As a project manager, it’s your job to successfully guide a project through to completion within a specific time and budget. As a their leader, your team will look to you as a teacher, mentor and problem solver; you will need to be ready to help them with any questions or problems. Also, you need to communicate with the client. They will expect that you are organized and up to date with all elements of the project. Here are some tips to help you streamline your process and increase the efficiency of your team.

1. Have Clear Project Goals

Make sure you have all the details in front of you before you start. Get everything in writing so that a detailed timeline and a realistic budget can be drawn up and agreed on by stakeholders. Having this at the beginning, will make you instrumental in choosing the right team for the project. You will be able to select members whose skill-sets are right for each task. It also helps you avoid ‘scope creep’ when the client wants little things added here and there. When this happens, suddenly the project can look very different than how it started. Even though it’s likely that the project will change slightly before its completion. When you outline clear project goals at the start, you will maintain control of the project.

2. Be Dynamic

Once you have your plan in place, remain flexible. All sorts of things can happen which could change the plan slightly. But if you can anticipate these and are ready to act when they come up, you will find yourself better equipped to deal with them. Before your project starts think about potential issues that could arise, how to prevent them, and, if they arise, how you will resolve them. You need to fulfill your role as a team leader in these situations and deal with these issues confidently and calmly.

3. Communication

You need to ensure your team clearly communicates with one another. Make sure that everyone knows what the aims of the project are and how to achieve them. Any change to plans need to be understood by the team members and they must be able to discuss any concerns freely. Short and regular meetings keep everyone updated, instead of long and infrequent ones. In doing this, you will be able to spot any problems emerging more quickly. Therefore, having meetings frequently, you will maintain a high level of motivation and morale within the team as it helps everyone feel included and promotes a good group dynamic.

Make sure you’re communicating with the client. Keep them updated on progress or any potential problems and of course listen to their feedback. This way, you won’t run the risk of them becoming unhappy with any steps you have taken.

4. Stay on Track

One of your main tasks as project manager is to make sure that the team is working well together – that they are on the right track and sticking to the schedule. There is project management software which can help you track the progress your team is making. Online Kanban boards, even a physical one in the office, helps you visualize your workflow, facilitating efficient  use of time. If everyone in the team has access to the board, they can update their progress, making status-update meetings quicker. Gantt charts also work in a similar way, helping you to visualize the tasks that need to be done against the time they are likely to take for completion.

5. Review The Project to Improve for The Next Time

To finish, when the project is over it’s imperative that you examine what you did during the project and learn from your actions. It’s important to work out exactly what worked well and what didn’t. In order to make sure your company maintains its edge over any competitors you must always seek to improve. Encourage your team members and clients to give you feedback to help with this. Stay up to date with what’s going on in your company and any new project management theories between projects. Project management is a continuous process of analyzing, prioritizing and reviewing in order to make right decisions quickly. Final tip, stay focused and organised at every stage and you will do great work.

For more tips on project success check-out this video.

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You and your project team have worked through the planning phase. You have devised a solid strategy for your project. However, as Peter Drucker said, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work.” With your detailed plan in hand, your team is ready to start phase #3, the Execution phase.

Roli Pathak, in her overview Top 5 Project Management Phases, says of this phase “a project deliverable is developed and completed, adhering to a mapped-out plan. A lot of tasks during this phase capture project metrics through tasks like status meetings and project status updates, other status reports, human resource needs and performance reports. This is an important phase as it will help you understand whether your project will be a success or failure.”

Exploring Phase #3 – Execution

At this stage in the project life cycle, you will finalize your complete project team and acquire all essential resources needed to accomplish the tasks laid out in the planning documentation. Your focus as project manager will change to performing and supervising all activities to create the tangible product or service as outlined in the project plan.

Department of Information Systems Arkansas | Project Management Methodology

The execution phase will likely take the longest amount of time to achieve of any of the phases. You can anticipate using most of your resources and energy during the completion of this stage.

Closely tied to the execution phase is phase 4, Monitoring & Control. We will study specifics of phase 4 in my next exploration post. Keep in mind, however, that during execution, you will create a management process to track time, resource expenditure, delays, issues, etc. ensuring that you and your team don’t forfeit quality.

