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PMTimes_Oct2_2024

Best Of: The 10 Most Common Project Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

If you find yourself repeatedly failing to meet essential project deadlines or KPI’s, you might be making one, or more, of these very common project management mistakes.

 

Making an error in the workplace is inevitable. In fact, there’s a high probability many of us have made the same mistakes, and while at the time it can feel like an utter disaster it is the ability to recoup and learn from our failures that ultimately makes us better at our jobs.

Unfortunately, as project managers, even our smallest mistakes can have much larger implications further down the line, sending us over budget and past deadlines. Although each project will have its complex set of issues unique to it alone, across the industry there are some predictable and recurring factors we can address, that often doom a project to failure before it is gotten off the ground.

 

1. Assigning the Wrong Person to Lead the Project

Too often candidates are determined to lead projects due to factors other than their suitability or experience. Not that a lack of workplace experience cannot be made up of other factors, but taking charge of running a project is a difficult task, and often requires specific experiential skills or knowledge.

While it is true that skilled managers can lead across subject matters, for large scale projects with complex attributes, a greater number of team members, or a targeted technical knowledge requirement, it is much better to source the most experienced leader, rather than just the one who’s available.

Place as large a focus on assigning the correct manager for the job as you usually do to allocate resources, and place a higher priority on choosing a manager whose skill set more closely matches the project requirements.

 

2. Lack of Communication

Communication is essential in every relationship, but never more so than when between you and your project team. Not communicating properly, or at all, with your team and client, is one of the quickest ways to send your project to the grave.

By creating a culture of open communication, and setting out some simple communication strategies from the outset, such as regular check-ins and deliverable reviews, you and your team will have a clear view on your projects progression, and be able to proactively spot and resolve any issues coming up on the horizon.

Similarly, by engaging better with your team, you can keep your client in the loop with real-time project updates and avoid the awkward due date deliverable talk.

 

3. Mismanaging Team Members Skillsets

As important as it is to choose the right leader for the project, it is equally as important to choose the right team members and to take the time to understand exactly how their particular skillsets will fit into the larger scope of your project.

An excellent project manager analyses the project needs and utilizes his team in agreement with their strongest attributes.

If you do not have the luxury of handpicking a team to suit the project, then be sure to you sit down with your team before you begin and discuss their experience and competencies. Don’t be afraid to get specific. It is not enough to just know one of your team members has experience in web developing, filter out their specific disciplinary strengths and weaknesses and optimize their workload accordingly.

 

4. Too Broad a Scope

Anyone who’s been in the business long enough has experienced a project with a scope that appears to increase continually, while the price remains stagnant. Although this kind of scope creep where the project focus changes continuously over the length of the project should be in no way viewed as an inevitable part of the project process.

Scope creep often happens when the real outcome of the project is misunderstood by or is not consistent with the client, management, and the project team. This is why developing a clear scope statement at the outset of your project is so important.

A carefully thought out scope statement should include a clear and firm definition of the project goal, deliverables, what is both “in” and “out” of scope, and project constraints. Simultaneously, you must develop a system of strict, universal and well-documented approval processes so that any subsequent changes to scope, budget, schedule, resources, and risk are vetted and approved.

The scope statement should regularly be referred to for making future project decisions, and outlining a shared understanding of the project, and should never be created in isolation, but instead with the input of your entire team. Not only will they have knowledge, experience and valuable insights, but they will then be more aware of how and when to implement the process throughout the project

While it is true that project scope must have some degree of malleability placing checks and balances against changing any aspect of the scope allows you to make more considered decisions and control of rampant scope creep.

 

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5. Over-Optimistic Scheduling

The importance of creating a realistic schedule for your team, and the project, cannot be understated.

It is too easy to create an over-optimistic schedule designed to impress the client but is completely infeasible. Not only is the probability of finishing the project with an acceptable, quality product very unlikely, but attempts to meet these dates will cause unnecessary stress for both you and your team, schedules to slip and throw your whole project out of whack.

The project schedule directs the project team on the what and when of their actions. For your client, it projects significant milestones and the due date of key deliverables, as such, it is important that you treat the creation of your schedule as a collaborative effort.

By checking in with your team on project effort and time estimates, and your clients own schedule, you can strike a compromise by which to meet your client’s expectations, and your team has the breathing room to finish the project to a high quality.

