8 Actionable Project Management Tips in 2021
Project management is one of the most valuables jobs for both enterprises and small companies. It is a critical job that comprises several challenges and responsibilities. There is no doubt the role is rewarding but only when its executed right. If the managers fail to bring the best in team members or monitor task or resolving errors they may end up messing up the project and failing their clients.
Thankfully there are many ways and methods for a project manager to stay on track. In this blog, we have talked about 8 actionable suggestions that any project manager can use to deliver the best results.
1. Virtual teams needing context to collaborate
The Corona pandemic in 2020 has shown us, how valuable virtual team collaboration can be. If you are still not working with a virtual team, you may start this year as its demand has substantially risen.
Whenever you start to manage the virtual team you will have to handle people of different backgrounds making them all stay on the same page. Apart from the team, you may also have to collaborate with stakeholders and contractors on the gig economy.
Contextual collaboration virtually is simple to establish, yet it needs a potential leader. One who motivates the team to do their best, provide the right resources and the freedom to resolve minor problems independently. Empowering team members in this manner help avoid setbacks that exceed the budgets and deadlines of projects.
Action to take for execution:
- Establish a centralized workspace for all the members participating in the collaboration. This will give team members the right support and content for collaborating in any kind of setting.
- The project management tools should be utilized for valuable stuff like planning and assigning tasks to team members, providing relevant digital assets and having real-time communication with virtual teams.
2. The expansion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Automation
The impact of artificial intelligence is encountered in every sector such as healthcare, finance, aerospace, software development, education etc, and the project management sector is no exception.
Project management involves a strong human element, and it is also the most important part so how AI can be useful in this sector is the big question. Here is the answer: the role of AI in project management doesn’t completely eliminate human input, instead it simplifies the day to day management and administration.
Several companies are now preferring to use AI-powered applications and tools. These tools allow project managers to automate all kinds of the task such as complex tasks like scheduling to data visualization and obtaining performance insights.
Another major benefit of AI in project management is risk estimation. Often projects are delayed due to bad deadline estimation or other external factors. AI-enabled tools will not only help you estimate the right timeframe but also in setting the related price for project development.
Action to take for execution:
Before using an AI tool for the project, project managers and the team should thoroughly understand the role of AI, its benefits and how to use it. Once you embrace AI, it will become much easier for you to handle the process and communicate with team members and clients.
3. Emotional intelligence in leadership
The role of project managers has a critical role to play when it comes to handling team and client. When it comes to hiring a skilled project manager an employer has to understand that soft skills are equally important as professional credentials.
Skills like good communication, listening, conflict resolution are some vital softs skills for a project manager. These attributes boost leadership quality and are also referred to as emotional intelligence (EI or EQ)
Any candidate who manages online projects who is fresher or experienced must work on improving their emotional intelligence. Connecting with a team member on an emotional level build overall Here are a few major benefits of EQ:
- Boost the morale of team members
- Reduces the chance of miscommunication that causes misaligned goals and expectations.
- Help you build trust by keeping open channels of communication with team members as well as stakeholders.
- Help you keep an open channel of communication with teams and stakeholders
Action to take for execution:
- Begin with getting aware of the leadership quality you need for the team and the project
- Practice and improve your communication as well as other soft skills mentioned above by checking with your team on a day to day basis.
- Spare five minutes each day to check with the team members and see yourself what are the challenges and obstacles they face daily. See what are the prospects stopping them from achieving daily targets.
4. Break Requirements into Actionable Item
To improve overall work efficiency and maintain harmony, team members should have the flexibility to start on an assignment without going through unnecessary and irrelevant follow-up questions.
The assignment should be clear and understandable to your team members. Make sure you do not plan ambiguous or complicated tasks, as they often stay incomplete doe instance incorporating shopping carts.
You may understand the project requirement after several meetings with clients but how will you make it understand to other team members? It is pretty simple, break client requirement into smaller, actionable and inseparable tasks will provide the right direction to the team members without giving additional context.
Action to take for execution:
Break the requirements for an individual task that aligns with your client needs this includes design, features and workflow for each. Also, distinguish data to be stored in the backend along with its formats and deploy a design policy for all devices.
You must communicate all these details to the client upfront and mention them in the specification or design proposal. Create actional assignment by working closely with the team leader. At last, enlist hundreds of small task for your team members so everyone can work parallel without any disturbance, work incompletion, regression or more.
5. Define Intermediate Milestones and Internal Review Cycles
Rounding off your project on a long and monotonous process will only make your job boring and time-consuming.
Follow a more approachable process i.e to dividing your project process into smaller milestones and set the expected deliverable for each phase.
Action to take for execution:
Start with arranging a team meeting and based on feedback set realistic goals and expectations for the project iterations. Note that setting a buffer time for in-house changes like revisions, changes, QA and more is a must.
6. Reward your hard-working employee on time to time basis
Everyone loves rewards, especially when it comes to being rewarded for hard work. A word of appreciation can boost the morale of employees to a great extent. Rewards motivate candidates to finish their targets before deadlines.
Rewards can be defined as the fuel that gives employees energy and excitement that brings more productivity and less monotonous and tiresomeness.
Action to take for execution:
One of the major responsibilities of any project manager is to see that the team members feel they are doing valuable work; this is what exactly will help you do.
Rewarding your employees for their hard work will make them feel valued and well appreciated. It will drive them to achieve bigger targets and waste less time.
7. Set Your Daily Spend Limits Low
Budget is one of the critical aspects of project management and the last thing you want to do is to go off budget within a few days. Hence for the initial stages of project execution set a low spend limit, dividing your budget for milestones will help in better budget management.
This way enables you to easily track your spend and revise the budget if the campaign is not delivering the right results or traffic. Once the number starts rolling in it will become easy for you to split tests and run more targeted ads by increasing your spend on later stages.
8. Know Your Team’s Strengths And Weaknesses
One of the best to stay aligned with project estimation and budget is to acknowledge your team’s strength and weakness. Invest some of your time to know the skills of individual members and allocate them the task they can best perform.
A good project manager is one who understands the team deploys their skills for good. Spare some time regularly to monitor the task of individual team members. Sooner or later you will be able to identify the merit and inferiority of team members. Based on your observation and analysis allocate team member the task they are worth.
Conclusion:
If you are new to project management, you may experience a nerve-wracking situation at first. However, after a while, you will get hold of it. Stick with the basic, this is what the article about. The essential and basic tips of project management simplify complex tasks of management.
- 8 Actionable Project Management Tips in 2021 - February 25, 2021
