Pitfalls In Staffing A Project

Though few companies would deny the importance of the project team, there are a number of possible pitfalls in staffing a project. The most common are:

◾ No champion—Unfortunately, some projects are begun without a champion. This may not create major problems on a small, short-term project, but for anything of strategic importance to the company, it is essential that there be high-level sponsorship. Without it, the project’s chance of success is diminished. The champion, after all, is the one who breaks down barriers and obtains additional funding, if needed.

◾ An ineffective project manager—Champions should be vigilant when selecting project managers and should ensure that they possess the needed skills. Managers are sometimes chosen for political reasons, to give them experience needed for a promotion, or—worst of all—because they have more free time than anyone else. Although none of those precludes success, those should be only secondary considerations. What is critical is that whoever is chosen has the characteristics of a successful project manager discussed above.

◾ The wrong team members— The project manager may be the head of the team, but the individual members are its arms and legs. Selecting people who lack the needed skills and personal characteristics decreases the probability of success.

◾ Absence of the right people— This is acorollary to the previous point. Although the team might be staffed competently, if key individuals with unique knowledge and skills are not included, the project will suffer.

It bears repeating: projects do not happen without people, and — if the project is to be successful —it is essential that the right people be involved. 

Critical Success Factors Of A Project Manager

Project Management Experience—This is one of the key differentiators between a successful and an unsuccessful project manager. The manager must understand the fundamentals of managing projects, from team dynamics and problem resolution to project schedules. While formal train- ing is important, there is no substitute for experience, and on a large or critical project, only managers with prior experience on successful projects should be considered. Note that “successful” was italicized. It is true that project managers may learn valuable lessons working on failed projects and that they can frequently transform those lessons into successes on the next endeavor. However, to minimize risk on mission-critical projects, proven success is desirable. 

Ability to Gain Consensus—More than any other member of the team, it is the leader’s responsibility to resolve differences of opinion. This requires an understanding of both general problem-solving techniques and what motivates individual team members. While technical skills may have been responsible for promotions earlier in a person’s career, interpersonal skills are essential for successful project managers. 

Ability to Conduct Meetings—Since meetings are typically the forum for accomplishing much of the team’s work, the leader needs to know how to run effective meetings. This includes establishing and publishing an agenda prior to the meeting, and ensuring that the meeting stays on schedule and that the correct players are invited and attend. While some of the respon- sibilities may be delegated—for example, a timekeeper may be appointed to ensure adherence to the agenda—the manager has overall accountability and is normally the person who conducts meetings. 

Verbal and Written Communication Skills—Project managers are normally the day-to-day spokespersons for the project. As such, it is important that they be effective communicators. They may be called upon to present the project to senior management or to workers on the assembly line and should be comfortable in either situation. They must also ensure that all decisions they or the team make are fully documented. Note that during meetings this responsibility may be delegated to a team member, typically called a scribe or recorder, but that the manager is still accountable. 

Respect—It is important that the project manager be well regarded through- out the company. As one of the project’s two primary spokespersons (with the champion), the manager must be recognized as an employee whose opinion is valued and whose skills are unquestioned. “Personal influence” is a key characteristic of successful project managers. 

Effective Stress Management For Project Managers

Sometimes, we get ourselves deeply immersed into our projects that we tend to forget to take care of our health. One secret in a successful productive project management is to ensure a good health. And one way to ensure this is through an effective stress management.

These are 3 simple ways to handle stress:

1. Healthy Diet

It is true that what we is what we eat. If we nourish ourselves with bad food we will also have a bad health which will affect dramatically our performance at work. If you are always sick then for sure you'll spend more days at your bed rather than your desk.

2. Exercise.

It is always said and will always be mentioned that exercise is one of the best way to handle stress. Exercise allows blood to flow into different parts of our, most especially to our brain. So when there's more blood flowing to our brain, the more nutrients it will get. Thus, your brain will be properly nurtured with the right amount of energy that it will need to handle different kinds of problems that you will encounter in your project management tasks.

3. Take a break.

You cannot strain yourself too hard. When you feel like you have enough on a certain task, or may find yourself circling in one problem without finding a solution, get up, take a glass of water or take a a toilet break, take a deep breathe, get some air or whatever you want to do just to free yourself for a minute or two. Being a motivated to get a task done is good but killing yourself is never advised.

