When managing a project, the project manager would love to work with team members who not only get along but who also meet their goals in a timely manner. It would be great if this would happen but having a dream team like this doesn’t always happen.

Image: SXC.hu

To help determine what a dream team looks like, I thought I would share some of the traits for the ideal team member when managing a project. Check out the list below:

• Balanced team. Make sure that you create a team that have people who have different strenghts. You don’t want a full team of leaders and not followers. Or a team of web designers and noone who know how to program or work with content.
• Housekeeping rules. Ensure that you explain from the beginning what is expected of each team member. This way you can make sure they know the rules and follow them.
• Past success. When building your team, research their past projects to see what type of success they have had. In looking at their past success, it may help you determine if they will fit into your team well.
• Relationship building. After you have created your team, make sure that you build relationship with your team members. Also, create a way for team members to build a relationship with each other.

Keep in mind that a dream team is built on the efforts of everyone and not just the project manager or the team member. It’s all about keeping everyone on the same page and in the same frame of reference.

Are you looking for a project management tool that will help you manage your projects, teams and technology? Then checkout LiquidPlanner to see how this software can help you get organized.

According to their website, organizing your project with LiquidPlanner means that you will be able to:

• Project & Portfolio Views - View high-level overviews or task-level details of your project schedules in one easy-to-manage space.
• Multi-level Organization - Create clients, projects, and tasklists so you can view, filter, and zoom in on tasks at any level of detail, no matter how complex the work.
• Drag-and-Drop Prioritization - Change the order of scheduled tasks in a snap by dragging and dropping items as priorities shift.
• Real-time Scheduling - No matter how many people are working on your plan at once, rescheduling happens automatically and on the spot, so you’re always up to date.
• Schedule Flow-Around - When a task or project gets delayed, your next-highest priority work will automatically jump ahead in your schedule.
• Dependencies - Create dependency links between tasks assigned to different owners so you can build realistic schedules.

To help you get an idea of how the backend of LiquidPlanner works, I have included a few screenshots for you to view. See below.

Personalized Dashboard

Collaboration Technology

Project Scheduling

Images: LiquidPlanner.com

Project deadlines are important to meet but sometimes project issues can cause delays that are unforeseen. What you have to do is ask yourself, “What can I do to plan for project delays”, then this just might help you manage your project deadlines better.

To help you manage your project deadlines, I thought I would share a few quotes to encourage you.

• On the value of Project Management: Trying to manage a project without project management is like trying to play a football game without a game plan. K. Tate (Past Board Member, PMI) 
• Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand. Chinese Proverb
• Be the change you want to see in the world. Mahatma Gandhi
  

Now that you are encouraged, let’s look at ways that you can manage your project deadlines so that you can successfully complete them on-time.

• One of the first things that I’ve found that’s helpful is working with a potential issues list which should be part of your project plan. This list would detail those things that could be potential hazards or issues which could affect your deadline. When creating this list, make sure that you include possible solutions for the hazards or issues that may occur.
• Make sure that each team member is aware of their responsibilities and the due date for each one. If due dates are not communicated with the responsibilities then the team members are at a disadvantage.
• Ensure that all team members have the resources and technology they need in order to complete their responsibilities for the project.
• Create a process flow for managing change just in case an issue causes you to change your project plan.
• Under or over estimate time allotment for team members can also cause delays. Make sure that you when you create your time control part of the project that you get feedback from your team members. They can give you feedback regarding how long they feel it would take them to complete their portion of the project.

The importance of team building to a business owner could affect the success of their business. Team building is a way for business owners to communicate their vision to their team and encourage connecting between their team members. It is the glue that can keep a team together in the hard time and the easy times.

Image: SXC.hu

Case in point, in an “ideal teaming environment”, team member are supportive of each other and each member carries their own weight. This means that the owner has taken on the responsibility to communicate their vision to the team and has made sure that each team member understands what tasks are their responsibility. The team members feel that they have an open environment where they can express their input along with giving and receiving support from their team members and team manager.

Now we all know that the “ideal teaming environment” doesn’t always happen and that’s where team building comes in. Team building allows a business owner or team manager to identify the areas that are negatively affecting their team and then to address those areas.

According to the article entitled, “Low-Cost Ways to Build Employee Commitment“, written for Inc.com by Bob Nelson, business owners do not have to spend a lot of money on team building plans to encourage employees to be committed to the business. The article states that…

Study after study has shown that praise and recognition tend to build employee loyalty. People want to feel that what they do makes a difference. Money alone does not do this; personal recognition does.

