for Newbies (Part 2) Project Management Basics: Beginner's Guide to Gantt Charts What Can I Do With a Project Management Certification? What is a Gantt Chart? [INFOGRAPHIC] What is Lean Project Management? Startups Should Lean on Lean Project Management 5 Lessons in Lean Product Development from the Wright Brothers [INFOGRAPHIC] Things a CEO can learn from a project manager: Part 1 Things a CEO can learn from a project manager: Part 2 Ultimate Guide to Project Risk, Part 1: Risk Assessment Ultimate Guide to Project Risk, Part 2: Risk Management Management: Leading Your Team to Project Success Leadership is a skill that is in need of constant pruning. If we cease to learn new things, we set ourselves up for failure. Here are strategies and lessons for honing your management skills and refine your project management approach. How Neuroscience Can Make You a Better Project Manager 4 Lessons Hockey Has Taught Me About Project Management 5 Project Management Ideas that Should be Extinct 10 Phrases That Can Ruin Your Project Kickoff Meeting Is your team self-organizing? Who Works More? The Secrets of Male and Female Working Habits in Wrike's New Infographic How to Stay Motivated at Work: The Science of Productive Breaks [INFOGRAPHIC] 8 Attitudes Guaranteed to Sink Your Agile Projects 5 Project Management Lessons to Superheroes [VIDEO] 15 Books Every Manager Should Read Productivity: Tools and Tips for More Efficient Work There are many tools out there that can help you streamline your day, mitigate distractions, and get things done more efficiently. Here's a list of tools and strategies for helping you crank it out. 10 Free Productivity Apps for Getting Things Done How to Increase Productivity at Work: 6 Mind-Switching Hacks How to Set Up GTD Using Wrike Creating GTD Folders in Wrike [VIDEO] 8 Lessons in Increased Productivity from Wrike Customers 10 Encouraging Productivity Proverbs for Your Office Wall (Part 1) 10 Encouraging Productivity Proverbs for Your Office Wall (Part 2) How to Stay Motivated at Work: The Science of Productive Breaks [INFOGRAPHIC] Productivity Lovers, Build Better Habits for Your Project Team What Doesn't Kill You Makes You More Productive [EBOOK] 5 Strategies for Forming Team Productivity Habits [WEBINAR] Proven Techniques to Fight Productivity Killers [WEBINAR] Project Management Software vs. Cloud File Storage: What's the Difference? Professional service contract template Teams and Remote Collaboration: Unifying Your People Nothing is more important than getting the right team in place and forging a collaborative unit dedicated to project success. Here are some tips and strategies for growing your team. 5 Tips for Forming Productivity Habits in Your Team (PMI Presentation Recap) 5 Tips for Embracing Cross-Cultural Differences on Project Teams Top 5 Tips for Remote Collaboration with Wrike 4 Problems with Virtual Meetings that You Can Fix 4 Tips to Improve Your Next Meeting Easy and Effective Remote Collaboration [SLIDESHARE] The Past, Present and Future of Remote Collaboration: Where Does Your Team Stand? 10 Benefits of Cloud-Based Project Management Software The Art of Staying Productive Even Across Distance [EBOOK] Teamwork Across Borders. Secrets to Remote Collaboration [WEBINAR] Wrike for Content Marketing Teams: Collaboration and Copyediting [VIDEO] Top 3 Trends Shaping Project Collaboration Using Wrike for High Performance Marketing Teams Technology: Using the Right Project Management Tools There are many tools used for project management, managing people, increasing productivity, and getting things done. Here are a few of them. 10 Free Productivity Apps for Getting Things Done 25 Online Tools to Run Your Startup How I Use Online Collaboration Tools to Run a Marketing Team Top 9 Project Management Tool Features on the SMB Wishlist Wrike Integrates with Zapier for a World of Automation Wrike and Github: Collaborative Coding Gets Much Easier with Wrike’s API Social Media Resources: Connect with PM Experts Social media is a fantastic tool to connect and learn from experts in project management all over the globe. Here's how to find project managers and thought leaders on major social networks. 20 #ProjectManagement Gurus to Follow on Twitter 5 Project Management Groups to Join on LinkedIn 12 Useful Project Management Boards on Pinterest 11 Ways To Use Social Media To Find Project Management Resources (or just about anything!) Will Your Company's Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? [INFOGRAPHIC] Educational Resources: Learn More about Project Management Sometimes you just need a little more motivation. Or a source of ideas for improving your management skills. These articles list the best reading and learning materials on management and productivity. 20 Online Training Resources for Project Managers 5 Best Project Management Books for Beginners and Accidental Project Managers 15 Books Every Manager Should Read 15 Project Management Quotes to Live By [INFOGRAPHIC] What is a Gantt Chart? [INFOGRAPHIC] Making the Most of Project Management Courses Why (and How) Small Businesses Choose Project Management Software Hope you enjoyed this ultimate guide to project management. Would you add other helpful articles to help people learn? Please share any of your suggestions in the comments. Share this guide with your friends and colleagues to spread the wealth of knowledge!
10 Steps to a Kickass Project Kickoff: A Checklist for Project Managers
With the start of fall and a new football season, we can't help but notice the similarities between kicking off football and kicking off new projects. The contracts have been signed, hands shaken, and you’re now officially hired to lead a new project. Get ready to roll up your sleeves — now the real work begins! Similarly to football, the success of a good project is determined by a productive kickoff meeting. Setting the right tone from the get-go can make or break your project. So time to huddle up and go for a touchdown by following our 10-step project kickoff checklist. Go team, go! Want to improve collaboration on your team? Start a 2 week trial of Wrike today! You can share this infographic on your site with this copy-and-paste embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Read Next: How to Combat the 4 Main Sources of Scope Creep The 3-Step Guide to Choosing the Right Project Management Methodology 6 Steps to a Foolproof Project Plan