How to enhance project management practice for the small team?

Question

In our team, we have a small team of 3 people, fresh graduate from the computer and networking stream. 2 people are responsible for software development , 1 people are responsible for back-end configuration.

I am responsible for the software development and sometimes meeting clients to propose an I.T solution ranged from a software application to integrated I.T solutions.

Personally, I am a fresh grad student with about cumulatively 1 year of experience developing web applications, from requirement development to system administration, 3 months of Android Applications and hands-on experience of window application.

I would describe my team as follows: self-motivated in the beginning but motivation drops as times goes by, inexperienced , innovative, willing to learn but less time or incentive to finish the task on time as we have other things to do or appointments.

The current project is Window application which all of us needs additional time to get hands on .The deadline is by the end of Nov.

There exists shrinking of the current project and hence risk to compensation due to delay of delivery so I have to be the person to talk with business requirement with new clients in order to get new projects to do for the sake of our business continuity. As for the newly received project, the deadline is End of Dec.

What techniques for project management can be applied in this scenario?

Answer 1

Okay, a few comments here -

The first is to answer your question - "what pm techniques"? Based on your description, the first (and most important) technique is 'commitment'.

I would describe my team as follows: self-motivated in the beginning but motivation drops as times goes by, inexperienced , innovative, willing to learn but less time or incentive to finish the task on time as we have other things to do or appointments.

So you're not sure you can get it done, you're worried about "risk to compensation due to delay of delivery", but you're too busy or have other things to do than work on it?????

The FIRST thing you need to do is figure if this is even something you want to do.

Having decided that, the second technique is 'planning'.

If you have to complete this project by the end of Nov, then you need to break it down into it's component pieces (WBS) and map out what order they need to be done int, when they need to be done by so others can be done, and who's responsible. Without that planning it jsut won't happen.

Answer 2

If your team is composed by 3 persons and you are without serious experience in the background, I suggest you to plan your project finish with 1 week before the deadline. It is very useful to take "code freeze" periods. It persist in using/testing the application, but not modifying the code. It should be at the end of the project.

I started my work as you, with a little bit bigger team, about 7 persons. The strong point of this startup is that you know, that the inner team forces are higher than at a bigger company, because your desire to proof your abilities is much more higher. You can rely on this, and this can motivate your team.

I suggest you to make at the end of each week a meeting, when you shut down your computers, and discuss about the past week's tasks, the strong and the weak points. Here should be discussed the next week's tasks too. It shouldn't take too many time, not more then 1 hour.

You didn't described your working hours, if you develop this project when you have time, or you have a fixed planning. Anyhow, fixed rules and short deadlines may sound strange, but they are very important.

You should pay attention to your colleagues individually. If one of them fails, don't demoralize him, because it can influence his following work. Just stay and discuss why did he fail and how should be this corrected in the future.

Answer 3

You can surely manage things with better planning. Your problem is you are unable to ensure productive usage of your time that is why you doubt whether you would be able to deliver to your clients on time.

You need to be optimistic first as every problem however hard it might be has a solution. You have to maintain your motivation.

You already know some skills related to your work and what you do not know, can acquire them through learning and experimentation.

So better planning can be done if you adopt an online project management system for managing your work. Through it, you can communicate and collaborate easily, fast and accurately with your team members from anywhere in the world. This will save your time, effort and costs. You need not meet physically with each other to resolve matters.

You can clearly describe tasks and document them better through To-do's, so every team member knows which task he has to perform and by when you needs to complete it. You will receive timely email reminders which will let you know that your tasks are approaching your due dates, so you can complete them timely.

You can also use timesheets which lets you know which tasks are incurring how much time and if you are doing your tasks within the allocated time or if you are using more than required time for performing them.

You can precisely track progress over your tasks by looking into Gantt chart. So you can know whether your tasks are being done in the timely and required manner and if not, you can reassign these among team members or take adequate measures, so delayed tasks get executed in a prioritized manner and do not in turn delay a project.

So you can identify early any risks, uncertainties, changes or imperfections and resolve them promptly through this chart.

We are using an online project management software called proofhub and it has made managing projects and work a simple affair for us and we are able to deliver timely products to our clients.

If you can outsource some of your time consuming tasks to other individuals and service providers, that can also provide you more time and make you free of some tensions, but this will also cut your profits somewhat. But this can be quite helpful in delivering your deliverables on time.