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Where’s my team anyway? Managing Projects Remotely

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Managing projects is challenging but managing a remote (virtual) team includes some nuances.  Surprisingly, you can use these to your advantage.  Here are techniques you can leverage to help your remote resources work as part of a productive team.

  1. Have frequent short meetings. Bring your remote team members together. Hold regularly scheduled meetings 3 times a week for just 15 minutes.  This provides a quick opportunity to understand the “pulse” of what’s happening.  These are like water-cooler conversations you have when you’re co-located with your team members.  During these meetings you can discuss work-related items or check on how your team members are doing.  This is time well spent!  These discussions identify problems early so remote team members don’t get stuck trying to solve problems on their own.  These meetings can be with small groups or 1-on-1 depending on the number of people you have and their role on your project.
  2. Celebrate wins together.  If you’re celebrating onsite, do something to acknowledge remote team members.  Send them a gift package or tickets to a local event. They’ll feel included and motivated.
  3. Insist on good video conference capabilities.  Phone calls are good, but video conference meetings are better…when the technology works.  Seeing someone gives you a better understanding of how meetings are going and enables you to connect with remote team members.  This approach recognizes that non-verbal cues are just as important as your discussions.  If you can’t access video conference capabilities, make sure your speaker phones work properly.  Nothing is worse than being remote and not hearing discussions or being unable to contribute because you can’t be heard.
  4. Give analytical assignments to remote team members. Sometimes your remote team members can be more productive as they have fewer distractions. Giving remote members assignments that benefit from quiet, uninterrupted work time can enhance your productivity.  
  5. Schedule meetings at different times.  Consider the time zones and schedules of your remote team members. Impacting your local team on occasion is worth the inconvenience to demonstrate consideration for your remote team members.  This sends the message that everyone’s time is valuable and remote team members shouldn’t always be the ones attending meetings outside business hours.

Because many projects have remote team members, these techniques will enable all of your team members to be productive and work together effectively.  Leverage remote members to your team’s advantage – there’s no reason for remote workers to be a disadvantage to your project!

Defining Proper Project Objectives

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Initial project objectives can vary from precise to vague. It’s important to ensure objectives meet the sponsor’s expectations and fit the needs of the business and key stakeholders.

Many project managers use SMART objectives, which stand for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-constrained. But SMART objectives are only the beginning. Here are other considerations for appropriate project objectives:

  • Aligned with strategy. Strategy is implemented through business change projects, but that doesn’t mean all projects are strategic. You can ensure that your project is viable and its project objectives are appropriate by understanding your organization’s strategy and by making sure that your project’s objectives and the way you achieve them don’t detract from that strategy. For example, don’t fall into the trap of using old, “reliable” technology to implement a project when the strategic direction is to use more powerful, future-proofed tools. While it may take longer, supporting the organization’s strategy is probably more important in the long run.
  • Scheduled mindfully. While SMART objectives address achievability, that doesn’t mean the objective is appropriate given the current workload your critical project team members are handling. Other projects and operational responsibilities may create excessive expectations for team members. To determine what is truly achievable, you need to identify the current demand for critical team members along with the demands your project will place on them.
  • The right approach. As project objectives can vary, the approach for achieving them varies as well. Having well-defined requirements that are unlikely to change and needing to support specific milestones indicate a waterfall approach is more appropriate. Conversely, loosely-defined requirements and tight deadlines indicate that agile approaches may be best. Ensure your project objectives are realistic by creating plans to deliver your project based on available staff, required timeframes and the nature of your requirements.
  • Mindful of change management. While businesses need to move fast, people are limited in the magnitude of change they can successfully manage, procedurally and emotionally. Monitor the degree of change you are expecting of your business to ensure your objectives are realistic and achievable.

Can you have too much authority as a project manager?

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Here’s another video Bob McGannon and I recorded where we talk about whether a project manager can have too much authority. We also talk a bit about what to do to make sure that the project manager and project sponsor agree on what is an appropriate level of authority.

https://youtu.be/uRyLRbJnh1Q

To learn more about project organizational structure, check out this video from my LinkedIn Learning Project Management Foundations course.