Jason Westland is the Founder and CEO of ProjectManager.com. In his book, The Project Management Life Cycle, A complete step-by-step methodology for initiating, planning, executing & closing a project successfully, he said, “The execution phase is typically the longest phase of the project in terms of duration. It is the phase within which the deliverables are physically constructed and presented to the customer for acceptance. To ensure that the customer’s requirements are met, the project manager monitors and controls the activities, resources, and expenditure required to build each deliverable. A number of management processes are undertaken to ensure that the project proceeds as planned. The activities shown in Figure 1.5 are undertaken.”

In this visual, Jason illustrates how phase 3 and 4 share simultaneous actions, and which activities take place during this time.

Project Manager Priorities

Your visibility as the project manager becomes prominent during the execution phase, as stakeholders, clients, and executive management will expect progress updates.

Department of Information Systems Arkansas | Project Management Methodology

As project manager, you don’t want to be so hands-on executing activities personally as you will bog yourself down in the tedium of specific tasks. You should instead supervise your team and facilitate each member’s achievement leaving yourself free to communicate efficiently with management. Your focus must be on handling the expectations of your client.

Your goal is to pay special attention and to make sure that you keep all parties involved abreast of any developments including routine status updates, resource usage, and any other pertinent issues. You want to achieve and maintain quality throughout, catching and mitigating any potential risks before they influence the project milestones and therefore the completion date.

Multitasking is a key skill of a successful project manager. While, yes, monitoring & control do technically occur on the next phase, stay aware of possible hindrances during the execution phase as well.

Progress Updates

Documentation has been part of your project from the beginning. The charter from the initiation phase included a suggested plan. During the planning phase, your team finely tuned the plan and updated the project documents.

The execution phase is no different. As you and your team progress, you will update the project documentation with results including accomplished activities and completed deliverables. You should include cost expenditure and quality benchmark updates. Your team may find that once you put the plan into practice, potential policy and procedural revisions may surface that decision makers should consider for implementation. You would include those items as well.

During execution, projected risks may materialize. By consistently assessing risk, you equip yourself, your project team and executive management to develop contingencies and alter or update your plan as you move forward.

Wrap-Up & Resources

Check out this in-depth video, Executing phase – Fundamentals of project management, to study more about Phase #3.

To learn more about project metrics, status meetings, project status updates and reports, take a look at these articles.

Metrics for Project Success | 3 Ways to Improve Progress Measurement for Better Project Performance

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The principles of project management are timeless. If you took a time machine to ancient Egypt, you’d recognize project managers planning the Great Pyramids. Today PMs are the heartbeat of our complex economy. Success in our world requires precise control over resources and computers offer infinite possibilities. Now, Quora takes PM to its next step.

The Beginnings of Formal PM

Modern project management began in the aftermath of the Unite Sates Civil War. With Southern reconstruction and the Trans-Continental Railroad, industries needed effective tools to manage the resources for massive projects. Managers applied scientific methods in an attempt to forecast costs and timelines. The first big breakthrough came from Henry Gantt. Gantt’s simple charts visualize projects from inception to conclusion. Eleven years after Gantt, Frederic Taylor ‘s The Principles of Scientific Management marked another milestone. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Taylor brought engineering concepts to labor management. Mechanizing labor enabled unskilled workers to accomplish complex tasks.

PERT & CPM: What We learned from the Manhattan Project

In 1950, the Navy’s Special Projects had two massive projects with the Polaris Weapon System and Ballistic Fleet Missile Program. The size and scale of these exposed the limits of Gantt and Taylor. Alongside industry titans, the Navy formalized and improved the techniques employed during the Manhattan Project. This statistical modeling, as illustrated below, became the Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Designed for large research and development projects, PERT used formulas and displayed projects as networks. DuPont used PERT to create the Critical Path Method (CPM). CPM’s formulas stressed cost instead of time. The adoption of these concepts led to the founding of the Project Management Institute in 1969. The job of PM was now a profession.

Along Came Computers and Nothing Was the Same Again

In the 80’s, DuPont deployed a mainframe to manage projects and everything changed. As computers shrank and internet connectivity expanded, statistical modeling gave way to algorithms. Infinite possibilities meant infinite solutions and the PM software revolution commenced. PMI published the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) in 1996, but by the 2000’s high-speed internet had become widely available. The pace of change made keeping up a full-time job. All the effort to make sure that you employed the latest and best solution reduced the efficiency of computerized management.

