A timeline can be described as a chart that helps you understand the progress of a project in terms of activities on the Y axis and their duration on the X axis. We had already discussed Gantt in a different article, today we will try to explore other aspects of a timeline.

If the standard vertical to-do list doesn’t provide the necessary information to manage a project, the timeline may be the solution; it is an extremely useful tool in project planning.

Also, the option of having the Gantt timeline available in an automated manner can exponentially improve the workflow and its charting.

So let’s see in this article the importance of a timeline in a project management software.

How can the automated Gantt timeline benefit the project team?

The timeline is a tool that is used in two key phases of the project life cycle: planning and monitoring.

The most common project management actions performed using this tool are:

• Visualizing the schedule
• Allocating due dates to tasks
• Allocating resources to activities
• Identifying the critical path
• Tracking work items progression

Some of the distinguishing elements that set project management software apart from a manual Gantt timeline include:

• Color coding. To portray different attributes of the activity, such as who is responsible for its completion. For example: all of Maria’s activities are blue, all of Francesco’s activities are yellow, etc.
• To display how much work of a given task has been completed. For example, a task that is 50% complete is half shaded.
• Dependent activities. A software allows you to automatically cycle through the planning when changes are made to one of the dependent activities.
• Drag-and-drop. This allows users to easily move a task to change the schedule, even automatically updating following tasks due dates.
• Easily hide or show task details. Users can click or hover over a task to view its details, such as start date, expected end date, completion percentage, and who is in charge.

Now let’s see what additional benefits having the timeline in a project management software brings.

Benefits of the timeline in a project management software: Complex information is more manageable

Gantt timeline makes a project’s critical information easily manageable and accessible.

Users can learn at a glance:

• Who on the team will accomplish the task
• When the task will be completed
• How that particular task relates to the project as a whole

To pass on this information, tasks are displayed as horizontal lines and are color-coded to represent the employee or department to which they are assigned.

Benefits of the timeline in a project management software: Increased team productivity

Task assignments and progress information are displayed publicly in work progress Meetings, helping individuals to maintain control over their work and allowing team members to assume responsibility.

Once a project is underway, the Gantt timeline shows progress in several ways, including::

• Activity will be shaded, thus reflecting the completion percentage.
• Users can hover or click on a task to view extra details, such as “start date,” “end date,” and “duration.”
• Also, some tools allow managers or administrators to schedule alerts via email or other messaging tools when a task is approaching its due date or if a task is in danger of not being completed on time, allowing corrective measures to be implemented.

Thus, by publicly tracking progress, the automated timeline can also be used as a motivational tool.

Progress tracking can be used to motivate teams to make an effort to achieve and complete the tasks for which they are accountable.

Benefits of the timeline in a project management software: Improved resource planning

The Gantt timeline allows the project manager to distribute work more effectively among resources due to current and future project schedules mapped to their respective timelines.

Needless to say, Gantt is not the only planning tool used, and many project management software includes resource management capabilities.

Yet, any software that includes a timeline offers additional insight into employee use and availability.

Benefits of the timeline in a project management software: Information centralization

Centralizing project information through a timeline helps to keep different stakeholders in line, allowing them to easily share information and remain up-to-date.

This is a great way to summarize complex project data for a range of audiences, as users can choose to view only the information that is most important to them.

In fact, the Gantt timeline is compressible and expandable, allowing the user to select the appropriate level of detail.

This is particularly true when using cloud-based project management software that automatically updates and reflects any changes made in real time.

Because these solutions allow any user to log in at any time from any device, remote teams can thus be even more connected.

Benefits of the timeline in a project management software:  Project and team requirements are straightforward

The timeline helps employees to better understand their responsibilities and how their activities are tied to the overall project.

This also helps project managers and other stakeholders in determining project milestones.

The timeline basically is a sort of map that helps everyone involved in a project visualize how they will get from the beginning to the end result.

Start now with Twproject

The importance of Gantt charts cannot be denied once you become familiar with them, and with Twproject is so much easier.

Twproject allows you to draw the project wbs, add durations and dependencies between tree nodes, assign resources, until you have a complete Gantt of the project that will guide you throughout its entire  life cycle:

 

A bottleneck is basically a situation where work is delayed.

It can be a one-off event due to unforeseen circumstances, such as a team member who gets sick, or it can be events that happen on a regular basis due to poor planning or a lack of resources.

The most common methods of getting things back on track include working overtime, hiring additional support and pushing back the delivery date.

The problem is that all of these solutions end up eating up, and sometimes draining, the project budget, employee energy, and client patience.

Rather than looking for a quick fix, it’s important to address bottlenecks in projects before they arise.

This means a strong measure of forward planning, excellent communication with the team and beyond, and the right tools for the task.

What is a bottleneck and what is the cause?

Bottlenecks in projects occur when the team or an employee cannot process their work in a timely manner, thus causing a delay.

This could be due to a team member having to take an unplanned break, a technical issue arises, a communication breakdown occurs, or the manager has overestimated how much their team could do at maximum capacity.

Although it’s difficult to predict employee illness and faulty or out-of-service equipment, there are things you can do to help your team keep moving forward regardless.

How to find a bottleneck

When using a spreadsheet as a planning tool, you should identify bottlenecks where the number of hours of work to be done in a day exceeds the number of work hours in the day, either for an individual or for the team as a whole.

If you use a project management software, ou can leverage Gantt charts s a graphic way to organize schedules and quickly identify problems.

If you are working following the Lean method, you can keep track of work through Kanban charts and thus finding very quickly where there is an overrun – this is a possible sign of a potential bottleneck.

