Saturday, March 27, 2010

Social media tools for your projects

Have you used social media (e.g. Instant Messengers, Facebook, Linkedin, Wiki’s, Blogs, Skype, Youtube) in your projects? I have been using these tools for years and here is some feedback which tools worked well for project management purposes.

For me it is a mixed bag of good and bad with these tools. This is because some people use them excessively and others don’t use them at all. The main objective is to get tasks done quicker by getting additional information faster. If you become “addicted” to the tool itself and use it all the time it tends to be a time waster. Therefore I recommend to first determine if you really need these tools. That might be necessary when you have distributed teams. It also helps to determine what kind of people you have on the project. How many visual, auditory or kinesthetic team members do you have? Will these tools really help them or will they make the communication even harder?
Example: For visually oriented people it is beneficial to use Skype or WebEx or any other social media tool that helps to visualize people and ideas. If you have mostly auditory people on the team it might not be a good idea though.

My general recommendation is keep it simple and keep it to a minimum.
Keep the communication objective in mind before you pick any tool. A general objective and challenge for any communication including project communication is that the sender and the receiver understand each other. This sounds easier than it is because everyone listens to the communication message with their own filter.
I consider these tools valuable when used in moderation. Nevertheless we still need to communicate effectively ourselves. Keep in mind that 55% of communication comes from body language, 38% comes from tonality and only 7 percent is through spoken words. Not all the social media tools cover all these area's, just be conscious about that when you pick the tools for your team
  • Instant Messengers – needs some general agreement at the beginning to ensure it’s not a time waster or stress factor. Works well for short and precise questions that require a quick answer.
  • Wiki’s
  • Blogs
  • Skype or something similar that allows to see the other person during a call
Get together before you start your next project and discuss some basic time management rules before you use any of these tools.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Best possible communication for gathering business requirements

You know that the business requirements for an IT or business project won’t be presented to you on a silver platter, right? It will require considerable skills to extract the information you need in a short time to be successful. It is not possible to just talk to a specialist (or Product Owner in SCRUM terms) and write down what they tell you/your team. You have to really understand what the underlying drivers are for these requirements.

Example: A business requirement states that the Turn-around-time for sales orders needs to be reduced to 2 days. The current sales order Turn-around-time is 3 days. In this case let’s assume the requirement comes from an executive meeting where the CEO requested to shorten the billing cycle to increase the cash flow. The different teams in that meeting translated that into to-dos for their respective areas. The Sales Team wanted to contribute by reducing the sales turn-around-time since this will allow the invoice to go out earlier.
Point here is that while the requirement is certainly valid, it always makes sense to understand where a requirement is coming from and to explore additional options to address it.
In order to gain the necessary understanding for the real (underlying) business requirements I think you need to follow some basic principles
  • Give your undivided attention. It is not only the most respectful thing to do but also the most effective. Reduce all distractions (e.g. phone calls, emails, walk ins) to a minimum. If you have a face-to-face meeting:

    • face the other person and maintain eye contact
    •  be open and emphatic
    • show you care by making sure you understand the other person
    • respect the other person’s views, especially when they are different from yours

  • Focus completely on the other person
    • Ask open ended questions that encourage the other person to talk (e.g. Who, What, When, Where, How, Why? Questions)
    • Pause and think before you respond. This shows the other person that you really listen.
    • Do not interrupt the other person!! Take notes and go back to them after the person finishes. By listening to the other person first you foster an environment that inspires openness and trust. This is critical to get to the core of the requirements

  •  Use active/reflective listening skills
    • Restate what was said in a nonjudgmental way. This ensures that the message was received without changes. 
    • Ask questions that encourage the other person to provide their own views (e.g. What do you think is the best option to address this? What do you think is the best next step to address this issue?)
Here are some additional nonverbal communication tips that will help you to improve your communication skills. If clear and precise communication skills are important for your success then I would suggest you also record yourself (video and/or audio) to learn how you appear to other people. It might feel a little clumsy in the beginning but will pay off with better requirements and hence a better project.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