Employers often fail to realize that some of the most effective things they can do to develop and sustain motivated, committed employees cost very little or nothing at all.

So take the initiative and begin today to affectively build your team. You can start with a single project like creating a team recognition program that allows team members to recommend other team members for recognition for a job well done. Just be bold and go for it to launch your team building plans!

Make sure you read tomorrow’s article, “Making Team Work, Work”, that will share how team members’ efforts can help create the “ideal teaming environment”.

By Guest Blogger Adam Bullied

This is the second installment of a two-part series. Read Project Management for Small Teams - Part 1.

Ongoing Planning

Let’s face it - planning is not a one-time activity. It has to constantly be happening to ensure things stay up-to-date and the entire team is in sync. Ideally, this means the entire team gets together on a regular basis and discusses their parts of the project and where they are at.

Image: sxc.hu

I’ve seen this done numerous ways - daily stand-up meetings, weekly team meetings, breaking the team in to pieces and meeting that way, etc…

At the very least - for a small project, you need to get the entire team in a room at least once a week to build up accountability, a level of communication, and trust. If someone misses a deadline, the question “why?” must be asked. Remember, everyone on the team isn’t accountable to the project manager - they are accountable to everyone else on the team.

People will hate working on something if they are making their dates, but Person A continues to miss theirs and nothing is done about it. Get everyone in a room, hold people accountable - really, you just need to actually manage.

Stand-ups can be great too. It may seem like overkill to do, but in the long-term you can save a boatload of time with them. Here’s a general format:

• Keep them under 15 minutes
• Designate a member of the team to run them
• Have everyone give a brief update about what they did for the last 24 hours
• Have everyone give an update on what they will do for the next 24 hours
• Go around the room and have folks identify red flags they have
• Encourage people to solve problems with others right after the meeting

This can save a lot of time with sending unnecessary e-mails, procrastination, etc… and it can contribute to building a culture in the organization of getting things done efficiently instead of waiting.

Status Reports

With most projects, the manager is going to be communicating with stakeholders regularly. This could be senior management at a smaller company or maybe just the team working on executing the plan. Maybe it’s a client or external partners.

Regardless of who it is, you need a clear and direct way to indicate where you are currently at, if you are going to hit the dates and deliverables you said you would, and where things aren’t going so great. That’s probably the most important.

The easiest way to do this is through a red / yellow / green system. Things in green are totally fine and either a) done or b) going to be on time beyond the shadow of a doubt. Parts of the status report in yellow are in certain danger of missing their estimated delivery date and need to be looked at right away. Items in red are past the date and are actually severely affecting the project being successfully delivered and probably require stakeholder intervention.

In Closing

Keeping things lightweight and clear can’t be stressed enough. In addition, communication is paramount - regardless of the size of the team executing the project.

Be careful not to get bogged down in complex PM jargon and tasks like CV (cost variance) or order of magnitude estimation, critical paths, resource loading, and other things. Chances are, if you are running the project and your gut is telling you something is amiss, it is.

Adam Bullied has more over 8 years of experience working in start-ups and maintains a blog on product management at WriteThatDown.com.

By Guest Blogger Adam Bullied

Projects can be extremely complicated - especially on small teams. There can be a seemingly insurmountable number of tasks to complete, several people (or groups) dealing with a ton of different things on any given day, priorities changing, and of course deadlines, estimates, and a ton more.

The trick is to keep things as simple, and as clear, as possible.

At every turn, you need to look for ways to streamline the planning and management of the project to make sure everything stays above water. I’ve found there are a few key things you can do to ensure project success.

Image: istockphoto

Identifying the Goal

Everyone may have their own idea of what the project actually is, so it’s important the goal is identified and communicated right up front. Why does the project exist, and why are people working on it? It seems so simple, yet so many things fall to pieces by not having this clearly documented up front.

Some teams may choose to write a project charter to communicate this information, but even that’s a bit formal. Ideally, a simple e-mail will suffice with a brief kick-off meeting so the team has a chance to ask questions and get a feel for what’s expected of them.

This shouldn’t be complicated or a burden - it should actually be fun. If you find the team is dragging to even do this, or stakeholders are unclear about why the project exists in the first place, that should set off some warning signs.

It would be wise to sit down and talk with your management team right away in order to clarify some basic objectives so they can be referenced regularly. Then the project starts off right - with everyone on the same page as to why it’s important.

Picking the Right Tool

Everyone will have their own preference about what tool is best to manage the project plan, but ultimately the project manager has to be the one to assess the situation and choose what’s best.

Speaking from long hours of experience, while working with a smaller team, stay away from mammoth beasts like Microsoft Project. They will only end-up hurting you in the end if you can’t use them effectively. It may sound lame, but Excel is probably your best bet.

Really, regardless of team size, you want to be selecting a tool that will still make your life easier and help with:

• Tracking when something was supposed to be done and when it will be done (variance)
• Communicating status to key stakeholders in a clear and efficient way
• Making sure all resources are loaded accordingly
• Having a clear picture as to when larger work packages will be complete

Some great packages to check out include: Omniplan, Basecamp, your existing bug tracking software used by your development team, and yes - everyone’s favorite, Microsoft Excel. There are plenty out there. Do your research, talk it over with your team, and make a choice.

Tne Plan, One Schedule

You only ever need to have a single place that details an ongoing plan / schedule. If you have more than one, roll everything in to a single location. If this fails to happen, even two copies of a single plan will fall out of sync extremely quickly.

For example, imagine you have a team of 4 people. You have the de facto standard plan. Then, 2 folks on the project team decide to go and replicate that document in another capacity that they are going try and keep maintained alongside the master. Now, they have to waste time updating that document - and chances are, they are going to put something in there you don’t know about, causing a breakdown in communication.

Get everything that may exist within your organization now down in to a single place and a single tool (if feasible based on the size of your company or business unit).

Small Teams: Leverage One Project Manager

There is a caveat to this - being that smaller teams only require one PM. But in reality, even larger teams are split apart, with each group working with one PM.

This presents a particularly ugly scenario if it’s not adhered to, which I (and many others) refer to as “too many cooks in the kitchen” syndrome. Before you know, you don’t have a single person responsible for maintaing a day-to-day plan of action, you have four.

Can you imagine the complexities of having a small team of 15-20 people, with about 7 or 8 of those people all trying to manage the entire project? It would be absolute chaos.

Like having a single schedule and plan, you need to par the team down so there is one single voice that controls gathering the priorities, and making sure the trains are all running on time. If your organization (or your corner / piece of a business) does not have this, you are surely headed for a mid-air collision that will end-up delaying the project a great deal.

Get Back to Basics - What to Track

The project planning can really be pared down. And usually, it’s better for everyone if it is. When creating your plan and managing it on a week-to-week and day-to-day basis, you probably only need to look for some key pieces of information:

• The task itself - what needs to actually be done
• The estimated date of completion
• An estimated sense of effort (days / hours / etc…)
• The priority of the task
• The completion percentage of the task (0, 50, 75, 90, etc…)
• The resource assigned to the task

Again, with a small team you are trying to make sure work is being estimated in a reasonable amount of time. Also, as due dates approach you need to validate they are going to be hit, and if they won’t be, you will need to ascertain why.

Tomorrow, we will continue with the rest of this two-part piece, finishing up with thoughts on ongoing planning, status reports and other details.

Adam Bullied has more over 8 years of experience working in start-ups and maintains a blog on product management at WriteThatDown.com.

When starting a new business, it is always helpful to have a plan that will help guide the direction of your business. One of the tools that you can use to develop your plan is a mind map. More details about mind mapping can be found on this website.

• Project Management Tool: MindMeister acquires MindMaker
• Using Mind Mapping for Project Management

Below is a sample mind map that I have created as a way to get started with mind mapping.

click to view larger image

This is a very simple mind map that has three basic branches.

• Branding: ways that you can start “advertising” your business so that people will identify you with your product or service
• Website: develop a frontend that the public will see and a backend for administrators or members
• Revenue: define ways that you can either generate money or spend money for services or products that you business needs to acquire

As a new business owner, it is always helpful to also have a list of things to do that can help keep you on track. In part two of this series, I will cover the basic things that you can do to start your business (part 2: “A simple to do list for new business owners”).

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator)

I’ve come to see a schedule as the backbone of every project. Because if you forge ahead without some kind of timeline, isn’t successfully completing your goal just a shot in the dark?

• Do research
• Create an outline
• Devise questions
• Conduct interviews
• Follow up or make callbacks
• Verify information and round out sources
• Organize and type up my notes
• Write
• Edit and refine my work
• Copyedit my work
• Finalize, format, and send

Image: Istockphoto

Recently, ProjectManagement411.com was incorporated into the Bizzia.com website. The new topics will include business, strategy, project management, and leadership. The new location is on the Bizzia.com website under “Leadership”. Watch the announcement below about the change to ProjectManagement411.com.