The acronym C.A.S.T. was developed to help you tackle all the projects all year long with a systematic approach. Each letter signifies a different element to help you stay focused on your project goals.

T – stand for teach your team to work as one. If you have team members that do not work together that will make your projects less productive.

• When a team works as one, you will find that there exists a harmony. This harmony will keep your team focused on the main goal, which producing quality work.
• It is important to communicate with your team and let them know precisely what is expected. All too often miscommunication occurs which will lead to less productivity.
• When gathering a team it is best to find members that can work together and will aid in the project management’s success. Do not be afraid to dismiss a team member that is not willing to work as a team, this is imperative to the team working as one unit.
• Motivation is essential. You must stay motivated and your team will sense it and strive to be just as motivated.

Try applying the C.A.S.T. system to your project goals this New Year. You will find that your projects will be completed in a timely fashion with less stress on your part and a successful team that works together. Begin the New Year on a positive note with projects planned and a team that is focused. Although it may not be easy at first glance the C.A.S.T. system when applied efficiently will in turn produce quality work in less time.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon from http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management and the New Year, part 5

S – Stay focused and control your risk factors. There are many risk factors that can impede a project and staying focused will prevent this from occurring.

• In order to stay focused you must determine and identify the project that is to be completed. This must then be revealed to your team, which will enable everyone to be focused.
• How do you control your risk factors? This is not difficult if you are aware of the possible factors and have a systemic plan in place. It is important to keep the lines of communication open if you are working with a team. The project is one of importance and communicating the importance level to your team is quite significant.
• Apply sub goals to your project management focus. You must have an ultimate goal to achieve, but by applying sub goals your team will remain focused. After each sub goal is completed a sense of accomplishment will ensue which will in turn keep your team eager to get to the next level.

Controlling risk factors may seem difficult at first, but once a plan is determined it will not be difficult at all. Remember that your team will feed off of your insecurities. You must remain focused in order for them to follow. Keeping your focus on the project at hand will not only ensure that each task will be accomplished but all the goals will be completed in the time manner that you have scheduled. Your ultimate goal is to have a team that works well together but most importantly gets the projects completed. Applying the tips shared thus far using the C.A.S.T. system, will give you and your team a clear vision and simplify the tasks and projects ahead.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon from http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management and the New Year, part 4

A – stands for Always keep your project’s scope in mind. Although it may seem mundane that we must keep the scope of our project in mind it is absolutely necessary. In order to be productive and efficient with the project we have planned the scope must be identified. Once the scope is identified and determined the work can be then tackled and you and your team will be on the same page. Below are a few tips to help guide you and your team into staying within your project’s scope.

• Using a project management system will help you determine your scope or task and will keep you focused.
• Determining the scope will enable you and your team to focus on the project and not get distracted.
• Communication is important when trying to maintain the focus on the scope of your project. You are your team must be on the same page and all desire the ultimate goal of completing the task efficiently.

Unfortunately it is very easy to get distracted but with a project management system in order, the distractions will be few if at all. The scope is something that must be kept in highest of priorities. Only then will your project be a success and you and your team will work together as a unit and not as individuals that are easily distracted. Keeping a chart or log of the tasks that must be accomplished is imperative to the success of your project.

This will not only keep you focused on the purpose or scope but it will keep your team motivated to remain focused as well.

When you avoid distractions you and your team will work in harmony and you will find that the projects will be completed with less stress. Efficiency is the ultimate goal in project management and keeping your project’s scope in the forefront is imperative to achieving success.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon from http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management and the New Year, part 3

C - stands for Control of your project’s time line. That sounds easy enough but how do you apply it to your team and your work? Below is a quick list of things to keep in mind when keeping control of your projects.