However, it is worth remembering that not all short delays are an indication of a bottleneck.

In this case, you can measure for how long work remains in the queue and note the number of items waiting.

If tasks start piling up faster than they are being processed, you are almost certainly experiencing a bottleneck.

How to stop a bottleneck before it happens

The most obvious and easiest way to deal with a bottleneck is to invest money and resources, but this is not always necessary.

Here are two of the most popular techniques for stopping a bottleneck before it’s too late:

Stopping a bottleneck: Processing the critical path

The Critical Path Method (CPM), helps identifying the most important activities and then coming up with the quickest way to complete a project. To process a project’s critical path, you need to identify the longest section of dependent activities. This gives a sort of “bare minimum” time frame that you can use to plan the project.

Stopping a bottleneck: Distributing resources – leveling

Resource leveling is, simply put, the act of working on a project with people assigned to a set of tasks and doing it in such a way that they don’t have to work overtime.

Basically, it’s a process of shuffling tasks so that team members can work on tasks consecutively instead of simultaneously, thus helping to avoid bottlenecks.

How to limit a bottleneck when it happens

Not every bottleneck necessarily escalates into a disaster. Here are some possible solutions to limit the effects of a bottleneck once it happens:

How to limit a bottleneck: Act promptly

Bottlenecks have a domino effect on the rest of the workflow, also introducing an element of chaos. When schedules change, deadlines can be ignored and emotions can overrule rationality, leading to bad decisions.

The key to mitigating blowback is to act quickly. If a bottleneck has already started, you need to address it immediately and not give it any more space.

How to limit a bottleneck: Do not compromise quality

In the case of a bottleneck, a project manager might be tempted to skip certain steps not considered so necessary, such as quality control. However, this is a bad idea.

Each project step is necessary, and skipping them may save time, but could lead to bigger problems later on.

How to limit a bottleneck: Keeping WIP (Work in progress) limits

The purpose here is to limit the amount of work that can be delayed in Work in Progress (WIP) stage. This is also less daunting and stressful for project team members.

How to limit a bottleneck: Increase resources

If you have people willing to help, why not take advantage of them? This will help get the job done quickly and efficiently. One way to do this would be to keep a list of trusted freelancers or external contractors who will work on call and can serve as backup.

It’s also a good idea to have a small budget set aside in case of an emergency.

How to limit a bottleneck: Prepare for all eventualities

The best way to address a bottleneck is to plan for one before it occurs. In this case, investing in good project management software allows for activity tracking tools and charts that help the project manager detect any potential bottlenecks ahead of time.

With a software like Twproject, for example, you could identify overloaded resources and take actions before a bottleneck became a real problem for your project.

 

Bottlenecks are one of the main reasons why projects get delayed, budgets are not met due to additional costs, and the whole process becomes unpredictable.

Preventing is always better than treating, even in the case of bottlenecks it is always better to have a plan to avoid encountering these obstacles, but even if they do occur, with the proper strategy it is always possible to avoid problems that will undermine a project’s success.

Strategic thinking and its importance is what elevates a project manager to the next level. Project managers are definitely accountable for a project’s timely delivery, but it’s their skill in crafting a strategy that makes the difference.

Project managers in fact spend most of their days trying to push the project toward its ultimate goal, and generally their focus is somewhat “short ranged.”

They do keep the end goal in mind, but their focus is usually on the next step, or two or three.

This type of thinking is tactical. However, strategic thinking is different.

When thinking strategically, much more emphasis is given to the long-term goal.

In project work, an effective strategy can greatly reduce the level of tactical effort required.

Strategic thinking is therefore the first step in successfully executing any project.

Strategic thinking and how to strengthen it in the business scenario

There’s no denying that everyday life can make this difficult as project managers manage multiple work streams and find themselves under increasing pressure to deliver more at a faster pace (and often with fewer resources).

When you have so much going on, it can be hard to see beyond the current to-do list.

Some organizations solve this problem by creating program manager or project portfolio roles.

These people are assigned to supervise a series of projects and are typically in charge of defining a vision for the group that supports business goals.

Yet everyone, in their small way and project manager included, benefits from more strategic thinking.

When you know where you are going and why, you are more psychologically prepared to add value and make an impact.

Here, then, is how a project manager can strengthen their strategic thinking skills every day:

• Think big

It might seem difficult to get the big picture when you’re working through the details, but it’s important to think holistically about how each effort supports overall business goals.

• Become even more curious

Awareness of the big picture is not the same as knowledge. It’s critical to constantly look for the why of things and understand what the criteria are for achieving long-term success.

• Ponder and analyze

After each project, a retrospective look back is necessary. It may be worth starting a project log to also note any revelations as you move forward. Think about and analyze these reports and weigh what went well and what you want to improve next time, ask for feedback from colleagues and stakeholders.

Shifting from tactical to strategic project management

It has become quite clear that successful project management not only requires the application of tactical management, but also strategic thinking.

However, traditionally, project management has been mainly a tactical tool, focusing on accomplishing work, managing schedules, and driving projects to completion within set time e and budget constraints.

However, as organizations began to face an unprecedented marketplace and increased competition, increasingly more of them have come to recognize that project managers can bring much more value than simply ensuring the successful coordination of activities.

Simply put, project managers can and should operate at a more strategic level to help an organization evolve, innovate and prosper.

The rise of this approach is all about aligning a company’s project objectives with its strategic goals and overall mission.

Strategic project management is not simply about executing projects for the sake of continuity of operations; it involves carefully selecting, prioritizing, and channeling resources to the projects that will contribute most to organizational success while increasing revenues.

