Management and Leadership – Managing Your Virtual Team

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People used to think that “working from home” was code for “getting paid to eat Oreos in pajamas”, but with the recent recession, getting paid at all isn’t anything to take chances with. If you’re engaged in virtual project management you can’t physically just drop in to check on your workers – at least, not without a lot of gas, possibly a jet, and the risk of some extremely unpleasant surprises. But with the right web based project management software it’s entirely possible to keep tabs on your employees – without them setting their Twitter status message as 1984.

The main problem with online collaboration is that your staff, by definition, must have a reliable access to the Internet. Aka “The Infinite Distraction Engine.” Administering employees online can be like herding cats, except the cats are all in different countries, and invisible. The cats also have access to YouTube. How can you remotely manage them?

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Elmer Thomas blogs primarily at Thinking Serious which focuses on programming, design, business and productivity content for tech entrepreneurs living in a 2.0 world. That is, when he is not tickling his entrepreneur itch or consulting. To read Elmer’s complete biography, click here.

Project Management Best Practice 3 – Line Management Project Ownership

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Whether creating a new product or service or upgrading an internal process or software application, all projects fundamentally represent a change to the way an organization does business. This change is represented by two components, the technical object being added or altered and the emotional acceptance and implementation of the new technical object by the workforce. While each change component is equally important to the project’s success, it is the later that often poses the most risk of failure. To reduce this risk and thereby increase the project’s likelihood of success requires strong line ownership especially on the part of executives and managers.

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Project Management Best Practice 2 – Define What is Not In Scope

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All project managers know one of the greatest risks to the on-time, on-budget completion of their project is scope creep; the gradual expansion of functionality, broadening in organizational application, and/or increase in quality requirements often without a commensurate increase in project resources or duration. Subsequently, project managers strive to clearly define their project’s scope in order to defend against scope creep. But when doing so, they often forgo an invaluable tool; defining what is outside their project’s scope.

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Project Management Best Practice 1 – The Project Management Intensity Continuum

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Any amount of management represents an overhead expense to the endeavor to which the oversight is applied. Therefore, it is critically important the amount of management applied is limited to that which yields an increased overall product value and not so much that overall value is diminished. This balance between applied management intensity and overall valued added is represented by the Project Management Intensity Continuum.

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StrategyDriven Project Management Forum

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“A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”

Project Management Body of Knowledge
Third Edition
Project Management Institute

To many, project management represents their worst nightmare. The mere mention of the term conjures images of bloated bureaucracies, large consultant-laden teams, and endless meetings where decisions are seldom made and status is often reported as being behind. Executed properly, project management can be an effective tool for aligning the organization to the successful implementation of simple and complex initiatives.

An art and a science, project management is most effective when implemented with a rigor correlated to the scope and complexity of the work to be performed. Regardless of intensity, the management of projects consists of five phases:

  • Initiate – initial, high-level project definition and authorization
  • Plan – project scope refinement and approval; task identification and sequencing; resource to task allocation; schedule development; project cost estimation and budget development; project plan creation and baselining
  • Execute – project plan execution
  • Evaluate and Control – project plan execution performance monitoring and reporting; project scope and plan change control; project risk management
  • Close – final project activity documentation; financial closeout; overall project performance assessment and lessons learned development; product evaluation; project administrative closure

Focus of the Project Management Forum

Materials in the Project Management Forum are dedicated to discussing the leading practices of companies effectively managing projects for the efficient achievement of mission goals. Additionally, all project management information presented will be aligned with, compliment, and expound on the project management processes described by the Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The following articles, podcasts, documents, and resources cover those topics critical to the effective management of consequential projects.

Articles

Principles

Best Practices

Warning Flags

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor Articles

StrategyDriven Podcasts

StrategyDriven Podcast – Special Edition

Documents

Whitepapers

Resources

Books

To supplement the project management information found on the StrategyDriven website, our contributors recommend the Project Management Institute’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Third Edition (PMBOK Guides). This book is a complete process reference covering all aspects of project management including:

  • Project Integration Management
  • Project Scope Management
  • Project Time Management
  • Project Cost Management
  • Project Quality Management
  • Project Human Resource Management
  • Project Communications Management
  • Project Risk Management
  • Project Procurement management