Certified Experts Aren’t Enough

Any industry is only as good as its experts. PMI launched the project management professional (PMP) program in 1984. The rigorous demands and difficult testing make PMP the most respected accreditation in the industry. Just to prepare to enroll in the program, a PM must have two and a half to three years practical experience. Companies looking to maximize their resources and produce at the highest level, pay top dollar to hire PMP certified managers.  Philosophies like Agile and Scrum have created their own certification programs, but PMP is the foundation they all aspire to emulate. A PMP certification helps you find the right solution for your team, but it’s only a first step. To efficiently sort through options, you need a network of experts. Quick access to peers with practical experience.

Social Media Makes the Difference

In 2009, two former Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever launched Quora. A simple site built around a simple question and answer concept. Users log in with their real names and a voting system rewards accuracy.  Just look at what happens when a user asks about the best software for a small creative team. Innovative PM software designer Brian de Haff explains his newest venture and offers screen shots. Marketers pay attention, his response has been viewed 65,000 times. Later in the thread, an experienced PM offers lists and provides screenshots of various options. Back and forth the thread ranges, providers and PMs offering a detailed analysis of different products. One question becomes a valuable resource for PMs with small creative teams.

So, What Are You Waiting For?

As you can see, Quora’s an important part of any PMs process. With a wealth of practical experience within easy reach, you’ll move into the planning and execution phase of your project with lightening speed. Also, the site gives you access to entrepreneurs who are offering improved solutions to keep your planning at the forefront of the industry. Start you next project by visiting Quora.

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Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it, Charles R. Swindoll. You agree? When you want to step up your game in project management, there’re a lot of tips, resources, and guidelines. There’s an endless selection of how to lead better, communicate better or simply just be better.

However, when examining the flip-side, failure, we sometimes cringe at the fact that it could happen to us. Perhaps this is why it seems to be one of the least discussed topics. Who wants to admit to their failure – certainly not to your boss or company head. Yet failure still happens. We could even say that it’s rampant especially when it comes to ill-defined projects. That’s why it’s so important to evaluate your project at the start. Closely examine all, road-blocks, hurdles, hills, detours, potholes, manholes or even an angry flock of birds. I think you get the point. Before starting your project, knowing exactly what lays ahead lets the project manager, team, and client mitigate associated risks.

In this article, we’ll identify 10 causes of project failure. Knowing about these will help you prepare for your next PM job:

1. Poor Preparation

   You need to have a clear picture of what you’re going to do, in advance – as much as possible. Otherwise, you may find yourself up stream without a paddle. You need to know what project success looks like at the beginning and don’t loose focus of it. Hence, if you don’t have a clear focus at the at the earliest stage of the process, you are making things harder on yourself. Have a meeting, even if it is lengthy, with stakeholders to discuss their expectations on cost, time and product quality. Know how you will execute your tasks in order to meet everyone’s expectations.

2. Inadequate Documentation and Tracking

   This is the responsibility of the project manager. Tracking milestones is how you are going to know whether you are meeting expectations. Proper recording and monitoring lets the PM identify where more resources are needed to complete a project on time.

3. Bad Leadership

   When we see this word, leader, we usually think, the project manager. However, the people at each management-level have a responsible to ensure that the project is successful. Management should not micromanage but provide support to ensure that the PM can follow through with the expectations placed upon them.

4. Failure to Define Parameters and Enforce Them

   When you’re a leader, PM, it’s imperative that you’re able to work well with your team. If and when tasks or goals are not met to standard, there should be ramifications. Rank tasks by priority and assign them to the most proficient individual.

5. Inexperienced Project Managers

   A project manager has a lot of responsibility. You need to assign people to management roles who have matching education and experience. In some cases, and perhaps more often than not, inexperienced managers are given projects. They may be very capable of managing projects, but the key is to keep them at a level where they can succeed. Otherwise, you will set them up for failure. On the other hand, there’s nothing wrong with a challenge, just don’t make it beyond their reach.

6. Inaccurate Cost Estimations

   There may be times when your cost estimates are completely off. As you know, when resources run-out, the project stops. Prevent this by identifying the lack of resources early on.

7. Little Communication at Every Level of Management

   Whether it’s between upper management, middle or with the team, it’s disastrous to have poor communication. Everyone should feel free to come forward to express their concern or give suggestions. When everyone is on the same page and there’s transparency, workflow is at an optimum level.

