Why Project Management Is Effective For Your Business And Teams

Hey you, what are you doing here? If you are checking this out it means one or two things. You are determined to learn more about your project management challenges and the next step is to find the best project management platform that would solve your problems.

OR, you have already got a project management platform in place and it sucks!!

By that I mean, it is too hard to use, too unreliable, too freaking expensive.

That’s right. When you think of project management you are figuring having to spend considerable time, money and effort. And that is exactly what general project management platforms/tools are now charging you.

But, there has to be a better way, right? And that is why you are here. In this article, we will discuss the core elements that we sometimes neglect and consider unimportant, which leads to drastic changes in the desired business outcomes.

Whether you are in charge of designing a car, moving your team to a new facility, preparing a solid marketing campaign, preparing advertisement framework for your client, or just about any other project (large or small), you will consciously or unconsciously go through the same four phases of project management: Planning, Defining, Implementation, and Performance Review.

For example, if you are in charge of planning a marketing automation, you’ll typically begin planning with the desired outcome and an estimated deadline for completion of the automation.

Then you will have a ballpark budget allocated to each campaign. Once you are in the Defining and Implementation phases, you will need to structure the framework and start executing the details of the project.

While defining or executing the project, you are most certain to come across new information, and based on the new information gathered, you will have to revise your budget, project deadline, implementation model, etc.

In other words, more you understand the bigger picture; the better you will plan your project.

You see, what stands between us and achieving our most ambitious goals has far less to do with possessing some magical skills or talent, and far more to do with how we approach problems and make decisions to solve them.

And because of the continuous and compounding nature of all those millions of decisions you make on a regular basis, even a marginal improvement in our process has huge impact on our end results.

Now let me prove this to you by taking an overview of each of these phases and the activities involved.

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How To Spot And Rescue A Failing Project

Most often, we all follow the success story/path/strategy of other businesses or individuals. But sometime it may boomerang for new or existing businesses. By the time we realize, the project is already in trouble and started failing.

There are many reasons for project failure. Stakeholders change project objectives, bad planning of resources and priorities, sudden budget or time cut etc. 

It is very hard to spot the early signs of project failure, but here is how you can spot the mistakes relatively easy, if you’re watching and how you’ll rescue or turnaround it in quick time.

It is very hard to spot the early signs of project failure, but here is how you can spot the mistakes relatively easy, if you’re watching and how you’ll rescue or turnaround it in quick time. 

• Stakeholders are not attending project meetings
• Developers are leaving the project
• The financial group is asking just too many questions about daily expenses/resource allocations
• Project Milestones are not completing on time
• Expense is higher than estimated

Once you find out these issues frequently you need to review projects immediately. The review includes budget, expenses, execution plans, resource allocations etc.

As a manager, you need to reassess if you go by the same strategy, plan whether to achieve the project goal on time and budget or you need to stop all project activities for a period in order to re-plan, modify the design, improve the communication strategy after discussing with all stakeholders, and then, finally, realign all the necessary resources. 

Depending upon the unique aspects of a project, there could be multiple reasons for a project going out of control. It may include the following:

Sloppy Requirements Gathering:

With our eagerness to start a project, most of the times we gather incomplete requirements. 

Any incomplete requirements will have both a negative cost and schedule impact on the project, if you are developing a project using a standard waterfall methodology. 

User requirements are still utmost important in iterative development projects which can be negotiated ahead of any development stage.

For projects to succeed, it must start with compact user requirements.

Schedule Slippage:

Many times, project schedules get out of control when dates and deliverables aren’t monitored and tracked on a daily basis. 

Aiming the quick progress of the projects, managers leave behind issues unresolved for days, which indirectly affects schedule managements. I recommend that you should check project schedules daily.

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Project Management is not Micromanagement Silly

Extremism in any shape and form is unacceptable and dangerous. And it applies to project management too.

Most often Project Managers (PMs) are so caught up with their project tasks and activities that they lose sight of the larger goal and end up controlling and dictating every action taken by their teams.

