Ten Steps to Get Incredible Power for Project Management

Management of Time Duration: Estimate how long each activity will take. Be aware that research points out us are notoriously bad at estimating in Project Management. You estimate a task will take 3 days. Identify how confident you are that you can deliver in 3 days by using % e.g. I’m only 40% certain I can deliver in 3 days. You should aim for 80%. If you do not believe you can achieve 80% then re-calculate

Identify dependencies: Identify dependencies (or predecessors) of all activities. This will let you put together the Gantt and milestone charts. Ensure you write them down otherwise you are trying to carry potentially hundreds of options in your head

Identify the Chunks: Group tasks under different headings once you have a list. This will enable you to identify the chunks of work that need to be delivered, as well as put together the Gantt chart and milestone chart

Delivery Planning: Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) for the project. A WBS is a key element you will need to develop your plan. It lists out all of the activities you will need to undertake to deliver the project. Post it notes can be a great help in developing your WBS

Workshop Management: Hold a kick off meeting (Start up Workshop) with key stakeholders, sponsor, and project manager project team. Use the meeting to help develop the PID. Identify risks and generally plan the project. If appropriate hold new meetings at the start of a new stage

Project Driving Factors: Recognize early in the life of the project what is driving the project. Is it a drive to improve quality, reduce costs or hit a particular deadline? You can only have 1. Discuss with the sponsor what is driving the project and ensure you stick to this throughout the project. Keep “the driver” in mind especially when you monitor and review

Group of Project Managers: Form a group of Project Managers. The Project Manager role can sometimes be very lonely! Give support to each other by forming a group of Project Managers

Project Stakeholder: Identify who the stakeholders are for your project – those affected and ‘impacted’ by the project. This should be an in- depth analysis which needs updating regularly

Management Team Selection: Think ‘Team Selection’ – give some thought to who should be in your team. Analyse whether they have the skills required to enable them to carry out their role? If not, ensure they receive the right training. Check they are available for the period of the project. NOTE: this includes any contactors you may need to use

Review of Management Stages: Ensure you review the project during the Defining Your Project Stage – involve your sponsor or senior manager in this process. Remember to check progress against the business case

handle non-productive team members :: Extended

Some Bad Example of incidence.

One of my known manager, attitude to solve this problem:
He Asked Lead to go behind the member, means asked him to give result within the time line which is not feasible...So What would be the result of this?

As a result, lots of negative energy flows within the team which incrementally increse the problem in Team. Defenately this is the worst example of tried solution by any manager.
So what kind of rectification required to the solution attempted by that fellow manager.
On My view even though you have very sharp deadline, still try to take output gradually with such members. For Example if you have 'X' hrs task for that resource. Divide these task in a possible smallest segment, and assign one task segment to the resource, ones he completed that task, give him formal appreciation, and ones you feel his gesture for positive side assign more task segment to him/her...this is the approach where you get lots of benefit .. lets discuss now what are the benefits here to adopt this kind of approach.....
1. Small timeline task so even the person has very less dedication, with the sake of job he defenately will take opportunity to perform this task. Other benefit of this approach is backup plan. We can assign this task parallel to some new or less experience guys as a backup prepertion. Many other benefits also ...which we will discuss in next post..............

~Abinash Mishra

How do you handle non-productive team members?

Question. How do you handle non-productive team members?
Ans: First step is to understand the reason of non performance. One’s you analyze the reason than the next step, is to hit the right point to solve the problem. Though it might vary from person to person, still we can analyze the following area:
• Plan for skill set improvement
• Tech Lead should communicate with him/her friendly & face to face
• Offer proactive help to the employee
• Offer proactive suggestion in his/her weak area
• Importance of his/her presence in team
• Remind for their goal step by step
• Appreciate his/her good work
• Accept his/her drawback, as a challenge
• Give them ownership, and watch the progress closely
• Remember punishment is not the solution
• Always make competitive environment

Discussion Topic For 30th June'2010

Ten Most Popular Manager Interview Questions

1. How do you handle non-productive team members?
2. How do you motivate team members who are burned out, or bored?
3. How do you handle team members who come to you with their personal problems?
4. What are your career goals? How do you see this job affecting your goals?
5. Explain how you operate interdepartmentally.
6. Tell me how you would react to a situation where there was more than one way to accomplish the same task, and there were very strong feelings by others on each position.
7. Consider that you are in a diverse environment, out of your comfort zone. How would you rate your situational leadership style?
8. Give me an example of your leadership involvement where teamwork played an important role.
9. Tell me about a situation where your loyalty was challenged. What did you do? Why?
10.In what types of situations is it best to abandon loyalty to your manager?