Communication is key when it comes to maintaining a successful and productive workplace. With the recent global pandemic and the rise of remote work, clear and constant communication with coworkers has become even more important in achieving your goals. In fact, 31% of companies say that miscommunication about project objectives is the number one reason why their projects fail. To level up your company’s performance and productivity, here are five simple ways to improve team communications.


Open Door Policy

Whether literally or figuratively, having an open door policy can be a great way to create confidence in your communications. An open door policy means letting your team members know that you are open to discussing anything about projects, goals, or anything else at any time. A policy like this creates transparency in the workplace, and makes every employee feel included and essential to the team. Having easy access to information in the workplace is a great way to improve communications within a team.


Team Building Exercises

It is no surprise that when people socialize with one another, they become more comfortable and confident in their collaboration. Investing in group exercises and socialization can improve team building and communication overall. When people socialize, they create connections and friendships, which increases their ability to work together more productively. Whether it is a happy hour, volunteering day, or adventurous activity, finding a team building exercise that works for your employees will improve communications within your team.


Using Collaboration Tools

Especially during this period of remote work, utilizing a collaboration tool or project management software will work wonders for your team communication. Project management platforms typically have tools with the ability to assign and prioritize tasks, as well as allow multiple users to be assigned the same task. Allowing multiple team members to see and edit a project in real time can reduce the amount of emails and clarifications sent back and forth, and provide for better team communication and collaboration.


Establishing Appropriate Communication Strategies

Implementing practices for different types of communication strategies can improve the overall conversation among your team. For example, some questions or clarifications are best made through an email or instant message. However, others will be solved better through a quick phone call or video chat. Creating those standards will help to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and that everyone has a good idea of what is going on and how to solve it.


Develop a Routine

Every company operates differently, but establishing a routine with your employees is a way to improve communications within your team. Implementing daily standups, weekly one-on-ones, and even company-wide meetings will help make sure that everyone is on the same page and working towards the right goals. These routines will also help establish a feedback loop for employee performance. Having time set aside on a regular basis will help constructive feedback be more helpful, and give your employees the opportunity to ask more questions.


As you can see, improving communication in your team does not have to be a daunting task. Implementing small changes can yield big results that will improve your company’s performance, as well as your employees’ satisfaction. Try these five simple changes and see how much you can improve communication within your team.
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You can be the most talented and organized project manager there ever was, but never underestimate how much a talented business analyst brings to the table on your technical projects. They are essential for success, in my opinion. With a great BA in place you get better requirements documented, have better oversight of the technical development team on the project, gain valuable assistance on the daily interaction with the project customer, and are virtually guaranteed that user acceptance testing will be pulled off with as few glitches as possible.


The definition of the business analyst postion


A quick check on Wikipedia shows this high-level definition for a business analyst…


“A Business Analyst (BA) analyzes the organization and design of businesses, government departments, and non-profit organizations; they also assess business models and their integration with technology.”


Why I’ve valued the BA


I’ve been a project manager for 20+ years of my professional career. In all those years and on those dozens of projects of varying dollar amounts, duration, and importance, my experience with the business analyst has always been this… they are basically your technical bridge to the development team. They capture the business requirements and work with the development team or technical lead to translate the business needs of the customer into technical requirements that the developers can build the solution from.


Obviously, if this is not done well, you’ll have the same age old problem. Your development staff on the project will be building a solution that doesn’t match up well with the actual needs and requests of the customer. The customer end user will be unhappy, customer satisfaction will be low, your job will be in jeopardy, and so forth. You get the picture … and it’s not pretty.


The BA is the project glue


The business analyst – in my view and in my experience – is the glue that ties the non-technical and the technical together. As a former techie and an IT project manager, I can fill both roles if necessary on a smaller project and have on several occasions. But I’ve seen none technical project managers without any technical training try to do that and fail miserably. On my larger IT projects, I don’t know what I would have done without a very experienced business analyst who understood the business needs and was able to translate those needs well into meaningful requirements for the developers. It would have been a disaster.