The Power of Out of Scope

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The most important section of the scope statement may be what’s out of scope. By discussing what’s out of scope, the project manager and stakeholders can refine their perception of the project’s purpose and how it will improve the business. This allows the project manager to focus the project team, and stakeholders who try to expand project scope. The out of scope section:

Demonstrates priority. Being specific about what is in and out of scope helps you get the best value by concentrating on the most impactful business outcomes.

Reduces scope. A smaller scope allows for more focused effort, a smaller team to manage, and less need for integration. These significantly reduce complexity and increase the probability of successful project completion.

Creates early debate. Proposing what is out of scope inspires senior stakeholders to express their views and discuss needed outcomes. These discussions ensure stakeholder support of the project scope and avoid delays later.

Reduces time and cost. Restricting scope reduces the overall project effort, reducing the cost and time to deliver project outcomes. Productive discussions about out of scope items can also help reduce scope if schedule or cost constraints surface as the project progresses.

When might you start a project without a business case?

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While I was in Australia, Bob McGannon and I talked about when, if ever, you would start a project without a business case. It was a fun discussion. Click here to watch!

Alexandria Bay

Can something be too small to need project management techniques?

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I spent some time in Australia with my good friend and project manager/LinkedIn Learning author extraordinaire, Bob McGannon. We talked about several interesting questions in the project management and leadership domain. Check out the video of our discussion!

How long can I live with project assumptions?

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How long should you proceed with your project without validating assumptions?

Assumptions about a product’s or idea’s marketability should be validated quickly. Money spent on a product with unvalidated marketability is at risk. Share product specifications, drawings, or a mock-up built with Legos, but produce a prototype to validate your product’s marketability.

Key stakeholder assumptions about funding or staffing should also be validated quickly. Get with your stakeholders early and convert assumptions into commitments.

Assumptions about the availability or capability of a product you need are sometimes critical to confirm, sometimes not. If the product is unique, confirm your assumption ASAP. If there are alternatives, the assumption can probably wait.

Assumptions about government legislation, licensing or approvals can be tricky.Often, they’re a make or break proposition for your project. Unfortunately, you only know what you’re dealing with after the government passes a law (or not) or grants a license. Plan your project around these approval events, and weigh the risks of working before you fully understand the government’s decision.

Assumptions about data being available to support your project is important to resolve early. For example, you might obtain a new software system that depends on critical data to operate properly. Purchasing that system before validating that the required data is available is VERY high risk. Determine how to obtain and determine the accuracy of that data as soon as possible.

Project assumptions can be broad and varied. What inaccurate assumptions have you heard about that created issues? Share those in the comments section so we can all learn together!

What should you do if you don’t agree with the project business case?

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The answer depends on what makes you uncomfortable.

The project business case forms the basis of the project. Get it wrong and the likelihood of a successful project is low.

If you believe the business case data lacks integrity, discuss this with your sponsor immediately. Contrast your information with what’s in the business case and work through the differences. The business case sets expectations, so you’ll eventually need to compare project outcomes against the business case. Don’t wait until the end of the project to challenge the business case. Take action now!

If you’re concerned with risk in the business case, seek to understand your sponsor’s risk profile. As a project manager, part of your role is to ensure your sponsor and key stakeholders understand the project risks. Your role is NOT to ensure risk goes away, When you’re concerned with business case risk, point out the risks to stakeholders and establish response plans. When you understand the risks your sponsor is comfortable and uncomfortable with, you can perform risk management effectively.

If the business case was not built collaboratively, review the business case with key stakeholders. They usually focus on their own interests and perceptions of risk and may be uncomfortable with the business case or its approaches. Discussions to analyze and align the business case with key stakeholders are critical. Moving forward with a business case that hasn’t been reviewed and agreed upon makes it difficult to get staffing and decision-making support.

Proactively addressing issues in the business case will help you deliver your project successfully as well as establish your authority with project stakeholders.

What if the sponsor doesn’t want a feasibility study – they want a 100% guarantee!!!

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Projects are risky by definition! You are trying to create something that has never been created before. Some executives find this uncomfortable and request a feasibility study to determine whether the project is viable. It’s a smart thing to do: it helps you build a good initial scope statement and project charter. However, if the feasibility study is supposed to create certainty about the project outcome – meaning no risk – you’ve got a problem. Here are some tips if you find yourself in this situation.

