Oftentimes, as a developer or technical lead, you have a lot of knowledge of the inner workings of the technical aspects of a project. You might even have a good working relationship with your client through ticket communications and tech demonstrations. But there are quite a lot of skills that can be quite daunting when you are trying to make the transition to a Project Manager. So here are some beginner-friendly tips, tricks, and examples of how to tackle some problems that can come up.
Watch the presentation:
Setting expectations
One of the first and key things you should consider when starting a project is to clearly define your expectations. Clearly defined expectations will prevent issues later and establish a path for success. The questions to consider here are: What expectations do you need to set? And how do you set expectations?
Communication
The first step to setting your expectations is to communicate your expectations with your client or stakeholder.
What do you expect from your client?
What can or should they expect from you?
This can go all the way from expectations about what you're delivering to expectations about the project as a whole to more granular expectations about how often you're going to be communicating, reporting, and responding. This is an area where a lot of problems and mismatches can arise when you start a project.
Project Goal
Although this might seem very straightforward, especially in an agile project, the goal is something that gets missed. It is very easy to get bogged down by the many series of activities that you have to conduct, and you can miss out on the goal that you need to be delivering. The goal is something that you need to clarify early at the start of the project. It is very common for this to be overlooked, and the deliverables don’t end up matching what the goal was at the start of the project. Developers often get tickets or issues assigned with clearly defined acceptance criteria, implementations, and testing. This is possible because someone, the technical lead and/or project manager, has clearly defined the goal with the client.
Planning for project success
Project management methodology
One of the most common project management methodologies in the workplace is Agile. Agile is good for projects that have evolving requirements and require rapid delivery through phases or a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Due to the popularity of agile, other methodologies often get overlooked. It is key to remember that Agile is a superset of methodologies that you can use e.g. Scrum, Kanban, Lean, SAFe, etc..
Additionally, besides agile, there are a variety of other methodologies available e.g. Waterfall, Critical Path Method, PRINCE2, etc.. But remember that you don't need to feel restricted to one or the other. Oftentimes, you can adopt a bit of a hybrid. The main thing to consider here is that you are adopting a methodology that is going to bring success to your project. Some projects lend themselves well to agile, and some projects lend themselves more towards other methodologies. And sometimes, it'll be a bit of a hybrid.
Deliverables
Another key step in planning for project success is to consider your deliverables. Interrogate the goal of the project and break it up into smaller deliverables that can be set with your client. It is always better to deliver your product or project in smaller chunks. It's just easier to plan for success when you are working with smaller pieces.
What if deliverables are not met?
Delivering on time and on task can be quite tricky, especially if you are managing a team that you have previously not worked with before. Depending on the nature of the project, this could have a great impact, or it could have a smaller impact on the project. The easiest way to mitigate this is to plan early for this. This means that when you are planning the project deliverables and your timelines, you should factor in what to do if deliverables are not met.
Some strategies could be giving a couple of weeks' leeway or bringing on board more resources so that you can catch up (Note: this should be considered depending on the specific project as this can also be counterproductive. More on this below under Verifying your strategy). There can be all sorts of different plans to put forward here, but it is key to plan this before the deliverables are not met. There's nothing worse than a situation where all of a sudden, you're behind on a project and have no idea how you're going to catch up. Lastly, it's possible to plan for the unexpected, yet deliverables are still not met. In this instance, you have to adapt. Change and renegotiate to the best of your ability.
Risk management
Identifying risk in a project is crucial to mitigating risk. When to identify risk? At the start of the project, or even before starting the project. Research and ask yourself what potential issues can arise with the project? Go through this risk identification process, and this can be a small process or a large process, depending on the project. Then you can move on to the next stage, which is how do you manage the risk? Discover two approaches to the risk: How can I prevent this from happening? And then, if this happens, what am I going to do? This way, not only have you mitigated your risk but also managed a solution for the risk. Risk management is ongoing. As you progress with your project, more risks will identify themselves, and you will continue to create mitigation measures for each of them. It’s not a one-and-done process. It is an evolving procedure.
Verifying your strategy
Once you have identified your mitigation strategies, how can we verify that this strategy will mitigate the issue? It is possible to come up with strategies that can instead be counter-productive to your problem or risk. For example, above, I stated that “bringing on board more resources so that you can catch up” can be a mitigation strategy for a project that is behind on deliverables. This can be true on a project-by-project basis.
“Adding human resources to a late software project makes it later” Brooks, Frederick. 1995. The Mythical Man-Month.
While that is an oversimplification, it reminds us that sometimes adding more resources to a project will not always work as it is based on the assumption that every person working on the project will consistently achieve the same amount of work. If you are, for example, digging a hole, then adding more resources will increase the results. However, if you are dealing with a complex task, then adding more people will make it worse because every team member added will come with new complications.
When you are deciding whether to allocate more resources to a project, consider the following:
- Partition of work: Some tasks are too hard to divide up, and some need time to be completed properly.
- Communication: When you add more team members to a project, communication between the team will become exponentially more difficult.
- Onboarding: Every new team member will need to be onboarded into the project, and they will need to spend time catching up on the project too before they can deliver value.
