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Capacity Planning

Four Essential Tools for a Good Project Manager

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Artists have their brush and paint. Journalists have a pen and paper. Carpenter’s have their hammer and nails. What do all of these have in common? The tools associated with the profession are the golden standards for their practice. Although they are not required, (i.e an artist using a pencil or a carpenter using a drill) they are often used because of their effectiveness and reliability. When applying this methodology to the role of a project manager, how does it apply?

The role of the project manager boils down to keeping your project and everyone working on it organized. A good project manager knows what is going on with their project at all times and should always be connected with their employees. You have to keep your team motivated to continue working until the project is completed. Using this explanation, we can induce the four essential tools for a project manager.

1. Project Management Software

In our technological age and the accessibility of the internet, thousands of great resources can be found online for keeping your project organized. There is great project management software (PMS) that provides great tools to help manage your employees. The dashboard gives a visual for you and your employees to see the layout of tasks needed to be complete. Additionally, a scheduling system is incorporated so that employees know their timelines for deadlines. The dashboard and schedules are constantly updated to stay connected with your team so they always know what needs to be done.

Benefits:
  • keeps a visual representation of task completion
  • optimizing scheduling for maximum efficiency
  • staying connected with employees

2. Project Milestones

Setting project milestones is another important aspect of being a project manager. Keeping your employees on track is one of your main responsibilities. Don’t just put project milestone haphazardly, it is important to properly spread them out {hyperlink to Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones}. Each project milestone should be meaningful to the project and to the employees. Take into account the timing, visibility, accountability, and fallibility of the project milestone to ensure the milestone is hard-fought when achieved.

Benefits:
  • gives you a timeline of task completion
  • sets a scope for a complete project
  • motivates employees by seeing each goal as reachable

3. Analytic Reports

Analytic reports are a great way to numerically measure the progression of your project. Using the data collected from your scheduling time and work efficiency, you are able to see the effectiveness of your employees, when their efficiency or effectiveness drops and try to find a solution that you as the PM can do. When making decisions about the project such as scope or direction, consult the analytics because the truth is often found in the numbers.

Benefits:
  • provides a numerical report of the progress
  • project manager can make more informed decisions about the scope and direction of the project

4. Employee Engagement

Employee engagement is a great way to keep employees enjoying their work. More employee engagement means more positivity, productivity, and creativity. Employees are less likely to quit boosting company productivity ultimately saving you money. Overall employee engagement – whether it’s through team retreats or casual Fridays, is important to the environment of your project.

Benefits:
  • employees work better when they are engaged at work
  • keeps employees happy and healthy

These essential tools are some of the project manager’s greatest assets when working on a project. Each of these tools plays a role in helping the PM do his job to his fullest. Like the brush and paint for an artist, a PM’s tools are essential to his work.

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Going With the Flow: Using Flowcharts in Your Business

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A flow chart is a visual representation of a plan or a process. They show steps, represented through boxes about a process that should be taken. Whether we realize it or not, flowcharts are used all around us, most commonly in the form of an algorithm. An algorithm is the more complicated version of a flowchart where it uses calculations or other problem-solving operations in order to carry out tasks. These operations usually take place in the form of computer software. However, in the world of resource management simple, standard, flowcharts are most commonly used.

The reason flow charts are commonly used by companies is because they are simple ways to understand what needs to get done, effectively. For example, when looking for a new job position a flow chart can be created in order to understand the process.

Clear and Concise

A flowchart shows every step of a process in clear fashion, that is easy for anyone to understand. Even the most complex procedures are made easier to follow with visual representations. The direction of the arrows leads to steps on the chart with a natural order making it easy to follow. This helps you make a process known to those unfamiliar with it and your business. For example, new employees and outside members are able to clearly understand what needs to be done while reducing the time needed to learn the details of your business processes.

