Hey everyone.
I'm Max Dalton, and in this video I'm going to talk about how to be a good project manager.
A good project manager is someone who cares deeply about understanding all aspects of
a project before it gets off the ground, and then making sure that everyone is in the loop,
working together, and on the same page throughout the project management life cycle.
Good project managers understand that you can prevent a lot of heartache in the later
phases of a project by putting in a lot of time during the early phases.
This article outlines what makes a good project manager.
Number one.
Have a clear project plan.
Having a solid project plan at the beginning of your projects doesn't guarantee that the
project won't go off the rails further down the line, but it will reduce the risk of that
happening tremendously.
And if a project does go off the rails, it gives you something tangible you can show
your boss that illustrates you did everything in your power to keep things on track.
While a project plan is very much a living, breathing document that will continue to change
and evolve as projects moves through the phases of the project management life cycle, it is
necessary that the following elements get rolled into your project plan early and updated
often: schedule milestones and baseline, risk register, assumption log, what's in scope
and out of scope, stakeholder register, communication plan, cost baseline, and various management
plans.
Number two.
You need to understand the value proposition of your project.
In a perfect world you should be able to pull the value proposition from the business case
that was generated as part of the exploration into whether or not the business wanted to
move forward with this as a project.
However, if that doesn't exist, you still need to clearly spell out what the value proposition
of undergoing this specific project is.
If this sort of exploration wasn't done prior to launching an official project, there's
a risk that everyone will be spinning their wheels for something that won't result in
any real benefit.
Number three.
You should have put a strong effort into identifying all of the stakeholders.
This should include everyone from the executive sponsor on down to representatives from groups
that will be affected by the final deliverable.
This includes everyone from key stakeholders to peripheral stakeholders, who may just be
impacted by your project.
Number four.
The communication plan.
Make sure that you clearly outline the type of communication each stakeholder should receive,
and how frequently they should receive it.
Further, a good project manager needs to go further than having a strong communication
plan, and really work to understand the personalities of their project stakeholders and what makes
them tick.
Some stakeholders may appreciate you stopping by their office occasionally and chatting
in person about the status of the project, whereas other stakeholders may only want to
hear from you if something is in trouble.
You also need to take into account office politics that may be at play between stakeholders.
Most project teams include representatives from different functional groups, and those
groups will often have their own agenda that they are working to push.
Number five.
Requirements.
The project manager can be responsible for gathering requirements, but this should ideally
be done by the business analyst.
Whoever is responsible for gathering requirements should make sure that they cover the many
different types of requirements that should be gathered.
The types of requirements vary by industry, but some examples include functional, non-functional,
legal, security, interface, database, usability, and more.
Having clear requirements is necessary to clearly define the scope of the work that
needs to be done, and plan resource allocation and forecast expenses.
Ensuring the requirements are solid at the outset can prevent scope creep further down
the line.
Number six.
A high-level schedule.
At the beginning of the project this should be a high-level milestone chart that calls
out the major pieces of work that will need to be done, the person or teams who will be
responsible for those pieces of work, and estimates for how long it will take to complete
those work pieces.
Number seven.
The definition of success.
Clearly define what will need to happen for this to be a successful project.
This can be a number of things.
For example, this could be an increase in the bottom line, an increased number of clicks,
more people coming through the door, or any number of other things.
Number eight.
Financial information.
Know what the budget is that you have to work with, and have a plan for managing and approving
the spending of those funds.
Additionally, it may be helpful to generate a burndown chart, which is a time-phased forecast
of when you will spend project funds over the life of the project.
Number nine.
Assumptions.
Be sure to lay out all of the assumptions as you move through discovery and planning
for your project.
Assumptions can cover pretty much be anything that you believe will be true but is not a
guarantee that factors into your current plan.
For example, you may assume that you will have access to a specific resource for your
project, or that another project will be completed before you begin your project.
Number ten.
Risks and constraints.
Spell out all of the risks that could impact your project.
This can include environmental conditions, the risk of government regulations coming
down the line, or a number of other things.
Additionally, make sure that you understand the probability of each risk, and that you
have an approved mitigation strategy should risks be realized.
Number twelve.
Executive sponsor and key stakeholder sign-off.
Perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle is that all key stakeholders sign off on the
plan initially, and also that they sign off on the plan as it is updated throughout the
project.
To help track this, it can be valuable to have a page at the front of the plan that
calls out the date of updates, who made those updates, and what was changed in the document.
Number thirteen.
Manage the scope of the project.
After you work with all of the necessary stakeholders to gather requirements around the work that
will be done, get sign-off on those requirements, generate estimates, and line up resources
based on those requirements, it's important to manage that scope to prevent scope creep.
Scope creep is the ultimate destroyer of projects, and it occurs when a stakeholder keeps adding
requirements to the project after funding and resources have already been secured based
on the initial estimates.
When that happens, you can quickly find yourself in a situation where you try and get more
work done with the same amount of money and the same number of resources over the same
duration, which often results in work getting done poorly.
If everyone signed off on the requirements spelled out in the project plan, then the
project manager has some recourse to go back to the stakeholders making the request to
include additional requirements and say that if they want those requirements to be included,
then they will need more resources and more time.
At that point, the ball is placed in the stakeholder's court, and if they want to move forward with
including those requirements, the onus is on them to round up the funding and sell the
rest of the project team on increasing the project timeline.
You should never be afraid to push back.
If you don't push back and you try and add in more requirements without adding resources
and time, then the blame for that decision falls on you.
Number fourteen.
Be honest.
Above all a good project manager is always honest and works to set expectations appropriately,
and if the news is bad, the responsibility is on you to deliver it.
However, you can often soften the blow by putting forward a solution.
It may not be the direction the team decides to go, but stakeholders are always more receptive
if you bring forward a solution rather than just dropping a problem in their lap.
Additionally, clearly lay out the problem and how you arrived there, but don't work
to put the blame on other people.
Blaming other people rarely accomplishes anything, and it only delays starting work on a solution.
Number fifteen.
Keep moving the team forward.
Projects can stall out if members of the project team aren't clear what the goals they should
be working toward are.
A good project manager can prevent this by ensuring that there are short, medium, and
long-term project goals, and that all individuals are clear what they are working toward in
both the short, medium, and longer term.
Having regular, quick touch points with team members can be a great way to ensure that
people are staying on task.
Alternatively, having team members spend five minutes at the end of the day and writing
up a quick, high-level summary of what they did that day and what they have on deck for
tomorrow is another great way to ensure everyone is moving forward.
Number sixteen.
And finally, address team disputes immediately.
Disagreements and debates among team members can be very healthy for a project.
It illustrates the passion people have for what they are working on, and it often leads
to a deep exploration around the best path forward.
However, confrontations can occasionally go too far, and can result in genuine bad blood
between team members.
A good project manager will work to rein in a discussion if it looks like it could get
too heated.
However, if it does lead to ill will between teammates, a good project manager will work
to manage that conflict appropriately, whether that means pulling those individuals into
a room to talk through their problems, having 1-to-1 conversations with them about the issue,
or working through their managers to bring an end to the dispute.
The worst thing a project manager can do in that situation is ignore the problem and let
the dispute get worse, as that can start to bring the project down.
Congratulations!
You now know how to be a good project manager.
Thanks for watching.
Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.
If you liked what you saw here, click the video link on the right side of the screen
to check out another video, or click the logo on the left side of the screen to subscribe
to this channel to see more great videos like this one.