8. Culture or Ethical Misalignment

   Company culture must be comprised of competence, pro-activeness, and professionalism. If it isn’t, team members will not be motivated to do their best. Basically, everyone involved must be invested in their part of the project to successfully complete it.

9. Competing Priorities

   When there’re not enough resources, there’s bound to be competition between personnel resources and funding. Having good cost estimations at the start will eliminate this problem.

10. Disregarding Project Warning Signs

    When a project is on the verge of failing, there will have always been warning signs. Taking action immediately can save the project. Otherwise, the whole endeavor goes down the drain.

Well there you have it, reasons for project failure. This is the time when you should consider ways to prevent this failure. Adequate employee training, project management software and management transparency will lead you to project success. Finding the right project management software is one of the easiest steps to take so that you’re on right track – the successful project track. A tool such as these eliminates project failure. They serve to easily manage tasks like time tracking, cost tracking, cost estimations and more. Here are a few that can set your project on the road to success.

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“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” (Alan Lakein) Roli Pathak introduced the 5 phases of project management in her article Top 5 Project Management Phases. Phase #2 is the Planning phase.

You will recall from Project Management Phases: Exploring Phase #1 – Initiation that the final documentation of the initiation phase includes an informal project plan. It contains your team’s task order, estimated resources, and a projected completion date.

Exploring Phase #2 – Planning

Roli stated in her overview “a project management plan is developed comprehensively of individual plans for – cost, scope, duration, quality, communication, risk, and resources.” Let’s take a closer look at each item the project manager and planning team should investigate or fine tune during this phase.

• Costs – Your team will create a plan for cost management detailing every action regarding how you plan and oversee your project costs. Next, you must estimate costs for each activity on that list. From there, your team determines the project budget.
• Scope – With initiation phase documentation in hand, your planning team will make fixed determinations regarding project assignments, costs and outcomes drafting necessary supporting documentation.
• Duration – Your team has refined the scope, so you can add to the planning documentation your estimates for the best-case timing scenario. At this juncture, your planning group will propose what the most likely timeline would be including potential delays, etc.
• Quality – During this step, your team will evaluate and detail how deliverables will adhere to expected quality standards and criteria outlined for by clients, stakeholders, and/or investors. In addition, you will brain storm ideas for process improvement during this stage noting enhancements in the planning documentation.
• Communication – Your project group will describe how you plan to communicate with executive management, etc. as well as define an escalation strategy process.
• Risk – You and your team can use the risk assessment created by decision makers during the initiation proposal step to describe how you will manage those risks. If you identify additional risks, update the project documents. Since a risk can mean a plus or minus impact on the project, your team will outline contingencies for both scenarios.
• Resources – Be sure to consider everything necessary for your team to deliver on the project goals. Include financial resources, equipment needs, supplies, and materials, creating an itemized list.

In her phase 2 introduction, Roli mentioned several important actions and tools unique to this phase. Activities that mark the planning phase are creating a WBS, developing a schedule, using milestone and/or GANTT charts, resource estimation, establishing communication and assessing risk. Here are some brief descriptions for these specific tasks with additional resources for info on each topic.

• WBS – The WBS, work breakdown structure, is an outline your team will use to rank every project task. Your planning group breaks down larger responsibilities on the outline into sub-tasks. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), the Basic Building Block for a Project Plan
• Scheduling – Define what activities to include in your project, determine the best sequence of tasks and estimate the resources and duration to create your schedule. Time Management for Project Success | How to Avoid Project Failure: Effective Scheduling
• Gantt Charts – A Gantt chart uses horizontal bars to illustrate the progress on the project timeline. What is a Gantt Chart?

• Milestone Charts – Milestone charts serve as an abbreviated visual representation of progress. A milestone indicates an action or responsibility planned at a specific time during the life cycle of a project. This chart type contains triangles to indicate a single date, and you can integrate them into Gantt charts.