  1. Focus on creating a risk plan and sharing it enthusiastically. This may seem a bit counter-intuitive. You have executives who don’t want risk, and the advice is to shove a risk plan in their face! The fundamental truth is that projects involve risk. Embrace that! Presenting a methodical way to approach risk is the best way to balance the reality of those risks with a sense of control.
  2.  Package your project approach as a story. When your executive sees how the project can come to pass via a believable story, you can ease their fears and allow a reasonable project to move forward.
  3.  Focus on the steps in your plans and how you can validate each step as they occur. Executives often fear that they will lose control and incur large expenses or delays. Building sound plans and project controls can ease your executives’ anxiety. Make your sponsor comfortable that they will have control over the project and can act proactively if things go sideways. Doing so will put your sponsor, yourself and your organization in a much better position to deliver a viable project.
  4. Understand your sponsor’s greatest concerns and communicate status about those concerns. If they are concerned about spending, create as detailed a budget and spending plan as you can and review status regularly. When the status isn’t good, report it quickly  — along with actions that can be taken. Ensure a sense of control and understanding is present regarding your project, and you and your sponsor are more likely to work together to produce great project outcomes.

Top 5 Project Management Skills You Never Knew You Needed

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As a project manager no two days are the same. Business changes, project dynamics, and the myriad stakeholders you deal with are just the beginning. For daily entertainment, here are a few additional project management skills you must develop and deploy to be effective:

  1. Storyteller – Effective conversations and project documentation are the beginning of your project story. What you really need is vivid communication–the story of how your project can progress from idea to reality. Senior leaders need reassurance, often in the form of hero reports and processes that save the day. Practice telling the story of your project. To be certain your story will sell your senior leaders, make it part Marvel action movie and part warm snuggly lullaby. Do that, and you’ll be in your project’s driver’s seat.
  2. Non-insulting Consultant – One of the more challenging things a project manager does is turn away work. That’s right – you have to say no to some project assignments. Pet projects, impractical projects that sponsors erroneously assume employees will buy into, and other unrealistic project concepts will cross your desk for justification. When you find yourself in this position, you need to put on your consulting hat and convince your enthusiastic sponsor their idea won’t fly. You have to be firm and direct and, at the same time, avoid insulting them. Take the approach of steward of your sponsor’s business and assure them that your job is to protect them from issues that impact the bottom line. Consider telling a good project horror story (see item 1).
  3. The Battle-revealer and Peacemaker – Your project sponsor may be totally convinced about a project, while other key stakeholders think differently. Finding those not-so-on-board stakeholders and revealing the battle that needs to be fought is critical for success. Otherwise, you’ll have one significant stakeholder tell you to go north while another tells you to go south. Good luck with THAT! Find the requirement and prioritization mismatches, get the combatants in a room, and help them clearly articulate their differences. You act as the peacemaker and look for compromise, if necessary. Then your life as project manager will be much easier.
  4. The Discoverer of wobbly truth – The people you need to work on your projects are almost always working on other things, too. (If you run a project with 100% dedicated resources, you haven’t experienced the full fun of being a PM!) Your project team members are juggling things and almost always underestimate. They try to be diligent, but they’re usually optimistic about what they can produce, in quantity and quality. Gently and compassionately, you need to find the truth about what your project team can produce and the status of their work. Wobbly truth (a well-intended statement that isn’t a lie, but doesn’t turn out to be accurate) has spawned more nightmares than Dracula—at least for project managers. Be persistent and kind, but don’t stop poking until you get the truth.
  5. Executive Whisperer – Anticipating your sponsor’s reactions to project twists and turns is a useful skill. Even more important is understanding the fears that these project situations will awaken in your senior leaders. Understanding those fears helps you identify the information to share to either reassure them or give them clear options to help you address the concern. Executive whispering is best performed going into a project, when you can have a conversation with your sponsor and other stakeholders about the risks they are most concerned about and the positive outcomes they value most. That way, you can whisper to your senior leaders to help you guide the project and control their fears!