Business pressures often lead sponsors to set aggressive deadlines. And meeting those deadlines may be exactly what your organization needs. It’s not an easy situation. As a project manager, your best survival strategy is to set stakeholders’ expectations for what it will take to deliver the project in that timeframe. Let’s look at how to analyze the feasibility of an aggressive project deadline and then communicate the results to your sponsor.

• Determine whether mandatory overtime will help meet the project deadline. Analyze how long it took to complete past project tasks. This data can tell you a lot about whether an aggressive deadline is feasible. When regular work schedules won’t meet the deadline, mandatory overtime might be the answer. Determine what a reasonable amount of overtime is, given the type of work performed in your organization. Then, calculate how much closer that overtime gets you to the deadline. Share the benefits and what you consider a reasonable level of overtime with your sponsor. If your sponsor pushes for more overtime, talk about the risks that presents: errors, reduced productivity and/or increased absenteeism due to fatigue.
• Determine the average percentage of work time operational personnel dedicate to projects. Many critical project team members also have daily responsibilities that are crucial to the organization’s day-to-day business. Projects are “extra work” they must handle without affecting their day-to-day responsibilities. Calculate how much closer you can get to the aggressive deadline with more time from operational personnel. One way to get more time is to find others to cover their operational duties. Or you can re-prioritize their day-to-day work. Meet with your sponsor and propose reasonable re-prioritizations or backfills for operational personnel and how much that helps reach the deadline. Important note: Talk to the people’s managers in advance to see if this approach is feasible. You don’t want them blindsided by a request from your project sponsor.
• Investigate tools or specialist contractors that can help complete tasks earlier. It’s unlikely that you can deliver a project faster than before using the same people and tools. Look for different project- or product-related tools that might shorten your project schedule. Search for specialist contractors who can produce products faster. If you find feasible options, determine the effect they could have on your schedule. Talk to your sponsor about these options and potential outcomes. Involve your sponsor in the analysis process. They might have ideas on changes that could deliver in a shorter timeframe.
• Determine if there are new, innovative approaches to completing tasks. If there are possibilities, talk to your sponsor about additional funding. You can use this funding to do research and/or proof-of-concept testing on different techniques. This might not only help achieve your current project deadline, but could be helpful for future projects as well.

Every project manager has a story to tell about aggressive deadlines. Share your experiences, successes, failures, and questions in the comments section.

For more about deadlines, check out my Project Management Foundations: Schedules course.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and Bonnie Biafore co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join Chris Croft and me on Wednesday, Oct 11, 2023 at 9am MT for this live Office Hours event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

No excuses! Here’s a link to watch the course for free: https://tinyurl.com/how-to-launch-career-in-PM

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 48,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Do you want to expand your capability to manage more projects? You can by delegating! But delegation can be scary, because you’re releasing control to others. With the right attitude and activities, delegation can become your go-to tool that isn’t so scary. Here are the best ways to make delegation work for you as a project manager.

• Pick the right team member. Sure, it’s easy when a team member is experienced in what you want to delegate. Usually, you have to decide whether a team member has the skill and judgment to perform the delegated responsibility. Consider their desire to grow, their ambition, and the stakeholder relationships needed to complete the task. When your team member has good relationships and the right attitude, delegation goes better. 
• Clearly define the assignment and completion criteria. Determine exactly what you want from your team member. This includes the deliverables and your definition of successful results. Successful delegation might mean saving you time or it could be applying more specific technical expertise than you have. Keep in mind, you might be able to tackle the task more easily or faster, but that isn’t the point. Determine what you need, which is not necessarily the same level of quality you yourself would produce. Also, decide what you would like your team member to learn or experience from the delegation. Communicate all this with your team member, and you’ll increase your probability of success.
• Discuss the approach to completing the task, while allowing flexibility. In some cases, delegated responsibility requires a specific process. In other instances, you may have a preferred approach. Share that approach in your delegation conversation. If there is flexibility in how to accomplish the assignment, then encourage your team member to take the approach they’re comfortable with and/or learn as much as they can from the delegation.
• Provide necessary resources and authority. Think about what your team member might need or benefit from for the assignment. This goes beyond access to tools and data. For example, introduce your team member to key stakeholders. Notify the team and stakeholders about the authority you are delegating to your team member. And finally, arrange for access to key experts.
• Allocate time to support your team member. Delegation isn’t a “set it and forget it” exercise. The best delegators prepare to guide their team member to help them succeed. Schedule frequent check-in meetings with them and reserve the time in your calendar. Review their progress and examine any interim deliverables. You can reduce the meeting frequency if they make suitable progress. Be responsive to impromptu questions and provide tips along the way. This not only increases the success of the delegation, but also increases your team member’s confidence in their ability to complete their responsibilities to your satisfaction.