I feel that it needs to be said that BAs are incredibly critical piece of the project management puzzle. They are the right hand personnel to the project manager and, depending on the project and ongoing issues, they may be the only thing keeping the project on track, the customer confidence high, and the developers up to date on what needs to happen with the solution. Their participation and their deliverables are critical to the success of the project and don’t forget that when you’re handing out kudos and acknowledging the hard work of your project professionals to their managers and to your executive management.


Summary / call for input


Readers and PM leaders – what are your best business analysts stories and experiences? Do you agree on how valuable talented business analysts can be to the project? Or do you prefer to handle the BA duties on your own? Let’s discuss…

The need for a project portfolio management tool is often dependent on the organization's size, client base, types of projects they undertake and sizes of projects they are engaging on over the course of time. Ideally, any PPM could serve the organization and provide for all the real world needs it requires of the portfolio management tool in order to best align project executions with the goals and missions – including changing goals and missions – of the organization for best project performance, prioritization and delivery?


With that in mind, let's consider the big picture wish list – what a PPM should be. Below I've listed five of those concepts and why most PPM offers fail to deliver what an organization really needs from a PPM solution in order to truly be effective...


Ability to breakdown business strategies. A solid PPM requires that you be able to break any business strategy down into multiple portfolios and organizations. Flexibility and user-friendliness are key and most offerings fail miserably in this area. These two concepts should be at the forefront of a PPMs software design and that's where most fall short.


Dynamic Prioritization. It's a key functionality of most wish lists Users should also be able to fund and staff initiatives and actions according to strategic targets, as well as available budgets and resources. This functionality should be expected out of the box in order to make PPM everything you need it to be, but in general it just isn't there.


Not be tied down to waterfall or Agile. The right PPM should allow you to plan work and schedule your resources in a standard or agile mode without being locked into either. Ideally, PPM offering should fit flexibility your organization will obviously need over your entire project portfolio.


Provide high level and wide angle views of the project landscape. A full featured PM should also be able to dynamically control execution and progress on several axes and identify the potential gaps with the original targets. High level views and wide angle views of your projects at a glance means you have access to better decision making for the full portfolio of projects you're handling at any given moment... and this is what the right PPM solution is all about. Sadly, this again another key failing point for most leading PPM offerings.


Realignment with changing organizational directions. Back to flexibility – the PPM needs to be able to re-align... periodically... with the changing direction and needs of the organization. It's how it handles these changes with the growing and changing portfolio quickly and efficiently without lots of redesign, re-configuration, or re-work that is a sign of “will it really work for your needs?”. In most cases, the answer turns out to be “no” with 95% of the PPM offerings on the table now.


Summary / call for input


Keep in mind, what I've pointed out here are some high end wish and best case scenarios for PPMs. For true effectiveness and functionality, I feel that we need to set our goals high in what we expect our PPM to do if we really want full adaptation and something that will manage our project portfolio in a way that will help, not hinder, project prioritization and strategy. When not think high – it's what we need and where our important funding dollars should be spent. Find a PPM that offers these things and the senior management funding approval will be much easier.


Readers – what are your thoughts on PPM functionality and organizational needs? Do you have a PPM solution and does it really fit your needs well? Please share and discuss.

Whether you have a formal project management process in place or not in an organization, but projects are still happening all around. Inside business units need work done. Outside clients need new services, software, and reports or tweaks to existing solutions already in place. Projects just happen.


Ideally, we’re ready to meet those needs with some formal project management practices in place. And what better way to meet those needs than to have that PM structure rolled into it’s own self-contained organization that is responsible for projects and only projects? What better way to handle these periodic engagements than to see to it that they are managed consistently, effectively, efficiently and solely by one office…one group of individuals who comprise the project management office or PMO?


PMOs are great if you’re doing them right. If a PMO is created and not utilized well, not funded well, not staffed well, or not given leverage within your organization, it can be a disaster…or at least a big waste of time and resources. And if you create a PMO and yet it fails to live up to it’s end of the bargain of basing it’s ongoing performance on some key principles and then consistently delivering, then it will likely wither away as executives bypass the PMO and send projects to their own ‘people’ who they consider to be ‘more reliable’ and ‘working in their best interest’.


I’ve worked in an organization where the project management office was not a consistent deliverer of success. We struggled to put processes in place that everyone followed. And quickly, executive management ignored us and used their own people within each business unit to oversee projects. We still managed projects, but only about 1/3 of the projects went through the PMO, when obviously all should use your organization’s PMO – that’s what it was created for. We were a charge-back unit, so slowly we were less and less profitable until the PMO became an albatross that couldn’t pay for itself. Yes, the next step was to disband and that is exactly what happened.


For a project management office to be viable – and remain viable – in an organization, then it needs to….at least in my opinion….meet these three criteria…


Have management or insight into all internal and external projects. Your PMO must be the go-to organization for all projects. Even if a BU wants to handle it’s own project, the PMO should be involved – consulting on best practices, involved in some meetings with the customer, and generally ensuring that processes are being followed and standardized reporting is actually happening. In short, any periodic project run outside of the formal PMO structure must look like those run inside – the customer must see consistent delivery and that begins and ends with the PMO.


Deliver consistency – both success and processes. No one can guarantee project success, but when an organization develops sound project management practices and processes and FOLLOWS them, then the likelihood of experiencing success and repeating success is much higher. The PMO must be built on repeatable processes, best practices for standard project status reporting and status meetings and budget management, etc. and develop documents and templates that the project managers within the PMO can use to consistently deliver the same type of project management across all of the projects that are being handled.


Be visible to and keep approval of senior company leadership. Funding and backing is critical. If those in charge see you as viable and are providing the funding to help ensure that, then the likelihood that the entire organization will adopt you and utilize you as required, is much higher. If executive management sees your PMO as a failing organization or one without consistent leadership and delivery, then the PMO’s days are numbered and projects will be sent to more ‘favored’ individuals in the organizations.


Summary / call for feedback


Project offices are great – if you run a good one. A bad one or one that lacks authority is just baggage that is costing the company money. A PMO that meets these three criteria at least has a fighting chance at success. Now it needs to be stocked with experienced project managers, have good leadership for the office, and be connected in the organization…but all that should happen with a good PMO in place.


How about your experiences…what do you find to be the best criteria for a viable PMO?

Managing projects is an important business function that provides great value to the organization. Can you imagine working at a place that doesn’t have proper management? – It will be chaotic.

Project managers are responsible for planning, executing, monitoring, and closing projects when finished. They are also responsible for making the project possible such as managing their budget, assembling a project team, and setting timelines.

It is a complicated job that involves many responsibilities, which is why many people are scared of it. Managing complex projects can be an overwhelming process that will spike your nerves and make you stressed.
That’s why we decided to highlight some of the tips for a project manager that will help you do your job more efficiently.

Understand Your Goal

It is important to set things the right way from the start. Understanding your goal will point out all the things you need to consider before it is too late.

During the project, you might find yourself confronted by situations that can influence your project’s direction. Having a goal will keep everybody working on the same wave line, which is necessary for finishing the project the way you like it.

Communication is Crucial

When they think about project management, most people think about communicating with their team members about the schedule, working style, etc. Yes, your team needs to have good chemistry, but many people don’t know the importance of communication on the personal side of project management.

You must find the time to communicate with your family and friends about your work. Sharing deadlines, type of work, and management issues will create a much-needed understanding of your limitations in the project. It will also remove some of the weight from your shoulders, making you more efficient in managing your tasks.

Manage Risk

Every project comes with risks, and it is your job to determine those factors and remove them from the project. This is known as “risk response strategy,” where your job is to identify all the potential risks even before the project starts.

This will make you more prepared when unexpected things happen during the project’s lifetime.

