April 17, 2017 at 22:16Key Points in Project Manager Communication
Who is a project manager? This question is asked by all young specialists and those who are just about to infiltrate the web-management sphere.
To the questions: “Who is the project manager?”, “What are the responsibilities of the project manager?” and “What should a project manager know?” You can answer endlessly, as each company has its own laws and postulates of internal work.
In my article, I propose to consider only a thousandth of the total amount of information that a project manager of any web studio in the country should know. What is written here is not a dogma, it is just my experience, coupled with knowledge.
Let's discuss what the basic principles of a project manager should be laid in the communicative zone of responsibility within the team and to ourselves ...
Part 1. Working with your fellow professionals
Respect is the key to successful work on a project. Respect each specialist team, be as considerate and polite with them.
The project manager should always know what the employee working on the project is doing. And this must be understood by the developer - to notify the manager if he needs to switch to another task (for example, set by the head of his department). You cannot track every step of your colleagues (you are not a machine), and here understanding comes to the rescue - a specialist will notify you when changing his work schedule. But you still have to control it, monitor the timing of tasks (because when the deadline breaks, and the specialist shrugs his hands, you have to justify yourself to the customer).
In general, deadlines are a very complex concept in the field of web development, and they each have their own. In at least three variations:
All terms must be remembered, for each plan based on the current workload. Tell the specialist terms that are comfortable for you, and those that are comfortable for the process of the entire project team (taking into account possible changes) to customers.
The deadline for completion of the project must be clearly stated and indestructible. If required, the specialist should be ready to stay at work (since the completion and successful completion of the project is the general interest of the company, not only yours). If the specialist doesn’t care and blames everyone around, claiming that the time was not taken into account correctly, this may be an employee of your team (special cases of complicating the project or incorrect timing of the sales department are considered separately).
The decision of the project manager is the decision of the company, this is a high responsibility. From here, in working with specialists from the development team, their own nuances arise - all decisions made must be structured and regular, not contradict each other. The entire project team must understand: decisions made by the leader are not disputed regarding implementation. They must be implemented.
The main task of the project manager is competent time management (if one exists in the company) and the exact setting of tasks for employees (any inaccuracy in the task will lead to consequences for which only you will be responsible). You should always remember to monitor and monitor the results at least every 3-4 hours, otherwise the timing and quality of work may suffer.
Speaking of quality, any mistakes made by a specialist should be discussed with him. It does not happen that only the performer is to blame for everything, all situations need to be disassembled and analyzed. And, having drawn conclusions, do not allow this in the future.
Communication of the customer with a specialist is strictly prohibited - their direct contact in 90% of cases will lead to negative results. Contact should occur exclusively through the project manager. And do not pass on the negative thoughts of the customer to specialists, if any. Perhaps in the morning he just got up on the wrong foot, forgive him for this and continue his work.
Part 2. Work on oneself
The process of self-organization for a project manager is very important - as soon as you learn how to manage your responsibilities, everything else will work out.
Start your day with planning. I arrive at work half an hour before it starts, only a little earlier than the others, but this time allows me to plan my day, to determine the most and least priority tasks. Keep yourself within the framework, try to achieve not only daily planning, but also carry it out within each of the tasks, allocate and limit time.
Paint the most difficult tasks for yourself in detail to look at them from the side (perhaps a new solution will appear that you did not expect).
Another step is the management of tasks (both for projects and for your personal tasks - for a day, a month, and so on). Fix all large tasks in task managers - they will become your indispensable assistants. Which one to use is up to you.
When working on a specific project, try to paint all the information separately - the overall picture will be clear, and in particular, you will be able to detect controversial points. Record the data received by phone and coordinate with the customer by mail. And before passing the material to the developers, try to think through each comment.
Make decisions quickly (the most correct of them are those that were not considered for hours, but were meaningfully taken in a short time). This will save time and improve results.
I would also like to talk about the problems that exist in any projects (a project is impossible without problems - either you did not pay attention to it, or the customer did not look at the results at all). Always try to predict the possible risks before starting. Then you can warn them at the very beginning (by negotiating with the customer) or think over a strategy of work when they occur. And when the problem nevertheless appears on the threshold of your project, do not look for the one to blame - this is easiest. Try to find a team solution that will fundamentally change the situation. Every specialist has the right to make a mistake, and everyone should know that he can voice it. Because it is not censure that awaits him, but collective support.
