Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 01:03 PM
Whether the members of your team report to you or are borrowed resources there are some important steps you need to follow to ensure that you build and maintain a quality and effective team.
Some key steps for building an effective team are:
Understand the objective of your project
Identify potential stakeholders
Create your potential core team
Hold a kick-off meeting
Encourage an environment of respect, trust, and open communication
Learn how to manage conflict
Remain organized
Build up your team
Now that you have the steps, let's take a closer look at each of them.
- Understand your project’s objective. Before you ever attempt to formulate a team, you have to know why you need the team. If you aren’t clear about the objective, you’ll waste time that your team members probably don’t have. This will soon cause you to lose participation from the resources you need most.
- Identify potential stakeholders. Once you understand the objective of the project, you can begin identifying some of the groups or people that would be affected by the project. It is vital that you clearly identify impacts, formulize quality requirements, and ensure the right tools are developed with your stakeholders in mind.
NOTE: Be careful not to get stakeholders and team members confused. They are not always the same.
Stakeholders are those individuals and groups that are directly impacted by the execution of the project. Many times, stakeholders can affect the outcome of the project.
Team members are those individuals who participate in the execution of the project. Some of your team members may be stakeholders, but you can also have team members that have no direct impact on the project. Such as a notes taker, or conference organizer.
- Create your potential core team. Even if you don’t know all of the key people you should have on your core team, you can take your list of potential stakeholders and begin asking subject matter experts (SMEs) who they feel would be crucial to implementing your project successfully.
NOTE: Many project managers struggle with not knowing who the right people to talk to are, or the appropriate people to include on a core team, especially when the project manager is new to the group. Don’t be deceived, not knowing who the key people are is no excuse for poor project management.
- Hold a kick-off meeting with potential core team members. When the resources do not belong to you, it is essential that you speak to the immediate supervisors of those people, prior to inviting them to your meeting. This will ensure that you have the appropriate person on your core team to represent that group, and the support of that person’s supervisor.
NOTE: During your kick-off meeting clearly communicate the objective of the project, identify and document the roles and responsibilities of those in attendance, and ask for any additional persons that may need to be involved.
- Encourage an environment of respect, trust, and open communication.When your team members trust you and feel comfortable with voicing their ideas and opinions, without facing judgment or being ridiculed, they are more willing to let their guard down and share information and thoughts openly and often.
NOTE: Trust and open communication abound in an environment where there is respect. Don’t allow anyone to talk down to, talk over, interrupt, nor perform any other form of disrespect toward others during your meetings.
- Learn how to manage conflict. Conflict arises when two groups or individuals have strong views that are in opposition, and neither wants to abandon their position. When it does arise, managing conflict is not easy.
Healthy conflict, such as disagreements, can be beneficial to your project because it can bring to the surface new and innovative ideas that may not have been identified otherwise.
Conflict becomes a problem the moment it stops being a discussion where two parties are sharing differing opinions based on fact, to two parties having a heated argument based on emotion.
Conflict should not be suppressed. However, both healthy and negative conflict should be addressed immediately.
NOTE: Whether you encourage those involved to share their conflicting views in a respectful manner or you have to step in and resolve the conflict before it becomes counterproductive, make sure you acknowledge and address the conflict in some way.
- Remain organized. If you, as the facilitator and manager of the project, aren’t committed enough to arrive to meetings on time, stay engaged, and follow-up on any of the action items you may take, how can you expect your team to do any different?
- Focus on building up your team. For any project to be successful, your team needs to know how to work together.
Some great ways to build your team are:
Show and voice your appreciation.
Put together a team building event.
Use G-rated humor at appropriate times.
Reward and recognize team members when benchmarks are reached.
Keep the following in mind and you will be far on your way to building and maintaining your effective team.
Talibah Adenouga, PMP
Founder of JANOP
tadenouga@janop.com
www.janop.com
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Friday, April 27, 2007, 01:12 PM
If you want to be successful and reach the goals you’ve set for yourself, it is very important that you not rely solely on external encouragement. It is unavoidable that, at some point, people will let you down. Many times, you must find encouragement from inside yourself.
You need to have high expectations for yourself if you want to succeed. You need to wake up everyday, especially if you are in an unfavorable situation at work, and repeat to yourself a statement similar to the one below.
“I know I am more than capable of reaching heights unimaginable. My current situation is just a stepping stone toward greatness. I will not let anyone’s negativity or low expectations keep me from reaching my potential, because I believe in me.”
Now that you have equipped yourself with a positive and distinct statement that fits your personality and gives you encouragement, lets get into what it takes to be successful.
In order to be truly successful you must:
Determine what success is for you.
Expect to succeed.
Have a plan.
Respect others.
Learn how to communicate well.
Never stop learning.
Know how to manage conflict.
Make allies, not enemies.
Dress the part.
Show initiative.
Maintain a fair balance between work and personal life.
Be true to yourself.
These are the keys that you need in order to be successful in both your personal and professional life.
It is very important to note that before you can become successful, you have to decide what success is for you…rather than what others feel your success should be.
If you define what success is for you, set goals to achieve that level of success, and stay encouraged you will be well on your way to achieving that favorable or desired outcome you have set for yourself.
