Posts Tagged ‘Process’

Have you ever wondered if the process (or at least the way we execute that process) ever gets in the way and makes it more difficult for teams to do their work? I’m not suggesting that project management best practices are bad, or that we should eliminate successful processes from how we lead project teams, but I have to admit that sometimes it feels like process can get in the way.

When that happens, I don’t think it’s the process that gets in the way, but rather how we execute the process and the type of relationship we have with the members of the team.

By that I mean, the relationship between the project team, the project manager, the process and the project are sometimes challenging and need our attention. For example, in many organizations that don’t have a PMO or formally established project methodology, it’s not a project manager who leads the team, it’s a department head or other line of business leader. I think this is significant. In those cases it’s the team and not the process that is the focus of the project leader. His or her relationship with the team extends beyond the start or finish of any particular project.

I don’t think this implies that a project manager can’t build those types of enduring relationships, but in those instances where they don’t, "project management" can get in the way.

In many organizations, "project management" has become associated with a lot of unnecessary governance, pushing edicts down the org chart and command-and-control. Of course, there are some projects where governance is a critical part of the project and how it’s executed, but that doesn’t mean a heavy hand is needed. With that in mind, here are three suggestions that will help project managers build a more natural and productive relationship with the team:

1. Work Together: There is a difference between working "for" someone and working "with" someone. Henry Ford said, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success will take care of itself."
2. Get Out of the Way: Those closest to the work understand it the best. Theodore Roosevelt said, "The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
3. Share the Success: Worrying about who gets credit for project success will handicap any project from the start. Harry Truman said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." Empower people to do great things and make sure everyone gets credit for what they do.

Building productive relationships with project teams doesn’t just happen. It takes effort. Remember that it’s the team and not the process that should be the focus of our efforts.

What are you doing to focus on productive relationships with your team?
Strategic Project Management

Practical Software Metrics For Project Management And Process Improvement

Every company pay special attention to its work process management and for that they always look for tools that could help them in this endevor. Now the companies search has come to end with the introduction of practical software metrics for project management and process improvement software. It helps in easily managing the work process as well as managing the projects. It empowers organizations to control the capture and processing of form based information required for critical business process automation and project handling. It replaces inefficient paper based versions with electronic form based workflows and provides automatic workflows that are trackable and web-based, increasing productivity, ensuring compliance and accountability as well as improving efficiency. Practical software metrics for project management and process improvement helps in managing and implementing even the most complex workflow and ensures the process automation obtained precisely reflects your business needs, including access to and decisions based on third party applications.
Practical software metrics for project management and process improvement offers features like data verification in forms to maintain data quality in an automated process and to ensure that the information collected is correct and valid for business process. Other features like field coonstraint restrict numerical fields so that only values within an allowed range are accepted, while Select and multiple select fields force respondents to select from a list of pre-defined values, which saves time and make it more straightforward to search and report on specific values. Its Notification features ensure users are notified through e-mails and instant messages when their participation in a process is required. It provides bespoke workflow automation through plug-ins written in PHP code, which extend your ability to create and manipulate e-form solutions. It also helps in fulfilling today’s demanding audit standard by tracking which users have completed which sections of e-form and when.
Practical software metrics for project management and process improvement helps users in filtering and reporting any business process according to your specific requirements. It also allows you to configure default values to populate field automatically and removes the requirement to re-enter duplicate information or populate standard value. Practical software metrics for project management and process improvement also helps in workflow automation using form builders with wide range of field types like short, medium, long string; short, medium, long text; checkbox, Radio button, select field, multiple select, label, user list, document, pick list etc. You can define the way it should be displayed, any constraints that should be applied, and the way it should react if changed, as each field is configurable. All these features offered by it helps companies in easily managing their projects as well as their work process.

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