IN A VIRTUAL PROJECT REVIEW MEETING

Dev: CAN YOU ALL TURN ON YOUR VIDEO CAMERAS FOR TODAY'S MEETING, PLEASE?

Team members start the video.

Dev:  WHY AM I SEEING YOU ALL IN A SUPERMAN AND SUPERWOMAN COSTUMES?

Team member: IT IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR FOR THIS PROJECT, DEV!

Address and remove impediments for the team
Determine and prioritize critical impediments, obstacles, and blockers for the team. Use the network to implement solutions to remove them and re-assess continually to ensure these impediments are being addressed.

Client update meeting in progress

Sam: JAY, GIVEN THE CURRENT VELOCITY AND THE BANDWIDTH OF THE TEAM AND ALL THE ANTICIPATED ROADBLOCKS THERE IS A CHANCE OF SCOPE CREEP...

Jay: UNDOUBTEDLY, WE NEED TO GET OUR DUCKS IN A ROW. WE WILL CREATE SWIM LANES TO DISTINGUISH JOB SHARING AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Jay(Thinking): WAS THAT A PROJECT STATUS UPDATE OR PROJECT MANAGEMENT MUMBAI JUMBO!

Communicate project information & updates effectively
Quite often, the biggest challenge is surrounding the language used to deliver the project related information. It needs to be clear and without usage of any project management jargon. It needs to clearly convey the project status or highlight any problems/issues to the stakeholders.

Boss: SHYAM, YOUR PROJECT MANAGER WAS COMPLAINING THAT YOU NEVER DELIVER YOUR TASKS ON TIME WHICH AFFECTS THE PROJECT TIMELINES. ... SO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T PUT THINGS OFF

Shyam: OH IS IT?
OK, I SHALL STOP PUTTING THINGS OFF... STARTING TOMORROW

Project Team - Roles & Responsibilities
The team's productivity habits are one of the magic ingredients of a project's success. Likewise, procrastination or Student Syndrome in project management can actually act as one of the project constraints. It proves that human behaviour plays a crucial role in project delivery.

Boss: Dev, we have to set up a preliminary meeting with the on-site team to go over all the project related questions and doubts before we embark on the new agile-based project.

Boss: Remember, the project is crucial and we need to kick-off immediately. So get all the doubts addressed on this call itself.

A few days later...

Boss: Hey, how was the call?

Dev: Well, the on-site team sounded zoned out and uninterested. Their communication was unclear.

Boss: What time of the day was the call scheduled?

Dev: It was at 11:30 am IST as that's the time my local team members are in office. Later, I realized my gaffe.

Boss: Dev, how could you expect our on-site team members to be "in the zone" when they sit in a completely different time zone.

Blah...blah...blah

Dev(thinking): I feel like I am in a free-fire zone now. Rather keep quiet.

Project Communications Management
With remote teams becoming the norm, a project manager's usual work-life has taken on new dimension. It has become crucial to have in place, the right tools, and procedures, and communication management strategies for creating a strong team environment and encouraging collaboration.

Boss: Thank you all for coming to this meeting at such a short notice.

Dev: Boss, is there anything really urgent to discuss today? We just had our project status meeting a few days back...what's the agenda?

Boss: Exactly! This meeting is to discuss the pointless meetings we have been having and why no work is getting done.

Dev: huh?

Boss (thinking): ...and also because I love to hear myself talk.

Dev: Talking about pointless meetings, this could have very well been a single point email!

Project Communications Management
Meetings are a critical tool throughout the lifecycle of the project. Unfortunately, they can become inefficient, ineffective, and fail to benefit the project in the required manner. For effective meetings, project managers should have clearly defined agenda, well-prepared team members, focus on topics within the scope, and effective handling of action items.

Boss: Did you finish the project tasks we discussed in our last meeting?
Dev: Hmm, well kind of?

Boss: What do you mean “hmm, kind of.” Dev, clearly we need to work on your sense of urgency.
Dev: But Boss, I did manage to complete 80% of the tasks and…

Boss: And what? The balance 20% is waiting for Christmas, is it?!

Dev: That 20% is what I could not understand as you rambled off since you were rushing for a meeting.

Boss: But why did you not come back for clarification. You know I have a “Open Door Policy.”
Dev (thinking): Yeah, of course! Your door is always open but sadly, can’t say the same about your mind.

