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Things to Help You Effectively Manage Digital Projects

Written by Jennifer Hahn Masterson on . Posted in Articles. 13 Comments on Things to Help You Effectively Manage Digital Projects

The increasing importance of digital projects and their impact on business results have led to a rise in the level of responsibility of those in charge of these endeavours.

This is quite logical and if you’re one of those managing digital projects, you’re probably quite familiar with it. Your task is, simply put, to make stuff happen in the digital world, but very few people actually understand what kind of knowledge and skillset is required to do this job properly.

You need to understand things from a strategic perspective (as any other great manager) and know what technology is available to you. Finally, you need to be familiar with the whole process and have a very clear picture of how it can be delivered. To help you cope with the increasing pressure, we’ve singled out some of the most important elements for a successful execution of digital projects.

Focusing on main duties

The types of digital projects are really varied. Your work might be related to web, mobile, videos, games, events, content, e-commerce, social media, advertising, search engine optimization and you need to get things done before the set deadline. To do that, you really need to remember your general duties, such as drafting meeting agendas, assigning and scheduling project tasks, leading project meetings, directing project team members, preparing project schedules and budgets, etc. That’s the only way to lay solid foundation for the project.

Developing the right skills

Time management, resource management, planning, organizing, delegating are just some of the skills needed, but they are not enough. Copywriting and editing, problem-solving, negotiating, reporting, flexibility and adaptability also rank highly when it comes to managing digital projects. So, in order to be on top of your game, make sure you hone these skills constantly.

Setting clear and attainable goals

As a project manager, you need to be realistic about the goals set before you. There should be no ambiguity, nor should you set unrealistic goals. Otherwise, the project will fail at the very beginning. Make sure you don’t give promises just to keep everyone happy at the moment. After all, you’re the one responsible for the final product and if you don’t deliver what you promised, you’ll never be entrusted with a similar task in the future.

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AdWords

No digital project can be a success unless you pay attention to AdWords management. This encompasses a set of activities related to managing your Google AdWords account, which will help you create plan and monitor search campaigns. Focusing on keyword research, analysis and organisation, planning the campaign and its budget, as well as creating and optimising ad text are just some parts of a comprehensive AdWords management strategy, which will help you deliver results that will rank your product higher in search, regardless of the competition.

Not missing a single deadline

Every person involved in the project should know exactly what their task is and by what time they should complete it. Naturally, many tasks depend on other tasks being previously completed, which only makes the planning phase more vital. You and your team need to stick to deadlines. Otherwise, delays will start accumulating and your targets won’t be met. To prevent that from happening, make sure you follow up on those deadlines daily and deal with any potential hold-ups before a problem arises.

Empowering your team

A great manager is a person who can bring out the best in each team member. This is done if different ways, one of which is definitely empowering team members to make their own decisions. Naturally, it doesn’t mean they should exercise their free will, but simply showing trust and creating conditions in which every team member can shine.

Communicating with your team and client

As a project manager, you are in charge of establishing good communication both within the team and externally, with your client. It’s very important that everyone has all the necessary information from day one and that both the team and client’s objectives are aligned and agreed upon. When it comes to your team, they need to communicate with you and among themselves regularly, so that everyone is up to date with what’s happening.

In your communication with the client, the idea is to pull them a bit closer by showcasing how you prefer working on your ongoing projects. In a way, they could be treated as a team-member. If you manage to establish great communication with them, the decision making process will be much smoother and you’ll be able to work towards you common goal in a much better atmosphere.

Needless to say, this list of tips doesn’t include all the important items, but it should give you an idea about how difficult it is to manage digital projects. Not only will you appreciate the job more, but you’ll also get a clearer picture of what it includes.

Boost Gig Economy : Practices to Enhance the Productivity of Your Remote Team

Written by Amanda Jerelyn on . Posted in Articles. 8 Comments on Boost Gig Economy : Practices to Enhance the Productivity of Your Remote Team

The gig economy is increasing at a high rate. People are satisfied, working remotely with different companies.

Not only workers, but almost 40% of companies think that gig workers will become a healthy part of their workforce.

As per current stats, about 36% of the US workforce is contributing to the gig economy, and they contributed about $1.28 million to the American economy in 2018. Gig economy is increasing at a rapid pace. It is expected that 50% of the US workforce will consist of gig workers by 2027.

However, it is important to keep your remote workers satisfied to be part of this extraordinary transformation. You need to be an inspiration for your team if you want them to be productive and play a role in boosting gig economy.

How to Drive Your Remote Team Successfully

Along with a more diversified economic model, you should also keep motivating your remote workers. This will not only improve their productivity but will even lift their morale and will help the gig economy grow better and faster.