To the questions: “Who is the project manager?”, “What are the responsibilities of the project manager?” and “What should a project manager know?” You can answer endlessly, as each company has its own laws and postulates of internal work.
In my article, I propose to consider only a thousandth of the total amount of information that a project manager of any web studio in the country should know. What is written here is not a dogma, it is just my experience, coupled with knowledge.
Let's discuss what the basic principles of a project manager should be laid in the communicative zone of responsibility within the team and to ourselves ...
Part 1. Working with your fellow professionals
Respect is the key to successful work on a project. Respect each specialist team, be as considerate and polite with them.
The project manager should always know what the employee working on the project is doing. And this must be understood by the developer - to notify the manager if he needs to switch to another task (for example, set by the head of his department). You cannot track every step of your colleagues (you are not a machine), and here understanding comes to the rescue - a specialist will notify you when changing his work schedule. But you still have to control it, monitor the timing of tasks (because when the deadline breaks, and the specialist shrugs his hands, you have to justify yourself to the customer).
In general, deadlines are a very complex concept in the field of web development, and they each have their own. In at least three variations:
- contractual term for the customer
- term for the developer (it differs from the term of the contract)
- a deadline for yourself to be able to build an employee work schedule on all ongoing projects
All terms must be remembered, for each plan based on the current workload. Tell the specialist terms that are comfortable for you, and those that are comfortable for the process of the entire project team (taking into account possible changes) to customers.
The deadline for completion of the project must be clearly stated and indestructible. If required, the specialist should be ready to stay at work (since the completion and successful completion of the project is the general interest of the company, not only yours). If the specialist doesn’t care and blames everyone around, claiming that the time was not taken into account correctly, this may be an employee of your team (special cases of complicating the project or incorrect timing of the sales department are considered separately).
The decision of the project manager is the decision of the company, this is a high responsibility. From here, in working with specialists from the development team, their own nuances arise - all decisions made must be structured and regular, not contradict each other. The entire project team must understand: decisions made by the leader are not disputed regarding implementation. They must be implemented.
The main task of the project manager is competent time management (if one exists in the company) and the exact setting of tasks for employees (any inaccuracy in the task will lead to consequences for which only you will be responsible). You should always remember to monitor and monitor the results at least every 3-4 hours, otherwise the timing and quality of work may suffer.
Speaking of quality, any mistakes made by a specialist should be discussed with him. It does not happen that only the performer is to blame for everything, all situations need to be disassembled and analyzed. And, having drawn conclusions, do not allow this in the future.
Communication of the customer with a specialist is strictly prohibited - their direct contact in 90% of cases will lead to negative results. Contact should occur exclusively through the project manager. And do not pass on the negative thoughts of the customer to specialists, if any. Perhaps in the morning he just got up on the wrong foot, forgive him for this and continue his work.
Part 2. Work on oneself
The process of self-organization for a project manager is very important - as soon as you learn how to manage your responsibilities, everything else will work out.
Start your day with planning. I arrive at work half an hour before it starts, only a little earlier than the others, but this time allows me to plan my day, to determine the most and least priority tasks. Keep yourself within the framework, try to achieve not only daily planning, but also carry it out within each of the tasks, allocate and limit time.
Paint the most difficult tasks for yourself in detail to look at them from the side (perhaps a new solution will appear that you did not expect).
Another step is the management of tasks (both for projects and for your personal tasks - for a day, a month, and so on). Fix all large tasks in task managers - they will become your indispensable assistants. Which one to use is up to you.
When working on a specific project, try to paint all the information separately - the overall picture will be clear, and in particular, you will be able to detect controversial points. Record the data received by phone and coordinate with the customer by mail. And before passing the material to the developers, try to think through each comment.
Make decisions quickly (the most correct of them are those that were not considered for hours, but were meaningfully taken in a short time). This will save time and improve results.
I would also like to talk about the problems that exist in any projects (a project is impossible without problems - either you did not pay attention to it, or the customer did not look at the results at all). Always try to predict the possible risks before starting. Then you can warn them at the very beginning (by negotiating with the customer) or think over a strategy of work when they occur. And when the problem nevertheless appears on the threshold of your project, do not look for the one to blame - this is easiest. Try to find a team solution that will fundamentally change the situation. Every specialist has the right to make a mistake, and everyone should know that he can voice it. Because it is not censure that awaits him, but collective support.