The fact that so many projects don’t meet their mandates entirely, while a great number of them also miss some of the critical milestones or deliverables, the question is what it takes to be be successful as a Project Manager? Well, the actual answer may vary depending on specific project related challenges, it almost always helps to be pro-active, focused on the “Ask” and keep learning project management best practices to implement on future initiatives. Here are few tips I think would go a long way to make one a better Project manager if followed with some rigor.
- Track time and budget effectively: After all most project have schedule or budget as one of its success criteria so have a keen eye for these numbers. Set a regular recurring time slot to review them on weekly or bi-weekly basis and don’t forget to check the data source for any further data refinement needed. You may also plot these data points for graphical view to see emerging trends especially projects sensitive to budget, schedule or both.
- Use checklists: Despite advancements in processes or technology, we are ever busier by day and have to deal with lot of complexity and several critical tasks competing for our attention. A checklist is a very simple quality tool but one of the most effective one to use for those critical tasks that need to be processed or can’t be missed.
- Meet Effectively: Some of the common best practices to focus for next year are pretty basic but also effective. My personal favorite is to send out your meeting material at least 1 day in advance not just before meeting start time! Another thing that helps is to have a well thought out agenda and expectations from the meeting participants so they come prepared. Keeping the meeting time short and discussion on tracking items too is a greatly appreciated
- Safety and security: With growth of technical advancement the safety and security concern to project personnel and assets is increasing too. This could be relevant to not only the core project team but the vendors and suppliers as well. So ensure your project safety goals and security policies are well laid out, your vendors and 3rd party personnel are vetted with right set of access, physical and IT security norms are followed per requirements. Don’t forget to set aside some time slot for any mandatory training too.
- Own your learning plan: Learning never stops in this highly dynamic world of today. As different sectors collide and collaborate at the same time, it is as chaotic today as never before. This demands continuous and exponential knowledge curve at the personal level. This is especially true since you can no longer depend on organizations to shape and take interest in your career goals. So one must have his or her career goals clearly defined based on the personal strength and personality.
- Set realistic goals: we often realize that in trying to accomplish too much we set up ourselves to fail by setting goals which are too hard to achieve. The solution lies in being objective and breaking these down to smaller goals. For example instead of setting a goal to say delivering all projects on time and on budget, why not breaking it in to better scope and cost management which ultimately leads to project delays and cost overruns.
- Networking: Don’t hang out just with your colleagues in Project management discipline. There is a greater awareness about importance of project management and many influential people like to hear about project management. LinkedIn and other professional networking sites are great places to build these networks.
- Volunteer More: This is my personal favorite and the reason for that is that there are so many organizations who cannot afford a project manager due to financial constraint but believe me several of them offer much more challenging projects with great learning opportunities outside the top sectors such as IT and construction.
ProZen Global, Calgary
Project Staffing & Consulting Services
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