How to ensure projects support the strategy

Projects are the core of a strategy – this is where stuff moves and progress is made.

So how can you make sure that activities are well aligned with the business strategy?

• Ensure projects support objectives

In short: every active goal needs at least one Project. You can have future goals that have not yet “started,” but any currently “active” goal should have at least one project related to it. Depending on the scope of each goal, you may also need to have multiple projects for each one.

• Ensure that projects meet their objectives

Goals are met if related projects are delivered. Should this not be the case – i.e., projects are successfully completed, but the goal is not met – you need to find out where the shortcoming lies.

• Ensure sub-projects align with objectives

As stated before, every project should have a clear link to one or more objectives, although there may be cases, such as sub-projects, where this connection is not so straightforward. Even if a project is not directly linked to a goal, the objective must still support what you are trying to accomplish. A good example is when there is a sub-project within a “parent” project that clearly aligns with a goal. In this case, the sub-project is still indirectly connected to the business strategy.

Benefits of strategic thinking in project management

Implementing strategic thinking into project management leads to competitive advantage in the marketplace.

The art of identifying and choosing the proper projects to work on in a given period of time is proving to be a particularly significant benefit in the modern marketplace.

Strategic thinking applied by project management in project selection enables the identification and selection of projects that will provide the greatest value to an organization.

As opposed to the practice of conducting expensive projects that are not fully compatible with business objectives, this alignment can shed a new light on the project selection process.

Funds are spent more mindfully to improve their impact on the organization’s overall performance, thereby increasing profitability and reducing unnecessary expenditures.

This alignment can also improve project success rates and the organization’s ability to quickly meet customer needs and expectations.

When each project contributes directly to the company’s bottom line, the organization as a whole improves, thus improving customer experiences and retention rates.

 

Ultimately, tactical management is definitely important to a project, but it is still incomplete if strategic thinking is not also applied.

One simply will not work without the other. Therefore, as a project manager with sound tactical skills, it is also important to develop a long-term strategic thinking attitude.

Knowing how to deliver a project in the right way is key to the project manager’s success and ensures that they are credited for their professionalism.

Furthermore, it is obvious that a good presentation significantly increases the chances of approval.

Yet, and if you’ve been through this you know it well, how many times before the presentation of a project you are tormented by doubts and questions such as “What if I’m wrong?… What if I will bore the audience?… What if I will forget some important detail?… What if I won’t be able to answer a question?”

Whether in front of an audience of hundreds of people or before a small group, many speakers wonder how to present their projects successfully and are nervous before going in front of an audience.

No matter how high or low the stakes, here are six tips that will boost confidence and help engage the audience.

In this article, we want to give you 6 key tips to overcome fears and perfectly present a project.

How to successfully present a project: 1. Establish your credibility

The material presented won’t be considered meaningful and the audience won’t be impressed if the speaker can’t convince them of their credibility.

Even in the case of an expert with many qualifications, the audience may still “put up a wall” if they don’t trust the speaker.

Establishing credibility begins the very moment the speaker enters the room. Here are some tips:

• Dress accordingly for the audience and situation so that your attire will not distract from your presentation.
• Convey confidence through body language by standing upright, looking the audience in their eyes, and avoiding nervous tics like twitching your hands or clicking your pen.
• At the beginning of the presentation, establish credibility by explaining what qualifies the presenter to present the project.
• Ultimately, polish every aspect of the presentation ahead of time, from the use of high-quality images to speech practice.

How to successfully present a project: 2. Make the most out of your space

Moving around on a stage, in a classroom or conference room will not only make the speaker appear more in control of the situation and more confident about their presentation, it will also keep the audience more engaged by making their presentation more dynamic. At the same time, this doesn’t mean walking incessantly as too much movement can be distracting and disruptive.

How to successfully present a project: 3. Do not be afraid of silence

It is tempting to fill in any silence gaps by talking constantly, but by doing so you are not giving the audience enough time to internalize what you are presenting.

Talking too much and too fast can also give the impression of a nervous speaker. Allowing for pauses and some silence will help the audience assimilate and retain more information.

A trick, for example, is to pause after presenting a big problem or solution and let the weight of that information fall on the audience. Or, allow some visual elements of the presentation to speak for themselves when showing a significant image or important graphic.

With practice, silence can become an important ally in impressing an audience.

How to successfully present a project: 4. Don’t linger on mistakes

Mistakes happen and to err is human. Laptops can crash, devices can fail, or one might forget a few key phrases or concepts. Audiences are less likely to judge a speaker based on their mistakes and more likely to appreciate how that speaker picks up. Should an error occur, it is important not to linger on it and move on.

How to successfully present a project: 5. Use visual elements

Visual elements often can make or break a presentation, highlight project results or not be understood.

By using an interactive presentation tool, you can bring abstract ideas to life by synthesizing and visualizing concepts through images and video.

Each time you include a visual element in a presentation though, you need to remember that the content of the presentation should be complementary to what is being said by the presenter and should not serve as the main act.

An example that should not be copied is that of speakers who do nothing more than read their presentation verbatim.

How to successfully present a project: 6. Engage your audience

You need to engage the audience from the get go and keep the attention level high throughout your project presentation.

The beginning of the presentation is like the first page of a book. After that first line or paragraph, would the audience keep reading?

The audience can be engaged by presenting the problem which your presentation will attempt to address, sharing a personal anecdote, or making a connection to current events or other important issues encompassing the conversation on a broader level.

Once the audience has been captivated, their attention can be held through a dialogue with them or an interactive presentation. If it is appropriate to the situation, the speaker can ask questions and get the audience to interact and take an active part.

