What is it about Project Management (PM) that drives people crazy? In my experience I've found the biggest problems result from a lack of preparation.

PM, like documentation, many times is left to Friday afternoon. That is, people think they can cram in whatever is needed in 30 minutes at the end of the day on Friday. The result is an incomplete document/plan that often bears little resemblance to the finished product it purports to represent.

Let's face it, PM is a full-time job. You need a Project Manager for each project you have. That person may manage more than one project, but his/her job needs to be separate from the development effort. Your Technical Lead can and often does do "real work" (read: programming) but your PM should not! Your PM is your project cheerleader, your project taskmaster, the Person Who Makes Sure the Dates Are Met. Your coders are far too busy actually building your system to worry about dates, or what you need to do when your DBA catches the flu a week before your first milestone review. The Project Manager worries about dates for everyone else!

It is the job of your Project Manager to make sure the proper preparation is made for your project throughout its lifecycle. This includes risk determination and abatement, change evaluation and implementation, tracking and presentation of the project's progress to stakeholders. Trust me, that entails a lot of work, even if the finished document is an Excel spreadsheet or dashboard showing that everything is fine.

Benefits of a Project Manager

• Your Project Manager should be able to tell you within an hour or two what impact a change will have on the project.
• Your Project Manager knows the risks and has prepared abatement plans for all known contingencies.
• Your Project Manager provides valuable feedback about the performance of team members.
• Your Project Manager allows you to successfully manage more than one project yourself.
• Your Project Manager prepares the requirements document, test plan, and release notes.
• Your Project Manager ensures that the finished project delivers what was specified by the customer.

Let's talk about empowerment. Your Project Managers need power to be effective. If your people can blow off the Project Manager without fear of reprisal, then your Project Managers are doomed to failure. Thus, your Project Managers should be your eyes and ears in the trenches. Treat a poor rating about one of your workers from their Project Manager as if you had given it yourself. Speak to the person involved and let them know that their overall performance rating will suffer if they make their Project Manager unhappy. Without this power, your Project Manager will be unable to properly motivate people who are hampering the project timeline.

For many projects, it is not necessary that your Project Manager be certified, but anyone who manages projects should have training. There are many one-week courses that teach the essentials of project management and serve well for people starting out as Project Managers. However, people who plan on serving as Project Managers over an extended period (more than six months) or people who serve as the Project Manager for other Project Managers should get certification. Note to employers: this will cost you upwards of $5000, and it is worth every penny.

Tips and Techniques for successful Project Management.

• Build a Project Wall. Any existing wall will do. Make your project timeline run the length of it, indicate milestones and have your team members indicate their progress by placing their markers (nametags, subproject IDs, etc.) along the timelines. This is a great motivational tool. Someone lagging behind everyone else or ahead/one time will be noticeable. Public recognition is a powerful motivator!
• Hold regular, periodic project meetings. And I do not mean two-hour marathons where people talk just to hear themselves speak. These should be 30 minutem, fast paced meetings were project members indicate their progress (via documents prepared ahead of time). I like to use the red/green/yellow system for indicating project elements that are problems, on-track and areas of concern, respectively.
• When you meet your milestone(s), celebrate! A one-hour celebration at the local watering hole helps sustain momentum.
• Confront problems ASAP. Whether it is the stubborn programmer who refuses to submit progress reports or the customer who keeps changing requirements, deal with your problems directly and immediately. Problems that fester will eventually sink your project.

In summary, project managers are an integral part of your team. Do not treat them as a luxury or an "add on" that are only used on some projects.

Until next time, thanks for Talking Technology with me!