A Project Manager’s Plea: Please Respond
By Kerry Wills
I have to say that my biggest frustration in the workplace has to be people who don’t respond to messages (or need to be asked five times before they respond). Unfortunately due to workloads most corporate cultures today communicate almost exclusively through e-mail. This causes project deliverables to […]

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Conferences or webinars devoted to discussing technical documentation are held on a regular occasion. However, there is still a gap in the discussion for debating the specific problem of estimating and tracking efforts for technical writing projects. Why? Unlike time and effort tracking for programmers, testing engineers and other software developers it is particularly technical writer’s effort tracking that provokes this debate. Let’s find out why.

Managing documentation development projects

Sooner or later the range of software products and product versions the company develops becomes so large that all changes and updates cannot be annotated by software engineers themselves. Technical writers provide full documentary support to new products and update releases, whilst continuing to support old versions.

Technical documentation projects are managed very differently from company to company, but in most cases the general consensus of project management in this case runs like so. The product owner or project manager sends a request of documentation to the head of development, whose role is to control and manage software engineers assigned to the products or projects.

Why is it so difficult to track efforts of technical writes

Technical writers often act as part of the development team as well. So, is there any difference in estimating and tracking the efforts of software engineers and technical writers? Yes, and the main difference is that technical writers are rarely assigned to only work on a single product at one time. It is usual for the documentation to be produced for several products at once according to their release schedules. While all products are managed by different product owners, the documentation may be requested at any development stage, during product testing or even a few months after the product has been launched. So the timeframe and workload expected of the technical writer to produce quality documentation may differ accordingly. If the product is on the early development stage, you may need more consultations with the product owners and subject matter experts (SME), more reviews and further document amendments. An example of this could be when the final UI design may vary from the earliest decision, and you need to update product screenshots before the final release date.

It is beside the fact that tasks always come from different departments and a different set of managers, some managers even fail to include documentation of the development stage into the project plan. This often makes it difficult, even if they do include the documentation they often forget to put in a timeframe for evaluation and verification for completed work. It is then down to the technical writers to handle this problem as well, this may often lead to rushing projects and working overtime.

The difficulty of documentation development very often does not correspond with how many technical writers you have at your disposal in your company. If you have more than two writers, the hope is that all tasks arrive on their manager’s desk. Life of a writer then becomes a lot simpler, but life of their team leader becomes harder, this is the only difference.

How to clear up tracking and counting the efforts of technical writers? (our experience)

Believe it or not, it’s actually very easy. I’d like to share our experiences on how we overcame these issues. We recently decided as a company to evolve by using our corporate simple project management software solution, Actionspace. This now allows us to manage technical writing projects more efficiently.

Assigning tasks and time planning

Imagine you have two technical writers, their team leader and several product owners in your company. When a request for the documentation comes from any of the product owners, the team leader enters Actionspace via any web browser from the PC, laptop, tablet or phone. In just a few simple clicks, the task for producing a set of documentation can be created; a deadline can also be set, attaching files and providing a link to the feature request in the Team Foundation Server (TFS) or any other version control solution your company uses.  Using the ‘To’ field the team leader can select the name of the technical writer they would like to assign to this task. Within the ‘CC’ field the name of the manager who requested the documentation can be indicated, and in the field ‘Planned Time’ he can enter the number of hours allocated to this job.

If the task includes producing a set of documents, it could be split and allocated between several technical writers, each writer assigned to certain set of documents. In addition to this you can also specify effort estimations for each subtask. The job will only be considered as completed when all the documents in the set are created and the corresponding subtasks in Actionspace are marked as completed.

Pic.1 Assigning several writers to the project

Working on tasks and time tracking

The technical writer receives an email notification about a new task, enters Actionspace; from here they can review the task, evaluate the scheduled deadline and time estimations. If there is enough information to start working on the document, the writer accepts the task which triggers the task status to change to ‘In Work’, which allows the manager to see its progress and assure that the writer has started the work. Furthermore, the technical writer can inform the manager about issues with the task or delegate the task to a colleague. At the end of each working day, the technical writer reports actual hours spent on the task in the specified area and all of this data is automatically stored in the system.

If a technical writer has any questions, these can be added as comments; from here the team leader will be notified by email. The technical writer can also send tasks to the team leader or the product owner. For example, the writer can allocate the time for document reviews and evaluation, ask for help in installing a new software or even ask to be introduced to the product they are tasked to annotate.

Progress tracking and issue control

The technical writer together with their team leader can view all planned tasks in the Actionspace calendar and schedule work based on certain dates. Prior to the scheduled date, the system will automatically send a reminder to the employee concerned. In addition, the team leader can continually track progress of the developing documents, add comments or extra files. The product owner can also track the task progress.