Project Communication Management
Project leadership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback. Regular reporting of the project’s progress and feedback is crucial to the success of the project. Communicating in a clear and precise manner is paramount, so that all understand what the key messages are.

Boss: Your project milestone has been missed by almost three weeks. Do you want to explain?
Project Manager: So it is like this…In the last quarter I have been drawn into several project status meetings where nothing concrete was discussed and not much was achieved.

Boss: huh!
Project Manager: Yes, I did an analysis of where most of my productive time was wasted. And I have realized that it was only attending meetings where there was no pre-set agenda, there was ineffective handling of action items, spending time on tangents and ill-prepared team members.

Project Communications Management
Effective status meetings are those that not only benefit the project manager, by providing timely task updates, but also benefit the entire team, by providing a venue for recognizing milestone achievements, sharing information, and bringing problems/issues to the team.

Boss: Guys, I have a very important project to be assigned to one of you. It needs to be initiated ASAP as we are pretty tight on it’s deadline.

Boss: But before that I need status updates of projects from both of you. Dev, you go first!

Dev: Boss, I have my plate full already. If I take it up then that would leave me with very less time to focus on my ongoing projects. And that would lead to missed deadlines! Are you okay with that?
Boss: Huh! Ofcourse not!

Boss: Ravi, since you don’t have much to say on this, I assume you have enough bandwidth to take this project.
Ravi (thinking): If I say ‘No’ I might look unproductive and moreover my appraisals are around the corner. So I better say yes.

Boss: Let me assure you that this is a very prestigious project for our organisation and is of topmost priority.
Ravi (thinking): Looks like every project in this organisation is of top priority…don’t know what to focus on!

Project Communication Management
Some organizations have not sufficiently defined their goals and strategies. If top management is unclear on project priorities, then it is given that the entire organization is also not clear about which projects need to be taken on priority. Eventually, leading to an overworked and unhappy team.

Project Manager: Maya, why haven’t you done those minor changes in the code, yet?

Project Manager: They were supposed to be done yesterday itself. Client had a demo scheduled today! I had mentioned so in my mail too!

Project Manager: I doubt if you read my mail ever.
Maya: Oh! Looks like you are talking about the mail which had a long and rambling conversation thread.

Project Manager: huh!
Maya: It was such a confusing and overwhelming email..

Project Manager: So?
Maya: It took lot of time for me to understand what needed to be done from my end. And by the time I figured that, it was time for me to leave for the day.

Project Communication Management
Significant portion of a project manager’s time is spent communicating what is going to be done. Hence, for effective and efficient communication, project manager needs to consider all the factors like the different realities, the space the communication takes place in, verbal as well as non-verbal messages, and the intended meaning versus the perceived meaning, etc.

Project Manager: Boss, how could you assign Maya on another project? How am I supposed to complete the project on time, now. She was the only key resource on my team.
Boss:  What! Your project is still going on? I do not remember seeing any project status updates since it started. So…

Project Manager: So…so what Boss!
Boss: The management thought that the project has fallen through and so we decided to move the resources to the new one.

Project Communication Management
In fast paced environments, many times project managers share team members with other project managers. Sponsors and executives do not have access to updated schedule/reports until it is too late to either redirect the effort or to cancel the project. Hence, executives must communicate to all team members the importance of updating tasks/projects on regular basis.

Boss: Dev, I need you to come with me to a meeting..
Dev: huh??..OK!

Dev: Excuse me Boss! What is this meeting about?
Boss: Err, hmm…ahem!

Dev: Sorry, I didn’t get that.
Boss: I am not sure about it myself. I think there will be a discussion on marketing strategies for the new product launch.

Dev: Err Boss, but I am a technical person and I know nothing about marketing.
Boss: Oh, don’t worry about that. I want you there just in case they ask some technical questions. I need you to field those queries. Got it! Now just come along.

Dev (thinking): Someone wants to look good in the meeting. But what about me? Hope I don’t look like I have lost my way in the meeting room.

Project Communications Management
Most project meetings are for the purpose of resolving problems or making decisions. To have purposeful meetings, they need to begin with a defined list of issues to be discussed, which are circulated in advance to appropriate stakeholders with minutes and other information documented specifically for the meeting.