If you can make the audience feel like they are part of the presentation and not a passive element, they will most likely appreciate the presentation and the message will be remembered

 

Presentation skills aren’t something people are born with. Sure, some may be more gifted than others, but despite the naturalness with which some speakers may seem comfortable in front of an audience, even the most talented speakers usually practice a lot.

Preparing for a presentation, which begins with the research and gathering of material and information about the target group to the creation of the presentation, gets easier as experience and routine increase.

Like all things, the more often you face the challenge of speaking in front of an audience, the easier it will be to avoid making mistakes in the future.

How a project management software can help you presenting your project

Project progress, delivery times, costs, commitment of resources, data turning around your project are so many and being able to show them effectively without boring your audience can be tricky.  Of course, you can help yourself with tools such as Excel sheets and charts but having a project management software to help you can show the results of the project in real time.

Project management software can show your Gantt and how it has changed in time.

The load of your resources and the progress of the work done in addition to the project costs and all the attached documentation. Comprehensive statistics can help you highlight any problems encountered by being sure to show updated data at each meeting!

How do direct and indirect costs impact projects? This is the good question a fellow reader asked us and we would like to answer it in this article.

Cost classification is an important concept in budgeting, accounting and project management (you may find this article about project management tools).

CONTENT

• What are direct costs? Definition and examples
• What are indirect costs? Definition and examples
• Differences between direct and indirect costs
• Main differences between direct and indirect costs
• Why it is important to define direct and indirect costs

Cost classification and expense categorization helps the project team to understand what type of costs will be faced during the life cycle of a project.

When creating your base budget, you should list your costs, both direct and indirect.

Essentially, direct costs and indirect costs are two different concepts used for budgeting and accounting purposes. However, it is not always easy to come up with a definite list because direct and indirect costs are based on product and activity nature.

Typically, direct costs are ascribed to a product, good, or service. In other words, direct costs are directly related to the product.

Conversely, indirect costs are those costs required to produce the product and are therefore not directly related to the product.

Understanding direct and indirect costs is key to ensuring that business expenses are adequately monitored.

What are direct costs? Definition and examples

Direct costs are expenses that an organization can easily associate with a specific cost object, which can be a specific product, department, or project.

This can include software, equipment, and raw materials, but it also can include manpower, assuming that this manpower is specific to the product, department, or project.

For example, if an employee is recruited to work on a specific project, either exclusively or for an assigned number of hours, their work on that project is a direct cost.

If an organization develops software and needs specific resources, such as development applications, these are also direct costs.

Thus, direct labor and materials make up the majority of direct costs.

For example, an appliance manufacturer requires steel, electronic components, and other raw materials to create its product.

Typically, most direct costs are variable. Smartphone hardware, for example, is a variable direct cost because its production depends on the number of units ordered.

One notable exception is direct employment costs, which usually remain constant throughout the year. In fact, an employee’s wage generally does not increase or decrease in direct relation to the number of outputs produced.

What are indirect costs? Definition and examples

Indirect costs are more than expenses involved in creating a product to include costs related to maintaining and operating a business.

These overhead costs are those that remain after factoring in direct costs.

Materials and supplies needed for the everyday operations of a business are examples of indirect costs.

Even though these items contribute to the business as a whole, they are not attributed to the creation of any services.

Indirect costs include supplies, utilities, office equipment rentals, computers, and business phones.

Just like direct costs, indirect costs can be either fixed or variable. Fixed indirect costs include things like rent, while variable indirect costs include fluctuations in power and gas costs.

Differences between direct and indirect costs

A simple catch for classifying payments as direct or indirect costs is that direct costs include the costs involved in creating, developing, and releasing a product.

Direct costs include:

• Production supplies
• Equipment
• Raw materials
• Manpower cost
• Other production costs

Conversely, indirect costs include costs that are not directly related to the development of an organization’s product or service.

Indirect costs include:

• Utilities
• Office supplies
• Office tech equipment
• Marketing campaigns
• Employee benefits and incentive programs
• Insurance costs

As a project manager, understanding the difference between both types of costs is critical because this helps you have a better understanding of the product or service you are producing and because you will be able to have a better understanding of accounting and better plan for the business’ future.

There are some costs that are in the gray area that should be counted as direct or indirect costs, however.

Shipping or the cost of an accountant’s work are sometimes difficult to put into a specific category, as they can relate to different activities.

What companies do is see what their use and relevance is and put these costs into their respective categories.

Main differences between direct and indirect costs

Here are the main differences between direct and indirect costs:

• The best way to determine if a cost is direct is to compare changes in the cost with changes in the associated cost object. Indirect costs are costs that are used by multiple activities and therefore cannot be attributed to specific cost objects.
• The direct cost concept is immensely useful for short-term decision making, but can lead to negative results when used for long-term decision making because it does not include all of the costs that can be applied to long-term decisions. Conversely, the indirect cost concept is useful for short and long-term decision making. Indirect costs are those required to keep a business or organization running.
• Direct costs vary significantly within a given product volume and therefore are considered a variable cost. Indirect costs do not vary significantly within certain product volumes or other activity indicators and therefore are considered a fixed cost.
• The operating leverage concept measures an organization’s set-up from fixed cost and variable cost to total cost. If a major portion of the organization’s costs are fixed cost (indirect cost), then it has a high operating leverage and can earn a large profit on each incremental sale, but must achieve enough sales volume to exceed breakeven. On the other hand, if a major portion of the organization’s costs are given by variable costs (direct cost), then this has low operating leverage and the company earns a smaller profit on each incremental sale, but it does not have to generate much sales volume to cover its lower fixed cost.
• Direct costs are easily identifiable by cost object, while indirect costs cannot be easily identified.

