Project Management Home

Project Execution: Running the Project.

1. Track the project

Benefits:

  • Tracking make project transparent. Transparency is essential for accurate decision-making. And reduce risk of forgetting something.
  • Tracking keeps all team members and stakeholders in touch with deadlines and goals.
  • Tracking is crucial for recognizing risks and issues that can derail your progress.
  • Tracking helps build confidence that the project is set to be delivered on time, in scope, and within budget.

Items to track : schedule, status of action items, milestones, costs, key decisions, changes, dependencies, risks.

Tracking methods : GANTT chart (waterfall methodology), Roadmap (for big milestones), Burndown chart (time/work, for tasks with details).

Project status reports

  • Template
  • Components : Milestones and tasks, Summary, Issues, Status.
  • ROAM analysis : resolved, owned, accepted, or mitigated.
  • Overall Status (RAG),

2. Manage changes, risk and dependencies

(1) Change management. Types of changes (positive or negative):

  • New or changing dependencies.
  • Changing priorities.
  • Capacity and people.
  • Limitations on budget or resources.
  • Scope creep.
  • Force majeure.

(2) Dependency types, and Dependency management.

(3) Risk register. Inherent risk matrix. Four categories: ROAM (resolved, owned, accepted, mitigated).

(4) Communicating changes to the team : small change - email, big change - team meeting & timeout.

3. Quality management

  • Define Quality standards.
  • Make Quality planning. (Identify relevant standards and how to satisfy them)
  • QA Quality assurance. (Review process : Evaluate if the project is moving towards high-quality)
    • QA seeks to prevent defects before they occur.
    • Involves observing, measuring, and then comparing with a set of agreed-upon criteria.
  • QC Quality control. (Monitor project results and delivery to determine if they are meeting desired results or not)
    • QC is a subset of QA.
    • QC aims to identify defects after they have happened and also entails taking corrective action to resolve these issues.

Measuring customer satisfaction : (1) Feedback surveys; (2) User acceptance test (UAT).

Continuous improvement, process improvement. based on outcomes.

  • Data-driven improvement frameworks:
    1. DMAIC : Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.
    2. PDCA : Identify problem, fix the issue, assess whether success, Fine-tune the final fix - Plan, Do (fix), Check, Act (Fine-tune).
  • Differentiating:
    • Projects.
    • Programs. collection of projects.
    • Portfolio. collection of projects and programs across the whole organization.

👍 Retrospective Template : (1) Project summary (Goals and objectives, Duration, Team members, Methodology), (2) Key accomplishments, (3) Lessons learned, (4) Action items (turn their lessons into action items), (5) Future considerations, (6) Resources and notes.

Retrospective’s purpose: (1) Encourage team building; (2) Facilitate improved collaboration; (3) Promote positive changes.

4. Data-informed decision-making

Project metrics data types: (1) Productivity metrics : milestone, tasks, projections, duration, (2) Quality metrics : number of changes, issues, cost variance.

Data (a collection of facts or information) analysis steps:

  1. Ask. What is the problem? And, identifying your stakeholders and understanding their expectations.
  2. Prepare. collect and store the data.
  3. Process. “clean” your data. (Discerning important data)
  4. Analyze. draw conclusions, make predictions, and decide on next steps.
  5. Share. (use data visualization)
  6. Act.

Presenting and visualizing data : Show relationships (Scatter), Comparing values (Bar), Demonstrating composition (Pie Chart), Analyzing trends and behaviors (Line).

5. Leadership and influencing skills

Effective Team Work.

The factors that impact team effectiveness:

  1. Psychological safety.
  2. Dependability. (reliable and complete task on time)
  3. Structure and clarity. (understanding of job expectations, knowledge of how to achieve, and consequence of performance)
  4. Meaning. (find a sense of purpose either in the work itself or in the results of that work)
  5. Impact. (the belief that the results of one’s work matters and creates change)

Leading high-functioning teams:

  • Create systems that turn chaos in to order.
  • Communicate and listen.
  • Promote trust and psychological safety.
  • Demonstrate empathy and create motivation.
  • Delegate (entrust) responsibility and prioritize.
  • Celebrate team success.

Team development Bruce Tuckman’s stages : Forming, Storming, Norming (resolves some of its internal conflict by establishing new norms), Performing, Adjourning.

Ethical leadership is a form of leadership that promotes and values honesty, justice, respect, community, and integrity. Ethical Decision Making

  • Recognize an ethical issue
  • Get the facts
  • Evaluate alternative actions
  • Make a decision and test it
  • Act and reflect on the outcome

Effective Influencing : (1) Establish credibility (from expertise and relationships); (2) Frame for common ground; (3) Provide evidence; (4) Connect emotionally.

6. Communication

Tools :

  1. Messaging: email, instant messager, phone call.
  2. Virtual meetings.
  3. Work management and collaboration tools.

Efficient emails:

  • State what you want clearly.
  • Keep the content concise.
  • Structure your writing.
  • Check grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Efficient meetings:

  • Structured: on time, attendness, prioritized, notetaker.
  • Intentional : clearly stated purpose and expectations.
  • Collaboration: working together.
  • Inclusivity: inclusive and accessible meetings.
    • inclusive environment, accessibility to everyone, visual impairments.

Project meetings agenda template:

  1. Kick-off meeting. align understanding of the project goals with actual plans and procedures.
  2. Status update meeting. align the team on updates, progress, challenges, and next steps.
    • Tasks update. Schedule status. Budget status. Current or anticipated issues. Action items.
  3. Stakeholders review meetings.
  4. Retrospective meeting. reflect on what went well and potential improvements for the future. celebrate the project’s completion.

7. Close project

Criteria to successfully close a project:

  • Assure all works are done.
  • Agreed upon project management processes are executed.
  • Formal recognition and agreement that the project is done by key stakeholders.

Steps :

  • Conduct closing process after each phase or milestone.
    1. Refer to prior documentation.
    2. Put together closing documentation.
    3. Conduct administrative closure of the procurement process.
    4. Make sure all stakeholders are aware that a phase, or project, is ending.
    5. Execute necessary follow-up work.
  • Close at the end of the project:
    1. Provide the necessary training, tools, documentation, and capability to use your product.
    2. Ensure that the project has satisfied its goals and desired outcomes.
    3. Document acceptance from all stakeholders.
    4. Review all contracts and documentation.
    5. Conduct a formal retrospective.
    6. Disband and thank the project team.

Impact reporting: to make sure that all stakeholders feel like their needs are met and to review areas for improvements in the future.