Better Project Management Reading Answers

Efficient project management is vital to ensure our business runs smoothly. Good project management will guide the project through a visible set of activities and will keep all parties clear about their goals and responsibilities. Communication is one of the most important skills project managers can have. Without frequent, open and candid communication about goals, obstacles, workarounds and expectations, projects can more easily fail. Priorities and project plans will change, deadlines will be missed, scope will be expanded, but communication must stay consistent. Project managers must work hard to keep lines of communication open to ensure all project stakeholders have all the key details.

Project managers have to be especially skilled at keeping teams and their projects on time and on track. First, create the 'critical path', which is the tasks that need to be done and their particular order. These are the places where projects can get behind and where the cumulative effect is not meeting the project target. It's also important to decide early on the project's clear end-goal and you must also identify a clear definition of what it looks like to achieve the goal. Defining success metrics means measurable goals and a clear finish line for a team.

A project team runs on a solid foundation of trust, mutual respect and accountability, so it's very important to make sure you're fostering an environment where everyone on the team feels heard, their efforts are acknowledged and recognised, and their contributions are valued. Senior executives and customers supporting, and buy-in from other project teams are also critical to the success of projects. This is especially true if things go wrong. And don't save praise only for the times when things are going well - it's almost more important to boost morale through recognising hard work and effort when things don't go as planned - as things don't often go as planned!

One of the most important things a project manager can do is to eliminate obstacles for their teams. That can help keep projects within the agreed-upon framework, make the workflow more efficient and keep everything on schedule. Assign work so it is completed in the most efficient order possible, ensure work that is a predecessor to other work is fully completed before starting another piece, and remove the obstacles that prevent team members from getting their work done. You also should build in extra time around every deadline within a project, to make sure there's plenty of time to resolve the inevitable unexpected problems that will arise. Pay attention to time, cost and where you should be, and how that lines up with your deadlines and project objectives.

Leadership is about helping your project teams succeed and motivating them to persevere. To be a better project manager, you must be intimately familiar with each team member. Familiarise yourself with the unique talents of each person on his team so you know who would and who wouldn't be good for particular jobs. By doing so, you can better predict what challenges may arise and how to overcome them.

Finally, take advantage of the technology available to help you do your job effectively. From project tracking software to file-sharing services to team collaboration tools, find the solution that works best for your teams and put it to work for you. You can also adopt protocols to help keep those chronically late team members on track by building in additional time for approvals.