Why it is important to define direct and indirect costs

It may look like a futile job from an accounting standpoint, however, properly classifying direct and indirect costs will benefit an organization and project in several ways.

 

1. More accurate pricing: Tracking direct and indirect costs is key for determining the final product cost. If you are unaware what it costs to produce the product, how can you know how much to charge your customers? When setting prices for products, it’s important not to forget to factor in indirect costs as well to make sure you have a decent profit margin.

 

2. Potential tax benefits: Many business expenses are tax-deductible, but these costs will need to be accurately accounted for in order to obtain any deductions or possible funding. In the case of government grants or other forms of external funding, for example, identifying direct and indirect costs becomes doubly important. Subsidies rules are often very strict about what qualifies as a direct or indirect cost, and each classification will be assigned a specific amount of funding. In some cases, this funding can largely support the direct costs of a project, which is why it is very important to classify them correctly.

 

3. More accurate budgeting: It is impossible to create an accurate budget without properly accounting for direct and indirect costs. If you are in the process of preparing a budget for the upcoming year, it is important to know how much you are currently paying for materials and supplies, as well as how much your direct labor costs are. You will also need to budget for any other operating expenses such as rent, insurance, taxes, and office supplies.

 

4. Accurate financial reporting: Particularly in the case of small businesses, if direct and indirect expenses are not properly accounted for, costs may be underestimated, which will lead to mistakenly overestimating one’s net income believing that one has more income than one actually does.

 

 

By being aware of direct and indirect costs, project managers can gain a better understanding of the financial health of their project and, why not, the organization as a whole.

You can swiftly identify areas where money is being wasted and areas where costs need to be reduced.

In other words, the cost classification process is very important in project cost management, as it allows you to develop an effective cost control system and proper profit planning.

Configuration Management is a technical management discipline that is used to track changes in complex systems development, and was originally introduced during the 1950s by the U.S. Department of Defense.

This system received several highly technical names over the years, until consolidated guidance was published in 2001 that established the technical management system now known as configuration management.

Project configuration management is the process of tracking and controlling changes to important project documents and products. This includes project deliverables and project management documents, such as the project schedule document.

Everything that requires tracking through the project change control system is specifically identified in a project’s configuration management plan.

These documents are not generally open to change by anyone at any time.

Instead, all changes are documented and approved, only when strictly necessary, within a project’s configuration management plan.

Configuration management provides documentation that explains why changes to the project occurred, who approved those changes, and who is the assigned change owner.

What is the goal of project configuration management?

The goal of configuration management in a project is therefore to manage the project’s fundamental restrictions of scope, time, cost, and quality.

Within a project, the purpose of configuration management is to identify, monitor, and protect project deliverables from unauthorized changes.

Configuration management is a practice that provides accurate control over project resources by enabling the project manager to:

• Specify product versions in use and existing, and store information about their status, who owns them, and the relationships among them
• Maintain an up-to-date record containing this information
• Monitor product changes Ensuring that modifications are implemented only with prior approval of the designated authorities
• Check records to ensure they contain the authorized products

Within a project, the role of configuration management is to provide:

• Mechanisms for management, traceability and control of all project products; keep the files of every product of a project once they have been checked for their quality, controlling their access and keeping records of their status
• Store each product safely and securely in the most appropriate way, this will include managing access to the product in such a way as to prevent damage to it and to safeguard it from inappropriate access
• A system for recording, tracking and archiving every issue related to the project

How to run project configuration management

Now let’s look at the 5 steps to properly run a project’s configuration management.

How to run configuration management: Be ready from the get-go

The most important guideline is to begin configuration early in the project lifecycle. The project manager should assess the potential for smoothness in the early stages and create the appropriate scaled configuration management system during project planning rather than halfway through execution.

How to run configuration management: Establish a clear baseline

It is very important to establish a clear baseline plan, i.e., the project description as defined at the beginning of the project, as well as to document the different versions during development and the final phase when the project will be released.

How to run configuration management: Consider a design and product configuration

You have to consider configuration management for two areas:

• project management changes
• content or product changes.

How to run configuration management: Record the owner of the documents

Another best practice is to document who owns the different parts of the project. When these owners change and the next individual brings a new perspective into the project, normally there is a temporary increase in the rate of change. Stakeholder support for changes to project and the configuration management process are therefore crucial to system success. With CM processes, change acceptance decisions should be taken at the appointed and recognized change control committee level.

How to run configuration management: Record plan change

Documenting plan changes can be done with simple tools in the case of the simplest projects or with specific project management software. In order for this to work effectively, the plan document must be created with particular consideration.

Where this is the CM method, the rule of thumb is that nothing in the plan should be changed unless it is recorded in the change documentation, thus tracking all project management and any changes.

Each modification is assigned a unique ID, the date of the modification, a reference to the section number, and a description are recorded. Finally, the change to the project or product is described in all necessary details.

 

Bottom line, we can say that changes are and will continue to be an inevitable part of any project’s design and implementation.

Even the best series of design plans does not guarantee that a particular project will not undergo numerous changes.

This is particularly true when the scope involves a large-scale, multi-contract, multi-phase complex project.

The primary causes of project changes involve changes in design standards, changes in project scope, unforeseen complexities, or difficulties and delays in project implementation.

Project managers, to help control the impact these changes can have on cost, schedule, and performance, are beginning to see the value in using configuration management principles.

In this article we will examine the project activities, their role and characteristics.

To do this, we would like to start from the basics, i.e. the definition of a project and then fully understand the activities necessary for its development.

