.

Controlling Schedule is the project management activity in which progress on project activities is compared against Schedule baseline to understand whether project is ahead of the schedule or behind. Based on the deviation you can plan on corrective or preventive actions and manage changes to baseline. This process helps thus reduces the risk of delivery slippage when managed well.

From 6th edition PMBOK focuses on Agile approach as well.

In case your project follows Agile methodology here is what this process should do –

• Determine current status of project based on completed deliverables against planned iteration
• At the end of each iteration conduct retrospective review meetings to identify improvement areas
• Adjust project backlog based on outcome of retrospective review meetings
• Find out iteration velocity (number of features implemented per fixed duration of iteration )
• If all this needs schedule to change, manage the changes and baseline it again

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To manage conflicts project manager has to hone many soft skills as this is something that is part of project manager’s daily routine. And this is not limited to work,  it could be at home, or even during social interactions.

Most common sources of conflicts on projects are people, technology, skills, cost or schedule.

It is quite possible that some people do not get along well, technically competent people have difference of opinions on usage of technology, project managers discover that some people are not suitable for their positions, or some key people are overloaded leading to cost and schedule issues.

This lesson is part of tool and technique part of the project management activity to manage project team performance lesson.

Defining Conflict

Although there is no single definition of Conflict, here is one of the accepted definitions: “conflict a situation in which one party perceives that its interests are being opposed or negatively affected by another party”.

Conflict is a common occurrence at work place. It may involve team and customer, organizational needs versus personal needs, employer and employee, project team and support team, or just between members of the same team. [continue reading…]

Managing the project team is essentially all about solving problems that crop up in the team, analyzing performance of team members, giving them feedback, and motivating & encouraging them to do their job better.

Managing the team is a day-to-day job for the project manager testing her communication, and soft skills to the core.

We saw some of the powers that a PM enjoys and few motivational theories that a PM can work with.

Many of the conflicts in the team can be detrimental to project success, and there are few important techniques that can enable project managers handle conflicts with least amount of damage.

What do I need?

Resource management plan

For every project there needs to be a resource management plan. We’ve seen this how to prepare one, in this post. As we understand now, when we refer to resources, they include people as well as physical resources such as equipment, machinery, infrastructure, network setup, servers, tools and so on.

The resource management plan talks about methodology and policies to be used for acquiring and managing project team, in addition to the project organizational structure, roles and responsibilities of team members and staffing management plan, including ramp-up and ramp-down of team based on project needs.

We also refer to a bunch of project documents such as issue log that lists all issues that crop up in the team, and information such as who is responsible for resolving it, the time frame and so on. Lessons learned register is another important document that helps us understand how similar issues have been resolved in the past. Project team assignments document shows which team member is assigned to which task, whether part time or full time, their duration of availability on the project, their competencies and so on. Team charter then helps us understand how decisions are made in the project, how conflicts are resolved and so on. [continue reading…]

Motivational theories are an important part of PMP exam syllabus. It is equally important that project managers understand the nuances of various motivational theories and reflect on them as applicable to their unique project scenarios. This will sure help manage team and other stakeholders better.

When team members understand how their work is making a difference – to the customer, end users, company, as well as themselves – it motivates them. People have different personal and professional needs and goals, and they need to know how working on your project would help them achieve these goals.

Some people may get motivation by getting good financial compensation, some may get it from a sense of accomplishment realized by doing challenging work, for some it could be promotion and for others it could be just getting recognized for their hard work.

Knowing what motivates each of your team members and helping them get those things will keep the team motivated. [continue reading…]

Based on whether you are working in a functional organization, matrix organization, or projectized organization, you will have varied degree of authority and power as a project manager.

While a project manager has to use her powers effectively throughout the project. From the exam stand point this is part of project team development process.

There are different types of power as researched by John French and Bertram Raven, and each type of power has a different impact on the team.

Legitimate Power

When you are made project manager of a project you are given legitimate power to tell your team what they should be working on. In strong matrix or projectized organization you may be completely in charge of team, in terms of doing their performance appraisal, decide on compensation etc. [continue reading…]