Healthy diet, exercise and taking breaks are just few of the stress managements that you can have. Always remember that you're capital in every work is yourself and one can only function to their fullest when they are healthy.

The Google Calendar

Google has offered a free time management tool that enables you to get in touch with your scheduled events. All information are stored online so you can access your calendar wherever there's an internet connection.

To become an effective project manager, one must have an organized time-table of his work flow. Dates and deadlines are very crucial in project management.

Google Calendar offers a very convenient way of organizing your tasks wherein you are also able to share it with your team. The only downside for this is its inability to synchronize the calendar in different time zones.

Still though, Google calendar offers one of the online calendar application in the web. You just need a Google account and you're ready to go.

The Right Place To Have A Construction Project Management Certification

Managing projects, whether they are in the construction, real estate or information technology industry (and anywhere else) require a lot of training, experience, and certification. According to dice.com, the job search portal for technology professionals, eight out of thirteen advertisements either require, or prefer, project management certification. Most of the job advertisements here also said that project management certification is "an advantage", highly desirable", or "preferred". These ads are probably referring to the PMP or Project Management Professional credentials. Here are a number of great suggestions on where to find construction project management certification.

Who Regulates the Construction Industry in the US and UK?

In the United States, the construction industry's certification and advocacy body are the CMAA, or the Construction Management Association of America. The CMAA states that the most common responsibilities of a construction manager fall in 7 categories namely-- Project management planning, Cost management, Time management, Quality management, Contract Administration, Safety management, and CM professional practice. In the UK, the industry is regulated through the CDM, or Construction Design Management, which advocates for ethical and efficient construction management practices, to prevent injuries, accidents and other untoward incidents in construction and civil engineering projects.

For project management certification, there are different levels that fit each person's knowledge and experience levels. Among these include the CAPM, or Certified Associate in Project Management, which is a great entry-level certification, especially for those who new to the field of project management.

Another program is the PMP, or the Project management Professional, which is probably the most important, and globally-recognized credential for project managers. This would be perfect for those who have demonstrated competence and experience in leading project teams (construction, IT, etc.). The PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) is designed for those who use agile approaches in project management while the PMI-RMP or PMI Risk Management Professional certification demonstrates full competence in assessing and mitigating project risks and threats, and capitalizes on opportunities.

Where to Get Construction Project Management Certification

There are lots of online, and offline resources and centers where aspiring (and veteran) construction project managers can get professional certification. Let's take a close look at a few of them.

4Pm offers two courses for construction professionals who wish to advance in their project management careers, and arm themselves with the project management certification that provides the tools, and credibility, to effectively manage projects. The first course helps the student skills to complete small and medium construction projects on time and deliver the planned results. The second course enables the individual to master the skills for larger construction projects, and deal with diverse staff and multiple bosses or owners.

ExpertRating Project management Certification. ExpertRating's project management certification provides an in-depth project management course which includes all the concepts, techniques and tools related to project management, and also created to keep abreast with the requirements of the Project Management Institute's PMP Certification. The course chapters include project initiation, planning, resource planning, time planning, project quality, team building and management, risk planning, procurement, execution, monitoring, controlling change and closing the project.

Project managers, who have a construction project management certification, often earn more than their usual counterparts. The construction management certification programs also enable managers to quickly get established in the construction industry, and move up easily on the promotion ladder.

What Project Managers Should Learn On Online Time Management And Its Benefits

One of the leading considerations of project managers is how labor time is allocated in their projects. During the course of project implementation, unforeseen circumstances can lead to time management issues.

Time management is directly tied to efficiency and cost control in the realm of project implementation. Improper time management costs money.

Online time management means constantly tracking the completion of tasks, evaluating whether they are completed on time and with the designated resources. It also means revisiting tasks to ensure that the timeline allows for the right amount of implementation time. Adjustments are constantly being made to tasks when time management becomes an issue. Project managers realize that in addition to money, labor is a finite resource. Therefore, when time is added to one task it will need to be taken away from something else. Making these adjustments manually is simply not a good option.

www.ProjectManager.com enables project management team oversight capabilities and online time management tools that can definitely reduce the number of problems experienced when things don't go quite as planned. Ideally, time management would rest upon the implementation people, but sometimes this just is not possible to manage from a micro level. Taking a step back and seeing time constraints as part of the big picture enables planners and managers to make adjustments when necessary.