Follow these tips and delegation will become your PM power tool to expand your accomplishments and those of your team!

Delegation is both powerful and scary. What techniques have you used to make delegation work for you – and to make it less scary to apply?

For more about working with team members, check out Daniel Stanton’s Project Management Foundations: Teams course.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and Bonnie Biafore co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join us in this event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

No excuses! Here’s a link to watch the course for free: https://tinyurl.com/how-to-launch-career-in-PM

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 46,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash

You’ve probably heard “the leader sets the tone.” This tone is all about the environment you create for your project team. Here are things you can do – TODAY – to make your project a positive (and attractive) place to work. And that helps you make your project a success.

• Receive news, both good and bad, with a constructive attitude. Managing a project means understanding the news: task completions, delays, stakeholder conversations, new ideas, and conflicts. To understand the news, you need to hear about it. And that happens only if you support your teams. Make it difficult or unpleasant for team members to share news with you (think of the phrase “shooting the messenger”) and you won’t know what’s happening on your project. Thank people who share information, whether it’s good or bad. That way, you can respond proactively to project issues, instead of reacting to the truth bomb a key stakeholder drops in your office because your team didn’t share the issue with you.
• Build a team. Yes, even for a short project. Come up with a team name — not the project business name. (Nobody wants to work on the Amalgamated Velcro Production and Efficiency Management Project…but they might enjoy being on the “Better Rip and Stick” team!) Act as if YOU are part of the team (because you are) and promote teamwork to get tasks done. Share accountability. Celebrate little victories. You’ll get dedicated team members who will want to work with you…now and in the future.
• Make sure team members understand the business relevance of their tasks. Team members will be more engaged when they know how their work packages fit into the big picture. The work is more meaningful and more satisfying to them! Talking about the purpose of tasks can also decrease errors. Team members will raise potential issues more readily when they understand the context of their work. You’ll get better deliverables and more dedication from your team.
• Help team members feel like they belong. A diverse team is good, but that’s only step one. Include all your team members in decision-making and planning your project. Beyond that, take time to understand who they are, what goals they have, and what project experiences will be most meaningful to them. Help them achieve those goals when possible.

What tips do you have for building a positive project environment? What benefits have you gained from offering team members a positive environment to work in?

For more about working with teams, check out Daniel Stanton’s Project Management Foundations: Teams course.

Coming Up

Join Chris Croft and me on August 22, 2023, at 9am MT for our live broadcast “Do You Need Project Management Certifications, and If So, Which Ones?”

One of the most frequent questions Chris Croft and I get is “Do I need project management certification?” quickly followed by “Which certification or certifications should I get?” Everyone’s journey is different, just like Chris and I took very different paths. So, we’re going to explore whether project management certifications are valuable, what else you can do to make yourself stand out, and finally, which certifications to look at if you decide you need them. Bring your questions to this informative and fun session. By the way, this topic is just one that we explore in our new course, How to Launch a Career in Project Management. 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 45,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Testing your project’s products is a critical step in delivering successful projects – testing is one way to confirm that your project accomplishes what it’s supposed to. An effective testing scheme must meet the following objectives.

• Validate that requirements are satisfied. There should be a specific test for every requirement to confirm that it has been satisfied. If any requirement proves difficult to verify, revisit the requirement to ensure it meets the SMART test (specific, measurable, agreed-upon, attainable, realistic, and time-constrained). It’s a good idea to use a spreadsheet or tool to track requirements, verification test details, and test status (not completed, completed with error(s), completed and closed). That way, you can ensure that all requirements have a test plan and you haven’t overlooked any tests. 
• Find and repair defects. Well-structured tests find a defect, if a defect exists, and don’t find a defect if everything works as it should. To ensure your tests work this way, identify what successful test results look like and what errors might occur. That way, when a test produces an error, it should indicate the repair that’s needed. For example, a test for a sales voucher would confirm “boundary dates”. Does an expiration date of July 1st mean that the voucher can be used on July 1st, or that it should be used by June 30? Specific tests will validate that the system correctly interprets the intent for the voucher expiration.
• Build confidence in the overall solution. In the later stages of testing, schedule test sessions for stakeholders to use and become familiar with new systems and processes. This will increase stakeholder confidence — even when small defects occur in those sessions. Capturing, understanding, and promptly correcting errors can increase confidence. Work with your organizational change management team to schedule these test sessions when you believe products are nearly error-free, at a convenient time and place for your stakeholders. 
• Improve the product development process. A good testing process notes trends in the types and causes of errors. Analyze the root cause of errors to decrease the number of errors in future projects. Business analysts participating in the testing process can help. As they learn the cause of errors, they can produce requirement details that avoid errors in the future. For example, they can specify that a sales voucher expiration date is the last date on which the voucher can be used. This provides clarity around whether the expiration date mentioned earlier would be June 30 or July 1st.

