Category: Consulting Strategies

  • The Importance of Communicating Status and Plans

    The Importance of Communicating Status and Plans

    One of the best ways to control project success is to meet or exceed expectations.  One of the best ways to understand and impact expectations is through regular status and review.  Therefore, status reporting habits are an excellent way to improve the chances of success for your project.

    A Failure of Communicating Status

    I had an experience that has made me a firm believer in providing my clients with a weekly status.  In this case, the problem came from a sub that I trusted, and a customer that was happy and trusting.  I would periodically touch base on progress and tasks.  I left things to run on their own as did the client.

    We had some communication issues that led to my sub doing more testing and rework than the customer desired.  This confusion would have been a small problem if caught early, but instead, it went on for weeks.  Thus, by the time the client saw a large number of hours on small numbers of tasks, it looked like they were getting over-billed.  In a sense, they were.  Therefore, we ended up eating a bunch of billed hours and rolled the sub off of the client.

    A weekly status of hours and work would have brought this issue to a head earlier.  That early catch would have been easy to correct and saved headaches on both sides.  This situation could have ended worse, but part of the reason I did not over-communicate was due to the great relationship I had with the client.

    A Lesson Learned

    I learned from this bad experience that communicating status is an important detail to address.  I now send a status each week to every client large and small.  Most status reports are one project and one page.  However, sometimes I go to multiple projects per client and multiple pages.  I may also append some pages of notes or deliverable recap to make it easy to link tasks to outcomes.The status I send is not very complicated.  I list what was done, roughly how many hours were spent on the tasks, and then estimates of tasks and time for the week ahead.

    The status report takes less than fifteen minutes to put together each week.  However, I did spend close to an hour creating a template that is easy to fill out and still looks pretty good. Thus, the time I invested has more than paid for itself over the last few years.

    The status I send is not very complicated.  I list what was done, roughly how many hours were spent on the tasks, and then estimates of tasks and time for the week ahead.  This takes maybe fifteen minutes to put together each week.  However, I did spend close to an hour creating a template that is easy to fill out and still looks pretty good. Thus, the time I invested has more than paid for itself over the last few years.

    Keep It Simple

    The art of making a weekly status valuable is in its brevity.  Keep to simple line items and maybe even a summary at the top.  Consider that a client will only read the first part of the status.  Anything below the fold may be missed.  In particular, this scanning of status will occur as they receive one week after week.  Yes, it is a little bit of a CYA, but the real goal of this is to make sure you are on the same page as your clients about work to be done and priorities.

    A weekly status call would be a good way to keep it simple, but I recommend a written version as well.  The report provides something for future reference by your client.  However, it also provides you a great checklist to make sure your tasks completed each week match what you said you would do.  Communicating status seems like something everyone knows and values, but it is easy to get away from the process.  Beware if you do.  The lack of communication can cost contracts, clients, or even reputation.

  • Key Attributes of A Good Team Lead

    Key Attributes of A Good Team Lead

    A good team lead is hard to find.  Unfortunately, it is a struggle required when building a team of almost any size.  The good news is that the traits that make a good lead are easy to spot.  Once you find someone that possesses these make sure you keep them happy.

    A Good Team Lead is a Communicator

    As obvious as this may seem, it is also the most critical trait.  A Lead communicates with customers, management, and staff.  Although the Lead may want to “work” more and “meet” less, communication is always a big piece of their daily tasks.  Communication is not limited to one channel such as email, phone calls, or in person meetings.  A good lead can communicate successfully in any medium.  Communication through various means is critical to success.  Those they communicate with will utilize all of these channels.  However, written communication is the most important.  A good lead will leave a paper trail of discussions and decisions.

    They Are Comfortable in Many Roles

    A Lead is asked to take on multiple roles.  They will handle customer interaction, but also help design a solution, implement, and test.  When you have a good team lead the group works better together and stays focused.  Thus, you need to ask a broad range of questions in an interview.  Find out how the candidate thinks, test their ability to react and switch gears.  When reviewing existing staff to move into a lead role, look for people that stretch out to other groups and interact with more than their peers.

    A Good Team Lead is a Team Player

    Anyone that s placed in a leadership role will potentially focus on their career rather than the group.  A good team lead cannot fall into this trap.  They need to do the things that keep the team focused and working towards a common goal.  There is also a bit of a cheerleader aspect to such a lead.  They keep up morale and look for solutions rather than blame or excuses.

    They Are in Synch with the Customer

    The factor that might be the most important is being on the same page as the client.  A good team lead has the customer’s best interests in mind and understands their priorities.  This is a crucial piece of all the other attributes of a good Lead.  This quality helps communication, direction, and team management.  When a team lead is no the same page as the customer, the likelihood of project success goes up.  Coincidently, the frustration levels of those involved in the project good down.  Agreement between the implementors (personified by the lead) and the customers reduces overall friction and reduces the likelihood of scope drift.

    There is more to a good team lead based on particular circumstances.  However, these attributes seem to be universal in my experience with people that have excelled in the role.

     

  • Creating a Project Team – The Things to Consider

    Creating a Project Team – The Things to Consider

    Whether you have resources on hand or are building from scratch, a good project team requires planning.  We always want to create a team that is more than a collection of the members.  Luckily, the history of good and bad teams gives us some keys to success.

    Communication

    As we see with project failure reasons, communication is important.  A good team will not only communicate among themselves, but there also should be someone that can share with others.  This role may fall to the leader or manager, but a team that does not have someone to be “the voice” of the team will struggle.  This person may be a good writer, speaker, or presenter; the point is communication.  A team that cannot interact within and without is doomed to failure.  Lack of communication is a common source of project issues.

    Complementary Skills

    We often hear about groups and organizations with “too many chiefs” that struggle to be effective.  In fact, this concept applies to nearly any role.  The members of a project team should complement each other in their skills rather than all be the same.  For example, we have mentioned communication, and there are also design, planning, implementation, and testing areas of skills that should be possessed by the team.  A team full of communicators is not very useful if they do not have a mix of the other skills.  In particular, find a leader/motivator and then there is no need for another one.  Some skills are useful in multiple team members (e.g. testing, implementation).  However, many skills should only exist with one member (or a small percentage) to avoid conflicts.  Even two superb leaders can butt heads over an issue and thus negate each other’s skills.

    A Project Team of Old and New

    Everyone loves a good process and set of best practices.  The problem is that those tried and true approaches do not always work.  It takes a new pair of eyes to see where innovation and improvement can be made.  Thus, find a mix of project team members that are veterans and those that are newer to the focus of the project.  The veterans can help jump start the team with their experience and knowledge of how to approach the solution.  The neophytes can learn from the veterans while asking questions in case there is a better way to get the job done.

    Define Roles Clearly

    When a team is built, there are often roles that members are assigned.  These roles should be clearly noted and not assumed.  In particular, do this for the positions where you only want a member, or two focused on that aspect.  Assuming that everyone knows who should do what on a team often leads to confusion.  It can cause minor problems like slowing the team down or even be the source of crippling internal conflicts.  Remember that everyone on a team should have a role or roles, and they should be clear on what theirs are.