 

6. Lack of Detail in the Project Plan

A project plan is one of the essential elements of a successful project outcome, yet the most misunderstood when it comes to project management.

A project plan does not just mean ‘project timeline.’ While an expected chronology of your project is a major component of your plan, a project plan requires a much deeper level of information regarding all elements necessary to the planning process from the specification of the new project to the budget, schedule, and quality metrics.

When done correctly, a project plan acts your very own route planner. By providing insufficient detail in your project plan, you are not only opening your team for confusion about the full requirements of their time or tasks but leaving yourself without clearly defined metrics to measure the success of your project and management strategies.

Take the time before you start your project to identify all the activities and related tasks required to meet the project’s scope statement successfully and all your project deliverables including the estimated time duration and the assignment of a resource that will be held responsible for completing each task. Keep in mind, that the plan you make at the start may not be the one you finish with, but learning to create a clear project plan and knowing how to discuss its key components is crucial to your project’s success.

 

7. Not Recognizing Your Team’s Successes

Team morale and productivity go hand in hand, and refusing to recognize your team’s successes, often has a detrimental effect on both. Sometimes it is too easy to focus on the end game, metrics, and numbers, and forget the employee that pushed them to success.

The small successes, the short-term objectives, and daily goals, any extra effort to contribute to advancing the team’s mission is, where the individual shines, and should be celebrated.

Develop a performance review system as part of your project management plan, and ensure that performance on projects is measured, reviewed and recognized as equally as it is in their day to day responsibilities.

 

8. The Wrong Project Structure Used

Project management is not one size fits all, and while you may have had great success with a particular project structure before, it is dangerous to get too comfortable with one approach and ignore each project’s variables.

Let’s take size, project teams with a larger number of individuals, around 8 or above, will find it difficult to report to the same project manager. Just as, you, the project manager will find it overly challenging to maintain communication and follow ups with too many team members reporting directly to you. If parts of the project are undertaken in different regions of the country, communications may suffer from a lack of clarity and jar with the larger project structure.

It is key to assess each project individually and adapt communication strategies and reporting protocols to suit each new approach.

It may be useful to educate yourself and your team in umbrella project management methodologies that teach adaptable, industry standard project structures, so each project structure retains an efficient cohesiveness and familiarity.

 

9. Being Reactive Instead of Proactive

Your project is running correctly, aligning with your scope and project plan, but then something unexpected comes along and disaster hits. The project gets derailed. Even though you and your team mobilize quickly, identifying the best options and solutions based on experience, you have got no opportunity, nor time, to test these solutions viability. Acting reactively, management by crisis only leaves your project vulnerable to further failure.

Risk Management is the process of identifying, analyzing and responding to risk factors throughout the life of a project, and developing a stable basis for decision making in regards to those risks. A robust risk assessment provides controls for possible future events and is proactive rather than reactive.

While it is impossible to know every likelihood of every potential occurrence, by undertaking a thorough risk assessment before you execute your project plan, and continuously re-focusing that assessment throughout your project, you can reduce the likelihood of a disastrous event occurring, as well as its impact.

 

10. Being Resistant to Change

Although most this article has been spent pontificating about the importance of preparedness, clarity, and structure, the ability to be flexible and adaptive are qualities intrinsic to your project’s success.

Despite your extensive risk management and project planning, it’s likely the functionality of your project is going to change daily, whether it’s the small things such as missed meetings, employee absence, or a change in direction that requires you to develop a new approach or resource, and being rigid about your processes only ensures that your project is unlikely to see completion.

Being flexible isn’t something you can plan for. Remember that your project is an ongoing process, keep an open mind, and trust that you and your team will be competent enough to come up with a suitable solution.

PMTimes_Sep25_2024

Skillful Efforting to Achieve Leadership Success

Create a realistic work-life balance in the context of leadership and project management to achieve optimal performance and success. Apply it to your own life and influence those who work for and with you.

Leadership boils down to the ability to cultivate a positive mindset, relate well with others, and make effective decisions. To sustain a dynamic work-life balance requires all three.

What is the mindset that promotes optimal balance?

In a recent article, Jerry Seinfeld is quoted:

“It’s a very Zen Buddhist concept: Pursue mastery. That will fulfill your life. You will feel good.