How do you ensure your strategy will deliver results? Get to know your project! As mentioned before, this will be on a project-to-project basis; analyse your project and consider all factors before settling on a specific mitigation strategy.
How to communicate effectively with clients
Communicating with your client or stakeholder can be a little bit daunting. The following are some tips and tricks to have effective communication with your client or stakeholders.
Greeting your client
The first thing to consider when you are communicating with your client is to greet your client. This again might seem simple and straightforward, but something to remember is to establish a good connection with your client. It is very simple and also something I like to call "happy greetings".
Remember to show your smile, be friendly, be kind, and find common ground. If you're struggling to communicate with your client, find some common ground. Consider common and simple topics like: the weather in your town vs theirs, your/their location, or even your weekend plans.
Reporting to your client
Once greetings are out of the way, it will be time to report to your client. There are two main things to consider here. The first is to Report Often. Is there such a thing as reporting too often? If you report too often, and it's too much for your client to digest, then they will most likely just ignore it. This is not going to harm the project, however, a lack of reporting can have serious implications on a project. The second consideration should go to Reporting Succinctly. If you provide a short 1 page report to your client that is succinct and focuses on all the right things, then your client is more likely to read/pay attention to it, even if you are reporting often.
But what should you report on?
What to include in your reports?
- Project progress
- What's up next
- Risks/Blockers
These are three key things to remember to report on. In project progress, you tackle what has been completed so far and whether the project is on track. If something's not on track, then make sure you come prepared to answer the questions of how you are going to get back on track. What are the next steps that you're going to take? What is required from yourself, from your team, and from the client. In what’s up next, you communicate what the next steps/tasks of the project are, which will prepare your client for any involvement or coordination from their side. Lastly, Risks/Blockers will provide you with a chance to discuss the risks with your client and mitigate them.
How to report on risks?
Communicating risk to your client can require nuance. Oftentimes, when there is a problem or things are not going well, we will inevitably try to sugarcoat when we talk about it, to make it sound a little less bad than it is. There are a lot of mixed opinions on whether this is helpful or not. My take on this is to use it effectively. I.e. sugarcoat your language but not your progress. That is to say, be gentle when you are delivering bad news, but don't sugar coat project progress. Be nice and gentle when you deliver the news; you do not want to sound threatening and scary, but you still want to deliver the important information.
Dealing with difficult people
Dealing with difficult people and situations is hard, and it is something that, unfortunately, you will have to deal with as a project manager. However, there are some techniques that you can follow to make this interaction easier.
- Smile,
- Talk it out,
- Come prepared
- Do not engage
- Prove your views
- Know your limit
- Compromise
These simple techniques are very helpful when you are dealing with difficult people or a difficult situation. Sometimes, a smile is all that is needed to diffuse a situation, and talking about the issue or situation will almost always lead to a way to resolve the issue.
The third technique here, come prepared, is very important. If you are aware that your client is a difficult person to work with, then take some time to prepare for your engagement with them. This could mean putting together a list of issues that you know could be brought up and already considering a response/approach to the issue in question.
If you start to feel like you will engage, then take a break. It is okay to step away from the situation and say, “I'm not comfortable talking about this topic at this moment in time, and I will be able to talk about this at so and so or at a later stage”. Or maybe there is an uncomfortable question that you do not wish to answer. You can say, “I do not feel comfortable answering this question”. It is also okay if you don't know the answer to a question; you are not expected to always know the answer to a question on the spot. In these situations, you can say, “I do not know the answer to this question right now, but I will follow up on this, or I will chase up and find out for you”. The key thing here is that you are acknowledging that you do not know the answer but will find out and report back.
If you are in an argument of some sort and you're rebutting points, then make sure to support your views. Bring supporting artifacts that will help you clarify your views or points. Lastly, sometimes you will have to compromise. Sometimes, you might have to meet in the middle somewhere, and when things like this happen, staying positive can sometimes be a little bit hard.
Staying positive
Staying positive when you are in a difficult situation or when an outcome is not resolved to your liking can be hard. When this happens, the first thing to consider is to take a break and find a distress mechanism. For example, my de-stress mechanism is karaoke at home. Another motivator can also be to think about the future state. You can note that maybe the current project you are working on is not a good experience, but what's next? Maybe the next project is going to be better.
Finally, it is extremely important to know when and how to seek help. Know your limit, and do not be scared to ask for help. When you are working as part of a team, your team members will be there to help you. If you are a developer, you might go to your technical lead for help. If you are the technical lead, you might go to your project manager. If you are a project manager, you might go to your delivery manager or your team leader, and so on. Asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes, we just don't know how to handle a situation, and we need to ask for help.
Conclusion
Transitioning to a project management role doesn’t have to be a daunting task. As outlined above, there are some simple tips and tricks to follow that can be summarised through the following: Setting expectations early is very important, as you want to make sure that everyone is on the same page at the start of the project. It is also important to define your goals and make them as obvious as possible so that you, your client, and everyone in the team is aware of the goals that need to be delivered. Reporting often is also key to staying on top of a project and in good standing with your client. Also, remember to stay positive and look at things in a good way. If a project is not to your liking at that moment, there will be better projects in the future. Lastly, do not be afraid to ask for help. Your peers are there to assist you and will oftentimes have lots of different experiences to draw upon.
