Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Projects can be stressful for all concerned, especially around holidays. Here are 5 tips for project leaders to reduce stress for everyone involved:

1. Clarity is the #1 stress reducer. Be sure everyone knows the vision for the outcomes, the plan, and their roles and responsibilities at all times.
2. Have high expectations, but don't expect perfection. Acknowledge progress and accomplishment.
3. Perfo
...

Does the team put together the perfect plan with your facilitation? Even so, project execution is more than just checking progress and writing status reports. Here is where your leadership is most needed. These are some items for a project execution checklist to ensure you are leading:

• Manage team conflict. Stop negative conflict quickly and encourage collaboration for positive conflict (i.e. d
...

"To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to'" - Lau-Tzu

Set a good example for the team by effectively managing your own time with these five tips:

1. Instead of a "to do" list, create a prioritized list of major goals and steps for the year and month. This means you will need a personal, strategic plan. Have a "value-added" list for tasks to be done with discretionary or waiting
...

Feeling a larger team is needed may be a sign that you need to work on expanding the capacity of the team, not just grow the team in size. When a team member asks directly or indirectly about expanding their responsibilities, consider these four alternatives:

1. If team member performance is a concern, discuss it with them. Individual improvements expand team capacity.
2. If team member performance
...

Improving your leadership skills will help you, as well as the team, grow and advance in your careers.

1. Coach and mentor, rather than direct. Give trust to the team to get the job done, remove obstacles for them, and empower them to solve problems.
2. Create a culture of learning and continuous improvement. Eliminate silos, share knowledge, and collaborate.
3. Identify growth paths for all on your t
...

Improving your project management skills will help your professional and personal growth, and increase your value to your organization. Here are 5 tips for improving your project management skills:

1. Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement. Learn from past successes and mistakes and make changes for the next project.
2. Improve your communication skills. Communication, including effective listeni
...

Studies have shown that roughly 20% of projects fail due to poor communications. Whether you are discussing risk management or just having a meeting, having strong communication skills is critical for project managers. Here are 5 tips for improving those skills:

1. Know your audience. Do a thorough stakeholder analysis to understand communications needs and preferences.
2. Develop a formal communica
...

As we've learned from projects like healthcare.gov, Agile isn't always the best method to follow for software development. If we look at its strengths and weaknesses, Agile is not especially well-suited in its pure form for projects with fixed deadlines and fixed scope. It also exhibits limitations in complex projects which require strong integration testing.  So there are other methodologies and ...

If project management feels like it's herding cats, you are probably doing something wrong. Here are 5 steps to avoid the cats:

1. Be sure you develop a definition of success and a clear vision with the project sponsor.
2. Be sure there are clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
3. Do enough planning, so there is a clear plan for the team to follow.
4. Follow the appropriate project and decision-ma
...

I usually have to visit a copy shop at least 2-3 times a year to fulfill various needs for PMI meetings and events. This past weekend I had a critical business need to have a small number of copies made and spiral bound for a customer meeting. With FedEx Kinko's being the closest, I dashed off last night to have the copies done. Since I don't frequently visit, this was like a "first visit" all ove...