The problem is, that developing a skill takes time and effort. Mastering a skill takes considerable time and effort, not all of it — or even most of it — enjoyable. ”

He recommends that you “Make ‘Did I get my work in?‘ your favorite question to ask yourself, and while you may not achieve every goal you set out to accomplish, you will definitely accomplish a lot more.” 1

The mindset here is 1) to expect to make an effort to get what you want and 2) that the way you make the effort makes a great difference in the way you and others feel and the outcome of your work.

 

Working Hard

In Working Hard but Not Too Hard  I wrote

“Working hard is applying a high level of effort, being consistently focused, productive, and effective, and applying emotional, physical, and intellectual energy. Working hard is rewarding, it leads to personal and organizational success.”2 https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/working-hard-but-not-too-hard/

As wise individuals in our roles as performers, leaders, and managers, we recognize that hard work is necessary to develop skills and accomplish goals. Of course, working smart is highly valued, but it is not a replacement for working hard.

 

Overdoing It

We also recognize that we can overdo it. We can become so obsessed with succeeding that we forget our personal wellness and the wellness of those who are affected by our behavior. We work too hard.

If we work too hard, we get tired, disengaged, and less effective. If we miss the signs that we or our team is working too hard, stress levels increase, quality suffers, and we enter a spiral that does not end well.

 

Self and Other Awareness

This is where self-awareness and awareness of others come into play.

“Self-awareness is the ability to “step back” and observe yourself objectively to know your behavior, motivations, feelings, values, and desires.  It is knowing your personality and the way you display it in your life.” 3 https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/self-awareness-a-critical-capability-for-project-managers-d23/

An effective leader is aware of how others –  for example, your team members, clients, boss, significant others, and peers – are doing. Are they excited, motivated, and in the best shape to get the mission accomplished? Are they slowing down, or getting tired? Or are they past that stage and exhibiting the symptoms of over-work?

 

The Symptoms

The symptoms of overwork are easy to spot – more arguments and emotionality, an increase in errors, absenteeism, and lower productivity are the most common.

The quicker you see the symptoms, in yourself and others, the better. Catching overwork early gives you the ability to apply the least amount of effort to remedy it. Avoiding it is best.

 

Skillful Effort

The way you make the effort makes a great difference in the way you and others feel and the outcome of your work.

Ideally, the effort is effortless. As in Flow where skills and experience come together to perform optimally as if there was no one doing it. When that is not the case, be aware of tendencies to over or under-effort. The Buddha compared skillful effort to tuning a stringed instrument. Too loose, poor sound quality. Too tight, a broken string.

 

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Avoiding Overwork

Avoiding and remedying overwork begins with recognizing and acknowledging it. It can be avoided by consciously addressing it as an issue when planning and scheduling.

The more people are aware of the issue of overwork, the better. Make work-life balance a topic in team building. Acknowledge the degree to which there is an expectation of 24-7 availability. Will there be tight deadlines that lead to overtime? What are expectations about weekend work, and vacations?

Also acknowledge the influences of poor planning, cultural norms, personality issues like workaholism and perfectionism, and fear to push back against unrealistic demands.

When expectations are explicitly stated people can be better prepared and more accepting of what happens. Expecting a 9 to 5 arrangement and having 24-7 demands come as a surprise is likely to result in disruption at home and work.

If your project is going to require working intensively, build in practices that enable that kind of work – stress management techniques, breaks, meals, comfortable working conditions, a sense of camaraderie and adventure, and recognition when it is time for a rest.

If one intense project is followed quickly by another, beware of burnout. Take a lesson from extreme sports teams, there is an off-season for R and R, and the players get massaged and conditioned during the season.

Schedule realistically. You can add optimism to your mindset but consider it an aspiration. Hope for the best, plan for the most likely, and be ready for the worst.

 

Remedying

If you have not avoided it, and you, your team, or other stakeholders are suffering the symptoms of overwork, acknowledge it and treat it as you would a physical injury or sickness. Acknowledge it, seek its causes, relieve the symptoms, and remove the causes. And most importantly, take good care of the patients.

As we have said, poor planning, cultural norms, personality issues like workaholism and perfectionism, and fear of pushing back against unrealistic demands may be the causes. Each situation is different. There may be no options to eliminate causes, so all you can do is minimize the impact of the symptoms. Sometimes the options are severe, like changing jobs.