The Project Management Question and Answer Book Figure 5-12: MILESTONE CHART

• Resource Estimation – To determine what assets are essential for your project, your team should record each item you intend to use. Be sure to include equipment, human capital and any other materials or financial considerations. Then, you can schedule each expense and distinguish the total cost of the project per activity.
• Communication – Poor communication is one of the most common reasons why projects fail. Good communication requires that you deliver the correct message to the appropriate audience at the best time. Communication Theories Applied on Project Management.
• Risk Assessment – It’s imperative that you and your team assess risks properly. Roli cautioned in her overview of the planning phase that “A plan for managing identified and unidentified risks is determined as this may affect aspects of a project later on. Risk management planning includes risk identification and analysis, risk mitigation approaches, and risk response planning.” Understanding the 4 Types of Risks Involved in Project Management |The Rules of Project Risk Management – A Book Review

Wrap-Up

Take the time to plan thoroughly. Success is contingent upon creating a solid strategy for the project.

Check out these additional resources that detail activities of the planning phase and how to stay on track. 8 Signs You Are Managing Your Project The Wrong Way

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As a project manager, all the tasks you must accomplish everyday may be overwhelming as you have to deal with your own workload, plus your team’s needs. So it’s no surprise if technology has to become your best friend. It can provide you with tools and services ready to improve your management skills. They can make you more productive, automate tasks, and support your communication with your team.

Why Use a Project Management System

To keep everything organized and in one place, from your goals to workflow, you should adopt a project management system. They are easy to use, straightforward, and won’t compromise your budget. And Basecamp is one of the most robust solutions available, a favorite of project managers worldwide. Basecamp creates a secure online space where you can create and manage tasks, add deadlines, to-do lists, and files, discuss the topics in question, and follow the progress of your team. And all this is in real time. Other reliable alternatives are Asana, Wrike, and Active Collab.

Promote Collaboration

If your project requires that your team work on the same task together, you should use tech solutions to increase collaboration. Wikis, for instance, are an excellent way to create the necessary environment for it, along with Google Apps for Work. PB Works also creates a secure platform for sensitive files and documents and let people collaborate no matter where they are in the world. Your files will be reachable across platforms and on any device, and they can be easily shared. You’ll also receive push notifications about any update that is made to the collaborative files.

Make Sharing Files Easy

Sharing a high number of files can be very time-consuming, especially if they are large. But adopting tools such as Google Drive or Dropbox will make it much easier for you. All you need to do is upload what you want and share the link with your team. Then they can visualize, edit  or download it, accordingly to the level of permission you give.

Get Feedback from Customers and Employees

To ensure that you’re on the right track, you will need to get feedback from your customers and employees. And the best way to do this is by using one of the online solutions available to collect opinions and reviews, such as Hively, OpinionLab, and Promoter.io. They will provide you with real-time information and also insights regarding the best way to take action.

Learn Anywhere

You and your team can acquire and update any skills in no time by using technology, and that doesn’t mean googling your doubts. There’re several online learning platforms ready to teach you anything you need for free or for an inexpensive price. You will find an extensive list of options on Lynda, Udemy, Future Learn, or Coursera, for example, but you should try providers specialized in certain skills – Udacity is considered as a top-class online platform for IT courses, for instance.

Hire New Employees and Freelancers Online

The internet is also the best place to find and hire new talents. You can just post your job on Monster, Indeed, Simply Hired, or any other job search platform. Or you can use LinkedIn to filter candidates by skills and education to save you time. And if all you need is a one-time support, you can also hire a high-skilled freelancer on Upwork or Guru.

Automate Tasks

You really should automate any task you can. It doesn’t require much of a brain to get it done, be rest-assured that you’ll find a tech solution to do it. What you need is a time tracker, for instance – forget about your watch – and move to Toggl. Have too many tickets to track? Lighthouse can help. Need to do a survey, try Survey Monkey. And if you have to update your project status on social media regularly, test Hootsuite features. These are just a few examples that you can use to automate online.

Improve Internal Communication

Several tools help you leave emails in the past and improve your internal communication and your team’s motivation as a result. They will allow you to chat with your team in private and in real time, just as if you were using Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger – but with much more privacy and security. One of the options available is Slack, a messenger app that allows you to chat with your team anytime you want. You can also create channels to discuss different topics, to keep the conversation better organized. Private channels are also made possible on Slack, and invite only the team members you want there. It’s also possible to send direct messages and to share files: integrate it with Google Drive, Box, or Dropbox.

Keep your Finances in Order

To keep you on track, use an accounting software to manage your finances, such as Less Accounting. It is much simpler than Quick Books and other competitors, but it still can generate all the reports you need, for example, payables and receivables, wages, and expenses tracker. It also integrates with Basecamp software. A perfect way to make things easier for you.

