Making Good Project Decisions – Part 1
Posted by Brad Egeland
Everything you do every day is a kind of decision: what time to wake up, what to eat for breakfast, and who to talk to first at work. We don’t often think of these as decisions because the consequences are so small, but we are always making choices. We all have our own natural judgments for which decisions in our lives demand more consideration, and the same kind of logic applies to project management decisions. Some choices, like hiring/firing employees or defining goals, will have ramifications that last for months or years. Because these decisions will have a longer and deeper impact, it makes sense to spend more time considering the choices and thinking through their different tradeoffs. Logically, smaller or less-important decisions deserve less energy.
So, the first part of decision-making is to determine the significance of the decision at hand. Much of the time, we do this instinctively; we respond to the issue and use our personal judgment. Am I confident that I can make a good decision on the spot, or do I need more time for this? It often takes only a few moments to sort this out. However, this is precisely where many of us run into trouble. Those instincts might be guided by the right or wrong factors. Without taking the time, at least now and then, to break it down and evaluate the pieces that lead to that judgment, we don’t really know what biases and assumptions might be driving our thinking (e.g., desiring a promotion or protecting a preferred feature).
With that in mind, here are some core questions to consider when evaluating a decision. This list can be used in the moment to help size up a specific decision, or as a way to re-evaluate your high-level criteria for sizing up decisions.
Project Communication Series: PM Communication Skills
Posted by Brad Egeland
I’ve long talked about the need for the project manager to be an effective communicator. I’ve professed that I believe it is the single most important characteristic of the project manager – their #1 skill. If a person is not an effective communicator, I simply don’t see how they could possibly hope to make it as a project manager.
As I read further in Mr. Heerkens’ book “Project Management,” I came across his list of the communication skills of the project manager. It’s an all-encompassing list. It’s his list for of the abilities – in terms of communication – that all of the successful project managers have possessed that he’s come across in his career.
As Mr. Heerkens states, developing the skills needed to effectively communicate takes time, practice, and feedback. Here is his list for those abilities he’s witnessed in successful project managers:
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with organizational management
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with peers and team members
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with subordinates and support personnel
- Ability to speak naturally in front of a large group
- Ability to prepare and deliver formal presentations
- Ability to speak “off the cuff” effectively
- Ability to negotiate Read more »
Project Communication Series: Meaningful Meetings
Posted by Brad Egeland
On projects, meetings are usually one of the three primary methods of communication. The other two are emails and phone calls. Given that, conducting high-quality and efficient meetings is important not only to continued project success but also to team member productivity. No one likes to waste time – and often on highly visible, mission-critical projects the project manager can ill afford to waste anyone’s time, let alone their own.
Gary Heerkens book entitled “Project Management” covers the concept of high-quality, effective meeting communications. Though I don’t fully agree with all of it – specifically when he discusses how you should not have a meeting if you have nothing new to discuss, because I think it’s critical to stay on schedule and at least have a brief weekly status meeting with the team and customer even if there’s little to discuss – I still think the text is interesting and worth noting here. Please read on for Mr. Heerken’s views on this topic…
Conducting productive meetings
Meetings can be a very effective way to conduct business. They bring people together for a relatively short amount of time so that large amounts of information can be shared. As mentioned several times previously, you should conduct core team meetings regularly to promote a steady flow of information to and from team members. But you’ll find that there are many other times when you may need to call for a meeting. Meetings are a critical form of communication.
Is a Statement of Work Really Important?
Posted by Brad Egeland
How important is one document to a project? You know they drill… if you were stuck on a desert island and only had one project document to run with, what would it be? Sure, requirements are critical. I’ve always said that successfully documenting requirements on the project is one of the most critical things you can do. But how do you get there?
In my opinion, the Statement of Work, or SOW, is probably the most critical document you can start off with on a project. It gives you everything you need to start building your project from – of course that’s only if it exists and it’s done right.
Which brings me to my next question. How big or small does a project need to be to warrant an SOW? Is there a dollar amount below which an SOW is overkill? Or is there a minimum project duration below which a SOW would be an extravagance? An unnecessary luxury? My answer here is a definite no.
If a project is handed to you and there’s nothing but some notes on a paper, my recommendation is to stop, refuse to move forward, and request a formal statement of work. If one can not be produced, then I highly recommend building tasks into the front end of the schedule to incorporate sitting down with the project sponsor and creating at least a minimal statement of work document. What you’ll gain from this type of planning up front in the project is invaluable.
More on Green Business and Project Management
Posted by Brad Egeland
In the US, the 2010 Super Bowl XLIV broke all records for viewership with 106.5 million people tuning in. That’s even more than the 27-year-old record held by the tear-jerking M*A*S*H finale that drew 105.97 million viewers.
As for the Super Bowl ads – well, I would have to say they were sub-par this year. But there was no shortage of car-related ads and my favorite (but remember I’m partial) was Audi’s ad featuring a re-recording of Cheap Trick’s “Dream Police” as the “Green Police.” The ad was for Audi’s green car, the A3 TDI clean diesel automobile. The ad is actually very good and was voted the best auto-related ad of for this year’s Super Bowl. In case you missed it, you can view it here.
It’s obvious that “green” is definitely the new black – or however people are stating it these days. I wrote one article on ‘green’ project management back in May 2009 and I’ve since been asked to write several more and interviewed on the subject for two online articles and a major print publication. Everybody wants to know about going green, apparently.