What can you do to reduce the symptoms and maintain the kind of motivation that will fuel success? The minimum remedy to explicitly acknowledge what is going on. That alone will reduce stress and discord.

Then find ways to institute the same practices you might have planned for to avoid the situation.  Implement breaks, meals, comfortable working conditions, morale building, and recognition when it is time for a rest. Negotiate schedule changes, additional (or fewer) resources, and other means fir reducing pressure.

 

Action

If efforting – doing the work – is an issue that needs to be addressed, bring it to the surface. Correct imbalances among expectations and realities with self-reflection and candid communication.

Implement practices to avoid over-efforting and make hard work as effective as possible while sustaining wellness. Avoid the expectation that you can get what you want without hard work.

Recognize the real-world nature of your situation. If intensive effort is a fact of life, make it known so that people can make decisions to join the fun or opt for a less intense environment. Assess all the factors (family, physical and psychological health, career, finance, etc.) from multiple perspectives, considering short, medium, and long-term impacts.

Then decide what to do, when, and how to do it.

 

 

1.https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/jerry-seinfeld-says-achievement-success-comes-down-to-repeatedly-asking-yourself-this-6-word-question.html?utm_medium=flipdigest.ad.20240910&utm_source=email&utm_content=article&utm_campaign=campaign
PMTimes_Sep11_2024

Developing Leadership – How To Take Control

Everyone is a leader. We lead and are led by others. And everyone leads themself.

But not everyone is a good leader. Ego-driven leadership refuses to learn from the past, fails to plan effectively, is self-serving, vindictive, is not limited by truthfulness, and manipulates.

 

Leadership

Leadership is “the process of getting a group of people in a direction, to pursue common objectives.  The most effective leaders use mostly non-coercive means and seek to satisfy the group’s best interests.”[1]

According to the U.S. Department of the Army Field Manual leadership is:

“A process in which a soldier (person) applies his or her beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills to influence others to accomplish the mission….

The soldier (person) watches what you do so that his/her mind and instincts can tell him/her what you really are: an honorable leader of character with courage, competence, candor, and commitment, or a self-serving phony who uses troops and expedient behavior to look good and get ahead.” (Slightly edited for gender equity.) [2]

When you apply this to yourself, it implies significant self-awareness. Good leaders must know their beliefs, values, ethics, character, knowledge, and skills. They must realize that they influence others by their behavior – what they say and do. They must continuously assess and improve their skills and performance. And they must know what the mission is.

 

Start with Yourself

If you aspire to be a good leader, start with yourself.

  • Define your goal,
  • Assess your leadership capabilities,
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses, and
  • Commit to a development plan.

Any good leader does this for their “troops, ” employees, or followers. It represents one of many leadership qualities – developing skills in oneself and others.

 

Define Your Goal

What is your personal goal as you hone your leadership skills? Your most valued goal motivates your behavior. My goal is to be calm, compassionate, competent, and self-aware.

Leadership goals are complex. We have personal goals, like being happy, succeeding, making more money, being in control, getting ahead, and maximizing our wellness. There are organizational goals – being profitable, serving, ecological health, etc. Every stakeholder – employees, managers, executives, clients, suppliers, partners, etc. – has personal goals.

Good leaders step back from their own goals to acknowledge all the goals and consider them when making decisions that will affect themselves and others. When goals conflict with one another, apply your values to decide on your actions while considering short and long-term impacts.

If your goal is to further your personal agenda regardless of its effect on others, consider that compassionate servant leadership promotes optimal performance. And optimal performance furthers your agenda.

 

A recent Harvard Business Review article, Compassionate Leadership Is Necessary — but Not Sufficient posits that “Compassion in leadership creates stronger connections between people.  It improves collaboration, raises levels of trust, and enhances loyalty. In addition, studies find that compassionate leaders are perceived as stronger and more competent.”

“The article’s authors define compassion as “the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others.”  According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, compassion is the “sympathetic consciousness of other’s distress together with a desire to alleviate it.”   Compassion is exhibited in helpful acts of kindness. “[3]

Consider Servant Leadership as an option. You can apply its principles in deciding on your goal. It is an approach to leadership built on the idea that managers are there to serve their subordinates. “Servant-leaders share power, put the needs of others first, and enable people to develop and perform optimally.”[4]

As you define your goals reflect on the leadership behavior you want to exhibit. How do you want to be perceived? How comfortable and competent do you want to feel? What is your position in the hierarchy, what influence do you have, and how do you lead from there?

