Author: Elizabeth Harrin
Elizabeth Harrin has over twenty years’ experience in projects. Elizabeth has led a variety of IT and process improvement projects including ERP and communications developments. She is also experienced in managing business change, having spent eight years working in financial services (including two based in Paris, France). Elizabeth is the author of 7 project management books including Managing Multiple Projects. She is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management and writes the popular blog, Rebel’s Guide to Project Management.
The Time Maximizer Mindset: 8 Tips for Boosting Productivity
Here is a suggested meta description for the article: Boost productivity by adopting a time maximizer mindset. This article outlines 8 practical tips to streamline processes like documenting steps, creating templates, using automation tools, and scheduling reflection time - making future tasks easier and faster.
Too Many Project Reports? Here’s How to Write Fewer!
In a survey of project managers, 42% of respondents say they would ditch chasing people for status updates if they could, and 13% say they’d love to take project reporting off their To Do list. I don’t think reporting itself is the problem. After all, it’s part of the job. However, if you are managing more than one project, end-of-month reporting gets overwhelming. It can feel like you’re spending more time writing and getting input to reports than you’re doing actual project delivery and leadership. Typically, project managers report weekly or monthly, sharing the current status, progress, risks, issues, outstanding decisions, budget situation, and anything else that speaks to project performance. Some teams may have a daily standup meeting to take the pulse of the project(s). In this article, I’ll share a few tips from my book, Managing Multiple Projects, about how to streamline your reporting process if you’re leading more than one initiative. Create an Informed Culture As Graham Allcott and Hayley Watts say in their book, How to Fix Meetings (2021), a culture of good reporting leads to fewer meetings. The more you proactively keep people informed, the fewer meetings stakeholders will need from you. We can’t get away from keeping people informed, and we wouldn’t want to. The first tip is to make sure you are being informative at all times, in meetings, in casual conversations, and in emails. Set the expectation that information is to be shared. When the culture is communicative and collaborative, it is easier to get updates from people because you know what is going on anyway, and they have a good relationship with you and are happy to share. Combine Reporting If you are leading multiple small projects for the same sponsor or manager, then you can combine project reporting to make it even easier. Best practice is to create a combined report template. I do this in a table. Agree on core performance items to report against and list these in the first column. Typically, they would be the ‘standard’ things you report against, like: Create a column for each project. Realistically, you can probably only fit three projects on a portrait-orientation page, so if you need one or two more, switch your page to landscape orientation. Put the project names across the top. Add a way to show the overall project status for each initiative. We do that by changing the cell background color to the appropriate Red, Amber/Yellow, or Green status to reflect the summary project status, and adding a letter in brackets after the project name as an additional written representation of the color. For example, “Product launch (R). This increases accessibility and understanding. Green means the project is progressing to plan, Amber/Yellow shows it is at risk, and Red shows it needs management attention. This is a very visual way of helping readers identify the projects they need to pay most attention to. This approach works well where stakeholders overlap between projects. For example, the project sponsor is the same individual, or all the projects use the same IT resource. If the projects are completely standalone, with no shared stakeholders, a combine report might be easier for you to create, but it doesn’t add value to the audience as they will see information for projects they don’t care about. Prioritize the Reports The more projects you have, the harder it is to prepare consolidated reports that appear meaningful and are still easy to interpret. There’s little value in presenting a single slide on each of 20 small projects for a client and then expecting them to understand which of those projects they should pay the most attention to. The larger your portfolio of open items, the more work it takes to highlight where management attention is required. Prioritize the way you present the projects. At the top of the list should be the projects that have a Red status and need input or decisions from your manager, client, project sponsor, or governance group. Focus on the initiatives that they need to be aware of for their work, because they can positively influence the outcome or remove roadblocks. Report on Groups of Projects Another way to streamline reporting of large amounts of small projects is to put projects into groups. For example, all projects finishing in the third quarter, or all projects that use a particular technology. Then, report against the group, not against individual projects. You can still call out progress or sticking points on each project, but you’re only creating one report that covers a variety of initiatives. Highlight the key milestones across a group and report against those to show aggregated progress. Focus on Benefits Another way to report against groups of smaller projects is to identify the organizational benefits that will be achieved across a group. Flag the contribution of each project and report on how close you are to achieving those benefits. While project-level reporting may be expected, there is often more organizational value in understanding the impact or contribution of a group of initiatives that deliver results towards a common goal. This works well if you are reporting to a client or key internal stakeholder who is focused on outcomes and benefits over project-related milestones. The Bottom Line: Think Critically About Reporting Project reporting is expected, and you will have to do it, but you can have conversations with the PMO about the format and structure of the reports. If you have many smaller projects, it’s often more time efficient to look at smart ways to group and consolidate reporting to streamline the overhead of creating updates. Not sure where to start? This month, if you have the time, prepare consolidated reports, as well as any individual reports that are mandated by the management team, and see how they respond to seeing the bigger picture. As long as people still get what they need to make decisions, you may find that your stakeholders are open to receiving reports in a different format and that you’ve reduced your reporting overhead and added value to how information is presented at the same time. Related Content Efficient Project Portfolio Reporting for Microsoft Project Desktop Custom Visual Reports for Multiple Project Schedules FORUM: Tracking Resources to Multiple Projects
Too Much to Do? Here’s How to Talk to Your Boss About Your Workload
Learn how to discuss your overwhelming workload with your boss in 7 simple steps. Take control, set priorities, and reduce stress for a more manageable work life.