The Bottom Line

As you can see, technology can help you to improve many project management tasks. It is your virtual management tool if you chose to use a software like Basecamp. Or it can allow you to automate tasks, improve internal communication, hire employees and contractors, and much more. And all you need to do is test the options and decide which one meet your needs and expectations. Thankfully, many of them come with a free trial or used for free with limited features. This way, you can check what really works for your project and your team before buying an app or a subscription.

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Since the 1990’s Kenya’s economy has been on an upward growth.  In the wake of the 21^st century, we have seen lenders diversifying their investment portfolio to real estate, thus leading to the current booming property market. According to the 2015, economic survey the contribution of the real estate sector to the GDP grew from 6% in 2013 to 8.5% in 2014. The developments such as the recently opened Garden City development, Two rivers in Kiambu, Konza Technopolis, LAPSET project, Thika Superhighway, Standard gauge railway and the Tatu City are among the many capital intensive projects that are significantly changing the construction landscape of the region. The bad news is that, if these projects are poorly managed, they will in turn cause the property bubble to burst and the economy of the entire East Africa region will eventually suffer.

Construction Project Management

Construction Project Management practice has come to the industry in the mid of increasing complexity and magnitude of projects- a characteristic of the 21^st century practice.

As defined in the PMBOK, Project Management is the ‘‘application of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project objectives’’ and a successful project is the one which has met the project triple bottom-line of time, budget, and acceptable quality.

Construction Project Management Challenges in the 21^st Century

Despite discipline being key to successful delivery of projects, it has not been widely embraced in the Kenyan context. The following are the challenges:

Risk Management

The construction industry is faced with the largest variations in output due to uncertainty. The ‘construction boom’, has increased the magnitude of projects consequently increasing the level of complexity thus requiring increased coordination of the various disciplines. It’s due to lack of adequate coordination that we have seen most projects suffering cost escalation, delayed completion, collapse and/or site abandonment.

Without proper risk management, the lenders are exposed, the developers are suffering great losses and the reputation of consultants and the flourishing economy is at stake. It’s because of this that Project Managers are required in the construction industry.

Paradigm Shift

Traditionally, the lead consultant in construction projects was the Architect and this continues to be the norm in Kenya and East Africa as a whole. The concept of integrating the services of a Project Manager into the construction process has been seen as increasing, unnecessarily, the professional fees, and on the other hand usurping authority from the lead consultant. However, it is paramount to accept positive changes of the 21^st century practice and embrace this new ideology which will in turn add value in the industry.

Recognition of the Profession

As it stands today, project management has not received accreditation and recognition in Kenya. This is despite the adaptation of project management techniques and practices in the successful execution of major projects across the globe. Many uncertified quacks have found leeway and tarnished the authenticity of the profession by poorly managing projects without considering the project constraints. The collapsed structures around the city are clear testaments of this. Registration of the profession would restrict the practice to accredited individuals which would promote the face of project management in the professional world.

Supremacy Wars

The world is a jungle and it is animalistic instinct to fight for survival. Such scenarios, as primitive as they may come off, are common in the working environment especially where a new discipline is introduced. People will automatically react to exert their dominance as is witnessed in the context of the construction industry. Lack of adequate knowledge on the project management profession coupled by roles that are not clearly defined at the onset of the project will result in a tangle for dominance. Awareness of the profession across various disciplines will go a long way to promoting acceptance of project management into the working environment.

Unnecessary Addition

Project management is sometimes viewed as an unnecessary addition to the construction process. This is especially true since the roles defined for the profession have been over the years carried out by other players in the industry such as the Architect, Engineers, Quantity Surveyors and Property Managers. The need for the integration of project management services may not be obvious. However, with further study on the cost benefit implications in relation to project success, knowing the role in which that played is vital.

Conclusion

It is evident that although project management techniques and practises are implemented across various disciplines, the acknowledgement and acceptance of the profession is lacking. Adequate training on the subject matter coupled with registration of the profession as an independent body will greatly influence the assimilation of project management into the workforce.

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Consider the following scenario. You and your project team will be working at the headquarters of an online retailer to assist with modernizing their website. Specifically, you’re tasked with improving user experience. The goal is to make the brand appealing to a wider audience. Your team will be working with the in-house IT team as they are the creators of the current website. They’ll also be maintaining things when your team is finished.

