Digital Project Manager

Know your project
For the sake of everybody involved with a project you need to be the expert and know every detail from start to finish. Not only will this earn you respect from your team but also help you develop more accurate time-scales.

Set a vision
People buy into the vision for a cause, they don’t necessarily sign up to do task. If you set a vision that you can get excited about, others will get excited too.

Communicate the project charter.
The project charter is the main deliverable for the initiating phase. It’s important to communicate the scope, time and budget of the project to all team members.

Get formal sign-offs
If you’ve found yourself midway through the project and people are asking, “Who signed that off?” Well, you can show them that they did! I’ve also found formal sign-offs focus the client attention on what they are actually signing off.

Create a project folder and frequently back it up
I create a project folder which contains all project related documentation using a structured naming method then make sure it is frequently backed up to several locations. Then when someone calls or emails for critical information, it’s easy to find what I (or a team member) need.

Build and nurture critical relationships
Interpersonal relationships with your team and stakeholders are some of your most important assets in getting the project done.

A recently read about the idea of the “project triangle” as it applies to project management, and it occurred to me that it perfectly illustrates the concept that I try to explain to my clients and work colleagues.

Pinning down the client’s key goals in relation to these areas is absolutely essential for the planning of a project – so it is essential for the whole project. In some cases, the priorities are going to be clear cut, e.g. quality comes to the forefront when issues of health and safety are at stake. At One Result, our clients often prioritise quality because reputation is important to them. If the project needs to be done within a tight budget, you need to make sure resources are allocated to the most important areas, in the most cost-effective way.

The below diagram and the words “pick any two” best explains the project triangle:

• By wanting it “cheap” and “fast” means you will sacrifice quality.
• By wanting it “good” and “cheap” means having to sacrifice time.
• By wanting it “good” and “fast” means the cost will increase.

This isn’t the end of the story, though, because the Time-Cost-Quality Triangle is really a tetrahedron. The fourth point on the triangle is reserved for “scope”. If unplanned additions come into the project, which really do need to be made (the infamous “scope creep”) this can be achieved only by altering the original project ambition. More often than not, this means reducing the breadth of achievement for the project, but delivering value, and the highest quality, on the areas that are covered.

Competence

Everybody must believe that the project manager knows what he or she is doing. Having a winning track record is the surest way to be considered competent. Expertise in leadership skills is another dimension in competence. The ability to challenge, inspire, enable, model and encourage must be demonstrated if leaders are to be seen as capable and competent.

Ability to Delegate Tasks

Trust is an essential element in the relationship of a project manager and his or her team. You demonstrate your trust in others through your actions – how much you check and control their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate. Individuals who are unable to trust other people often fail as leaders and forever remain little more that micro-managers, or end up doing all of the work themselves.

Cool Under Pressure

In a perfect world, projects would be delivered on time, under budget and with no major problems. But we don’t live in a perfect world – projects have problems. A leader with a hardy attitude will take these problems in stride. When leaders encounter a stressful event, they consider it interesting, they feel they can influence the outcome and they see it as an opportunity.

Team-Building Skills

A team builder can best be defined as a strong person who provides the substance that holds the team together in common purpose toward the right objective. In order for a team to progress from a group of strangers to a single cohesive unit, the project manager must understand the process and dynamics required for this transformation. He or she must also know the appropriate leadership style to use during each stage of team development.

Problem Solving Skills

An effective project manager will share problem-solving responsibilities with the team, whilst this is true project managers should have excellent problem-solving skills themselves.

A Good Communicator

Project leadership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback.

There is a great deal of value placed on openness and directness. The project manager must have the ability to effectively negotiate and use persuasion when necessary to ensure the success of the team and project. Through effective communication, project managers support individual and team achievements by creating explicit guidelines for accomplishing results.

Integrity

One of the most important things a project manager must remember is that his or her actions, and not words, set the modus operandi for the team. Good leadership demands commitment to, and demonstration of, ethical practices. Creating standards for ethical behavior for oneself and living by these standards, as well as rewarding those who exemplify these practices, are responsibilities of project leaders. Leadership motivated by self-interest does not serve the well being of the team. Leadership based on integrity represents nothing less than a set of values others share, behavior consistent with values and dedication to honesty with self and team members. In other words the leader “walks the talk” and in the process earns trust.

Enthusiasm

Plain and simple, negative project managers are not a good thing – they bring the project team down. Every project needs a project manager with enthusiasm, a bounce in their step and a can-do attitude. Naturally we tend to follow people with a can-do attitude, not those who give us 200 reasons why something can’t be done. Enthusiastic project managers are committed to their goals and express this commitment through optimism. Enthusiasm is contagious and effective project managers know that.

Empathy

Empathy, presupposes the existence of the object as a separate individual, entitled to his or her own feelings, ideas and emotional history. A simple summary of this would be, “It’s nice when a project manager acknowledges that team members all have a life outside of work.”

The Project Managers role is to ‘manage the project’, overseeing the timescales, budget, resources and so on. So, when should the PM be introduced into the project?

Usually, when a lead arises the business development team will communicate with the potential client and arrange a meeting and they will discuss the requirements of the project. The sales team will look over the requirements and quote on the project. Following this, the client will give the go ahead. Once the go ahead has been given the BD team will pass on the project to the PM. But is this the right way to do things? When should the PM be engaging in project – after the sale? During the sales process? From the moment the client makes contact?

I believe that the earlier the PM can be introduced into the project, the easier it is for the PM to engage in the project and have a clear vision as to the direction of the project.

It is crucial that as a PM you are aware of the brief from the beginning, so that milestones can be drawn up in order to work towards a completion date, and so that the project is budgeted correctly to achieve the client’s needs. The planning stages are extremely important to any new web project, and can take up a great chunk of time. The clearer the plans, the better the end result will be.