What we want to do is create a mind map in which the individual project activities are not confused and random, but find a meaningful and temporal setting in your mind.

What defines a project?

PMbok definition of a project is “a temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product or service.”

In other words, it is any endeavor, done individually or collaboratively, designed to achieve a particular goal.

Thus, projects are a temporary effort that is carefully planned, researched, executed, monitored, and delivered within a specified period and within a given cost.

Projects can range from simple to complex and can be managed by an individual or an entire project team.

A project must follow 5 basic principles:

1. Clarify project goals and scope

Before a project begins, the overall goal, scope and scale of the project must be clearly set out and agreed upon. You can read this article about project scope.

2. Develop a work breakdown structure

Creating a Work Breakdown Structure (Work Breakdown Structure – WBS) is an important part of the project management process, where deliverables are broken down into assignments and activities required to achieve them.

3. Deliver a realistic schedule

This is arguably one of the most common mistakes that project managers and teams make during project management. People often get overly optimistic and ambitious about when a project can be delivered, resulting in getting themselves and the project results in trouble.

The best way in this case is to visualize all aspects and needs of the project in one place, visualize the time sequence of the project, estimate how long each task would take and create a realistic schedule accordingly. This can be done by using the gantt of a project management software.

4. Create a project risk plan

After you have created a thorough list of activities, sub-activities, and milestones for the project, it’s time to ascertain all possible and potential risks involved. At this stage, you need to think about any risks that could impact the project by doing a proper project risk analysis while also estimating the severity of the impact. Once finished, you need to create a project risk response plan explaining the risk management.

5. Manage change requests

A project, by its definition, is something that does not remain static over time and is subject to some degree of change that may relate to workflow or workforce for example. No matter what change, or project change requests are received, a project manager must have a clear grasp of what the impact of this change will be and how to ensure it is handled smoothly and quickly.

Project activities: planning and development

As you can see, a project is therefore made up of activities, and it is through these activities – arranged in a relevant way – that a project can achieve its intended outcome and be completed successfully.

So let’s look more specifically at the role and characteristics of project activities.

Project time management comprises two sets of processes for planning and scheduling project activities necessary for timely project completion.

1. Project activity planning and scheduling.
2. Project implementation program development.

When planning and scheduling project tasks and activities, the project manager must perform the following four steps:

• Setting up activities.
• Defining relations between activities.
• Estimating resources needed to perform activities.
• Estimating activity duration.

Let’s examine each step in more detail:

1. Setting up project activities

The first phase of planning and scheduling project activities require the project manager to establish the amount of actions and activities needed to produce project deliverables in a timely manner.

The input to this process will be the definition of the project deliverables.

The project manager should also work on developing project activity templates to help streamline the project planning process.

Specific steps – or milestones – should be identified and approved for each of the listed activities.

2. Defining relations between activities

The next step in project activity planning involves the project manager sequencing all of the activities determined in the previous step.

The manager will use the project task lists, milestone list, and project scope statement per to define the relationships between the tasks.

With the help of project management software ou can set priorities for each of the project activities and make the sequences of activities organized and sorted by importance and urgency.

You also need to define dependencies between activities, which can be either internal or external.

Activities with internal dependencies are related to any actions the project team will take to produce deliverables within the existing work environment, while activities with external dependencies are related to non-project factors that define the success of project-related activities.

Both types of activity dependencies should be addressed and added to sequenced and prioritized task lists.

Once the relationships are defined, the project manager should update the project activity templates, outline dependencies, and link them to the product scope statement.

3. Estimating resources needed to perform activities

At this stage, the project manager should review the stakeholder requirements and scope statement to assess the amount of resources needed to carry out project activities.

Expert opinion and alternatives analysis should also be used in some cases for this purpose.

The project manager should then also develop resource calendars and define the types of resources required.

Once all of this information has been gathered and analyzed, it should be used to make a resource breakdown of activities sorted by type, priority, and time.

This breakdown is crucial to creating the project implementation schedule.

4. Estimating activity duration

The final stage of project activity planning and scheduling involves the project manager defining and estimating an amount of work time required to complete each identified activity.

The amount of time will depend on the amount of work effort and resources available for the activity.

The project manager should review the resource breakdown and project activity models to estimate the number of work periods required to complete the identified activities and thereby produce the desired results.

The output of this process is the activity estimates linked to the resource schedules.

 

The four stages of project activity planning and scheduling lay the foundation for creating a detailed timeline of project implementation.

In a nutshell, a successful project is therefore based on the effectiveness of the individual project activities that are part of the project.

Project quality is a major factor in achieving client satisfaction, which in turn is a key component in project success.

Therefore, nothing about quality should be taken lightly, but more importantly, quality control should not be something improvised or done afterwards.

Before a project manager can actually be planning for project quality control, they must know what are the quality expectations.

One of the key principles of project quality management is that quality should be planned for, not inspected.

The project manager must take into account the cost of achieving the expected level of quality as opposed to the cost of non-compliance.

Quality cost includes training, safety measures, and actions to prevent subpar quality.

Noncompliance cost can greatly exceed the cost of quality and results in lost customers, rework, wasted time, wasted materials.

Planning and identification of parameters to be monitored for quality

When the project manager has collected the necessary input and assessed product description and project scope, they should begin working to create a plan on how to meet quality requirements.

Since planning is an iterative process, so is quality planning.

As events occur within the project, the project manager should evaluate these scenarios and then apply corrective actions to the planning document.

In fact, during project implementation, some things are likely to go wrong and stakeholders may demand changes. Therefore, the impact of these variables on project quality must be assessed.