When all the documents are created, the technical writer logs the actual time of the completed task. The team leader receives an email notification and an in-system notice about the task completion; from here, they can check up the actual efforts.

Pic.2  Progress tracking via dashboard

Reporting and performance evaluation

When it is time to count labor costs and efforts (for example, to calculate employee bonuses) the technical writers’ team leader simply enters Actionspace and generates a report. This process will include start dates and end dates, as well as estimated and actual time for all projects in the chosen period. With filters, the team leader can generate a report on all employees, a specific employee, on one or all of the projects, over a specific period and on one or all of the tasks allocated.

Pic.3 Employee performance reports

Generated reports can then be exported to a Microsoft Excel format and forwarded to upper management for further use.

What results we received

Actionspace’s simple tools have enabled our managers to avoid the monthly manual routine of counting technical writers’ efforts on all active projects. This in turn helps to evaluate employees’ performance and compare time spent on projects.

From our experience, to help satisfy all needs and improve effectiveness of technical writing projects the solution should be easy to use. However, it must also have features robust enough to create tasks, set deadlines and responsibilities, plan and track time and efforts, and generate performance-related reports. The solution should not be too expensive and, preferably, it should be web-based to allow for remote working. A working example of this is the online web-access to Actionspace that has allowed us to use it for geographically distributed projects. Team members can be connected in different local offices, even home offices, and the team leader manages the process from our headquarter. This is a very efficient way of working.

In summary, the proposed approach to tracking time and efforts of a technical writer may not be ideal; however, it has already significantly helped us to streamline the development of software product documentation. It helps us to remember to allocate time for document review and evaluation, and to arrange more effective collaboration within geographically dispersed teams of product owners and technical writers located in different offices.

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Everyone has a different approach to any job, and project management is no exception. There are a variety of ways to get things done, and all of them are correct provided you’re consistent. If you’re looking to strengthen your skills and boost your consistency, it helps to determine exactly what kind of project manager you are. You’ll be able to perfect your approach and better explain your personal style in future interviews.

Authoritative

Authoritative managers sit in the most comfortable chair, but are happy to listen to their teams. These managers possess the most knowledge, and will gladly inform their teams about the complexities of a project. They naturally command respect, and team members are glad to give it to them.

Democratic

Democratic managers are the best with empowerment. They recognize the strengths of their individual team members, and tend to trust their judgment when it comes to the area of their personal specialties. While a democratic manager will gladly hold everyone together, they also offer a greater amount of freedom to their team members, who are generally motivated by the trust placed in them.

Coercive

Coercive managers are very tough, and some heads may bump together. This management style works best with inexperienced teams who are otherwise unsure of what their expectations are. These managers allow the least amount of freedom, instead driving the project to completion according to their own immovable vision.

Affiliative

Affiliative managers are essentially phantoms. These managers deliver clear instructions and check in occasionally, allowing their teams to work at their desired pace. For projects that don’t have stiff deadlines with team members who have already proven their mastery of their abilities, these managers are essentially the glue that holds everyone together, however loosely that may be.

Pace-Setter

Pace-setters are essentially human stopwatches. This type of manager focuses specifically on the completion of work as it relates to a desired timeline, and the most important thing is that the work is done. When working on a complicated project, pace-setters tend to favor speed over quality. With simple projects that don’t involve many intricacies, a pace-setter does a good job of keeping everyone on track.

The Best Style

No style is the best style overall. Different projects may require different approaches, and some styles work better than others. Shifting styles constantly is not a viable option, because your team requires you to be thorough and consistent. If you’re coercive one day and affiliative the next day, you’ll drive everyone crazy. You need to create a balance that will translate well across the board.

Conclusion

The most important aspect of how you run a project should not be your style, but how your style pairs with who you are as a leader. Every leader should be encouraging, motivating, and fair. A good leader will never make their employees feel confused or suffocated. Whatever your style may be, placing it into the context that you’re a reliable leader that your team will easily be happy to follow is always the best strategy.

You also need to consider the nature of the jobs you’ll be working on. If you’re coming in to manage a team who has already established am exemplary success record, you can’t treat them the same way that you’d treat a band of first-timers who are still learning the ins and outs of their job. Your style may need to evolve over time as you get to know your team better, and they’ve gained more experience in their roles.

What’s your project management style? Are you consistent with your team, or do you bounce around?

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How To Maximize Change Management Success
By Daniel Lock
Managing a change initiative through to a successful conclusion is fraught with pitfalls. Here are three key change management techniques that help make the road to your desired conclusion far easier to navigate.
Leverage the power of rational self interest
At a key level, corporate business and change management are […]

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Successful projects need to have a successful project schedule to start with. When you are given a project to manage, don’t be tempted to get on with work right away and delay the schedule for later. Making a schedule is one of the first (and the most important) tasks to be done as it will serve as a gauge for the success of the project throughout its life.