• It is important to control your time line, which can be done by developing a schedule. Using a schedule will keep you and your team on the same page and working towards the same goal.
• Using a project management system will simplify this task for you. A project management system will help to keep you and your team focused on the project at hand. It is very easy to get distracted and begin a project or tasks, only to realize later there is a deadline that must be met and you are not prepared.
• It is not easy to accomplish tasks or projects on your own, but with a team and a project management system the tasks will be accomplished more efficiently.
• Setting a goal and listing what will need to be accomplished to satisfy that goal is very important. More importantly is sharing this goal and list with your team. By sharing your project goals with your team, projects and task can be accomplished at a quicker pace with less stress.
• Sticking to a time line is extremely important and following the C.A.S.T. system will enable you to get your projects accomplished.
• As the team leader or person in charge of the project team it is your responsibility to set a time line for all to follow.

You will find with a bit of organization and time management your projects will be attended to and completed in a timely fashion. Controlling the project’s time line is one goal to strive for this coming year and the stress will be replaced with projects and a more organized team. Apply the acronym C.A.S.T. to your resolution list for the coming year and apply it to all your projects. You will find your time is better managed and tasks will be easier to finish. Be sure to watch for the next post to this series, where we will discuss always keeping you project’s scope in mind.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon from http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management and the New Year, part 2

To start things off with a level foundation, I have created an acronym from the letters of C.A.S.T. to help you concentrate on the important things and not the distracting things. When managing projects in the New Year, just try out the C.A.S.T system to see if it will help you stay focus on your project goals:

• Control of your project’s time line
• Always keep your project’s scope in mind
• Stay focused and control your risk factors
• Teach your team to work as one

Let’s break these down further. First controlling your project’s time line. It is important to set a schedule for your project, which means that using a project management system is best to use in order to keep things timely. Using a project management system will force you to keep to your schedule and will keep you focused on the project. It is very easy to get distracted so determining a time line will keep everyone focused on the task at hand. Secondly, always keep your project’s scope in mind, it is very easy to wander and delve into more than one project at a time, but doing this will make you less efficient and the projects less than desirable. It is wise to outline your particular project’s scope and focus on that scope.

Thirdly, it is extremely important to stay focused and control your risk factors. Setting your goal to complete a project at a given time will help with keeping you focused. Remaining focused will ensure your project will be successful and will be completed in a timely fashion. Finally the most important of all is to teach your team to work as one. It is important to have a team where everyone works together to accomplish the final goal. Cohesiveness is very important when it comes to teamwork. It will make your project run smoothly and in the end be successful, which is what the ultimate goal should be.

Sticking to the C.A.S.T. system will not only keep you more focused but you will find that more projects will be accomplished in a timely fashion. You will be less stressed because you are following a system that will keep you and your team focused. Let this be the ultimate goal for the New Year, remain focused and your projects will be successful. Which in turn will make you and your team happier and more productive.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon from http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management and the New Year, part 1

As a project manager with almost 15 years of experience, one of the important things that I have learned is that project management tools are very important to the success of a project. I have used Microsoft Project, Zoho Project and tested many others but have found for my business that Zoho Projects is best to use (checkout the Software Review: Zoho Projects). I can integrate it with Zoho’s other products which makes managing my clients, projects and team much easier.

Special Tips for new virtual project managers:

• Remember to C.A.S.T. your projects in order to streamline them better. What to learn more about C.A.S.T. then checkout the article series “Project Management and the New Year, part 1“.
• Have a mentor who will help you understand how to manage the ROI (Return-On-Invest) for your projects successfully. For more details checkout “Project Management and ROI: What’s in it For You?“.
• Documentation, processes, and teambuilding can be the best way to create a strong and synergized team.
• Always remember to allow for buy-in from your team members and clients so that each part can have a sense of ownership for the projects that you manage.

Now on to the feedback from the resources for this series. They have great information to provide.

Question 7: Are there other project management tools that you use on your #VirtualTeam projects?

Question 8: What pointers would you share with some who is just starting to build their #VirtualTeam?

Each of the resources above have been using virtual teams to not only grow their business but also to streamline processes. This is the last in a four-part series answering questions about building a virtual team.