1. Invest In their Skills

To grow your economy, you need to invest. The more you invest, the more you’ll earn.

For example, you are leading a writing project, and you have a team of 30 workers. To deliver the work more effectively, you need some paid tools like Grammarly, Turnitin, etc.

The two ways to get the written work checked is, do it yourself, or purchase these tools, put them on a server and share with your employees.

I’ll recommend sharing it with your employees, and it will allow them to learn new skills, which will benefit you more.

2. Lead With Example

Good leaders improve the economy, and they lead with example. If you want to increase your income and contribute to the gig economy, you must be an inspiration to your workers.

You need to understand the situation and act according to the need. Sometimes, you may have to work yourself to convey a message about how focused you are and how important is the task for you. Once your workers realize the significance of their work, they will be more productive.

3. Keep Communication Open

Communication is the key to success. More importantly, when it comes to remote working. Without delivering your actual requirements appropriately, you can expect gig workers to deliver the best.

If you lack in communication, it means your gig economy will be going down. Make sure you are in contact with all of your team members regularly.

Give them a wide range of contact from skype to email. Keep into consideration the location of your employees before contacting them so you can contact them at the right time.

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4. Build Trust

Your trust in your workers, their trust in you, and intra-team trust is an important factor for a remote team to establish a higher gig economy.

If your workers are afraid to get criticized or face the discipline being honest, then I’m sorry you have not built the trust you must have. Deliver a message to your employees that you understand the circumstances. However, make sure that your workers may not cheat on you, taking advantage of your blind trust.

5. Establish Accountability

Accountability is very important when it comes to economic development. Make sure your workers understand that working at home is a privilege. However, there are some regulations. You are expecting them to work as if they are in the office.

Deadlines must be followed, and work should be done accordingly with complete requirements.

6. Encourage Self Management

Make sure your team does not take any task for granted. Develop a sense that they consider themselves their manager.

It may sound not so good to you, but believe me, it is important. In this manner, they will be managing their time, prioritizing tasks, and delivering on time. They will take responsibility and will work as they are doing their own task and not an assigned task.

7. Promote Learning and Development

You might hire most of the employees based on their current skills. But we know the technology is growing super fast. You might face a change in your work style. Instead of hiring new workers, offering your current workers an opportunity to upskill at the required level will be mutually beneficial for both of you.

This will encourage them to continue working for you and will build the employee value proposition (EVP). Considering they are not employees, but gig workers, we can call it GVP.

8. Words Of Appreciation and Rewards

Do you remember how it feels when your teacher raised you in the class. I do, it was really encouraging and motivating.

Do the same for your workers. Build a social media group for your employees where they can interact with each other. Praise your employees there regularly and reward them with a token of appreciation. It will build a healthy competition, and you’ll see your team grow faster.

I wish you and your team a very best of luck, and I hope your team is going to create a good impact on the gig economy this season.

Conflict Management – Trading Anger for Understanding

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on Conflict Management – Trading Anger for Understanding

Anger often comes up when fighting for one’s way against those who disagree.  

One of the most critical skills for managing conflict is the ability to go beyond anger and allow the right degree of reason to moderate emotions in order to steer the mind towards greater understanding.  Greater understanding leads to more effective conflict management resulting in better decisions, healthier relationships and optimal solutions that seek to satisfy the needs of all parties.   

“Conflict is a fact of life. People disagree about what they are doing, why they are doing it and how best to do it. In fact, if you are working in any kind of collaborative effort and there is no conflict, then something’s wrong.“[1]

“Conflict is a difference of opinion that prevents agreement. In projects we deal with complex concepts and complex relationships and the combination of the two makes for a fertile ground for conflict. Conflicts are normal and, if managed well, they can be quite useful.”[2]

In our context, a conflict is any issue that keeps people from coming to an agreement.  It might be called a dispute, disagreement, issue, problem, or any number of other things, depending on its complexity and the intensity of the differences among the people involved. We will stay within the bounds of organizations, projects and teams rather than to the far more complex realm of national and international political disputes. However, it should be noted that the same principles apply in any conflict, whether between lovers or international sworn enemies.

More an Art Than Science

Managing conflict is more of an art than a science.  It seeks to reach a resolution or the acknowledgement that no resolution is possible.  It requires balancing mindful awareness, emotions, intuition, rational thinking, empathy, and effective communications to creatively navigate the relationships among the parties to the issue.  An intention to act with compassion, to reach win-win resolutions, plus an attitude of mutual respect are important ingredients for effective conflict management.

Interpersonal relationships are at the heart of effective conflict management.  In case you haven’t noticed it, interpersonal relationships are complex.  To attempt to manage them only using reason and analytical thinking misses the point that emotions and intuition are very powerful forces, often working below the line between the conscious and unconscious.  Understanding the complexity leads to a more likely to be successful approach to achieving optimal resolutions.  Note that many, if not most, conflicts in organizations can be resolved to satisfy the needs of all the conflicting parties.[3]

Trading Anger for Understanding

“Seek first to understand, then to be understood” is the fifth habit of Stephen Covey’s  Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.   This habit implies that one is more likely to be successful in resolving conflicts if one avoids the knee jerk reaction to convince the other guy.  Instead, one turns attention to finding out what he or she is thinking and why he or she is thinking it. 

To understand requires stepping back, opening the mind and objectively “listening.” Not just listening with the ears but with all the senses.  

We as humans have a capacity to process cues, some obvious, like words and overt behaviors, and some more subtle, like body language, eye movements and tone.  To better understand where another person is coming from and why, cultivate that capacity and the mindfulness and concentration to enable objective observation.  Then, fold understanding into the decision making and conflict management process.  

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Anger

Anger, ranging from mild frustration to rage, is a common emotion when dealing with conflict.  

We want our way.  It’s the right way!  “These other people are obstructing it.  How dare they?  What’s wrong with them?  They are sooo stubborn!”  “Aarrgh!” 

Anger arises out of the fear that we won’t get what we want.  Fixation on the desire to have things just as we want them closes the rational mind.  

Anger is a powerful emotion; an energy being sensed in the body and mind.  Anger is both understandable and not to be suppressed.  However, left unchecked it blocks reason and leads to division, poor decisions, verbal abuse and, in the extreme, to physical violence.  It makes understanding more difficult, if not impossible. 

Anger breaks down the conflict management process.  It is more damaging to the one who is angry than to the subject of the anger, particularly when the cause of the anger is in the situation itself.  For example, anger at a system that throws up political and bureaucratic obstacles to getting projects done on time and within budget can damage individual and team morale.  

Anger channeled skillfully can fuel sharp thinking.  Use it as an alarm to signal over attachment to ‘the only way’.  Transform anger into crystal clarity and wisdom.  Use the energy of anger to seek understanding.

Understanding

Understand several things about the players in the conflict, including yourself, to inform the way you engage in conflict.

What is their motivation?  What are their needs and wants?  What do they believe winning means?  Who are they trying to please by winning?  What do those external players (sponsors, executives, managers, clients) really want?  What expectations, biases, cultural norms, external constraints, values and models do they bring to the table?  What is their conflict style – Forcing, Avoiding, Collaborating or Compromising?   Are they more likely to be driven by their emotions or are they more inclined to be caught up in their analysis to the exclusion of emotions and intuition?  

When we understand others and ourselves, we recognize that we are not so different from our adversaries.  Compassion emerges to fuel mutual respect and a desire to reach win-win outcomes.  Though, without diminishing the desire to win with a result that can be acted upon to achieve objectives.  

Conclusion

Conflict is a fact of life. Managed well it is a critical factor in successfully achieving objectives, including the objective to make relationships as healthy as possible, both in the short and long terms.  

To manage it well go beyond biases and beyond insisting on “my way or the highway.” To do that, cultivate the ability to step back and understand the dynamics that are in play.  Avoid reactivity to maximize responsiveness.  Rely on intuition and analysis based on understanding.

 

[1] Pitagorsky, George, Managing Conflict in Projects, Project Management Institute, 2012 p. 1

[2] Pitagorsky, George, “Conflict Is Useful, Don’t Avoid It”,  https://www.projecttimes.com/george-pitagorsky/conflict-is-useful-don-t-avoid-it.html?utm_source=

[3] See The section on Diagramming the Conflict – Evaporating Clouds in Pitagorsky, George, Managing Conflict in Projects, Project Management Institute, 2012}

Ready for Anything – Courage and Insight

Written by George Pitagorsky on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Ready for Anything – Courage and Insight

The focus in this article is on the courage and insight to confront and overcome barriers to being ready for anything.

The barriers include bias, anger, fear, frustration, confusion, clinging to untenable beliefs, to impossible expectations, and more.

In a recent article, Ready for Anything – Mindfully Aware, I identified five factors that contribute to being ready for anything:

  • Technical and interpersonal skills and business acumen 
  • A realistic view of the way things are
  • Emotional and Social intelligence
  • The courage and insight to confront and overcome barriers 
  • Mindful awareness.

The two parts to the courage and insight factor, are interdependent.  Insight implies that one is aware of the barriers and the tendencies that contribute to failure.  The courage is needed to do something about them. 

Insight

Let’s begin with insight. Insight is a deep understanding of something.  Deep here means experientially knowing as opposed to intellectually understanding. 

Mindfulness enables objective observation everything that is taking place in or around one – thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, sounds, the reactions of self and others – everything.  Objectively observing enables a realistic view of the way things are – impermanent, subject to change, uncertain, and the result of a process.  The process is dynamic and ongoing.  It is what makes everything impermanent.  

As one objectively observes, one also learns that wanting things to be different than they can be causes unnecessary stress and emotional pain.  One comes in touch with unconscious forces at work that influence feelings behavior.

Absence of Insight leads to dysfunction

Often, without these insights, project managers, clients, sponsors and other stakeholders subtly hold beliefs that cause project dysfunction.  For example, believing that key staff will continue on a project can lead to over reliance and difficulties when these people leave and their institutional knowledge is lost.  The belief that requirements will not change leads to unrealistic expectations about schedule and expenses. 

Living Above the Line

The realization that there are unconscious beliefs and biases at work “below the line” enables more effective decisions and behavior. The line is the divide between what is conscious and what is not.

For example, a project manager who continuously underestimates work would be operating below the line if she was driven by the unacknowledged fear that her estimate would be criticized and rejected, or driven by a false belief that this time everything would work out as expected.  Operating above the line is recognizing that there is a drive operating below the surface and taking the drive into consideration when deciding on behavior.

In other words, when we are consciously aware of the reasons we behave as we do, we are operating above the line.

Courage

This is where courage comes in. 

Courage is the ability to carry on in the face of fear and the strength to skillfully address fear and pain.

 Breaking through dearly held beliefs and realizing that uncertainty and impermanence are certainties bring fear to many.  We want the comfort of certainty and stability.  We want to be sure; and, when we are not, we may experience anxiousness.  Carrying on in the face of anxiety requires courage.

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Then, there is the need to work with people in power who demand and act as if their will were enough to get their expectations met.  Fear of failure and of disappointing clients and sponsors is common.

It takes courage to act on one’s insights – to say “no” or “I don’t know”.  It takes courage to give up long held beliefs, even when the objective evidence shows them to be arbitrary and counter productive.  It takes courage to set out on an uncharted journey and stay with it in the face of difficulties 

Ready for Anything

Insight into the basic realities of uncertainty, impermanence and the desire for things to be in a certain way coupled with the courage to act on the insight are a foundation for cognitive readiness – the ability to operate effectively under volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous circumstances.  Cognitive readiness is being ready for anything.

Ready for anything, we can apply our intelligence, skills and knowledge in the most effective way.

Becoming Courageous – Taming Fear

We gain insight by mindfully observing.  How do we gain courage?

As we have said, courage is the ability to carry on in the face of fear and the strength to skillfully address pain.  Courage does not mean being fearless.  Fear is a natural part of life and can be very useful.

For example, fear of failure can trigger greater care and more focused effort to succeed.  Alternatively, it can be a deterrent to success.

Facing fear, accepting it, exploring it, and using its energy makes the best use of fear.  The courageous person, the hero, transforms the fear into laser like attention to detail, assesses goals, risks and rewards, and then carries on.  Those who do not face fear, hide from it; they stop and run away or they lash out in anger – anything that will make the fear go away.

In project management work, a manager who is faced with a confrontation with the sponsor over budget or schedule will probably experience some fear (ranging from mild anxiety to near panic).  

The hero will realize that this is not a life threatening fight-or-flight situation and will focus on preparing a clear and precise picture of his or her assessment of the issue. He or she will think in advance of the Best and Final Offer, and will have a sense of what to do if she cannot come to terms with the sponsor.  Will he walk away or will she give-in and deal with the consequences of accepting an impossible due date and budget later?

Others may avoid the confrontation by giving in without negotiating and without consciously looking at the cost of doing so.  Without courage, fear takes over and steers and drives behavior.

The courage to face fear and tame it comes from the ability to observe fear and not let it take over.  Mindful awareness enables the stepping back that frees one of the need to react.  The unpleasant feeling of fear is fully experienced and accepted.  Mindfully observing a feeling like fear creates some space between the observer and the feeling and that space enables responsiveness as opposed to reactivity.

Responsiveness – Ready for Anything

Responsiveness results from the combination of 

  • A realistic view of the way things are
  • Emotional and Social intelligence
  • The courage and insight to confront and overcome barriers
  • Mindful awareness.

Fold in technical and interpersonal skills and business acumen and you are ready for anything.

The Who, What and Why of PPM

Written by Brad Egeland on . Posted in Articles. 9 Comments on The Who, What and Why of PPM

You say you need a project portfolio management tool by next Friday, so you ask someone to evaluate the options, try a few out and write up a cost benefit analysis.

Is that necessary or is just it buying you time in your procrastination of the decision-making steps and process?

You’re an organized, efficient and skilled business analyst in your organization and successful on most projects… yet there is something missing. You get frustrated because it feels like sometimes you’re spinning your wheels when you’re asked to perform on projects and be a great leader and be successful when you are feeling uneasy for a few reasons…

  • Are we ready to take on this type of project?
  • Do we have the available resources?
  • Do those resources have the needed skill sets?
  • Are we taking on these projects in the proper order so we can learn, grow and perform better on each project while still gaining valuable footage in a new genre or technology?

What do you need to help with all this frustration? All this doubt and questioning and concern for the projects and the customer on the other end as well as the good of your project teams and project managers can be very distracting. Do you need a hug? No… well, maybe. But be a big boy. What you probably need is a great PPM tool – a project portfolio management tool – to help you sort out the resources the projects, the technology the prioritization the “yes-no” and “go-no-go” decisions and the “go-live” timing. It may mean the difference between the project management infrastructure you need for your growing, successful, project centric delivery organization and increased failure on projects you’re taking on before you’re ready. Better to skip over the ones you’re not ready for than to stupidly and blindly take them on with a high failure rate possibility. Right? Yes… say “right”!

PPMs are becoming more popular and more plentiful and software providers look to not only meet an organization’s PM oversight needs but also help in many difficult project engagement decisions that prior to recent years was more like throwing darts at a wall. By definition, a project portfolio management tool – or PPM – is this…

“Project portfolio management (PPM) refers to a process used by project managers and project management organizations (PMOs) to analyze the potential return on undertaking a project. By organizing and consolidating every piece of data regarding proposed and current projects, project portfolio managers provide forecasting and business analysis for companies looking to invest in new projects.”

Project portfolio management gives organizations and managers the ability to see the big picture…

  • Executives – know what project managers to reach
  • Project Managers – easy access to team members
  • Team Members – improved communication with leadership and other teammates
  • Stakeholders – kept in the loop with reliable and consistent feedback

So, let’s consider what this article set out to do – discuss the Who, What and Why of PPM.

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Who?

Who needs a PPM? Leaders of projects in a highly project-oriented delivery organization as well as those resource gatekeepers for the projects that need staffed. And the decision makers in the organization need a PPM. Where do we spend our very valuable project dollars? Are we ready to take on these projects at this time? Do we have the right skill sets and resources to be successful? Or are we setting ourselves up for failure?

What?

What are we going to do with the PPM once we acquire it? What does the enterprise rollout look like? And should it be an enterprise rollout or just a leadership tool? Is it going to be interactive with the overall landscape of the organization where projects are born and requested or just one to help the senior leadership make decisions and plan dollars at a high level?

Why?

I think we’ve covered the why, but let’s consider. Why PPM? Because your organization needs it to effectively and efficiently manage the flow of projects through the organization. Your organization needs it to properly keep resources fully utilized and projects fully staffed with the right resources and right skill sets and not take on projects that they will not have resources available for. And your organization needs it take on the right projects and in the right order to realize the most success.

Summary / call for input

Is a project portfolio management tool necessary and is it a guarantee of project success and PM infrastructure success? No and no. A PPM is not necessary and there’s probably no reason to randomly spend money on one just because you’ve been told you should have one. Though as with all PM related tools, there are free ones to check out the PPM landscape and some are pretty good with lots of features as long as you aren’t licensing tons of users to begin with.

Certainly consider your growing needs and whether you need to seek a scalable PPM tool that will grow with your organization and whether you need a more specific hybrid PPM tool that works great for both waterfall and agile software development and project management organizations because those exist as well. Yes, much to consider. Don’t just jump into the fire… take time and examine your own needs. But, as I see it, most growing and successful project delivery organizations are eventually going to need this – I’ve worked as a consultant with several overloaded PM delivery organizations and a PPM was definitely a great choice for them in the end.

Readers – does your organization have a project portfolio management tool? If yes, tell us what you’re using and if it’s good or bad… seems to be the wave of the future and we all want to hear about the good ones to help in our decision-making processes. If you chose the wrong one, then we want to hear about that, too, and why it was a bad call. What’s it’s failure point? If you don’t have one – do you plan to make the leap? Is your project backlog a mess or struggling? Please share your thoughts and discuss.