Project Management Archives – Page 2 of 2

How to Handle Pushback

Dec 11, 2022 by ITCL

Pushback is an inevitable part of our life in general and work in particular. There are different scenarios and types of pushback. Below is a simple powerful framework that you can apply in most situations to enable you to leverage pushback as a stimulation for candid and productive discussions.

Talk about the WHY. If pushback is expected then before vocalizing your idea or point of view (or whatever the case might be), start with the WHY. First explain why what you say next is important to consider or why it should be brought up right now or implemented the way you suggest. Then move to the solution or the discussion of the subject. Make sure your argumentation is short and straight to the point.
Ask about the WHY. Ask the people who are giving you pushback why they think otherwise.
Give them room to speak and be heard. Make sure the communication is in a professional and constructive manner. It has to be a dialogue not a tug-of-war.
Offer your point of view as an option and welcome other solutions for discussion. If you are putting forward a solution to the problem but all you hear is pushback with no feedback, welcome alternative ideas and discuss them as a team.
Come prepared. Do your research and ensure what you are bringing up is accurate and indeed relevant given the status quo. If applicable, circulate your idea/solution within the team or other project stakeholders, to get a certain level of validation and backup.
Use pushback as a tool to improve your solution and come back stronger.
Never take it personally, no matter what.

How to Set Goals That Deliver Results

Aug 13, 2022 by ITCL

A lot of articles are written about goals but why it’s so important?

When you set goals, you take control of your life’s or work’s direction.

Goals provide you with focus

And when you have clear focus all your decisions and actions bring you closer to achieving those goals. When you create a vision of what your life or business could look like. Then you start helping yourself and your team to achieve the goal and get the best results as possible.

Think about it for a moment

Setting goals keeps you moving, increases your organization and brings you happiness.

How to set goals effectively?

Before setting the goal think about the results you want to see.

It’s really important to ask yourself: Is this goal something I truly want? You should understand that only sincere desire to achieve the goal can help you.

Create SMART goals. Here are the SMART criteria:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-bound

In addition, the goal must necessarily be positive. You can use any principle of goal setting and transform it for yourself.

Write your goals down. Yes, do it!

Written goals become real and tangible, from this moment they’re not just the idea in your mind. Keep your goals somewhere visible. While you’re writing down your goals, use a positive tone so you stay excited about achieving them.

Time to create an action plan and timeline

Many people set the goal but never create an action plan to understand how exactly they will meet that goal. Your action plan should all necessary steps you need to take to get the results. Don’t be afraid to get creative with your action plan. If you want to use crayons, markers or colored pencils – do it. As a part of your action plan use timeline, it helps visualize roles, tasks, milestones and deadlines to achieve your goal. Also timeline creates a sense of urgency, which motivates you to stay on schedule.

Take action

To achieve the goal, it is not enough to set it, it is necessary to act. Every step that you take should lead to another until you finish your goal.

Control and evaluate your progress

Consider scheduling a weekly evaluation, which could include measuring your progress and checking your schedule. Make necessary adjustments and keep going. The process of setting goals makes you achieve the results faster and more efficiently.

Leadership Styles in Managing Software Projects

Jul 13, 2022 by ITCL

Do you know your leadership style?

Why is it so important?

At some point in your career you may take on a leadership role. Whether it can be a meeting, a project, a team, you might consider identifying with or adopting some defined leadership style.

And of course, every leader is different and every company has its own unique needs, organizational culture.

Leadership style is the way a leader guides a team through different stages, implements plans, provides guidance, and overlooks work. Based on different personalities and methods, there are many different styles.

But there are 4 leadership styles commonly used in the workplace.

Directive

In this leadership style leaders provide more explicit instructions to the team in terms of who needs to do what and sometimes how. This style is handy during emergency situations or on high-uncertainty projects.

Facilitative

Facilitative leaders are capable of presenting the end goals and vision to the team members in a way that encourages and motivates them to stay committed and engaged on delivering on those goals.

Servant

Putting the interests of your team and team members first. Motivating the team through empowerments and breeding self-sufficient teams and leaders.

Participative

Also known as democratic, in this leadership style leaders get all the team members involved in decision-making, be it identifying project goals or developing strategies to achieve them. This also involves creating enthusiasm and increasing engagement among team members.

There are many leadership styles to choose from. You don’t have to land on a single style, it may and should change depending on the team and situation. Be weary and choose wisely! Do you have a favorite leadership style?

Project Budget and Tips on Effective Cost Management

May 23, 2022 by ITCL

Project budget – one of the toughest project constraints and the most vulnerable for a couple reasons:

If the timeliness or the scope of the project change – the cost is impacted automatically.
Cost of the project is generally harder to negotiate and address as it gets the most attention from business owners and other top management stakeholders across the board
Changes to the cost baseline have the most impact on all of the stakeholders, starting from the delivery teams and all the way up.

There are ways on how to structure your estimates for the project correctly as well as how to manage changes to the cost effectively.

Depending on the level of maturity of PM in your company as well as the seize of your organization you might not be heavily involved in the estimation process. However when it comes to cost updates PMs or the owners always have a seat at the table. So what do you do? Be proactive! How?

Here are our tips:

Make sure you can easily identify in-scope and out-of-scope items

That will help you articulate potential impact on the cost of the project ahead of time.

Make sure you track your project timeline closely

Monitor to ensure the project budget allows for any unexpected changes to the
timeline. If you see a risk – flag it early, build awareness early, work with the team to mitigate that risk before it becomes a budget issue…

Keep your pulse on the news

What? Yep! Not a common tip and not something you will find in your average PM literature. This advice can only come from someone who
“lived a life”. Do your best to keep your pulse on the news relevant to your projects. For example, if you plan to lead an infrastructure project you will need to track how the logistics issues are unfolding due to COVID. This will have a tremendous impact on your project cost and will put you in a much better position to work through those issues proactively.