Workflow Management

Workflow management is another reason to use flowcharts. Documenting a process that needs to get done, not only lays out the process clearly while getting your work done in a timely manner. The benefit of this is that you are in charge of the workflow; having a say in what needs to be done, for whom it’s done for and how long it is going to take. All of this can be represented in a flowchart. In order to meet the needs of your customers and clients, you need to take control of the processes your business should be following. With an organizational flowchart, you can also clearly recognize areas for improvement and create new charts that strive to meet your new goals.

You’re In Charge

Imagine this: you are in a business meeting, where ideas are being thrown at you left, right and center debating on how to improve your resource management. The ideas given are ones that you would like to incorporate into your business. However, all of these comments and ideas are just being thrown at you disorderly, with no given procedure or action.

The most effective way to organize your thoughts is through a flow chart. Take a minute, write down all your ideas and then organize them through prioritization. After, continue working on your plan with”if” statements. This advances ideas by thinking, what needs to be done IF something works out or IF something does not. For example, when an item is broken the steps that should be taken are: “If the item can be fixed with minimal cost, do the following…” or “If the item cannot be fixed with minimal cost or is damaged beyond repair, do the following”…

Saving Money

Flow charts are a great solution if you need help cutting costs and budgeting money. It will allow you to visually see what you are spending too much on and the plans required to effectively cut those expenses, saving money. For example: “If the company income is less than $5000 per month, avoid making unnecessary purchases” or “If company income is more than $5000 per month, but less than $6000, spend money wisely.” Using a flowchart, and having the rules laid out can allow you to make wiser decisions about your companies spending habits.

In the end, flow charts are not only great for visual learners but are also extremely useful to anyone else who is unfamiliar with certain business practices and protocols. Make the most out of your workday and take advantage of the numerous benefits of flowcharts.

Benefits of Connecting Through One Software App

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The amount of responsibility a business owners job holds can generate a significant amount of stress from the countless tasks they deal with on a daily basis. The to-do list is almost never-ending and consists of keeping clients happy, tracking your employees, payments to make, sales to close and many, many more. Having software from different providers, to try and manage certain jobs can become difficult to keep track of. Although, this can be eliminated when connecting through one software app.

A typical business uses multiple software applications in order to keep everything up and running such as one for clients accounts, one for ordering supplies, one for transactions and the list continues on. Software depending on the provider and service can be extremely expensive; companies try making you think it’s worth it to buy one software for a certain task. However, at times this can get confusing to have multiple different software serving many different functions. Although there’s nothing wrong with this, it may end up hurting your wallet in the long run and keeps you disorganized. The solution is a one-stop-shop software application that manages all of your documents, payments, accounts and many more, all in just one software.

As a developing business, your money can be easily spent. One day you may have a great steady income, your business is thriving and the next, you’re scrambling to make money, struggling to pay employees and making budget cuts. In the world of business management, any of these situations can happen. If you’re tight on money and looking to make budget cuts that won’t be detrimental to you and your company, you could start by asking yourself “How many of different software apps am I using?” If you’re using multiple costly software apps that are breaking your bank account, your business could benefit from replacing all of these different software apps for an all-in-one software.

Do you find both you and your employees are getting confused about where documents are located, and which software to use for a certain task? If so, you’ll benefit from having all your information in one place with peace of mind that your documents, tasks, support tickets, client information or payment information aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Not only will this lead to better organization and also lead to less stress about where items are stored. This also helps you save time, so you can prioritize more important tasks rather than taking precious time out of your day to find that one document you’ve been looking for.

In the end, having an all-in-one software can not only be beneficial for your wallet, but also for your stress levels because all of your resources can be easily accessed at the click of a button.

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Businesses Should Use SMART Goals Too

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SMART goals are one of the best way to set, organize and achieve personal goals. Since the concept was first introduced in the early 1980s, it’s been imprinted into the brains of North Americans through schools, books and workshops. For those that need a refresher, SMART is an acronym for the qualities that goals should have. They should be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Using each category as criteria and as a guideline, broad goals can be outlined with detail and smaller targets can be set to reach the endpoint. SMART goals have proven very effective for educational, personal, and financial planning when used properly. Anyone with targets to reach should try the method, however, its use isn’t limited to individuals and small groups. Businesses and organizations can also benefit from the outstanding power and structure that SMART goals provide. Sales targets, projects, productivity, and quotas can be empowered using the 5-step outline. SMART can be used by all levels of employees and managers and offers a great way to maximize, track, manage, and review the targets that businesses set for their employees or for the overall company. Here’s how SMART goals can apply to the workplace and improve productivity.