Below are a few basic steps to follow in order to create a successful project schedule:

1. Include your team

Including other team members will make the schedule more effective as it will ensure the ownership by all the members. Things that you may have not previously accounted for or miscalculated will be corrected by this collective approach.

2. Cover everything in the project scope

Use the scope statement from the Charter to ensure that every request from the customer is included.  It is also a good idea to list all the activities at this point. Look at the order of activities and their dependencies. It is usually best to start with the most difficult/ important tasks.

3. Create milestones

Milestone is the end of a phase in the project, the point where work needs completing. They also provide a great occasion to check to see if the project is on track and how it is progressing. Milestones allow the project team to stay focused and motivated.

4. Take your time for time estimates

While assigning time estimates for each task/activity it is best to use historical information and/or other people’s experience. That is also why it is important to tackle the task of creating the project schedule as a team. When a consensus is reached through the discussions within the team members, it will provide a better time estimate and it will be harder to challenge it later since the input from all team members will have been factored in.

5. Foresee time for scope creep

No matter how meticulously the scope has been created and finalized at the beginning of the project, it is safe to assume that there may be changes on the specifications down the road. So in order to accommodate these potential scope creeps, it would be wise to foresee some contingency time to be used when necessary while respecting the project deadlines.

6. Allocate your team members

Now that a schedule has been set, it is time to distribute your team members to the tasks. It shouldn’t be expected that the people are productive 100% of the time. Tasks that are not directly contributory to the project on hand (Such as administrative duties, meetings, paperwork, etc.) take time so it is best to include them in your calculations.

Once the people are assigned, the entire schedule should be reviewed to see if there are any conflicts, and also to make sure that the effort expected from each member corresponds to his availability and his motivation in this project.

Conclusion

Throughout the project’s life cycle, it is also important to regularly update the schedule with team members to verify progress and make necessary adjustments. 20 minute Scrum style meetings are useful, where each team member explains the status of their work and any potential problems they see in the future. Don’t forget that it is your job as project manager to help remove any road blocks and smooth out the path ahead.

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In today’s competitive business world, every single project has its own threats and challenges. It is, thus, necessary that not only the project managers, but also the project staff members carry equivalent responsibilities, and act smart enough to communicate and take timely corrective actions.

If this shall be the approach, most of the problems can be recognized and tackled with ease. While assessing any project(s), the thing that is of utmost importance is to maintain thorough honesty and an unbiased approach so that problems and changes can be handled skillfully and communicated fairly to all stakeholders including the client(s).

So, are there any indicators that can give an idea about the approaching problems??? Of course, there are!! All you need is to pay close attention to the minutest project details, and you may observe signs like the ones listed below:-

• Delays in finalizing the start date of the Project (i.e. project stuck in a floating state)
• When the pending work is huge, but the time left is less
• When Project reports are many, but there lies an apparent lack of effective communication with the stakeholders
• When the project goes into a “Hurry-Up Mode”, considering trade-offs in the project due to other business priorities
• If Key person QUITS!

And more…

To gain better insights on how to identify and manage the outburst of probable problems in a project, we at KnowledgeWoods Consulting, are conducting an exclusive webinar where there will be discussions and elaborations on the key problem indicators and the proper steps to tackle with any sort of project problems.

The webinar will help you enhance your knowledge on the domain of project management, and will also provide you an opportunity to leverage on the presenter’s industry experience at the fullest by participating in a dedicated Q&A round at the end of the webinar.

Key Takeaways

• Ways to identify key problem indicators and taking necessary steps to avoid project failures
• What to do when you have great people who don’t know what they’re doing
• How to manage the changes in the ongoing project(s).
• How to control the cost

Who should attend this Webinar?

Software Developer/Engineer | Project Manager | Project Staff / Team Leader | Business Analyst | Consultant | Functional Manager | Software Professional | Project Planner | Delivery Leader/Manager | Project Director | Manager / Head Information Technology | Program Manager | Civil Engineer | Research & Development Professional | PMP® Certification Examination Applicant

To attend a webinar, visit KnowledgeWoods Consulting’s website and register yourself for free!

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The thing that unites all businesses are the common challenges that they experience. Like the inability to bill 100% accurately or calculate the payroll faster without losing numbers; or trying to improve employee productivity having no accurate assessment.

You can’t leave these things as they are cause very soon you might find yourself closing your business because of them.