This ensures that project management and project outcomes are in line with quality.

So let’s look at what parameters need to be monitored to guarantee the quality of a project:

Parameters to monitor for quality: Project scope

Scope statement is a core input to the quality planning process. As a matter of fact, the scope defines what will and what will not be delivered as part of the project.

The end results and customer expectations will help guide the quality planning session to ensure that the customer’s quality requirements are met.

Product description

Even though the project scope generally defines the initial product description, the actual product description may include supporting details that the project manager and project team will need to take into account. Consider the example of an apartment building: the requirements, specifications, and technical details of the building will need to be considered and reviewed as this information will most certainly affect quality planning.
tandards

Parameters to monitor for quality: Standards and Regulations

Standards and regulations in each area should be re-examined to determine that both the project plan and quality plan are acceptable. For example, a project to fit a building with an electrical system will have certain regulations to which it must comply.

Parameters to monitor for quality: Other process outputs

The project manager will need more than just a scope statement and product description to plan for quality.

Outputs from other processes will also need to be reviewed for quality aspects. For example, in our earlier building example, if the supplier quality level is unacceptable, the project may be jeopardized and fail.

Quality features

PMBOK® defines quality as the degree to which a set of intrinsic characteristics meets requirements.

It is said that a project meets its quality expectations when all project requirements, agreed upon at the beginning of the project, are met and thus the resulting product or service is usable for the stakeholders.

However, there are three quality characteristics that must be taken into account:

Quality is subjective

Surely quality can be measured objectively using the parameters mentioned earlier, but sometimes quality that is appropriate for one person is not for another.

Using a simple example: young people will consider a mobile phone to be of high quality based on its visual appearance, brand name, and technical specifications such as camera quality, memory capacity, and screen resolution. However, for someone in the age group of 60 and older, just the ease of answering a phone call or sending a text message may define the quality of the mobile phone.

Therefore, to understand the quality requirements in a design, it is also worth considering this factor.

Quality has many faces

The definition of quality depends on the business context and industry.

For a service-oriented organization such as a bank or airline, service quality is expressed through the level of customer satisfaction.

For a product such as a cell phone, a car, or a computer, quality means conformity to product specifications and suitability for use.

Quality is everyone’s responsibility

Quality in project management is twofold: project quality and product quality. Project quality is about ensuring that the project is executed consistently with the triple constraint of time, cost, and scope. If the project falls within the tolerance levels defined by these three factors, then it is possible to say that the project quality is high. Projects are carried out to develop a solution, which can be a product or service. If this output meets its specifications and satisfies stakeholder needs, then the product is said to be of high quality. Meeting quality expectations is therefore not just the responsibility of the project manager, but of everyone involved in the project.

Therefore, it is important that the project manager and team members understand the importance of quality and manage projects as best they can to achieve all parameters.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best project management software, you reached all milestones on schedule, and the project was completed on budget; if the output doesn’t meet quality standards, the project won’t be a success.

How can you transform a vision into reality while preventing challenges and problems? By having a sound action plan.

Yeah, a sound action plan is a nice catch phrase, but what is it really? What is it for and how can you implement it?

Let’s see it in this article and start from the very beginning.

What is an action plan

An action plan is a checklist for any steps or activities you need to accomplish to achieve the goals you set.

It is an integral part of the strategic planning process and helps improve teamwork planning.

Action plans are not solely useful in project management, but can also be used by people to draw up a strategy to achieve their personal goals.

An action plan comprises:

• A clearly defined description of the objective to be achieved
• Tasks/steps that must be performed to achieve the goal
• People who will be assigned to perform each task
• When will these activities (deadlines and milestones) be completed?
• Resources needed to complete activities
• Measures to evaluate progress

The most useful thing about having a comprehensive list in one location is that it makes it easier to track progress and plan things effectively.

However, an action plan is not something carved in stone. As your organization grows and conditions change, you will need to review and tweak it to meet your newest needs.

Why you need an action plan

Sometimes companies don’t invest much time in developing an action plan before an initiative, which, in most cases, leads to failure.

Planning does, in fact, help you prepare for the possible obstacles and unforeseen events that will be found along the way. By having an effective action plan, you can increase productivity and stay focused on the goal even when negative events occur.

Here are some benefits of an action plan:

• Provide clear direction: an action plan highlights exactly what steps need to be undertaken and when they should be completed.
• Motivation: Having goals written and phased will give a reason to stay motivated and engaged throughout the project.
• Analysis and monitoring: With an action plan, you can monitor your progress toward your goal.
• Priority organization: given that an action plan lists all the steps that need to be completed, this will help to prioritize activities according to effort and impact.

How to develop an action plan

Apparently, creating an action plan looks easy enough but there are several important steps that you need to carefully tackle to get the best out of it.

Here’s how to write an action plan in 6 steps.

1) Define your end goal: If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to do and achieve, failure will be unavoidable. So, the first step is to write down a definite end goal, ideally defining it according to the SMART criteria.

2) List the steps to follow: Now your goal is clear, but what exactly should you do to achieve it? This is where you create an initial rough list of all the tasks that need to be covered, the due dates and the people accountable. It is important that the entire team is involved in this step so that everyone is informed of their roles and responsibilities in the project. If some tasks are too large and complex, they can be split into smaller tasks that are easier to perform and manage.

3) Prioritize tasks and add deadlines: It’s time to rearrange your list by prioritizing tasks so that some assignments won’t block other processes. It is also time to add deadlines, making sure they are achievable. Sometimes in these cases it may be beneficial to speak directly with the person responsible for performing the task to understand their true capabilities before deciding on a deadline.

4) Set milestones: Milestones can be regarded as mini-goals that lead to your main goal. The benefit of adding milestones is that they give team members a sense of expectation and help them stay motivated.

5) Identify required resources: Before starting your project, it is essential to ensure that you have all the resources necessary to complete your tasks and if they are not currently available, make a plan to acquire them including a budget.

6) Visualize the action plan. The purpose of this step is to create something that everyone can understand at a glance and that can be shared with everyone. Regardless of whether the action plan takes the form of a flowchart, a Gantt diagram or a chart, the most important thing is that it clearly communicates the elements identified so far: activities, task leaders, milestones, resources, etc. Also, the action plan is a dynamic document that should be easily accessible to everyone.

7) Monitor, measure and update

Here you will assess your progress on a regular basis. You can tick off completed tasks, bringing attention to how you progressed toward the goal. This will also highlight outstanding or delayed activities, in which case you need to understand why and find appropriate solutions. Then, the action plan will be updated accordingly.

 

To reach a destination, you need to know how to get there, and to achieve a goal, you need a clear action plan.

This is exactly what a well-structured action plan provides: a clear path, how to get there, and the best possible results.

Using a project management software such as TWproject could be a huge advantage. Try it for free!

Receiving a negative feedback is never a pleasant experience.

You work hard to create a quality product and seeing your actions judged negatively can lead to anger and frustration. These are negative reactions that later can also compromise our performance.

Moreover, even though feedback can often be given objectively and with the truest intentions, it can also be inaccurate or harmful. For example, it may come from a colleague who wants to cause trouble, from a boss who has completely unachievable expectations, from an employee who is afraid to tell the truth, etc.

In any case it is difficult, indeed, to understand what is real and what should be filtered.

There are many resources that suggest how to ask for feedback, but there are relatively few indications on how to react to negative feedback received.

What you need to know is that if you are able to turn a negative feedback into something positive, it can become key for success.

How to face a negative feedback

And for those who are really averse to negative feedback, there is an excellent alternative: no negative feedback, none at all.

Is it everybody’s dream? Of course, except that the lack of feedback can only mean one of two things:

• Work is generally good but people aren’t developing their skills any more.
• Work is bad, but nobody says it.

And neither of these two scenarios is positive when your goal is to grow professionally and progress in your career.

So here are 7 ways to turn negative reviews into positive results.

Facing negative feedback: Better safe than sorry

When a product is to be released, especially if it is new, the project manager must already think ahead by providing stakeholders and clients with as much information as possible.

This will help to avoid a lot of questions during the project lifecycle and negative reviews at output delivery.

Facing negative feedback: Remember that you cannot please everyone

Negative reviews can happen to everyone. No matter how good a product may be, there will always be people who think it could have been done better. After all, sympathies and antipathies are just subjective opinions and someone will always be unhappy.

Facing negative feedback:  Make the right researches

When you get negative feedback, do not panic, it is not the end of the world!

It is important to make a research afterwards: if the complaint is reasonable enough, it is worth to discuss it, make a Root cause Analysis and try to improve what can be improved.

The most important thing is, therefore, to find the reason why this negative experience occurred.

Be aware that you cannot respond to feedback until you really understand it. Especially when you hear something new, it is usually a wise idea to ask some reliable sources for confirmation. Just ask them if they have noticed the same behavior or error.

This way of working not only provides you with more details about the action affected by negative feedback, but also helps to avoid over-correction based on a single person’s opinion.

Facing negative feedback: Give a prompt response

Ignoring negative feedback won’t just make it disappear, it will only make things worse.

Clearly this does not mean that you should respond to a criticism the very moment you receive it. Leaving your computer, taking a deep breath and having a moment for yourself, can be normal and even beneficial at first, especially if the feedback is about a very important factor.

Finding an activity that helps you disconnect for a moment, can improve your mood when confronted with the response processing.

However, this does not mean waiting for months. It must be done within a reasonable timeframe, depending on the gravity of the problem.

That said, the faster you deal with a negative review, the easier it will be to handle the next discussion and clear up any possible misunderstanding. Customer experience will benefit from this.

Facing negative feedback: Ask and listen

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, contact those who gave that negative feedback and find out exactly what didn’t work for them.

Naturally, some answers can be quite harsh, but don’t judge and don’t let your emotions take over.

Putting yourself in the other person’s shoes could be useful to understand their point of view and better understand the cause of the negative feedback.

Facing negative feedback: Take your responsibilities

Mistakes are a natural part of human efforts and you should not be afraid to admit guilt.

The more responsible you are for your actions, the more credible you will be and the more people will trust you.

Making mistakes is human – as long as you don’t make them over and over again.

Facing negative feedback: Learn and solve the problem

Negative reviews can be an important source of knowledge.

They can help the project team find any missing links to product development and make it better than ever.

You should try to respond proactively, track the criticism received, bit by bit, and provide a solution to each one. You should avoid getting defensive and be good at keeping the points concise.

When you move on to solving the problem, you must do so with positive energy. This can make the process much more effective.

Transforming a negative Feedback into an asset

As the famous saying goes:

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem”

So, those who are afraid of negative reviews must change their attitude and consider constructive criticism as an opportunity for growth and learning.

Negative feedback is a chance to improve your weaknesses and bring the quality of your work and product to a new level.

A study demonstrated that we tend to avoid people who have given us negative feedback.

It may seem easier to consider yourself as the victim in a huge workplace conspiracy, but getting away from people who tell the truth and give negative but constructive feedback is a big mistake.

In this regard, negative feedback can be a great pretext for restoring relationships and, with the right approach, the greatest critics can become the best motivators.