 

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Assess Your Leadership Capabilities

Leadership capabilities are combinations of many skills.

“Leadership skills boil down to the ability to create a vision, motivate and influence followers to realize the vision, build teams, communicate, listen, and negotiate.  These skills are supported by mindfulness, compassion, and wisdom.”[5]

We can summarize leadership capabilities as maintaining a positive mindset, relating well with others, and being able to make effective decisions.

In a Google search, Search Labs | AI Overview identified the following 16 skills:

 

  • Communication
  • Empathy
  • Conflict resolution
  • Delegation
  • Resilience
  • Ownership
  • Critical thinking
  • Honesty
  • Feedback
  • Self-awareness
  • Integrity
  • Relationship building
  • Agility and adaptability
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Decision-making
  • Negotiation

 

Other sources add Empowering Others as a skill.

That’s a lot of skills to manage. Focus on the capabilities and then home in on the skills that may need tweaking.

 

Identify strengths and weaknesses

There are many assessment tools. These tools are most effective in the context of an ongoing leadership development program. It may be your organization’s program, though make sure you have your own.

For example, a leadership development program may contain assessment tools, coaching, training, and candid criticism, including 360-degree feedback. It would be structured to accommodate the needs of beginners as well as seasoned leaders.

To assess your capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, objectively observe your behavior and its effects on your ability to achieve your goals. Obtain feedback. Answer the questions: Are you achieving your performance goals? Are conditions harmonious and productive? What would you change to make things even better than they are?

 

Commit to a development plan.

Thinking about leadership and planning to improve are starting points. Action is what makes for success in a continuously improving ability to lead. Committing to the plan means planning and then acting to meet objectives.

On the surface, the plan is to define your goal, assess your leadership capabilities, identify strengths and weaknesses, and commit to a development plan.

On a more tactical level, it includes taking part in workshops and training programs, finding a coach, adopting mindfulness and other methods to support stress management, relationship management, focus, and decision-making, as well as honing skills like the ability to create or interpret a financial plan or make better use of technology.

The key point is to take control of your leadership development, to continuously improve. Assess, plan, act, repeat.

 

[1] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
[2] From Wisdom at Work Discerning Insights on Leadership 9-10-24 Joel & Michelle Levey <[email protected]> ]
[3] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
[4] https://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/the-caring-manager.html
[5] https://www.projecttimes.com/articles/compassionate-leadership/
PMTimes_Sep11_2024

Kanban Software to Streamline Your Workflow

Managing a team and juggling various tasks are really stressful. Being in a manager position is like handling chainsaws- intense, risky and requiring precise control. But fear not! There’s a powerful tool that can transform this chaotic workflow into a smooth and well-organized workflow: Kanban software.

Think about visualizing a team’s work with a clear division and organized board that tracks each task’s status without any loss. And there lies the magic of Kanban.

In this post, you will discover the versatility of Kanban software and how you and your team can use it to skyrocket performance.

 

Understanding Kanban Software

Kanban is a popular tool that helps in agile leadership and boosts team efficiency. It is a crucial methodology used by many project management tools. Let’s understand Kanban with an easy example:

Let us assume you are in a restaurant, specifically its kitchen. You do not want a pile of orders overwhelming the chefs all at once. Instead, you manage the flow of visualizing and organizing the orders in front of the chefs. Each order is tracked through various stages, from ‘To Do’ to ‘Done.

In short, a Kanban board might be called a digital sticky note board with columns such as “To Do,” “In progress,” and “Done.” It works as follows:

  • Visualizing work: Tasks are organized and categorized, making it easy for everyone to see the current status and stage of each task.
  • Limiting Work in Progress (WIP): By managing the number of tasks in progress, Kanban prevents team members from becoming overwhelmed and ensures smooth transitions.
  • Continuous Improvement: Kanban encourages teams to refine their processes and focus on bringing incremental improvements to the project.

 

The Best Kanban Software for Your Needs

While there are various tools and software that offer Kanban as an inbuilt feature, we have sorted out a list of top software that have built Kanban to the next level.

According to Verified Market Reports,  the market size of Kanban software is estimated to hit $10.9 billion before the end session of 2027. It is growing at a CAGR of 15.3% during these forecast periods.