Introduction to Earned Value Formulas
Earned Value Management (EVM) helps you assess project performance based on cost and schedule metrics. This introduction explains key EVM formulas, including Earned Value (EV), Cost Variance (CV), and Schedule Performance Index (SPI), and shows how to interpret and use these measures for better project control.
Why Earned Value Management is Important
This article discusses the definition of earned value and the five reasons why earned value management is important to project success.
From Planning to Delivery: 8 Performance Domains in PMBOK – Seventh Edition
Project management is more than a set of processes. The PMBOK® Guide 7th ed. codifies 8 performance domains from planning to delivery.
Setting Goals
Every month, project management expert, Elizabeth Harrin, fields readers’ questions about the challenges, risks, and rewards of project work on the LiquidPlanner blog. This selection is used with permission. Dear Elizabeth: It’s that time of year again—reviewing the year gone by and preparing for the New Year’s goals and commitments. I could use some new ideas to get myself and my team excited about reviewing what they’ve accomplished and using that to set up some goals they’re excited about. Any tips? – Goaltender Dear Goaltender: First, congratulations on caring enough about your team that you want them to be excited about the coming year and what they’ve achieved. Far too many people in your situation see end-of-year reviews as a bureaucratic process to get through before they leave for the holidays. So, kudos to you! I find that team members have short memories and will often only bring to the table things that they have achieved in the last few months. You could give them a template that says things like: In March I achieved . . . In April I delighted this customer . . . And so on. Ask them to go through their project plans, notebooks, and emails to find the examples if they don’t immediately spring to mind. There are a ton of achievements stored in their project management software so they will be able to find something, I promise. As for [the upcoming year], you could think forward and ask them to imagine what their end of year review would look like. What do they hope they have achieved? What projects would they like to have worked on, or what skills would they have developed? This can help build a sense of interest in the coming year. Finally, use the end of year conversations with your team to share with them as much as you can about the wider business plans. People are inspired when they know they are part of a company that is going somewhere. Talk about the plans you have for new clients and new projects and business developments. Show them what they could be part of over the next 12 months.
Troubleshooting Remote Teams’ Communication Troubles
Dear Elizabeth: I work on a remote team that’s spread all over the world practically! Both coasts of the U.S., Europe and Asia. Even though we have a cloud-based project management system that anyone can access from anywhere, there’s still a lot lost in translation. Sometimes I feel like we spend more time trying to clarify our communication—requests, bugs, feedback—than making substantial headway. Do you have any advice on how to handle geographic and cultural barriers to working remotely? – Communication Breakdown Dear Communication: Can you get everyone together for a special kick-off event? That can really help cement relationships on the team and get everyone on the same page for project communications. However, let’s assume that you can’t for now, because that’s the situation that many project managers find themselves in. First, strip back how you are communicating to the very basics. Stop using project-related or cultural jargon. State expectations clearly, and use the facts. It’s impossible to expect someone else to take a task as a priority if you state it as: “When you get a moment can you look at the risk report for the software changes please?” In my world, that means: “Drop everything and review it now,”—but that’s a culturally-specific interpretation particular to my team! You could also drop English as the main language for communication when a discussion between native speakers of another language has to happen: Don’t impose English as the language of the tool when it’s hampering communication. Next, think about how you can stop using words and start using visuals to communicate instead. Clarify your requests with screenshots, graphics and videos of the bug that you upload instead of a long text description. Finally, take some time to understand how your team members think and respond. The best way to do this is to simply ask. Try to get closer to their culture and working practices. It will help you establish whether cultural differences are holding your project back or if it’s something as simple as the language barrier. Every month, project management expert, Elizabeth Harrin, fields readers’ questions about the challenges, risks, and rewards of project work on the LiquidPlanner blog. This selection is used with permission.