S is for Specific

Without a specific desired outcome, it becomes difficult for businesses to set a goal and actively work towards it. The point of setting goals is to reach something at the end, not just to work for the sake of work. To set specific goals, organizations should agree on what is desired of a task, or what can be gained by having a continuous objective. Goals that seem general or broad to some of the workforce will limit their motivation to achieve, and therefore will be less effective.

For example, ABC Inc. realizes that employee retention and job satisfaction rates are dropping, and decide to make an effort to improve quality of their employment experience. Instead of aiming for “higher workplace morale”, a specific target would be to “grant employees more freedom to choose what they do in the workplace”. This allows ideas to come more quickly and will improve the speed at which goals are achieved.

M is for Measurable

Objective goals are the best way to measure, track, and analyze an overall goal. Using smaller “stepping stones” along the way, it can be simple and less intimidating to reach the overall milestone. Targets that can be measured on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis will provide a precise guideline for all stakeholders involved in reaching the big goal.

Measurable goals have small targets for growth that are reached in short fragments of time, ABC Inc. could make their goal measurable with short-term steps like: “in the first month, employees should be allowed to choose what times to come into work” with more stepping stones that increase each month.

A is for Achievable

Once the quantitative aspects of a goal have been laid out, it should be considered whether or not a business can use their resources efficiently enough to achieve the desired rate of success. It is important not to overestimate in this area because too much effort into an unachievable goal can be bad for productivity.

ABC Inc. could make their goal achievable by acknowledging the restrictions on employee freedom. Certain boring or repetitive, but necessary tasks may be left out in favour of more “morale-boosting” projects, but neglecting the tedious work can falter an organization’s success. To measure how achievable a target is, organizations should take into account how achieving this goal could affect other parts of operations in a negative way.

R is for Reasonable

The fourth stage of the SMART process is another where it is essential to accurately judge the capability of a business or department. Big, broad goals are great for marketing and for huge risk-taking companies, but the majority of businesses should be logical about the size of their goals relative to the timeframe given. A big, seemingly impossible target renders the concept of SMART ineffective. Improvement is the idea of goal-setting, not necessarily perfection.

ABC in. could make it their goal to pay every employee a 6-figure salary with unlimited vacation time and full coverage benefits, allow complete control over how much work is done, and leave the company’s fate in the hands of all employees. It would certainly increase morale, however,0 their efforts must be reasonable. such a tactic would likely mean the company wouldn’t be around much longer. Something like “the ability to come to work with a smile each day, have room for creativity and control over what they do, and have strong relationships with co-workers and clients” is a much more reasonable goal.

T is for Timely

It’s nearly impossible to spark motivation across an entire organization without setting some sort of timeframe or deadline. Each goal must have a broad timeframe, broken up into smaller stepping stones along the way. If the goal is ongoing, then certain deadlines for small aspects of achievement should still be set.

ABC inc.’s low morality is an immediate issue that shouldn’t have a deadline far in the future. To make the issue timely, they should make a measurable target in the next 6 months to increase employee retention by 50%, with a monthly increase of 7% to track their progress.

Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones

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The importance of setting project milestones

Every project manager knows the importance of keeping a project on track. When a project falls behind, the team needs to put in a great deal of effort to put ensure it is back on track because of the time-sensitive stages of a project; most of the time it leads to the project being delayed or cancelled entirely. Keeping employees motivated to complete a project can be difficult, the easiest way is with the use of project milestones.

