Version 2010.10.07 – Alternative Email Notifications’ Subject Line
Introducing a more significant subject line in email notifications.
Take the risk of trusting your team
Background on this post
I wrote this post as a bit of a manifesto. I often have the impression from project managers that, while they expect their teams to trust them, they are not giving the trust back to the team. And it occurred to me that this really was about taking a risk, and managing that risk in the project.
Take the risk of trusting your team
From the part of the person who gives it, trust is hard. It requires
a leap of faith. It requires that we believe the person we trust is
worth it.
From the part of the person who receives it, trust is energizing. It
means that someone was willing to take that leap of faith for us. It
means we are worth it. Trust also carries responsibility: if we want to
keep that trust, we must prove the giver right. This means delivering
on that trust.
Project management requires a high level of trust
- The project manager must trust the team to do quality work on time and on budget.
- The project team must trust the project manager to lead them […]
Project managers who like to learn belong on Twitter
Ah, Twitter. Possibly the most misunderstood tool online.
A lot of people wonder “what’s the deal with Twitter? Why would I tell the world what I had for lunch?”
For us at Websystems, Twitter is a learning tool. The amount of information, wisdom and discussion that happens on the twitternets is simply amazing. Since each post is only 140-characters long, not only must people be concise and to the point, but it’s also very quick to browse through all those tweets.
The secret to getting good information from Twitter is to use hashtags. Hashtags are like search terms that people will put at the end of their posts. Then, through a simple search on the Twemes website or with your favorite Twitter application, you can see everything that’s going on for that keyword.
The popular one related to project management is #pmot (for project managers on twitter). There’s also #pmi, #pmp, #agile and #pmiagile
Here is what was posted recently:
Essentially, […]
Take the risk of trusting your team
From the part of the person who gives it, trust is hard. It requires a leap of faith. It requires that we believe the person we trust is worth it.
From the part of the person who receives it, trust is energizing. It means that someone was willing to take that leap of faith for us. It means we are worth it. Trust also carries responsibility: if we want to keep that trust, we must prove the giver right. This means delivering on that trust.
Project management requires a high level of trust
- The project manager must trust the team to do quality work on time and on budget.
- The project team must trust the project manager to lead them efficiently and help them meet their deadlines.
- The stakeholders must trust the project manager to understand their needs.
- The project sponsors must trust the project manager to control the project and prevent cost and schedule overruns.
In a nutshell, the project team must trust each other. That includes the project manager, the team, the stakeholder and the sponsors. For most of us, […]
Sharing the burden of project updates with your team: why collaborative project management tools are a time-saver and team-builder.
There are two schools of thought with project management tools: project management OR collaboration.
Why should project teams have two tools, one for project management and one for collaboration? Shouldn’t both these uses be united in one tool?
Project management is not about secrecy, quite the contrary. It’s about sharing information with everyone who needs it. Project management is about getting your team to work together to achieve results.
When using a collaborative project management system, you not only share information on the project with the team, your stakeholders and even your clients, you also get to share the burden to updating project information with your team. Instead of the project manager being the only one updating task statuses and entering time sheet data, it’s everyone in the team who does. The project manager simply double-checks and approves the updates.
Not only does it save tremendous amounts of time, it also empowers the team. It gives the team members responsibility towards the project, beyond their assigned work.
LinkedIn changes the way sales work
We’ve had our Linkedin profile for while now, but we were not very active on the network until a few months ago. That’s when we discovered Linkedin Groups. We signed on for project-management related groups. The discussions on Linkedin groups are insightful, interesting, and go deeper than those on Twitter.
On Linkedin, we are all individuals, not the companies we represent. We become part of the community. And this is a much more powerful sales tool than one would expect. At first, it may seem like a big investment in time, that yields no direct sales.
This is not true.
Linkedin is about people. And people need tools and products in their lives. Guess who people will listen to when they are looking to buy something? Their network. It’s simple really.
And the great thing is it really works. I follow and contribute to Linkedin groups when I feel relevant to do so. I am not pushing anyone or spamming groups to promote AceProject. However, when someone is looking for project management software, I’ll tell them about […]
Virtual teams make everything more difficult
Virtual teams are a fact of today’s projects. With outsourcing and increased mobility for the workforce, there is a higher proportion of people who either work in satellite locations, or simply work from home.
The project team becomes virtual. How can we keep up with everyone when we can’t see them?
A huge part of project management is getting a feel of how the team is doing
How can we do that without seeing the people we work with? After all, the biggest part of a person’s message is not conveyed with words. It’s transmitted via pitch and intonation of voice, the way she sits or stands, her facial expressions and hand gestures. These are all things someone can’t show in an email, a tweet or a chat window. And while video conferencing and conference calls can help getting a bit more from that team member, it’s still not the same as being right in front her.
Another issue is created by writing instead of talking. In writing, people have different personalities. When we write something, it’s not spontaneous. […]
How to get the most out of AceProject, Part II: Teachers and Schools
Last week, we saw how AceProject can help consultants ensure their budgets stay on budget.
This week, we’ll see how teachers and schools can improve communications with their students and keep track of all their classes in a central location. For workshop-oriented classes, AceProject can make your class like a project team.
One project, one class
AceProject helps prepare your materials for your classes. Simply setup each class as a project.
Then, you can create a task for each thing that you need to do to prepare the class, such as your class presentations, exams, or handouts. You can also create a task for each important event when you give the class, such as exam dates and paper due dates.
Not only can you upload all your documents to the task, you can even keep several versions of the same document right there in the task.
Once your class is all setup, you can keep it as a template and recreate the project for each term that […]
Project management and communications
It’s easy to get swallowed by project management tools. It’s easy to feel that we can get all the information we need from a piece of software.
But it’s not true.
If you want to know how well a project is going, take your team to lunch. They will tell you more about the project than any statistic. While you’re sitting at the table with your team, take a look at their non-verbal behavior. Are they happy to be together? Are they talking to each other? Are they just sitting there, waiting for lunch to end?
How your team interacts together will show if they are getting along and where there might be personality clashes. Moreover, the general mood of the team is a good indicator of the project’s status.
5 ways to involve your client in your projects
When managing a project, it’s important not to lose sight with who you’re working for. Your client is not always an actual customer. Not always the person who pays for the project, your client can also be the person who will use the product or service you are making. For example, if you’re reorganizing archives at your work, the client could be those who need to search the archives: administrative and customer service teams.
It can be quite disheartening to deliver something that disappoints the client. After all, you worked hard on that project, and you would like people to be impressed. If you want to make sure your client is happy with your work, involve them from the start, and keep them involved all the way through.
Start from a client request
A project for the sake of a project is useless. Find something that someone needs, and do it. Most organizations have wish lists where clients or other employees contribute; they are a great starting place.
Right from the start
Even before you start planning your project, contact […]