So, if you’re experiencing at least one of the things listed above, then it’s time for you to start tracking employee hours, and here’s why:

1) You can bill and calculate the payroll properly

Without knowing how much time your team spent working on someone’s task, you can’t bill them properly. As well as if you’re still using paper timesheets to calculate payroll, then you can’t say for sure that employees’ paychecks are accurate.

With automatic time tracking software you can both calculate payroll fast and accurately, and provide your clients with accurate bills.

2) It allows to find areas that need improvement

Both in employee and overall workflow.

If you’re trying to see where employees lose their time, it is impossible to do it without tracking. If you want to find out how much time employees spend on social networks, it is much harder to do that without time tracking software. If you want to determine the productivity trends of your company, you need accurate data about its time.

Time is the basis of every company’s performance. And tracking employee hours is like an encyclopedia that tells you everything about it.

So, regularly open that encyclopedia and use the data in it for your good.

3) It helps employees concentrate and increases productivity

Soon after you start tracking employee hours, you will see a huge boost in overall productivity.

Not only employees become more conscious about which websites they visit, but they also can improve their time management skills. E.g., Yaware.TimeTracker provides employees with reports about their time and Internet use. Using this data they can see areas where they either lose time or use it unproductively. So, with time tracking every employee get more control of what s/he does.

4) Tracking employee hours makes it easier to assess employees’ work and give feedback

If you have a tight schedule, then time tracking helps you quickly access employees’ work. Going through the tracking analytics you can tell how efficiently employees use their time, how they spend time on the Internet and how they spend time offline.

Having this knowledge, you can give appropriate feedback that will improve overall performance.

5) You can easier determine who your best employees are

Using the time tracking data and analyzing employees’ achievements you can determine which members of your team are the most productive.

E.g., using Yaware.TimeTracker you can quickly find out which employees use their time the most productively. After you determined them, check the results of their work and compare to the productivity of time use. If it corresponds, then you found your top performer.

Now you can help them to continue growing and have them teach other employees, and so increase overall productivity.

Conclusion

The more you learn about it, the more you ensure that tracking employee hours helps to take your business and staff’s performance to the new level.

So, don’t hesitate and start receiving some useful insights right now!

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How IT Managers Can Teach Their Teams to Handle Uncertainty
By Jim Anderson
I wish that I could tell you that there will be no things that happen in your IT manager career that will surprise you. However, both you and I know that that simply is not true. Instead, there is probably going to be a […]

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Project Managers: Lose the Attitude
By Keith Mathis – PM Expert Live
People have debated for years whether attitude impacts behavior or behavior impacts attitude. Regardless of which comes first, changing one will eventually affect the other. If we help employees change their behavior, their attitudes will be changed over time as well. This shift is often […]

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Most of the organisations in different countries rely on PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) methodology for efficient management of a project from initiation to closure and evaluation phase. It is the most practiced methodology as it is the most suitable for management of projects of all sizes developed in different industries. This methodology is revised and updated after every 2-3 years. Organisations prefer this methodology for saving time and money in project development with improved quality. A client can anytime ask you to change the requirements of the project. In that case, if you are not following a tested methodology, making these changes can adversely affect the product development lifecycle. However, you need not to worry if you are managing your project with PRINCE2 methodology.

PRINCE2 recommends 7 principles, processes and themes for tailored and scalable project management. Here are the details about the 7 PRINCE2 principles:

1. Continued Business Justification: Before starting the actual development of the project, first of all reasons and objectives of the project must be justified. The team of managers also ensures that these reasons remain valid throughout the complete PRINCE2 project development cycle.
2. Learn From Experience: According to this principle, managers should learn from their previous experience and apply this experience in the current project. They are also expected to learn from others for improved project management. All these lessons learnt from previous and current projects are documented in a lesson log.
3. Defined Roles and Responsibility: In PRINCE2 projects, all roles and responsibilities are defined and assigned to the teams and individuals working on the project according to this principle.
4. Manage by Stages: For efficient management, the project development is broken into small stages which are monitored and controlled separately. The project is reviewed after completion of each stage to ensure that it is being developed according to the client’s requirements and expectations.
5. Manage by Exception: In this PRINCE2 principle, all tolerances for time, budget, quality, and scope are established. Limits of delegated authorities are established and accountabilities are defined. In case these tolerances exceed or there is a possibility of exceeding, next level of management is informed for further proceedings.
6. Focus on Product: This principle focuses on the delivery of the project meeting client’s requirements defined in the requirement document. This principle consists of product based planning and product description.
7. Tailored to Suit The Project Management: According to this principle, PRINCE2 management should be tailored by keeping size, risk, environment, importance, capabilities, and some other factors in mind.

For complete understanding of PRINCE2 principles, processes and themes, you can join a top-rated training institute offering PRINCE2 management courses in London.

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