Learning Solutions for Increased Project Performance

Welcome to Our July Issue

In this issue, we’ll be exploring time management – the personal kind, not the PMBOK kind.  In this age of instant communication, time management is more important than ever. While it may be true that we were all just as busy ten years ago, certainly things like email, instant messaging and smart phones have caused us to have more interruptions and disjointed work time than ever before.  The thing is, though, we all ultimately have control of how we manage our time and this issue will provide some tips and tools to help you do it better.

Included in this issue:

• Now Available: Poof! You’re a Project Manager
• Time Loss Assessment Tool
• Project Management Q&A
• Too Much Information, Too Little Time
• Higher Productivity on 15 Minutes a Day
• Don’t Make Excuses – Delegate Now
• Avoiding the Downside of Multi-Tasking

Next Issue: Project Roles & Responsibilities

If you’re not a regular subscriber, sign up for pmPractitioner today and be notified when next month’s issue is available!

pmPractitioner is published as a service to the project management community. Each issue provides practical project management solutions and tips adapted from a variety of business publications and resources.

Now Available: Poof! You’re a Project Manager

Written by Action for Results consultant, Dee Suberla, PMP, Poof! You’re a Project Manager is a fun and informative resource for the person who has been thrown into the role of project manager to bring a troubled project back on track.

The book also serves as a refresher for the veterans out there with a sense of humor. The senior managers tasked with finding a new project manager will find it useful because it offers them a behind the scenes look at how a project manager uses the discipline of project management to meet the needs of the business. The book provides insights as well as references for more information.

Order your copy here.

Time Loss Assessment Tool

We all have to deal with a certain amount of unplanned time loss every day. Use this assessment tool to gauge which daily activities are the biggest drain on your time and help determine how best to correct the situation.

Time Loss Assessment Tool Here

From Action for Results, Inc.

July Project Management Q&A

Test your project management knowledge with these questions or use them as an exercise to help prepare for your PMP certification exam.

1. You are the project manager on a project whose quality has begun to suffer. You note that many project deliverables are being rejected. Reduced quality on a project would most likely lead to which of the following?

2. A structure that relates the project organizational breakdown structure to the work breakdown structure to help ensure that each component of the project’s scope of work is assigned to a person or team is known as a:

Answers appear at the end of the newsletter.

Too Much Information, Too Little Time

Being a project manager means you regularly inform your sponsors or stakeholders of the project’s progress. This may take the form of a report or a memo – or you may have to do a formal presentation with slides and all.

With a presentation, it’s important not to overload your audience with content. You usually have a finite amount of time in which information is imparted and discussion takes place. Inundating everyone in the room with graphs, charts and multi-level lists or dense paragraphs is not going to allow for much absorption of the material.

Here are some tips to keep you from going overboard with information:

• A good rule of thumb is to allot three minutes per slide for viewing and explanation.
• When using graphs or charts, be prepared to give a short, clear verbal synopsis of what is being shown.
• Text should be in bullet format, with no more than 4-5 bullets per slide – and no more than 1 or 2 sentences per bullet. Using an easily readable font size of 24-32 points should help you keep to this constraint.
• Ensure that everyone has a copy of the material and that each slide is numbered for easy reference.
• Don’t read the slides word-for-word: attendees can refer to their hardcopies. Use the time to re-state the content for deeper understanding or to add a little more information.
• You may find it easier to hold audience questions until the end of the presentation. However, if this is not feasible, it is your responsibility to keep things moving and not get bogged down in unproductive discussion.

From Action for Results, Inc.

Higher Productivity on 15 Minutes a Day

Setting aside 15 minutes at the end of every day to prepare for the following day can guarantee a higher return on productivity.

Here’s how:

• Review and confirm tomorrow’s schedule, taking your entire day into account.
• Add any items you didn’t get to today onto tomorrow’s to-do list.
• Integrate any personal appointments into your schedule.
• Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to avoid scheduling conflicts. (Did you give yourself time to get from one meeting to the next?)
• Determine if anything needs to change and then adjust your schedule accordingly.
• Finally, be sure to identify your top priorities. If everything that could go wrong does, what do you absolutely have to accomplish?

From Successful Time Management For Dummies, Dirk Zeller, For Dummies Publishing

Don’t Make Excuses – Delegate Now

Project managers make all kinds of excuses for not delegating. If you want to make better use of your time, you’ll get more done through delegation. Catch yourself when you say one of the following:

• I don’t know if I can trust her to do it.
• I could do it better myself. He isn’t qualified to do it.
• He doesn’t want any added responsibilities.
• I don’t have the time to show anyone how to do it.
• There is no one else to delegate to.
• She already has enough to do.
• I like doing this task, or I’m the only person who knows how to do it.
• She messed up last time, so I’m not giving her anything else to do.

Assume that most people are keen to learn. Recognize that the short term training investment will pay off in the long term.

Here are instructions for delegating effectively:

1. Delegate the objective, not the procedure. Outline the desired results, not the methodology. What needs to be done and when should it be finished?
2. Make sure the standards and the outcome are clear. To what degree of quality or detail?
3. Clarify the decision-making authority the delegate has.
4. Outline the resources available.
5. Ask if there is anything else they need to get started. They’ll tell you. (This can save you time spent showing them.)
6. Ask people to provide progress reports. Set interim deadlines to see how things are going.
7. If appropriate, let others know who is in charge of the task.
8. Give praise and feedback at the end of the project, and additional responsibilities.

From How to Delegate, Mark Ellwood, Pace Productivity, Inc.

Avoiding the Downside of Multi-Tasking

Today’s most common source of time drag for individuals is obsessive multitasking — ironically, something we do in an effort to speed up and get more out of each moment.  The problem is that multitasking doesn’t necessarily speed us up; sometimes it slows us down. Brain scan studies reveal that if we do two tasks at the same time, we have only half our usual brainpower to devote to each. So when we multitask, we’re really only half there for each activity.

Multitasking isn’t the only issue: a related trend is that of accepting constant interruptions. But even if accepting interruptions has a negative effect on productivity, it would be foolish to suggest that we should — or could — stop altogether.

How do we balance the speed benefits that interruptions and multitasking can provide with the clear drag they exert?

First:  Evaluate the importance of the task at hand and decide whether to let it be interrupted. When we consciously decide whether it’s worth the switch, our behavior and results will more accurately reflect our priorities. For decisions about multitasking, ask yourself whether it’s best to stay fully engaged in the activity at hand.

Second: Examine the total number of interruptions you allow and how often you multitask. By juggling too many tasks or allowing too many distractions, you condition your brain to stay over-stimulated, weakening your ability to concentrate.

Third:

Multitasking is a good option only if what we’re doing is unimportant or simple enough that the decreased brainpower won’t negatively affect our productivity or results.

Once we’ve rid our workdays of unnecessary interruptions and productivity-sapping multitasking, work becomes less cluttered and more streamlined, which is key to thriving in our “more-faster-now” world.

Adapted from The Age of Speed, Vince Poscente, Bard Press

Answers to July Q&A

1. The correct answer is ‘c’ (Rework and higher cost).

According to PMI, reduced quality will lead specifically to rework and higher cost. Rework is defined as action taken to bring a defective or nonconforming component into compliance with requirements or specifications.

[Planning], PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, p. 195

2. The correct answer is ‘a’ (Responsibility assignment matrix).

This is a straight PMBOK glossary textbook definition. The RAM is used to assign work to the proper team member.

[Planning], PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition p. 221