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Actual for You - Project Management Best Practices
For years conventional wisdom suggested that people do not leave companies, but rather they leave because of bad business management also known as bad managers. Poor business management practices are more related to the problem of poor business ethics or values than to the common symptoms such as poor delegation or poor communication.Every organization, no matter size, should have a written business values statement of non-negotiable behaviors that will be demonstrated by everyone. Each employee from top down needs to consistently demonstrate the same values and ethics. Inconsistent values from managers can dramatically affect employee motivation and ultimately employee performance.A recently released survey from Florida State University of 700 employees within numerous industries and employment levels provides an insight into the lack of ethics by many mangers. Failure to keep their (managers) word – 39% Insulting employees behind backs – 27% Blaming others for bosses mistakes – 23% All of these behaviors demonstrate that these bosses lacked personal values and personal ethics. This lack of ethical behavior may be
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to
Heating it UpSometimes when you go to the office you feel not so much motivated to do your job the way you did when it was your first time to work there. You feel bad about finding out that the next door office offers more benefits that your company does. You feel not so good about finding out that their employees get to have all expense paid seminars and training on several aspects of their job and even get paid to train and attend them.If there were things that you have to talk to your boss about employee motivation perhaps the list below would be of help. Get up from your desk and head to the boss’ office and perhaps discuss with him or her about the things that you would like to have to motivate you to work better for them.Reasonable compensation An employee would work to his or her best if compensated properly. Most employees know the industry standards for the kind of service they render when working for somebody. Therefore, employers must also know these standards so as not fall into the trap of under compensating their employees. Reasonable compensation would also be necessary to keep your employee in the company. If you are an employee, you would wa
Define the scope and objectives
For any project to be successful you need to understand what the project is supposed to achieve. Suppose your boss asks you to organise a campaign to get the employees to donate blood. Is the aim of this to get as much blood donated to the local blood bank? Or, is it to raise the profile of the company in the local community? Deciding what the real objective is will help you to determine how you go about planning and managing the project.
The project manager also needs to define the scope of the project. Is the organisation of transport to take staff to the blood bank within the scope of the project? Or, should staff make their own way there? Deciding which activities are within the scope or out of scope of the project has a big impact on the amount of work which needs to be performed during the project.
An understanding of who are the stakeholders is also crucial if you are going to enlist their support and understand what each person expects to be delivered from the project. Once you've defined the scope and objectives, you will need to get the stakeholders to review them and agree to them as well as agreeing who should be on the list of stakeholders.
Define the deliverables
To achieve the desired outcome from the project, you must define what things (or products) are to be delivered by the end of the project. If your project is an advertising campaign for a new chocolate bar, then one of the deliverables might be the artwork for a newspaper advert. So, you need to decide what tangible things are to be delivered and document in enough detail what these things are. At the end of the day, someone will end up doing the work to produce the deliverable, so it needs to be clearly and unambiguously described.
Once you have defined the deliverables, you will need to have the key stakeholders review the work and get them to agree that this accurately and unambiguously reflects what they expect to be delivered from the project. Once they have agreed, you can begin to plan the project. Not defining the deliverables in enough detail or clarity is often a reason why projects go wrong.
Project planning
This is the time when you define how you will achieve the desired outcome of the project embodied within the objectives and definition of deliverables. Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project. You will need to decide if you will break up your project into manageable phases, decide which products will be delivered in each phase, and decide the composition of your project team. Since you have already defined the deliverables, you must decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.
You can use techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to help you to achieve this. You will need to estimate the time and effort required to complete each ctivity, dependencies between related activities and decide on a realistic schedule to complete the activities. It's always a good idea to involve the project team in estimating how long the activities will take since they will be the ones actually doing the work. Capture all of this into the project plan document. You also need to get the key stakeholders to review and agree to this plan.
