Project Management tips for new project team members.
Since earning my PMP certification in 2020, following rigorous training
from Ritetrac Consulting, I’ve had the opportunity to apply my knowledge
in various aspects of my personal and professional life, particularly in
my role as a Project Support Professional in an Oil and Gas firm.
I’d like to share some guiding rules for managing and supporting
projects that can be employed for effective project management:
If it’s not written, it doesn’t exist:
Ensure the existence of a Project Management Plan, whether in the form
of a Project Brief or Project Charter, to establish the project’s
initiation, outcomes, and constraints (Cost, Quality, and Schedule).
On a certain project I walked into, there was no documentation, but
endless emails of ideas and concepts, so I suggested a document the team
can reference at any point in time. The Project brief was quickly
adopted because it has a high-level requirement and agreed resources to
be used for a given project. For the first time, the team felt they had
something to fall back on. The Project Management Plan was also used to
determine how certain aspects of the project would be delivered or
managed; the Quality, Resources, etc were documented for reference.
Manage the project by exception, aligning with the agreed constraints
and addressing deviations from the plan through discussions with the
project sponsors and team members.
Maintain a RAIDS log:
The RAIDS log encompasses Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and
Dependencies should be consistently updated to keep the project within
the planned parameters.
Projects without a comprehensive Risk or Issue log often experience
losses and significant deviations from the initial plan.
The RAIDS log helped streamline the discussions during project meetings
by cutting the unnecessary information and narrowing it down to the agreed
mitigation-action points.
Listen to the market and be ready to adapt – incorporate Agile in your
management methodology:
Where are work, this is where the Strategy department comes in, they
watch the market and inform the Project steering committee of issues
relevant to the viability of the planned project.
In rapidly evolving industries, staying attuned to market developments
is crucial to adapting quickly and making necessary changes to the project
plans.
Agile methodology can be applied to facilitate swift adaptation to
change, requiring engagement with project sponsors for approval when
altering plans.
Meet regularly:
Regular meetings, whether physical or remote, are essential for sharing
project developments and managing the RAIDS log effectively.
In the tech industry, the Daily Scrum, a brief daily meeting, serves to
document project situations for continuous improvement.
People Management:
Successful project managers excel at managing people, encompassing
stakeholder management.
Utilize PMP tools such as the Project Schedule Chart, RAIDS log, Project
Plan, Project Charter, and Project performance charts for effective
stakeholder management.
Lessons Learned Report:
The Lessons Learned report is indispensable for providing reference
points to new and existing team members, aiding in future project
endeavors.
The Lessons Learned report has immensely reduced the time in setting up
new projects in the office , since a repository now exists for possible
risks a project is prone to for necessary migative action. It has also
helped to reduce project errors , thereby reducing project cost.
It enhances risk identification and mitigation by learning from past
experiences, ensuring more effective project management.
Written by Godwin Okoduwa
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