As a project manager, it is your responsibility to ensure that your projects get delivered on-time and on-budget. Sound easy? Well think again. With so many variables, most of which are out of your control, it can be quite challenging to keep things on track.
You can’t force your client to handover deliverables or prevent a coworker from getting the flu. Nor can you put time for many rounds of subjective design feedback on a timeline. You can however, use the following management strategies to avoid the most common reasons why projects get delayed and/or go over budget: poor planning, scope creep and a lack of coordination.
Alignment & Expectations
From the very moment the sales team hands you the Scope of Work for a new project, you should begin planning. Align every item of the project’s milestones and tasks to items listed in the scope.
This will help you set the clients expectations on important delivery dates, set boundaries to avoid scope creep and clearly define how to distribute the workload.
Utilize Management Tools
Gone are the days when it was the norm to keep things written down in a day planner. There are so many digital tools at our fingertips now, why not utilize and harness them to make our lives a little easier? The best platforms for a project manager to get acquainted with should contain the following features:
- Visual timelines
- Clear start and stop dates
- Task assignments
- Information sharing
- Mobile Access or Apps
- Alerts
These tools can help you plan out your project, set due dates, assign tasks to coworkers and even share documents, thoughts and pertinent project information on the go. These features will help you delegate the work and stay on track for your launch date.
Three PM tools that we like: Basecamp, Trello, TeamGantt
Track Miscellaneous Requests
As mentioned previously, scope creep can royally screw up the project budget and timeline, but you don’t want to just give your client a flat out ‘no’ either. Keep track of out of scope requests or wish list items during your meetings. Let the client know that you’ll need to evaluate the additional work and determine if it’s feasible to work them into the current scope with some compromises in other areas or if a change order is required.
As long as the communication is direct and upfront regarding the additional time and cost associated with requests, you put the ball in their court to determine how valuable or necessary the request is. If it’s truly a beneficial feature to the project, we often find that it’s helpful to meet them halfway – estimate the effort and go in on the change with them. Happy clients, happy team!
Manage Resources
The main resources at a project manager’s disposal are the people on their team. Identify those people and assign them responsibilities early on in the project. Make sure you take into account their workload on other projects and their availability and give them deadlines that are realistic for them to reach.
It never hurts to factor in some breathing room either. If you plan for an extra day for a designer to deliver a layout and they get sick, or something out of your control happens, you won’t fall behind on your timeline.
Stick to the Process
Unless it is your company’s first web design and development project, chances are you have a process that’s been tested and refined over time. Stick to it! There is no reason to veer from what has been working unless it is clear that a step is being overlooked or executed incorrectly. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Check In Daily
While it is important to remember to check in with the client frequently to report on status and deliverables, don’t forget about your team. Remember when I mentioned that “lack of coordination” was a key factor in delayed and over budget projects? This is where that disconnection can lead to issues.
Don’t wait for a team member to come to you the day before a deadline with an issue. Don’t wait for something to get done incorrectly because of an unforeseen source of friction. Check in with your team on a daily basis to make sure they are not only staying on task, but to see if they have any questions or hurdles they need your help with. Even if you don’t have the answers you are the person that will need to relay those things with the client to facilitate a solution.
“If we ask one question, ‘What do I need to do today to make sure this project is completed?’ There’s always an answer to that question. And, if we ask that question every day, there’s no way we won’t finish on time.” – Travis McAshan
Use What You Have
Last but not least, be more efficient by utilizing work that has been done before and adapt it to the project. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You don’t have to waste your developer’s time by tasking them to create something that already exists. This might be a plugin to create your sitemap or a plugin to import/export content from an old site to a new one. Also, utilize a framework for your code that makes all your sites uniform and adjust them to an individual clients needs.
There are a lot of things that can derail your web/dev project’s timeline and budget but by utilizing successful project management strategies like these you will be ready for them!