It shows the high efficiency and adaptability of the Kanban software for project managers. Now let’s know a few top tools that offer Kanban as a pro feature:

ProofHub

ProofHub is a project management and team collaboration software. ProofHub’s Kanban board is like a dynamic canvas in which all related project activities are visible in a balanced way. Kanban board provides a comprehensive view of your project’s progress, showing who’s accomplished what, where each task stands, and the timeline of activities. It is, therefore, easy to drag the tasks for work progress, allowing an easy way to distinguish completed tasks and those that are still pending. Also, this tool has additional functions like customizations and security, ensuring your projects are not only organized but protected.

ClickUp

ClickUp helps streamline the entire workflow with its Kanban feature. It helps maximize work efficiency and manage work smartly. It saves time for managers and allows them to focus on urgent and essential work. ClickUp has 25,000+ reviews on G2, showing its global popularity.

Asana

Asana offers a customizable Kanban workflow management dashboard. It helps foster team collaboration, checking the work stage in real time, toggling between views, and automating workflow. Asana has been trusted by Deloitte, NASA, United Way, The New York Times, and Spotify.

 

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How to Choose the Right Kanban Software?

Well, let’s resemble your Kanban tool with a Unicorn. 🎠

It has a very sharp horn that denotes task prioritization.🦄

It has a rainbow color tail that moves your task from to-do, doing, and to do.🌈

It has soft, wide feathers which are ready to take off towards your dream. 🪽

But the paradox is that there are so many Unicorns standing in front of you; how can you choose the right one for you?

 

Finding the ideal Kanban software

It’s time to know a few effective ways to find the ideal Kanban software that suits fit.

  • Know Your Needs: Learn what you truly need from it as a software. Is it for a small team or a large firm? Start by aligning your expectations with the tool’s capabilities.
  • Look at Your Options: Many software solutions claim to be a Kanban board. Create a list of what you want from Kanban software and match your list with your targeted tool.
  • Try Before You Buy: Opt for a free trial or request a demo to test and understand the software and ensure that it fits your needs. Test the software or look for a free trial.

 

Essential Features: The right features to look for in a Kanban software

There are a few must-have features inside Kanban software. Check the list below to know:

  • Boards: Where you’ll keep your tasks organized. (as if the containers are for your sand).
  • Cards: Tasks that can be moved through different stages.
  • Columns: Indicate stages in the task process
  • Swimlanes: Grouping tasks for better organization
  • Collaboration Tools: Features to get your team involved.
  • Reports: Insights on how the task progresses and areas for improvement.
  • UI/UX: Facilitate users to navigate an interface effortlessly.
  • Training: An intuitive platform that requires little training and easy to navigate around
  • Price: Ensure that the cost falls under your budget.

Benefits of choosing the right Kanban Software.

Having a Kanban tool for project and team management comes with numerous benefits. Here are a few of them:

See the whole picture

It collects every task-related activity in one place and makes it more like a board where you have an overview of all of them. It lets you monitor the current stage of a task and see whether it is remaining or completed.

Keep things moving

It lets you ensure that work is constantly progressing on the right track. Once something isn’t working correctly, for example, some obstruction in the river bed like this rock, you can quickly locate it and set it right.

Avoid overload

It lets you specify that as much work as possible can be done simultaneously. This prevents one from overworking a team member and possibly getting stressed out.

Better teamwork

All the actions are transparent to everyone. Thus, it makes the work of teams more efficient and helps share ideas among the teams.

 

Track progress

It also allows managers to track the progress of a particular project over time. This assists you in identifying whether you are making progress or not.

How does Kanban help in managing teams and tasks?

  • Clear roles: The team is aware of their tasks. It reveals the capacity as to who is doing what in the organization.
  • Easy updates: It is more informative to know that when an employee completes a job, he or she relocates the Post-it note. All the workmates observe the update at the same time.
  • Balanced workload: The Kanban system can also ensure that there is work for everyone to do; in other words, there must not be too much work to do.
  • Focus on what matters: This provides an opportunity to prioritize the tasks in them since all of them are seen.

However, Kanban software is like a helper for your team; it helps keep everything in order and does not let you get distracted easily.