Sure, managing multiple projects with a large number of team members who are quite diverse and dispersed is an uphill task. And so is monitoring their work and progress. But this does not necessitate that every project activity have our stamp of approval.

It is indeed important that as PMs we ensure

• Project works are completed on time and with quality
• Continuous and timely monitoring mechanism are put in place
• We are on top of approaching deadlines and milestones
• Timely updates are delivered to us and the stakeholders
• Foresight of any looming delays

Because these activities are integral to project delivery and success.  But in the right dosage!

But it is NOT OK to

• Be the “Do it ALL yourself” guy
• Be obsessively controlling of every activity
• Be on a fault finding mission
• Immerse yourself in every other person’s tasks
• Refuse help and guidance from experienced members of the team
• Lose focus of the bigger picture and drown in the least important of activities
• Be unable to delegate tasks

The list is endless and I can go on and on…

These traits spell disaster. Simply put they certify that you are a MICROMANAGER!

And if you aren’t aware –

   “Micromanagement is just plain bad management”

Micromanagement is bad news for everyone involved i.e. your team, your business, your company, your clients & stakeholders. But most importantly YOU!

Here is what Micromanagement costs all individuals and businesses alike:

• Absolute loss of trust and confidence of your team members
• Team members no longer wish to contribute
• Loss of commitment and productivity
• Highly demotivated team members
• Stressful team environment
• Deliverables that are low on quality and missed deadlines
• Delays due to the greatest bottle-neck which is YOU
• Little to no timely decision making
• Disrupted operations
• Loss of stakeholder and customer confidence
• Loss of revenue and business

& the winner – End of your career!

If you have been at the receiving end of such traits or unfortunately possess any of such traits then here is what you must practice and remember for the greater good –

Learn the Art of Delegation – the more you delegate, the more you have time for important things – both personal and professional.

It is ok to let go where needed – identify every single step that needs your approval and remove as much as required and possible. Processes are meant to remove bottlenecks not create them.

Be realistic in your approach towards perfection – A timely good enough delivery is far more acceptable than your delayed best. Timeliness is a cherished trait!

Invite Feedback & Listen – It is very crucial to be a good listener given that fact that you are at the driver’s seat. Take constructive feedback in the right spirit and make necessary changes as applicable.

Empower teams to make their own decisions – Once you have assigned tasks to your people leave it up to them to complete and see their tasks through.

Show you care – It is important that the team knows that your care just as much about them as for the end goal.

Give Opportunity – Invite team members to contribute, share their experience and wisdom. A simple innovation can lead to great results.

Be the Coach and Mentor – Where needed show them ‘how to fish’ rather than server every meal! Let them find their own path to success. Teach them how to play; you cannot always step in to play for them.

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Why you’re Business Needs SaaS Enabled Collaboration?

Forbes has reported “73% of organizations plan on increasing collaboration, considering it vital to project success.” The operative words here being – “Collaboration” and “Vital to project success”.

It becomes imperative to understand Collaboration in its true sense.

Collaboration is an act of co-working to obtain a certain result or outcome. It can be anything from baking your favourite pie to a new product launch.

As easy as it may sound, Collaboration has been not that easy for individuals, teams and businesses and it is nobody’s fault either.

The ever-changing digital landscape, umpteen social apps, devices & platforms have spoiled us for choice. The wild digital freedom can inhibit collaboration if not used wisely.

Hence the need for a simplified and SINGLE Collaboration platform where you can

• Get all your team members together (no matter how dispersed they are)
• Easily exchange and brainstorm ideas
• Real time review of progress
• Ensure everyone understands the same thing. Understanding = True Project Requirements!
• Everyone does exactly what is required

I have just highlighted the tip of the iceberg. The benefits of having a SaaS platform are highly strategic and manifold.

One they come in all sizes and can support individual business owners, freelancers, contractors, start-ups to large business enterprises.

Second they offer a huge decrease in the total cost of ownership of such a platform coupled with increased go to market agility.

Third and the most important of all – faster and improved Collaboration.

“61% of businesses leading the pack in terms of cloud deployment said that SaaS products offer them increased collaboration, both internally and externally – IBM Center for Applied Insights”

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