There is more to this scenario. The two teams who will be working together are culturally different. Your team members are quite diverse in religion, race, sexual orientation, and gender. Political beliefs as a whole tend to be liberal. The team you will be working with is located in an area where there’s some racial and gender diversity; however, you get the heads up that your team and in-house IT team are politically and culturally quite different.

Your challenge: ensure that the project goes smoothly. Which means that both teams, your team and the in-house IT team, are able to work well together.

There’re certain conflicts you should be aware of in the event you need to deal with them. You don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable because of their beliefs, background, or culture.

So what are the potential conflicts which may arise? How you can deal with them? Let’s take a look at 4 and the conflict resolution/prevention.

1. Language Barriers Causing Miscommunication

When people think of language barriers they usually picture situations where people are speaking entirely different languages. However, consider that there’re other ways in which language barriers can become an issue. These include:

• Regional language differences
• Cultural language differences
• Generational language differences

One of your team members might use a local colloquialism in an effort to connect with one of their new teammates. Unfortunately, what they don’t realize is that the term is actually offensive. If the overall interactions between your team and the other is going well the utterance of a colloquialism, considered offensive, can easily be smoothed over by addressing it as soon as possible. If not, it may create more tension between your team and the onsite team.

How to Deal With it
As you already know that there are cultural differences between teams have them use neutral language. Ask your team members to refrain from using slang terms, regional sayings or other idioms that are culturally based.

2. Differing Political Views

Telling your team not to engage in arguments over political issues seems like a no brainer. Of course they shouldn’t do that. Unfortunately, it isn’t always that easy. Someone who is particularly passionate about a political issue or who feels the need to debate might make it hard for one of your team members to dodge this kind of discussion.

How to Manage This
Team members should be instructed to offer up a polite agreement such as, ‘That’s food for thought.’ Or, ‘Wow, you’ve really done your homework on this’. If things escalate to where it becomes hostile, abusive and challenging to get work done, contact the project manager team to deal with the situation.

3. Feedback Provided by a Team that is Culturally Different – A Recipe for Insult?

Given the context of this scenario, this is likely to happen. In spite of the fact that you are being diplomatic and respectful, you are in a situation where you’re telling the internal team how they should be doing their job differently. You’re having to tell them how to do things differently because their website needs improving so that it appeals to a target audience. When you add in the fact that your team doesn’t have many cultural similarities with the internal team, the internal team may find your team off-putting. The internal team may be offended, become territorial by the feedback provided by your team even though it was given with good intentions.

How to Combat This
Encourage your team to be exceptionally polite and positive. Advise them to not engage in any unproductive dialogue. They should also make the internal team as much a part of the decision making process as possible. As well, have your team work on finding things in the previous design that were effective.

4. The Needs of The Project Team

If a member of the internal team does not eat meat for religious reason and begins lecturing a member of your team about eating meat, you may have to step in and deal with the situation. You are obligated to help members of your project team if they are having issues.

Conclusion

Above all, your primary focus should be assisting the internal team improve their website. And, fortunately, the majority of people truly want to get along with their colleague(s), even when there are political and cultural differences. Be sensitive to any potential issues, and encourage your team to do the same. By doing this, most projects can be completed without any serious problems.

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Founded in 2007 and used by 250,000 companies, SaaS PM tool Teamwork continues to release updates. Earlier this year they released the TKO beta for Projects. This summer brought updates to TKO and to Desk.  Projects TKO received improvements to Announcements and Dashboard Messages, Quickviews, and Keyboard shortcuts. Desk earned tweaks to its integration with Projects.

Projects

After rolling out TKO, Teamwork listened to customer feedback. After working with customers, the Projects team made several improvements to existing features. Teamwork proclaims that each day brings more stability to TKO.

1. Markdown on Notebooks

Many customers asked for this feature. Now, the site administrators or owners have access to the option in the settings tab. Once enabled, clicking “create a notebook” allows you to chose between editor and markdown.

2. Sidebar Tags

Access to tagging is now available everywhere. In the project overview tab, simply hover over the project and pick your tag. Inside the project, a new “tag” option appears in the sidebar.

3. File Preview

This feature enables you to preview files from an endless list of extensions. Once activated by your site admin or owner, simply open the file section of your project. Here you will see a preview of all files, regardless of extension.