Images are screenshot of the actual Twitter conversation provided by Kim Beasley

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Using Social Media to Build Your Virtual Project Management Team (part 4)

As a project manager, I have learned to deal with the hard lessons straight-on so that I could learn from them. Some of the hard lessons that I’ve learned have been…

• Hiring the wrong person for me team. If this type of problem is allowed to linger, it could cause major problems on your team and stress on you as a project manager. Solved this problem by either working with the person and helping them improve and synergize with the team or replacing the person with another person who worked better with the team.
• Taking on too many project. Allowing myself to put to many project on my project list to where it stressed me and my team. Solved this problem by assessing and realigning my project load.
• Allowed a project to get out of control. If project tasks get out of control due to lack of accountability, then this can be a cause for a project getting out of control. Solved this problem by integrating the use of project management tools that added a level of accountability.

Below are the Twitter resources who shared their experiences regarding two questions.

Question 5: What are some of the hard lessons you have learned about managing your #VirtualTeam?

Question 6: Do you use a project management software program for managing your #VirtualTeam projects?

Each of the resources above have been using virtual teams to not only grow their business but also to streamline processes. This is the second in a four-part series answering questions about building a virtual team.

Images are screenshots of the actual Twitter conversation provided by Kim Beasley

Post from: EveryJoe

Using Social Media to Build Your Virtual Project Management Team (part 3)

Spending several years as a technical project manager in Corporate America, I used Rapid Application Development (RAD) on many technical projects. RAD is a process used to encourage user interaction through the use of prototypes as an application project is being developed. Now as a website developer, I may use RAD on many projects because this process is helpful when working on projects where I have a non-technical client.

According to Tom Mochal of TechRepublic.com (Examining the life cycle of a RAD project), below are simple steps that can be use when applying RAD to a project.

• Planning: plan the work first
• Analysis: capture the business requirements
• Prototyping: Utilize the requirements you received in the previous step to build a high-level prototype of the application
• Repeat analysis and prototyping as necessary: When you’ve completed the initial prototype, you can use it to gather additional, more detailed business requirements from the customer
• Conclusion of prototyping: project manager and customer need to agree on a fixed number of prototyping iterations or else this cyclical process could go on forever
• Implementation

Wow, that’s a mouth full so to further explain, I decided to include a scenario applying the above steps to a simple process. The scenario are simple steps that can be taken to develop a website.

• Planning: meet with client to determine project scope
• Analysis: review scope to determine groups of tasks that need to be completed
• Prototyping: create sample design and website layout for content for initial approval
• Repeat analysis and prototyping as necessary
• Conclusion of prototyping: make sure to determine a time period and timeline for the project so that you can establish an end date for develop so that the project can be implemented
• Implementation: once website development is completed, make the website live

What are you thoughts about RAD and how you can use it to apply to your business processes? Please feel free to share your experience or feedback.

Image courtesy of:  http://Softpedia.com

Post from: EveryJoe

Rapid Application Development (RAD) & Project Management

Let’s use the Deming Cycle: PDCA method that I shared in an earlier post to manage holiday shopping.

Phase 1: Plan-establish your objectives

• Buy presents for all those on my shopping list; most economically

Phase 2: Do – take action to implement your processes

• Compile list of presents that need to be purchased along with who will receive them
• Research to determine the most economical way to purchase each present (whether it is online or offline)
• Purchase presents

Phase 3: Check – monitor or watch how your plan progresses against your objectives and generate a report about the results

• Generate list of purchased presents according to original list to ensure completion

Phase 4: Act – Assess and make improvements if necessary in weak areas of your processes

• Make note of any issues that were experienced during the buying process
• Note which stores had excellent customer service and speedy delivery for future reference

Hopefully, this has help you to see how easy it is to integrate project management into your holiday shopping and also your daily life. Do you have other example of how you integrate project management into your daily life? Please feel free to share your comments or your examples.

Post from: EveryJoe

Using Project Management for you holiday shopping?

In reviewing the software, I will share screenshots, interview details from a company representative and my person feedback regarding the software. If you are interested in having your project management software reviewed, please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment on this post.

Image credit: Kim Beasley (creator) using an icon created by Pablo Fabregat

Post from: EveryJoe

Project Management Software Review Series