Something that really plays a crucial role in terms of time management is task list planning. Among a team, there may not be complete agreement as to the time necessary to complete specific tasks.

When tasks are well thought out and time is estimated correctly, time is better managed. The other aspect of the task list that really makes a difference in time management is prioritization of tasks.

Fast Tracked and Easy Communications Made Possible by Web Collaboration Tools

It is not new to the business community to use web collaboration tools. What is new is the number of tools now available for most organizations in the business world. The use of web collaboration tools is their main source of communication in and outside of their company.

A few years ago, most in the business world thought that the web collaboration tools were just a nice thing to have around. Collaboration was purely made by most organizations with the use of emails. Yet as the years passed, there are many web collaboration tools that were developed. This then offers an increasing set of options to help the business community communicate over vast distances.

Since then, this industry has grown and has been used by nearly every business sector in the world. In the 1970's it was the online gaming business ventures who first used the web collaboration tools. They used this new form of mass communications to create a profit stream. Most of the business leaders grew up before the age of the computer and were still stuck on using old technology like telephones.

Interestingly, the younger generation embraced the new web collaboration tools for their personal use. They also became the new experts in many forms for setting up the connections so video conferencing could take place. This has also changed with the installation of new fiber optic lines that now form the backbone of the high speed internet in the developed part of the world.

Today any organization can use the many web collaboration tools to help them communicate with their team members in any part of the world in the same manner as if they were sitting right next to them. This makes it possible for two or more people to send typed words, back in forth, in real time from any point in the world that has an internet connection. Because anyone can log in and use these public systems, the security on them is less than what a business would desire to use for their proprietary data.

A system set up for professional use had to be established in the business world to use the web collaboration tools. Today an organization can use an instant messaging system that limited the contacts to who is authorized by the company deploying it. It also made it acceptable to explore the new options in collaboration tools because it was more secure.
Of all the web collaboration tools in use today, the best one for brainstorming is the Data Conferencing. This is the use of an electronic blackboard. With the use of an online pen, anyone can make a visual contribution to it, just like in a real meeting.

The Electronic Meeting is another of the new advancements in the field of web collaboration tools. In the past, in-person meetings that were official had one person taking the minutes of the meeting so a permanent record could be made. Today the Electronic Meeting has made this possible, but thru electronic means.
The latest web collaboration tools are available to the business world to help improve their lines of communication. The exact form you decide on is a personal one, but they are all safe and secure for the transfer of classified and proprietary information.

Task Management System: Why Organizations Choose it?

There are many directions that an organization can turn to when in comes to managing the tasks. And today, an online task management system is the direction many organizations are now turning to. This makes it easy for more tasks to be completed by a greater number of project team members without the possibility of losing any control over their execution.

To install an online task management system, the right programs need to be made available to the project manager and their project team. This can be accomplished by two approaches which are: 1) By loading the project management software programs on the company server or; 2) using one that already exists in a cloud management server. Both of them will have an administrator from your organization to help regulate the flow of data and limit its access to the software so only authorized personnel can gain entry.

The cloud management approach decreases the costs and maintenance responsibilities your organization will have to pay and do. This is then the leading reason many organizations are using this kind of approach. With this approach, backups and updates are automatically done and your organization can concentrate on completing the tasks that are involved in the project.

Many of the larger firms prefer to have this type of programming on their own server. This way no other company will be using the same server as they are which leads to a higher level of security for the proprietary data that will be located there.

In the task management system, the need for the establishment of links needed for this type of programming to work to its fullest potential need to be made. The task list is the centralized foundation on which all other links and the transfer of data is put thru. In the planning phase, the first set of links is established between the tasks and the resources needed for their completion.

