Successful project management is more than just outlining a task list and pressing the ‘Play’ button. It involves planning, organizing, assigning tasks and working together to complete the project successfully.
It’s the working together part that I’d like to expand on here. Many major business projects involve more individuals than just one. There is the project manager, the creative team, the technical team, the production team and numerous other important people whose opinions need to be heard in the successful execution of the project.
So how do you get all these individuals working together for the successful execution of the project? Here are a few tips to do just that.
Status meetings
I know that most people hate meetings, and the idea of having more meetings is unbearable. But guess what? Sometimes they are necessary. For successful project management, bring the entire team, or at least the team leaders, into a weekly status meeting and efficiently review the project status and next steps. If everyone brings in their most recent updates and stays focused, the meetings can be short, productive, and may reduce the amount of “emergency” meetings as the project heads toward its due date.
Project Management Software
If you are currently managing your projects and tasks in a project management system, or are thinking about implementing one soon, find a solution that integrates team collaboration and communication into the projects. Being able to post comments, hold discussions and chat within a project management system are easy ways to bring the team together, and keep all communication and task information organized in one place.
Collaborating In One Document
Rather than everyone working on their own individual documents, such as spreadsheets or PowerPoint Presentations, have the entire team collaborate within one document. Set up a version control system if your project management software does not allow this, and keep all updates in one place. This will reduce time spent in combining notes and updates for status meetings or final reports, and let everyone see what the rest of the team is working on.
Team Mingling
The idea of team mingling does not mean Happy Hours three nights a week. Try having members of teams work next to members of other teams. Place a writer next to a designer, and the IT guy can sit by the project manager. This brings different ideas together, and the office chatter can be productive across all teams, rather than keeping big ideas within just one team.