With the dot com burst of 2001 companies now demand more
tangible ROI from each project that they approve. In order
to remain competitive in today’s feature-rich products’
world, companies need to complete the implementation of even
complex features in record time.
This has resulted in shrinking of the project life cycle duration. In days gone by products would show enhancement roadmaps every 6 months or every year. Nowadays to maintain market share, many companies upgrade their products’ features at least every quarter.
All this translates to schedule pressure on the projects. Completing a 12 man-months project in 6 months with 2 people is a completely different ball game compared to completing the same 12 man-months project within 2 months with 6 people. The luxuries of re-work and hit-miss-change developments are no longer available as options to project managers when the company demands better ROI from the project.
What is it that a project manager can do to ease the schedule pressure from the team members?
Here are 10 ways to reduce schedule pressure:
1. Match staff with desired skill sets
2. Train staff to acquire desired skills fast
3. Involve other experts within company
4. Educate team on importance of avoiding rework
5. Brainstorm to work better:faster preparation, less rework
6. Help team implement the optimized work methods
7. Manage the assumptions and Risks (refer Article #2)
8. Mentor & counsel the individuals on the team
9. Open communication channels
(a) with team (b) customer (c) Top Mgmt
thru good regular reports,escalations,metrics analysis
10. Create winning teams
Naseem Mariam is the editor of “Management that Soars” Newsletter & author of “Project Serenity – How to gain happiness and peace”. Her ritings draw life from her 18 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and Newsletter tell You How. Subscribe with mailto:projectdioxide@sendfree.com Visit her at http://www.123projectmanagement.com