How do you plan and track your testing? What are the challenges and best practices you’ve found? Share with us in the comments section.

For more about testing, check out Greta Blash’s Business Analysis Foundations course.

Coming Up

Join Chris Croft and me on August 22, 2023 at 9am MT for our live broadcast “Do You Need Project Management Certifications, and If So, Which Ones?”

One of the most frequent questions Chris Croft and I get is “Do I need project management certification?” quickly followed by “Which certification or certifications should I get?” Everyone’s journey is different, just like Chris and I took very different paths. So, we’re going to explore whether project management certifications are valuable, what else you can do to make yourself stand out, and finally, which certifications to look at if you decide you need them. Bring your questions to this informative and fun session. By the way, this topic is just one that we explore in our new course, How to Launch a Career in Project Management. 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 43,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Photo by Microsoft Edge on Upsplash

In project change management, stakeholders might request a change to introduce new functions, modify a requirement, or resolve an issue. Many project managers close a change record when the change control board approves the change to proceed. Others when the change has been completed and included in the project deliverables. Neither approach is valid, because the reason for approving the change request in the first place might not have come to fruition. So, what conditions must be met to properly close a project change?

• The change is completed within an acceptable cost range. When management approves a change based on estimated costs, they believe the benefits justify the cost. If the change has exceeded estimated costs, you need to re-evaluate the validity of the change request’s business case. That is, does a positive business case still exist for keeping the change in place?
  • If the change will produce value that justifies the cost of the change, close the change request        record.
  • If the value provided doesn’t justify the cost, keep the change request record open for further action. For example, you might back out the change from the project to avoid downstream risks or issues with increased solution complexity.
• Tests prove the installed change satisfies the stated business need. Business stakeholders should test the products created to satisfy the requirements of the project change request. Also, determine whether stakeholders can follow the instructions in any user documentation produced for those products. You can close the change request record only if both activities have been completed successfully. If not, determine whether corrections can be made as part of the current change request record. Or you can create a new change request record to address modifications required to satisfy business stakeholders.
• The change doesn’t introduce unanticipated risks/issues. A change request approval process includes estimated costs, confirms the approach for making the change, and highlights risks. If the design, construction, or implementation of a change introduces unanticipated risks or issues, keep the change request record open. Then, determine how to address the issue or mitigate the risks. Review your plan to address the issue/risk with key stakeholders. If stakeholders approve of your plan, take those actions, and close the change request record. If the stakeholders aren’t satisfied, rework the plan until the stakeholders are satisfied. You can close the change request record only when unanticipated issues and risks have been addressed to the stakeholders’ satisfaction.
• The change doesn’t affect other constraints. A change request might affect other project constraints. For instance, implementing a change might require other changes to make it work. This form of scope creep can be expensive. So, watch out for a change domino effect to get something to work. Quality concerns can also arise from the results of a change. What if an added function in a solution leads to occasional operational errors? Answering that question can be difficult and contentious. Finally, a change might increase the cost of ownership of the product(s) the project produces. Of course, this is something that should have been identified during the analysis of the change request before its approval. If something was missed, re-evaluate the change to determine whether the increased support costs are worth the business gains.

Do you have questions or tips for closing out change requests? Share with us in the comments section.

For more about managing project change requests, check out Claudine Peet’s Change Management for Projects course.

Coming Up

Office Hours: Gen AI: The Project Manager’s Edge July 19, 2023, 9am MT

AI is transforming project management in several ways, such as taking over the creation of complex and realistic schedules through analysis of all available data. As a project manager, you may wonder how to harness generative AI applications in your work and how to implement them successfully. Join me and my fellow LinkedIn instructors, Doug Rose, Dave Birss, and Christina Charenkova to explore how to put AI to work on your projects. Sign up here.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than xx,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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