Don’t Be a Perfectionist

It is in our human nature to aim for perfection when we are managing a project. However, this could have negatively influenced the outcomes of the project. Employees should focus on finishing the task with decent results and always on time. Being a perfectionist can only postpone the project and potentially increase your costs. For this reason, project managers should forget about perfectionism, and instead, they should focus on meeting project goals.

Efficiency is very important when managing projects, and being a perfectionist will only make things more difficult for you and your team.

Avoid Multitasking

Before starting the project, you should create a detailed plan on how you want to handle all the responsibilities and tasks that need to be finished. This will enable you to create a path that your project is going to follow.

Most people who avoid planning get lost in the project, forcing them to multitask and tackle more things at once. Recent analysis suggests that people that are switching between tasks lose around 40% of their productivity. So, try to tackle tasks one by one.

Provide the Right Tools for the Team

You cannot expect people to finish their requirements if you don’t provide them with the right tools for the project. For example, how can the best male or best woman UFC fighter be able to compete if they don’t have gym access with adequate tools? It would be ridiculous right?\

Also, there are many tools available that can simplify the process and won’t cost too much. You should provide tools for organization and guidelines for your team to follow and ease the process.

So, it is a good idea to find the best approach for all tasks and have an open mind to new ideas. That way, you can increase your team’s efficiency and make everything easier for you and your team.

Final Words

Project management can be a hard job if you don’t do things the right way. It is crucial to make things right from the start, from choosing the right team members to making the perfect plan for finishing the project.

By following these tips, you’ll simplify the process and avoid unnecessary setbacks that can push you away from your goals.

Have you ever been running a project or have taken over a floundering project and been made aware that the project client is seeking to cancel the engagement and possibly even get their money back? That's a big one. If you're being called in to take it over and “fix it” then it's not you and fingers likely won't point at you (though being associated at all with utter failure can be bad). Either way, it's a tough scenario to find yourself in and your response and action must be planned, positive, swift, confident and definitely forward thinking.


I've been in this boat before – but only in terms of taking over troubled projects so it's more of the “rescue” mentality than the “I caused this” mentality... trust me it's a better mindset to go forward with. To do so, I've always followed these five steps...


Clarify their demands. What is the issue or issues? What got the project to this point? Do you think it can be saved? Does the client think there is any chance? Does the team think you can collectively save it? If there is a chance, it's worth a try – that's why you're there. Plus, completing a $500,000 project vs. giving the client their money back is a $1 million dollar difference... even if you have to give away a bunch of free work to turn it around.


Step back and meet with the team. Stop the project for a week or a month, if necessary. Meet with your team to strategize and consider options. What are your three best options for turning it around to a successful outcome? Put together detailed plans including a project timeline, resource usage and budget for getting there based on each of the strategies or options you come up with.


Propose strategies toward a solution to the client. Next, take strategies, plans, timeline and budget info to the client and discuss. They need to see the budget either way – even if you are going to do the work for free. If they see you plan to give away $125,000 in work to make this right it might help make them more cooperative on working toward a successful outcome. They will understand how hard you are trying to make this right. Now, jointly assess with the client and team and prioritize the strategies and prepare to move forward with the best chosen solution from this discussion.


Move forward with the joint chosen strategy. You have your strategies prioritized and have jointly decided which path to start on to hopefully improve the situation or entirely fix the issues on the project. At this point, incorporate the chosen strategy timeline, resource forecast and budget into the actual project timeline, resource forecast and budget and consider it “back to work as normal.” Move forward with confidence, but be prepared to meet more regularly and communicate more heavily so as to stay on top of progress and ensure it's making a positive difference.


Followup and assess. Is it working? Is progress being made – and by that I mean favorable progress. Is the client's satisfaction level improving and their frustration level decreasing? There is no reason to keep moving forward if you aren't making reasonable progress. If that's the case, then at least you can say you took great steps to try to fix the problem and it just didn't work out. But if you can see good progress and the customer's outlook has improved, then keep moving forward. Have frequent discussions with the client to ensure they are happy with the progress – that's what it's all about.