The linking of a certain document in the scheduler to the task list is the next stage of link building in the task management system. This information will allow the project manager to know if a task is falling behind and action is needed or the task is being completed on time. In this, timesheets will be updated about what tasks are being worked on and their completion percentage. There is also a section for the resources that are being used in the completion of the tasks.

There is also a section of the task management system where the monitoring of the issues and risks that have impacted the business venture can be done. This is made possible since the risk and issue lists are also linked to the task list. The reporting of an impact can be filed by the project manager or any of the project team members on their timesheets.

To help coordinate all of the information being provided by the task management system, the project manager can use the dashboard system. This is a one screen display that can be set up to handle any of the data streams this system has made available to the project manager. The manner in which the data is reported is the choice of the project manager in charge of the business venture.

The online task management system is designed to give the project manager the information they need to know about the health of their business venture in real time. This makes it easier to make an informed decision that will result in a positive action being taken by the project team. The speed at which a decision can be made will reduce the length and number of delays that can occur in the execution phase of your project's life cycle and make a significant contribution in the success rate of your business ventures.

Collaborative Project Management

Collaborative project management is the key to attain great profit. Most organizations turn into this approach because it helps organize the path of business venture towards maximum productivity. This approach is making use of the latest technology for the benefit of your organization. This type of communications has greatly expanded beyond the use of instant messaging and the sharing of documents.

A project manager using the path of collaborative project management to monitor and control their project team can expand their reach around the world. By having the ability to call a meeting at any time that can include anyone, no matter where they are physically located, the project manager can give their team members the information they need to complete the tasks that are assigned as the project manager need them to be completed.

The options available today for collaborative project management includes oral, written and even today the use of a white board. By having the tool available so anyone in the virtual meeting can make an instant contribution to a problem, more options for the resolution of a problem can be realized.

What most project managers will realize once they get use to using the collaborative project management programs is that they can increase the efficiency in which their project team will be operating. It all comes down to the way and manner the lines of transferring knowledge around is occurring. This is made easier when the project management software program is accessible online.

Access to the programs online so the collaborative project management approach can be used can be accomplished by either using the cloud management or placing the program on the company server. This way any project team member can have access to the programs so they can be used. It is the use of the internet that has expanded the possibilities of this type of software so the lines of communications can be created and kept for all to use.

The cloud management approach for using the collaborative project management programs is the least expensive path that an organization can take. The other approach of purchasing a project management software program and loading on the company server is a more logical choice when the organization is larger. It will also make more sense if this program is to be used on a constant basis over a long period of time.

With the collaborative projectmanagement path for organizing and monitoring the completion of tasks by your project team is the best use of the latest technology that is available. Just having access to it is not enough. The project manager and their team have to know how to use it to their advantage so the efficiency of the organization as a while can be increased.

Points to Ponder About Project Management Marketing Tools

Managing the marketing aspect of any project can be an overwhelming task. From overseeing the costs of a managing campaign to the communications required, a project manager has a full plate of responsibilities in his or her hands. Using project management marketing tools online is one way to make the process less stressful and more enjoyable for any project manager. Project management software has tools that are highly functional for project managers.

Managing Communications with Employees

Perhaps you are a project manager who is hiring a professional blogger to write articles about your company's latest project. A project manager can use project management software to clearly set out all of the required communications that must be made.

A project manager can use project management software to articulate the details that must also be communicated to advertisers. Perhaps a director wants to make a crucial change to the way that a new product is advertised on the internet. Maybe the director has a specific feature that he or she wants to emphasize in the product. This would be the sort of important detail that a project manager could add to his or her notes in a project management software program. Other employees are able to access and view this information. You can keep all of your employees aware of important developments in an advertising campaign at all times.

Dividing and Conquering

A project manager can use project management marketing tools to divide and conquer the work that must be completed in a marketing campaign. For communications that must be made, a project manager can assign the creation of certain e-mails to employees. He or she can also schedule the meetings that must be conducted to carry on with a marketing campaign. A project manager may need to send employees out to meet with web developers to discuss ways to improve the website for a company. A project manager may wish to schedule a conference call that involves all people who are involved in the marketing campaign for a new product.

A project manager may want certain employees to oversee the costs of a project. These types of project management marketing tools ensure that a marketing campaign is successful.