Project milestones are important points on a project’s timeline that employees can look at for the visual progression of the project. The thought behind making milestones is to categorize the parts of a project into digestible sections as opposed to viewing the whole project at once; this should motivate your team to complete tasks on time. However, it is important to understand there is more to making project milestones than just setting them. Setting meaningful milestones will motivate your project team members more than setting frequent or unreachable milestones. Here are some things to consider when deciding your project milestones.

Tip #1: Frequency and Timing

As a project manager, you may be tempted to overuse milestones as a motivational tool to keep the team moving along the ladder to reach the surface of success. Don’t fall into the trap of labelling every task completion as a milestone. With more milestones, each one becomes less momentous, inadvertently taking away from the motivation of work. On the other hand, don’t adopt the other extreme approach by ignoring or not recognizing significant and relevant events as milestones. A good compromise is to consistently designate important deliverables as milestones.

Tip #2: Visibility

Milestones need to be placed prominently in the project’s schedule and tracked periodically. Make sure that your milestones have been incorporated into your project scheduling, calendar, or another project-tracking software program. This promotes positive work productivity closer to the goal; similar to a runner getting closer to the end of a marathon.

Tip #3: Accountability

Milestones are commitments that must be met on time. If a milestone is missed, it needs to be addressed immediately by re-examining the resources to determine if they are properly matched to the objectives. This reinforces the meaning behind each milestone and the importance of the impact when achieving each milestone.

Tip #4: Fallibility

It may sound counter-intuitive, but you should select challenging milestones that carry a degree of risk for failure. Treat milestones as learning experiences and opportunities to make adjustments, so the final product can be flawless. People learn from mistakes; applying this philosophy to your projects will assist you to do your best work.

Understand project milestone management and reporting. Contact Entry Software for more information.

Knowing Your Role in the Business: The Project Manager

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The modern business world is complex and incorporates numerous concepts, giving people roles that they may not understand the extent of their responsibility. The focus of today is the responsibilities and methodology of being an effective project manager.

By definition, a project manager (PM) is the leader and director of a small group of people within a larger company. The project can be anything that pertains to the larger business and their ongoing operations. Being a PM is about balancing the cost, consistency of schedule, and identifying the scope and risks. They are responsible for planning and executing an effective and quality project. Additionally, the PM is responsible for overseeing any issues that may arise internally or externally to the project.

The first duty of a project manager is to formulate a management plan. This includes deciding the roles of the members and their responsibilities, resource implementation estimate, and a general time and workload scope of the project. There are three main concepts that a PM must understand when making a formulating the management plan; cost, scope and time. When the balance between these three forces is found, a quality management plan has been formulated. This is the business concept of the Project Management Triangle; finding a balance in the management plan. The STR model is a mathematical perspective of looking at the project management triangle:

scope = time x cost

The aspect of “cost” is about having the sufficient resources to fully run the project. A resource is defined as any consumable asset the project uses; this includes money, supplies, labour, motivation etc. When developing a management plan, it is important not to strain the use of your resources while still using the given resources efficiently. The aspect of “time” is about understanding the temporal limitations of workloads of the project. Often times, a PM will be given a project and they will have to set deadlines for tasks to coincide with the employees work efficiency. The aspect of “scope” is a combination of the two previous aspects. It is about determining the limitations of the project’s deadline. Having a short deadline for a project will lead to strains on cost and time to extremes as everything needs to be completed swiftly. This leads to a poor quality project. Having a long deadline may seem beneficial, but it is wasting financial resources and time. Finding a balance to have work be completed efficiently will best suit the management plan.

Once the project has commenced, the duty of the PM is to not necessarily work on the project but to monitor employees, enforcing the management plan and problem solve obstruction of workflows. While performing duties as a project manager, it is important to be able to adapt to each situation as there will be several unique problems that may occur. Some of these situations that may occur include additional team building, training, and misestimation of cost, scope or time which often lead to readjusting the management plan.

In conclusion, being an effective project manager is about observing what you have (resource and time) in order to envision something it could be. While you are not acting on it yourself, PMs are to remain present in the process in order to keep the project on track, despite what roadblocks may appear.