4. Quickviews

The days of jumping between pages with every notification are over.  Now, when you see a notification, simply hover over it and press “v”. You also have the ability to preview notifications with the magnifier icon next to the notification bell on the top of the page.

5. Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts make life simple. TKO introduced hovering over a task and typing “c” to complete it. If you want to comment on the task, type “n”. Now, these shortcuts apply to milestones, links, and notebooks. The other new added shortcut is “o”. Thanks to an accelerated dashboard, hovering over a project and typing “o” opens the project menu.

Desk

First Teamwork enabled billing for third parties. Now that this is stabilized, the Desk team is working to improve integration across Teamwork applications. With this release, they added the ability to view all Project related tasks from the ticket view. These appear in the reply section above the ticket. The Desk team continues to work towards EU hosting, attempting overcome significant regulatory hurdles.

Conclusion

Teamwork’s stated goal is to create an easy to use, powerful SaaS PM tool. Project’s public TKO demonstrates an effective working platform to this end. Their commitment to listen to customers and meet the demands of project managers is apparent in these updates. Working in Projects is now easier. The improved integration between Desk and Projects brings efficiency and simplicity to the platform. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Vimeo, Youtube, and LinkedIn.

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Large companies are constantly working on numerous projects. There’re big teams of people and few leaders responsible for making each project a successful endeavor. As more people become involved in project management not using a software program can be quite challenging to accomplish a project – there’re many things that have to be performed in a well-organized manner. Listed below are some reasons why you should start relying on project management tools if you want to attain your project’s deadlines. As well, we have written about some project management web apps to give you an idea of which one is best for your project.

1. Easy Planning

The project planning process takes a lot of time as you have to map-out all the important steps. A project management tool provides you the ability to easily establish a hierarchy of tasks for effective and efficient completion. It also lets you indicate which steps are sequential and which tasks are dependent on one another. In turn, this makes it easier for the team to do their work. This is a time saver, because when the team leader knows which steps are the most important, he/she then knows which tasks to assign to whom.

2. Efficient Task Management

Every project out there consists of numerous tasks that you, or your team, must complete. Writing notes about what your team members are doing is sometimes impossible, especially when it comes to ongoing projects that take a lot of time to complete. This is where a project management tool is very useful: assign all of the important tasks to employees and monitor how they are performing. Project management becomes much easier as you have access to this data and can follow who has which tasks. Through better task management, teams work in unity. Hence, achieving incredible results and benefiting then company.

3. Seamless Team Workflow

Getting the whole team to work as one is often very hard to achieve, but project management software can make it much easier. Using this software solution gives a team leader a chance to always be able to see the tasks that his team is working on and which team members are involved in the task.

Furthermore, there are tasks which require more people. This is where a team leader can include several different people to collectively work on bigger tasks – while other members do smaller tasks simultaneously. Creating a seamless team workflow is something very important to attain as it contributes to a company’s sustainable future, as well as creating cohesion within a team.

4. Shared Documents, Calendars and Contacts

Consider that project management tools are useful as they support storage and organization of a variety of documents. This is extremely important as a majority of projects have a high number of documents. By creating a centralized document storage plan, every team member can easily, and more quickly, edit and contribute. This feature is very important in cases where the work is outsourced to a person or a team. It is much easier to perform all the necessary tasks without sending thousands of emails with attached documents where, sooner or later, things become convoluted.

As well, having access to calendars of other team members is convenient because sooner or later, a meeting between team members has to be organized. So, having access to people’s calendar makes coordinating much easier. Make sure to share a document containing every team members’ contact information. This ensures remote team members can communicate with one other.

5. Precise Project Tracking

Tracking the time spent on every task is of great value. It allows you to collect data about team members, to know their work pace. This will make planning future projects much easier. The team leader can then make much more precise time estimations. For example, a team leader can give different types of tasks to team members throughout a project to determine their strengths. This creates better performance and faster results.

To End

These are some of the most important reasons why you want to rely on project management tools in your company. Utilizing the latest technologies currently available maximizes the performance of project teams. The whole workflow becomes improved, as people are capable of collaborating on a variety of tasks. This leads to a significant improvement in productivity, which leads to higher profits in the business world. High quality in a short time-frame, that’s what businesses want to achieve. Rely on project management software to get this done.

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