Feature topic - Project management
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ask for volunteers. Project involvement can be a great learning opportunity, so people will almost certainly step forward.” You need to work to bring everyone together. The team need to know who the other members of the group are, the nature of their roles and what their value to the collective team and project is. “Proper training should be provided to each of the team members to enable them to complete the tasks,” says Cheney. “A clear overview of what is expected from the individuals and the team as a whole will highlight their roles and give meaning to the project.” Haig Kingston, head of client services at PayCheck, believes flexibility, in terms of location and work-life balance, will be important in getting the best out of your team. “They seek freedom to create and impact how the business operates, be a voice and be recognised for the input throughout their tenure,” he says. As Davenport observes, you want your team to be able to raise any concerns and you want to know about things before they happen, rather than after. “I used to refer to this as the five-minute warning,” he says, “so that if something is happening, you are the first to hear about it, and you have the opportunity to either effect change or to build a plan for contingency.” Constant review of risks is important, because they will change throughout the lifecycle of the project. Team members also need to know why they are on the project, their role, their input and how they will be expected to behave. Roles and responsibilities that are clearly outlined
also make escalation very clear and easy to effect, says Davenport. According to Clark, the key to managing your team is to “get their buy-in for the project and get them involved in making decisions, identifying barriers and solutions before the project is kicked off”. He adds: “No man is an island and there is no way that I would find the best solutions, so ask the team.” But honesty is essential. “There is little point in someone saying what they think you need to hear,” says Clark. “That’s a metaphor for life in my book, but even more when you are working on a project. Encourage honesty and it will reap rewards.” Although you have the help of your team, it’s all too easy to be overwhelmed by the pressures of project management. With that in mind, Cheney suggests monitoring your ‘what if’ thinking pattern. He explains: “It is natural during times of stress to ask ourselves, ‘What if we had only done that instead?’ or, ‘What if we had chosen the other path?’ This pattern focuses our minds on the past, but you can focus on reframing the question internally to be, ‘It’s ten past two on Monday, I’ve received bad news about the project, so what can I do in the next hour to make this better?’” As Davenport observes, project management is a “fantastic role” and allows so many skills to be utilised. “Core technical skills are tested,” he says. “Also, people, planning, communication, written and presentation skills, as well as forecasting, costing, time management.” So don’t be overawed – embrace the challenge and succeed. n
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Getting back on track Sometimes, the best laid plans can go awry. Here, our experts share some advice on what to do when your project is going off track ● Look out for important ‘check’ components (like testing) starting to drift outwards. You should be front-loading such activities in any window. This gives you time to react should any issues come up. So, for example, if you have two weeks allocated in the plan for your user acceptance test, you need to start your testing on day one of fourteen, and not day twelve. – Jacki Hodgson ● If testing and successful outcomes are not being achieved, then it helps to have contingency built into the plan and known steps to take if the outcomes are truly missing the expected quality targets. Ask that those with responsibility take charge and deal with those issues that arise – part of the terms of reference should make it clear who is responsible for bringing a project back on course to deliver well. – Jason Davenport ● A project can go off track for a number of reasons – a misunderstanding of the original brief, costs spiralling out of control, deadlines being missed, a breakdown in communication. To help this, hold regular catch-ups with the teams and as a whole to ensure you all know what is going on. – Jason Clark
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| Professional in Payroll, Pensions and Reward |
Issue 61 | June 2020
*correct at time of publication
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