15 Tips to increase your Focus


Here a short list of simple ideas to keep you focused
1.       Know what’s important for you – write it down. If you try to memorize everything you will most likely end up with information overload. If you use a to-do list (daily, weekly and for your general long term goals) that will give you a good option to take control of your tasks, projects and keep yourself organized
2.       Prioritize your to-do lists – this will help you to focus on what is really important.
3.       Learn to say no – you get overloaded with too much work when you always say yes. So learn to say No to items with are not on your list or which are low on your list. This frees up time for the important items.
4.       Take time before you act – Before you commit to a new task etc. think before you say Yes! This will ensure that your objectives and you to-do lists are aligned.
5.       Evaluate regularly how you spend your time – Is the task on the to-do list still important to you or is it  a habit that should be changed? Do the current activities get you to where you want to be?
6.       Stop doing other people’s work – To do this might be considered heroic in some places but the challenge is it doesn’t get you to where you want to go. Focus on your own project and goals and learn to delegate effectively. Think about teaching others to do their own work
7.       Monitor how well you do with your goals – evaluate your goals and see how much progress you make. This will help you to set more realistic goals going forward
8.       Avoid busy time – The key is not to be busy but to be productive. Just because you are busy and getting things done doesn’t mean you actually accomplish something significant. Maybe you just spend time on tasks that don’t even need to be done.
9.       Avoid doing too much – It’s always good to shoot for a little more but it can be overdone. The risk is that you spread your energy and time too thin over too many tasks and projects. In that case you can’t make any meaningful progress. Focus on less tasks but get these done.
10.   Check email only at certain times during the day – that will ensure you are not getting distracted. You are in control and that reduces the stress.
11.   Sort email in Folders – when email comes in put it in different folders (e.g. Important/Urgent, Important/Not Urgent). This will put you in control and so increase your focus and reduces your stress.
12.   Balance your activities – leave time to recharge your batteries. You get even better at your professional life when your private life exists and is enjoyable.
13.   Listen before you talk – Usually we first try to be understood and therefore most people don’t listen with the intent to listen but to reply. If you do that you potentially waste a lot of time and focus by not hearing what somebody is trying to tell you. So Listen! That way you learn what is important to your project/others and can focus on the important tasks.
14.   Stop worrying too much about others – honestly most people think most of the time about themselves and not about you. Focus instead on achieving your goals.
15.   ASK – for what you want or need. If you are clear and specific you will see this can save a lot of time.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Focus Focus Focus !!!

In the last couple of posts we had focused on traditional vs. agile Project Management Methods. Today I want to discuss something that applies to all Project Methodologies and even to your personal life. This is the power of focus. 
There are many distractions every day (e.g. unexpected meetings, phone calls, emails, text messages) that make it challenging to stay focused on what is important to you and your project. In order to increase your success you need to increase your focus. Spend only time on things that are important to you and your project.
In addition to that I believe you should focus on the things you do effortlessly. As Dan Sullivan says "If you spend too much time working on your weaknesses, all you end up with is a lot of strong weaknesses". So get a Master at what you already do well. That can be the key differentiator for you and your project.

To increase the focus of a Project you should have a Mission Statement (search Google with Steven Covey Mission Statement). In Project talk you would call it a Project Charter. If you make it a little more personal I think it will be even more effective. In any case you need to know what you would like to achieve with your project and for the team and yourself. What is important to the project stakeholders? The answer to this question becomes your compass (mission statement/project charter). This ensures you are focusing on the things that are important to the project. What is important to you? What is your value compasss? How much do the 2 compass (project + your personal objectives) overlap?
It helps me to have a personal written plan on what I want to achieve on a project because if I write it down it sticks better. There are 2 kinds of plans which I consider useful, the first plan is a weekly plan and the second plan is a daily plan. If you really follow these plans in your business and personal life it will ensure that you get more of what you value. Note that these plans are more for personal use than official project documents.

Let's start with the weekly plan: Assumption here is that you write down once a week (e.g. on a Sunday) what you would like to achive for the project and yourself during the next week. What needs to happen that week to make you feel satisfied?
If you think about this ahead of time you can minimize all the distractions that will happen during the week because you know what is really important for you and your project. Here are some distraction examples: Do you jump to your email Inbox whenever a new email arrives? Do you respond to all IM's, phone calls, text messages etc immediately? Do you distinguish between URGENT/IMPORTANT and URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT/IMPORTANT, NOT URGENT/NOT IMPORTANT interruptions? Maybe you should check email only at certain times during the day and/or setup different folders in your inbox to feel less stressed. The objective of the weekly plan is to keep your focus on the important goals and focus on what is really important to you and your project. This makes it easier to say NO to interruptions.
The daily plan is similar to the weekly plan but focuses only on one day. You can set this up the night before or in the morning. The point is that you think about it ahead of time and you get your compass/value system for this day. What are you trying to achieve today (i.e. SCRUM meeting in the morning). What needs to happen today to make you feel like you achieved your goals at the end of the day? You will most likely realize that in the beginning you schedule more than you can realistically achieve. Anyway it will help you to know yourself and the team better to learn what is and what is not possible.
An interesting book on this topic is "The Power of Focus" from Jack Canfield/Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt.