I chatted with a project manager a while ago, and he said: "I am very tired in the project. In addition to the project management, there are still a lot of things for me to do. I feel that there are less things assigned to myself and more work to do. Less, I feel very guilty, I am a project manager, I have to lead by example."
I was amazed at the time, a project with 5 people, how could this happen?
So I drew him a matrix like this: I said, "Look, what are you doing?"
He said, "Yeah, I don't seem to be doing anything! Really dizzy!"
If a project team with more than 4 project members, the project manager is still doing specific things and writing specific documents, then I think there must be a problem with this project. Because you've spent too much of your experience focusing on specifics, it means you're not paying attention to more important things.
In my opinion, a project team with more than 4 project members, the project manager should only do three things:
1. Do things in a goal-oriented way
First you need to know what to do, then how to do it. Goals are an important feature of project management. The project manager's principles of doing things revolve around project goals. Anything that is conducive to the achievement of project goals without violating the project manager's professional ethics and code of conduct should be done.
There are short-term goals and long-term goals. It may be a short-term goal to complete the current project according to the goals, and it may be a long-term goal to bring out an efficient team in one year. For project managers of non-temporary projects, they should focus more on the long-term goals of the project rather than the short-term benefits of the current project. Only by realizing this can you realize the importance of training, coaching, teams, spontaneity, team language and rules throughout the project.
2. Break down your own defined goals
For software projects, the project manager will define that the failure rate after the release of the software product is less than 0.5/KLOC code according to business or user requirements. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to analyze the factors affecting the goal in combination with the time process of the project, the quality of deliverables at each stage, the leakage of defects, the level of testing, the change and stability of requirements, the requirements design and development specifications in the early stage, and team rules , the developer's sense of responsibility and many factors may affect the realization of this goal.
The achievement of an overall goal is definitely not achieved by simply improving one influencing factor, and there are positive and negative effects between each factor, which requires comprehensive systematic thinking. Determine the expected interval levels of each element, and then incorporate these expectations into the plan for tracking and control. What this series of processes should show is that everything you do has a purpose and serves to achieve the goals you defined at the beginning, and it is definitely not out of nothing.
3. Specific practical concerns
First of all, the emphasis on risks and crises is far greater than the emphasis on problems. It's not that problem solving is not important, but project managers should manage risks and eliminate hidden dangers more, so as not to convert risks into real problems. The project manager must have enough forward-looking and keen insight to detect various signs and crises. The response before a crisis is usually just the project manager talking to members or organizing a training on procedures, but if a crisis occurs, The loss will be far greater than the cost of risk response.
Project managers should be more coaches than leaders. Managers need to understand authorization, but project managers are more concerned that authorization will not affect progress and quality. Therefore, project managers are definitely not doing everything by themselves, nor do they blindly authorize and do nothing, but act as a good coach. . Let the project members have the ability to complete the work, and be responsible to complete the work. If it only takes 1 hour to do it yourself, and it takes a day to teach team members to do things, from the perspective of the team, you must spend this day teaching members how to do things correctly.
The contents of the top ten knowledge systems of PMBOK are all the contents that the project needs to consider. There is a key word in it is the project management group, which is composed of the core members of the project. It is necessary to distinguish what is done by the project manager and what is done by the project management team. Another concern is the granularity of doing things. The tracking of project tasks is done by the project manager, but the project manager should determine the granularity of his own tracking tasks according to the project goals. If the granularity is too fine, it can be tracked by project members or team leaders. What a project manager should do is not a simple practical guide for project managers and project members.
On a team, as a team leader, do:
1) Avoid compromising team goals to political issues
2) Show personal commitment to team goals
3) Don’t dilute the team’s work with too many priorities
4) Treat team members fairly and fairly
5) Willingness to resolve issues related to poor team member performance
6) Be open to new thinking and new information from employees
As a team member, do:
1) Demonstrate goals and fact-based judgments
2) Collaborate effectively with other team members
3) Prioritize team goals over individual goals
4) Willingness to share information and generate appropriate feedback
5) Give appropriate help when other members need it
6) Demonstrate high standards for yourself
7) Take the lead in the way you strive for the success of your team