Unfortunately there are some projects you work on that end up having lots of stakeholders who all want a piece of the action. While this is useful and you can delegate tasks and responsibilities to active team members who are keen to support, there are some times when you need to tighten the control of the tasks and project, and ensure that the communication remains strong and via the correct channels.
Working with a project team can sometimes be a struggle, especially if some team members are not on board with the overall project and goal.
It can be difficult to get them on-side and working as effectively as possible and this could be down to a number of reasons.
Here are my top 5 tips to ensure your project team is happy and full of beans!
I’ve worked with a few in my time and I was pondering this the other day when a friend told me they didn’t rate someone as a good Project Manager.
I’m sure there are more than 5 traits but these are the main ones that hit me square in the face when I thought of the main traits of bad project managers.
Over the last 24 hours I’ve migrated all my domain names and the Project Cake Wordpress blog to a new server based in Australia. On a scale of 1 to 10 for my technical skills and knowledge I’d probably but myself around a 7 – I’m not too bad and do have experience, but sometimes things will crop up and just completely stump me.
Here is a quick breakdown of the experience I had…
There may be valid reasons why some of these things happened, and I didn’t really investigate them too much due to wanting to spend the time as productively as possible trying to get the site back up and running, but you need to be aware of these potential problems prior to starting a migration process…
Thanks,
Tony
In this day and age, being a Project Management Consultant means you have to be extremely transparent for your clients, be able to work and manage while you’re on the move, and be able to utilise quick and easy software solutions to help aid your business.
Streamlining the amount of admin you have to do is vital in giving you more time to actually work on the projects, and having the adaptability to differing project scenarios means you never get caught out in a situation that you can’t handle.
I’ve recently had a few virtual meetings with teams in New Zealand and India, and I’ve found there are some fundamental areas that are usually overlooked that can really help drive the meetings, keeping them on track, in scope and able to get the most out of your time with the project teams.
Below are some practical pointers and solutions to make the most essential element of collaboration work more smoothly.
The process of creating, setting up, testing, deploying and then managing a good Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) is daunting – no doubt about it. I’ve read lots of articles and white papers on the subject, some are based at a higher level and some are broken down into the specifics to get everything moving. This final part is not all-inclusive, it is intended to provide a clear insight and set a framework in place that you can work with and integrate, hopefully providing you with success and a head start.
When it comes to backups, the risk-benefit analysis is clear. Data loss can be devastating, while preventing data loss is quick and easy if you get it right at the start. Start backing up today, because tomorrow could be too late.
For years I drilled into my clients that data backup was one of the most important business processes they should get set up and running regularly.
Which is why it was no surprise to me that when my hardware became unreadable and I had not backed up properly in a few months I felt like slapping myself about the head!
When you lose data it is such a frustration and annoyance, especially when the data is very important to you. Some things take you years to accumulate and potentially recover from, while other files, such as photos or videos of family, friends or special moments can be lost forever.
I had 4 big things happening in my life to distract me, and although the reminders on my monthly schedules were ringing with warning, I simply didn’t dedicate the time needed to make the necessary backups.
Data Backup and Data Recovery are important for everyone, not just businesses. If you spend the time early on to get a good system and process in place, then it will save you heartache and frustration further on down the line when you need to get something back.
To recap on the origins of these articles in the first place: a friend decided to work with me on a recent email marketing plan and I took the opportunity to try some variance testing on the email campaign, to see if we could get some definite trends and strategies in place for his 2009 campaigns.
The two main questions I was trying to answer for him were:
1. Should we use a “sales” email or just a straight eNewsletter for promotion?
2. How often should we be emailing his database?
The results clearly showed some useful and key information for him.
Tony Burke is a Program & Project Manager for IT and web business applications.
He's particularly interested in the latest online trends and technologies, project management methodologies and providing the best service possible for his company and clients.
He's also a bit of a geek and footballer.