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to
Fall is in the air – soon leaves will be changing and the weather will be crisp and clear. This is the time for football, back to school….. and back to the arts.Fall and winter comprise what is known as high season for many different types of performance and exhibition organizations – Ballet, Opera, Theater – all are in full swing, taking advantage of the increased audiences during the school-year routine schedule and holidays.Even though directors and producers may be swamped with all of the details of planning for and producing shows, you should also remember to organize all of your attachment information for next year’s fundraising campaign.This is absolutely the best time to gather and organize everything you will need to make your grant writing campaign a success for next year:• Keep plenty of samples of your most impressive programs to use as grant attachments. This goes for brochures, newsletters, advertisements, and email campaigns too.• Gather all of the wonderful press you receive – news stories, mentions on websites, reviews. This is terrific support material for showing community support and artistic growth.• Keep all letters t
The project manager also needs to define the scope of the project. Is the organisation of transport to take staff to the blood bank within the scope of the project? Or, should staff make their own way there? Deciding which activities are within the scope or out of scope of the project has a big impact on the amount of work which needs to be performed during the project.
An understanding of who are the stakeholders is also crucial if you are going to enlist their support and understand what each person expects to be delivered from the project. Once you've defined the scope and objectives, you will need to get the stakeholders to review them and agree to them as well as agreeing who should be on the list of stakeholders.
Define the deliverables
To achieve the desired outcome from the project, you must define what things (or products) are to be delivered by the end of the project. If your project is an advertising campaign for a new chocolate bar, then one of the deliverables might be the artwork for a newspaper advert. So, you need to decide what tangible things are to be delivered and document in enough detail what these things are. At the end of the day, someone will end up doing the work to produce the deliverable, so it needs to be clearly and unambiguously described.
Once you have defined the deliverables, you will need to have the key stakeholders review the work and get them to agree that this accurately and unambiguously reflects what they expect to be delivered from the project. Once they have agreed, you can begin to plan the project. Not defining the deliverables in enough detail or clarity is often a reason why projects go wrong.
Project planning
This is the time when you define how you will achieve the desired outcome of the project embodied within the objectives and definition of deliverables. Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project. You will need to decide if you will break up your project into manageable phases, decide which products will be delivered in each phase, and decide the composition of your project team. Since you have already defined the deliverables, you must decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.
You can use techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to help you to achieve this. You will need to estimate the time and effort required to complete each ctivity, dependencies between related activities and decide on a realistic schedule to complete the activities. It's always a good idea to involve the project team in estimating how long the activities will take since they will be the ones actually doing the work. Capture all of this into the project plan document. You also need to get the key stakeholders to review and agree to this plan.
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to
One of the most important considerations for outdoor security cameras is the power source. Quite often, building codes don’t require many outdoor, electrical connections, which means that if you require an outdoor security camera you’re going to have to deal with that situation. In most cases, there are power sources in the garage that can be utilized for this purpose with a simple bit of concealed wiring. However, if your home or apartment does not have a convenient power source, you may have to create one where you intend the camera equipment to be placed.Once you’ve solved the power requirements for your outdoor security cameras, you have to do some research on the best equipment for the geographical area that you live in. The system has to be protected from the weather and that means a different system will function best in Tucson, Arizona where the summer temperatures quite often reach and sometimes exceed 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and another system will be used in Maine where winter weather can drive temperatures down as low as -20 degrees Fahrenheit. One system could never function all year around, twenty-four hours a day without being designed especially for the weather
Once you have defined the deliverables, you will need to have the key stakeholders review the work and get them to agree that this accurately and unambiguously reflects what they expect to be delivered from the project. Once they have agreed, you can begin to plan the project. Not defining the deliverables in enough detail or clarity is often a reason why projects go wrong.
Project planning
This is the time when you define how you will achieve the desired outcome of the project embodied within the objectives and definition of deliverables. Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project. You will need to decide if you will break up your project into manageable phases, decide which products will be delivered in each phase, and decide the composition of your project team. Since you have already defined the deliverables, you must decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.
You can use techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to help you to achieve this. You will need to estimate the time and effort required to complete each ctivity, dependencies between related activities and decide on a realistic schedule to complete the activities. It's always a good idea to involve the project team in estimating how long the activities will take since they will be the ones actually doing the work. Capture all of this into the project plan document. You also need to get the key stakeholders to review and agree to this plan.