Summary / call for input


The bottom line is this – you can make some of your clients very happy. But there will be those who are never happy or those where the issues got out of hand and you just can't move forward. Throwing in the towel is sometimes your only option. But you certainly want that to be the rare experience and you never want to go down without a fight. So work hard with the customer to keep them and figure things out. Don't be hesitant or embarrassed – it happens to everyone and your project client will likely appreciate your efforts to “right the ship” so to speak. And if you are able to do it – then it's a win-win.


Readers – how do you feel about this list? Have you had clients be so frustrated that they asked to cancel the project and possibly even get their money back? How did you respond? What actions did you take? Please share your experiences and discuss.

Got a project on shaky ground? We've all been there. We've all had those situations where we had one too many projects and one of them seems to be slipping into troubled waters. Or the customer is nowhere to be found and you need sign off on user acceptance testing (UAT). Or very few stakeholders seem to be on the same page in spite of your best efforts to keep them there. Or possibly the budget or timeline is beginning to go out of control. There are a hundred (maybe million?) different reasons, excuses, issues, causes, risks, behaviors, and out of your control problems that can arise that cause one of your projects to start to spiral downward... and you need a quick fix to get control back in your hands. Let's consider together some thoughts on how we might take some of the more common of these scenarios and apply a fix to them. Please share your thoughts on my list and add your own by commenting here – you'll be helping everyone!


Communication breakdown. If communication is the problem, it may be the meeting schedule and the way meetings are handled. To rectify, incorporate a daily project status/summary email that goes out to the team, the customer, all stakeholders and senior management. To improve the meetings, be sure to plan well in advance, send info in advance so participants can prepare and participate effectively knowing what will be expected of them, and followup after each meeting with notes to ensure everyone is on the same page. Ask for feedback if individuals are thinking they had a different understanding. You can't allow things to continue down that path.


Financial troubles. My stance has long been that if you stay on top of the project budget weekly and re-forecast every week with the overall project financials reflecting the current actual charges as well, it is very difficult to ever go more than 10% over on the budget without knowing it. No surprises – and no one likes financial surprises that don't involve scratch off lottery tickets. So if you are experience some financial troubles on your project right now and you're over 10% off budget, you'll need to take whatever corrective action you can to try to get back at least to that 10% bar, if possible. First, figure out the leak. It may be incorrect charges or even your own project team putting too many hours of labor against your project. If they don't know how important the financials are to you and how closely you are tracking them – make them aware now. Everyone has those “grey project hours” that they know they worked on one or more of the projects they are assigned to, but didn't track till the end of the week. If they think you aren't the project manager watching financials closely, you may get those grey hours. Don't let that happen. Fix them going back and stop them going forward. It can make a huge difference.


Timeline off track. If they project timeline is going off the rails, it may be time to step back and look at what could be moved around on the project. Is there a project deliverable or phase that could be moved out or is essentially non-essential to the initial delivery of the solution. Probably not, but if there is something that can get you closer to the point of delivering the necessary functionality on the due date, that would be worth taking to the negotiating table with the client and probably eating the costs to make that happen. It will mean more work, re-work and post-implementation work you probably won't be paid for unless the delays can be traced to the client. But happy clients are priceless, so it may be worth it.


Resource issues. If the project is experiencing resource issues that are causing delivery issues with the engagement, then those need to be resolved as quickly and smoothly as possible. It doesn't matter if it's resources that need to be replaced, added, removed, retrained or reprimanded... whatever needs to be done should be done as much out of the client's site as possible. They will know, but the less you let it become a project-wide event the better as that would only serve to affect the confidence of the customer in you to control your resources and deliver a successful project.






Where's my customer when I need him? The customer disappearing sounds like a luxury, right? No overbearing customer micro-managing you and asking questions at every turn. But in reality, we need our project clients throughout the project to give and receive information, aide in certain decisions and provide approvals and sign offs. So, if your project customer is prone to disappearing for long periods of time to work on his day job – meaning everything else he had going on before this project was dumped in his lap – then you may have to think creatively to keep him involved. For me that usually means keeping some tasks assigned to him at all times so he needs to be present at weekly project status meetings to discuss and provide updates. But watch out, he may try to delegate that.