Here's to you and your success!
Talibah Adenouga, PMP
Founder of JANOP
tadenouga@janop.com
www.janop.com
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Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 10:29 PM
Whether you call it a Project Plan or a Project Timeline, it is absolutely imperative that you develop and maintain a document that clearly outlines the project milestones and major activities required to implement your project.
This document needs to include the date each milestone or major activity is to be completed, and the owner of each. Your project plan also needs to be created at the beginning of the project, and a baseline version approved by the team as soon as possible.
Although you will probably not know all of the major activities required to implement your project in the beginning, it is important that you create a draft of the activities you think may need to be tracked via a formal document.
Take some time and really think through what you know about the objective of your project. Look at some historical data from similar projects. You can even have a few informal meetings with knowledgeable individuals you can use as a sounding board to make sure you aren't completely off base. You'll be surprised how good a draft you can develop if you put in a little effort.
With this draft you will be able to speak with subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders to flesh out the project plan. If you don't make some level of effort to develop a rough draft, you may give a bad impression which will make it harder for you to obtain the support of the persons you need to implement the project.
After you have fleshed out your draft with your core team, and some other SMEs that may not be a part of your team, you should give the document a baseline status. Your timeline / project plan should not undergo many edits, if any, after it achieves baseline status.
You should document the actual date your project activities are completed. If the actual completion date differs from your baseline date at anytime, you'll still have documented the date it was supposed to be completed for historical purposes.
It is also a good idea to notate where things are deleted or added, and why. That way you aren't standing there looking crazy, trying to go through the crevices of your memory, when someone asks you why something you deleted isn't in the document...and trust me, someone will ask.
A few key items to include in your timeline are:
- a unique ID that your team can reference when giving an update
- the name of the task
- when the task should Start
- when the task should Finish
- the actual date the task was completed
- any tasks that need to happen before other tasks can begin
- the owner of the task
- percent complete of each task
You or the Project Sponsor you represent may decide to track or maintain more than what has been outlined above in your project plan. This is absolutely fine. These are just the items I have found to be vital, and a good foundation to build upon.
It is completely possible to run a project without a project plan or timeline; it's just not very smart. So, do yourself and your project team a favor... document milestones and important tasks, keep up with the status, and you'll be that much closer to a well managed project.
Remember, it doesn't matter what you call it, it just matters that you develop it.
Talibah Adenouga, PMP
Founder of JANOP
tadenouga@janop.com
www.janop.com
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Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 09:23 PM
To be a profound, or at least half-way decent, communicator you must know the basics of communication. That being said, let's begin with why communication is important.
Did you know that a third (1/3) of project managers spend at least 20 hours in meetings every week, and an even greater percentage spend approximately 2 hours a day reading and responding to e-mails?
So, basically you are spending at least 6 hours of your day in meetings and reading e-mail. How crazy is that? No wonder 8 hour work days seem somewhat impossible.
If you can't, with a great deal of accuracy, express your ideas, decipher all the messages you get bombarded with on a regular, and regurgitate the ideas of others, it will be virtually impossible to run your project successfully. Why? Because, you'll be spending all of your time trying to manage mass disorder caused by miscommunication.
Before we go any further, let me just set one thing straight. Being able to speak well doesn't make you a good communicator. Sorry. You can use the most impressive words that Merriam-Webster has compiled, but if no one knows what the heck you're saying why even bother opening your mouth?
Communication is not about how many big words you know, or how proper your speech. Don't get me wrong, it is important that you speak with some level of intelligence, but not to the point where you can't get a clear message across because you can't get past trying to speak eloquently.
There are many types and methods of communication that you must be familiar with if you are to be a profound communicator.
They are:
Interpersonal Communication
Presenting
Written Communication
Nonverbal Communication
Communication via Telephone
Facilitating
As not to overwhelm you, because we can go on forever speaking on this topic, I will just touch on each of the above types/methods of communication and give you some tips on how you can improve upon each of them.
Interpersonal Communication is considered the most effective form of communication, because it involves speaking one-on-one or face-to-face with another person. Delivering your message face-to-face makes you more believable and the person on the other end of your message more receptive to what you are saying. He/She has the opportunity to see your facial expressions and hear the inflection in your voice. In essence, believability makes it easier to get your message across.
TIP: It is not always possible to deliver your message one-on-one. You should never interrupt someone and demand attention they cannot give at the moment. Being rude can cause friction, and cause the person to be less receptive to your future visits.
Presenting at one time or another is unavoidable if you are going to be a successful Project Manager. Even providing a status update to your client(s) or sponsor(s) is considered, to some extend, a presentation. Whether you are giving your presentation to a virtual audience or an audience locally, your presentation needs to be clear, informative, concise, and engaging.
TIP: Most important take away about presenting is, make sure you are well prepared and triple check that your presentation is both informative and engaging. An awesome message will never make it across to an audience who has glazed over eyes.
Written Communication spans greatly. Some examples include e-mail, memos, letters, formal business documents, and instant messaging. This form of communication gets people in the most trouble in that it is extremely tempting to get too relaxed when composing e-mails and instant messages. Don’t get caught in this trap. Sending messages that are too informal could give people the wrong impression about your level of professionalism.
TIP: Some key points to keep in mind when composing written communication are: do not use ALL CAPS; use appropriate punctuation (no unnecessary exclamation points); take the emotion out of your message; complete your sentences; check your spelling and grammar.
Nonverbal Communication accounts for about 65% of the message others derive from your communication. Over 50% is from body language, and another 10-15% is from tone and pitch of your voice, facial expressions, and gestures.
TIP: To be a profound communicator, this is the area to master. Some tips to take into account are: stand or sit up straight when speaking; maintain natural eye contact (you aren't trying to stare them down); try not to fidget; remain highly enthusiastic and confident; make sure the message your mouth is giving matches the message your tone, pitch, face, and body are giving.
Communication via Telephone is the second most effective method of communication, next to face-to-face conversation. Remember when speaking on the phone to remain professional, always return missed calls, stay on topic, watch your tone and pitch, and ask questions to confirm your message is understood and that you understand the other person's message.
TIP: Telephone communication is the next best thing to face-to-face communication. Use it often, when interpersonal communication is not viable.
Facilitating is one of the major roles of a Project Manger. That being said, it is expected that you perform this role skillfully. As a facilitator your primary task is to ensure everything flows smoothly. Being a facilitator does not mean that you schedule forever long meetings so that you can give the project team status on everything you have done on the project, or that you are the only person giving opinions, suggestions, and input.
TIP: To be an effective facilitator you should: be an active listener; encourage dialogue; encourage an environment of respect; stay on task; start and end on schedule (it is okay to finish early if you don't have anything else to cover); ensure accurate and timely documentation.
Communication is essential for Project Managers to be successful. With the fundamentals outlined above, profound communication is within your reach.
Talibah Adenouga, PMP
Founder of JANOP
tadenouga@janop.com
www.janop.com
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Saturday, January 27, 2007, 10:16 AM
The most fundamental key to creating a dynamic, or at least half-way decent, requirements document is that you know what a requirements document is and why it’s important. So, let’s start there.
What is a requirements document? Oh, I’m so glad you asked. A requirements document is basically a summation of what it will take to implement your project. This document captures the meat of what you need done, what you desperately require to make the project you are working on a success.
There are several different types of requirements document, which is why I’ve not gone through the trouble of capitalizing this combination of words as a formal title. Whatever name bestowed upon the document you create, or facilitate the creation of, be sure that it is very specific.
You must clearly explain what needs to be accomplished, in such a way that all who read your document will have a complete understanding of what needs to be accomplished. There must be no room for speculation.
When creating, or facilitating the creation of, your requirements document you may be asked to identify those items that are “must have” versus “like to have”. If you take this into account throughout the process, as requirements are unveiling themselves, you can make note of those that can be “scoped out“ when and if asked by the persons or groups who have to implement the changes or are sponsoring the project. However, items that are “like to haves” should be minimal. If the items are not required, then they shouldn’t be in the requirements document…unless of course included per executive request or at gun point (which at times can feel like the same scenario).
You should consider capturing the following when creating your requirements document:
Project Name
Document version - you should differentiate between draft version updates and baseline version updates, and state the difference between the two on the document itself. Baseline version updates should require something slightly less than an act of Congress to change. So, be careful when deciding on the best time to baseline your document.
Project Description - summary of what you are trying to accomplish with the project.
Project Objective - the purpose of the project.
Scope and Limitations - helps to clearly define what things will and will not be accounted for in your project and most importantly reduces Scope Creep.
Assumptions - specific information that the requirements were based on, but may not be factual or may change before the implementation of the project.
Dependencies - systems, groups, processes that need to be in place before certain requirements can be implemented.
Impacts - those items that will either affect your project’s execution or will happen as a result of the execution of your project. Be extremely specific here. Full disclosure is key. It is better to tell another group(s) or Project Manager upfront that the changes you need to implement may/will affect them. You do not want a group of people pissed off at you for creating a bunch of extra work for them, that they were not ready for, because you didn‘t bother identifying potential impacts.
Specific tasks required to achieve the project objective.
The group(s) or individual(s) who will perform the specific tasks identified.
A plan for project implementation.
Any training that is necessary.
Testing strategies.
Any supporting documentation that further explains the requirements captured.
Definitions of unfamiliar terms or acronyms.
Signatures or approvals from the core team indicating that the
requirements captured are complete, including the date approved and the team member’s role.
There are two main things to keep in mind in the pursuit of a well
defined, clearly documented, dynamic requirements document. The first is that you are not called to create this document on your own, just like you are not called to do everything in the project. You need to engage a team of individuals that have a great deal of insight you may not have to help you brainstorm and iron out requirements for the project you have been given to manage. The second is that including more information than necessary is better than not providing enough information.
So now that you know what a requirements document is, what goes into it, and what to keep in mind when creating it, you should have no problem delivering a remarkably Dynamic Requirements Document.
Signing off for now. Until next time, go forth and be dynamic.
Talibah Adenouga, PMP
Founder of JANOP
tadenouga@janop.com
www.janop.com
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