 

Conclusion

Kanban software can drastically change the team’s approach and performance. Kanban assisted in improving the operations by creating visibility to the workflow, avoiding multitasking and promoting constant improvement while increasing the business’s productivity.

Thus, with the help of the Kanban methodology and proper tools, organizations can enhance their project management and become more successful.

PMTimes_Sep03_2024

Managing Software Testing

You cannot test quality into software.

Some project managers make the mistake of stepping back when software testing takes the forefront in their projects.

 

It may be due to a lack of hands-on testing experience, concerns over the increasingly technical nature of software testing, or a willingness to let the QA Lead drive the bus for a short period. None of these reasons are valid. Regardless of their roles prior to becoming PMs, they can and should continue to lead the team during testing. In the next few articles, we’ll focus on helping PMs better understand how to guide their teams to delivering better software. Testing the software is just one part of that journey.

 

Let’s clear up some misperceptions. The purpose of testing is not to attempt to break the software, nor to find every possible defect, but to demonstrate that the software will fulfill its intended purpose with a reasonable level of confidence. As highlighted by the quote above, software quality must be built into the project and development process from the beginning rather than being added through testing. Testing allows us to confirm that the expected quality is there and to find and correct those places where it is not. Remember the definition of software quality that we are using:

 

Quality code is code that in order of importance, does what it is supposed to do, is bug free, and is well-crafted.

– Stephen Vance

 

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) definitions for verification and validation apply during this project phase, so their formal definitions may inform discussions about software performance under testing.

  • Verification: The determination by objective, repeatable methods that an item satisfies its stated requirements.*

 

In other words, the software works as it is intended to work, and it meets the requirements it is connected to.

  • Validation: The determination by objective, repeatable methods that an item can be used for a specific purpose.*

 

In other words, the software is suitable for purpose, meaning the requirements correctly describe the business need that the software satisfies.

 

(*Adapted from The Project Manager’s Guide to Software Engineering’s Best Practices, by Mark J. Christensen and Richard H. Thayer, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos, CA, 2001.)

 

Every test should be traced back to a requirement, either functional or non-functional. If we cannot trace a particular test back to a requirement, we need to question why that test is needed and what purpose it serves. To ensure that we are not wasting time with unnecessary tests and that we are performing the required tests in an appropriate manner and sequence, we start by developing a test strategy. The test strategy defines what will be tested, how it will be tested, and what results are needed to determine that the system is ready for production.

 

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Once the test strategy is established, one or more test plans are created to meet the goals of that strategy in a methodical, effective, and efficient manner. Test plans describe the purpose of the test, entry and exit conditions, and specifically where and how the system will be tested. Once we have test plans, we can dive into the detailed planning of each test or series of tests. This usually results in test cases, definitions of test environments or regions, test interfaces, test data, and so on.

 

While the project manager is not responsible for creating any of these documents or artifacts, they should be closely involved in their development, review, and ultimate approval. They will have a significant impact on the project schedule, including task duration, task sequencing, key gates, and their location in the schedule. Quality assurance and testing schedules must be coordinated with those of the other teams within the project and typically external to the project (for example, the infrastructure team). These, in turn, impact the budgets and resources that go into the project plan. There may be significant risks or issues that will need to be addressed via specific testing, such as a new external interface or a set of complex calculations, with solutions that must be clearly described in both the testing and overall project plans.

 

The project manager is not expected to be an expert in software testing design or execution, just as they are not expected to be software engineers. They are expected to be familiar with the role, purpose, and types of testing required by their project under the delivery methodology being followed. PMs should ask thoughtful questions, ensure open issues are properly resolved, and participate in walkthroughs of key quality assurance and testing deliverables. We’ll briefly go through common ones in the following sections. While PMs should not be the ones driving the team through testing, they need to ensure that it is being done and done effectively. Some tips on how to do this are covered below.

 

The key point to remember is to be proactive, not passive, with these deliverables and tasks. Although quality cannot be created by testing, testing should identify where quality is lacking so it can be improved. Thorough testing supported by appropriate metrics will find and eliminate most defects and improve confidence that the team is delivering a high-quality system. This section highlights key considerations and leverage points for PMs to help them get the best results possible. There are separate books, whitepapers, and training courses that go into software testing in greater depth. Don’t hesitate to refer to them if desired or if you encounter a particularly unique or difficult testing issue.

 

Next Up: Types of Software Testing

 

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