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to
Millions of people are desperate to escape the 9 to 5 grind. One popular alternative is to look for a business opportunity that turns you from an employee into a self-employed entrepreneur running your own business.There are many good reasons why this can be a wise move. Being your own boss means you can set your own hours. This can be very important if you have small children who need to be looked after, or simply want to spend more time at home.Working from home can also save valuable time, if the alternative is spending two or three hours every day commuting back and forth to your work place.And of course, working for yourself also gives you the opportunity to make a whole lot more money.In other words, being your own boss gives you that valuable commodity called freedom. It sets you free from the limitations of being someone else's paid employee, and in return makes you responsible for your own future. As a self-employed entrepreneur you are free to set your own hours, establish your own work habits, choose what work you will do or will not do, create your own products, drum up your own customers, and do what you have to do to make those cus
Project planning
This is the time when you define how you will achieve the desired outcome of the project embodied within the objectives and definition of deliverables. Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project. You will need to decide if you will break up your project into manageable phases, decide which products will be delivered in each phase, and decide the composition of your project team. Since you have already defined the deliverables, you must decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.
You can use techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to help you to achieve this. You will need to estimate the time and effort required to complete each ctivity, dependencies between related activities and decide on a realistic schedule to complete the activities. It's always a good idea to involve the project team in estimating how long the activities will take since they will be the ones actually doing the work. Capture all of this into the project plan document. You also need to get the key stakeholders to review and agree to this plan.
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to
Carpet is no doubt a common floor covering in most of the buildings that your company cleans. Carpet is inviting, sound-absorbing and helps with a building's overall health by capturing dust particles and keeping them out of the air. However, if not properly taken care of carpet can be almost impossible to keep clean and can give a negative impression of the cleaning staff. But with the right maintenance program and the right cleaning chemicals, keeping carpet looking great is not an impossible task.It is important to:* make sure your staff has proper training and understands the carpet cleaning process* use the right equipment and keep it properly maintained* use the right cleaning chemicals for the carpet you are cleaning* use the chemicals properlyHard floors receive daily care and are usually thoroughly cleaned at least once a week. On the other hand, you may spot-vacuum carpets daily, but only thoroughly clean carpets once or twice a year. In addition, many cleaning companies do not properly train their employees to clean carpets. To top it all off, the wrong cleaning chemicals are often used which makes the carpet vulnerable to quick re
When developing the project plan, a project manager is often under pressure to produce a plan which meets the (unrealistic) expectations of some of the stakeholders. It is important here that the project manager comes up with a realistic schedule - one which he/she thinks is realistic to achieve. You will be doing nobody a favour if you succumb to pressure and agree to deliver the project in a totally unrealistic schedule.
Communication
Even the best made project plans are useless unless they have been communicated effectively to the project team. Everyone on the team needs to know exactly what is expected of them, what their responsibilities are, and what they are accountable for. I once worked on a project where the project manager sat in his office surrounded by big colour print outs of his latest plans. The problem was, nobody on his team knew what the tasks and milestones were because he hadn't shared the plan with them. Needless to say the project hit all kinds of problems with people going off and doing the activities which they deemed important rather than doing the activities assigned by the project manager.
Tracking and reporting project progress
Once your project is underway and you have an agreed plan, you will need to constantly monitor the actual progress of the project against the planned progress. To do this, you will need to get reports of progress from the project team members who are actually doing the work. You will need to record any variations between the actual and planned cost, schedule and scope. You will need to report any variations to your manager and key stakeholders and take corrective actions if the variations get too large.
There are lots of ways in which you can adjust the plan in order to get the project back on track (rearrange the order of tasks, assign tasks in parallel if the variation is small, or add more staff to the project or reduce the scope if the variation is very large).
All projects require the project manager to constantly juggle three things: cost, scope and schedule. If the project manager increases one of these, then one of the other elements will inevitably need to be changed as well. So, for a project which is running behind schedule to recover so it can be delivered to it's original planned schedule, the budget might be increased by employing more staff (although this invariably never achieves the desired result of reducing the time left to complete the project), or the scope will need to be reduced. It is the juggling of these three elements - known as the project triangle - that typically causes a project manager to tear their hair out in frustration!
Change management
All projects change in some way. Often, a key stakeholder in the middle of a project will change their mind about what the project needs to deliver. On projects of longer duration, the business environment has often changed since the start of the project, so assumptions made at the beginning of the project may no longer be valid. This often results in the scope or deliverables of the project needing to be changed. If a project manager simply accepted all of these changes into the project, the project would inevitably be delivered late (and perhaps would never ever be completed) and would inevitably go over budget.
By managing changes, the project manager can make decisions about whether or not to incorporate the changes immediately or in the future, or to reject them. This increases the chances of project success because the project manager controls how the changes are incorpo
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