Summary / for input


There are no one-size-fits-all fixes. Sometimes tweaking the status report can make the customer change their feelings about the engagement give them a better outlook overall. Sometimes replacing a vendor can change the supply or service availability necessary for the project. But, in generally, if the project needs help, there isn't a solution that will help every scenario or even every similar scenario – it will always be case-by-case on projects.


Readers – what are your feelings about this list? What would you change or add to it? Please share and discuss.

Most of us don't like meetings very much. We see them as getting in the way of “real work.” And often, when we do attend meetings, we have our laptop or tablet with us to “take notes” but we may be doing other “real work” we have going on and paying very little attention to the active discussion...just listening loosely and trying to catch if we hear our name called so we aren't utterly embarrassed. Does this sound familiar? I'm a project manager and one very, very routine remote customer weekly status call where I was playing only a support role and I knew I didn't need to be much of the project discussion I actually fixed the hinges on one of my laptops during the meeting...multi-tasking at it's best. But I wouldn't recommend that for everyone...


If you want to be that guy who has the best meetings, gets the most accomplished during those meetings and gets people in the seats week in and week out, there are a few steps you need to follow for your meetings. Doing so will put you in a meeting facilitator class by yourself...and in my opinion and from my experience...the four key steps for that are....


Plan the agenda and carefully consider who you need info from. It all starts with good planning and a proper agenda. Know what you want to and need to accomplish. From that you should know who you need to have in attendance. Usually, on a project it will be most or all of the project team on both sides – delivery team and customer team. But there may be other key stakeholders or senior management you need to consider inviting in order to get the right assignments or decisions made at any given meeting. Don't just default to a list. The last thing you want to do is to fail to get something accomplished just because you forgot to invite the right person. Don't waste people's time. There time is as important as yours.


Distribute the agenda and materials in advance for maximum participation and productivity. Next, get the agenda and any necessary accompanying materials out to individuals in advance of the meeting. While these steps can apply to just about any business meeting you can think of, for a project these materials will probably include the up to date project schedule, the resource forecast, current budget information and forecast, and other lists like issues, change orders and risks.


Stay on schedule. This one is big if you want to build your reputation as someone who puts on efficient and worthwhile meetings. Don't cancel, don't start late, don't run over. Trust me, it will help your meeting facilitator reputation and future attendance. Avoid afternoon meetings when people are tired after lunch – people tend to load up on carbs and then pass out during meetings. And never be the donut guy. You want to put on a good meeting and you don't need to serve donuts and snacks to get that done. You need to stick to a schedule and not hold up everything to bring the late comers up to speed. Avoid doing that and they will stop coming late. And even if you have very little new news at a regular weekly status meeting, don't cancel. Take 5 minutes and at least go around the room to get any updates or information – you never know when the smallest piece of information that would otherwisef fall through the cracks can stop a scope management problems saving the project thousands of dollars. Plus, canceling meetings will cause people to stop coming to the regular meetings on a regular basis.


Follow up with notes and revisions. This step is critical to ensuring everyone is on the same page. You may think you covered everything but there is likely someone out there who interpreted what you said or someone said differently than you did. Distribute the agenda with updated notes and assignments/outcomes to everyone and ask for their feedback/revisions or concurrence within 24 hours. Then, if appropriate, redistribute. This is the best way to make sure everyone has the same information when the meeting is over.


Summary / call for input


A well orchestrated meeting can do a lot of work for you. You can get solid attendance and participation, key decisions can be made, and people will show up for assignments meaning you won't be trying to track them down afterwards. Most meetings aren't well run, and the after work for the project manager ends up being as much time and effort as having one or two more meetings. Don't let that be you. Follow these steps and let the meeting and participants do the work for you while you gain the reputation as someone who's meetings are meaningful and should not be skipped.


Readers – what are your thoughts on these steps? Do you agree? What would you add or change? What seems to work best for you?