PROGRAMME AND PROJECT REPORTING

Individual project managers report progress to their project or programme steering group. The purpose of programme and project reporting is to undertake a regular and thorough analysis of whether the project will be delivered in time, to the scope and within budget. It involves identifying, categorising, and mitigating risks that might affect any of these three criteria.

Programme and Project Management Training

For anything other than the simplest of projects, it is essential that the project or programme manager is trained in the techniques that help them successfully deliver the project.

Training and accreditation in process re-engineering and programme and project management techniques mentioned in this module is available in courses delivered in classroom session, online, or a mix of both from local and internationally recognised businesses.

Managing Remotely

Even before Covid-19, many project teams worked remotely, within the same country or region, and sometimes globally, where the project manager and their team were also in different time zones.

This requires the project manager and their team to work differently to overcome the challenges.

Challenges

  • Employees may suffer from burnout due having no or little separation between work and home;
  • Some employees aren’t suited to working independently without regular supervision and can cause problems within the team without additional supervision;
  • There may be technical challenges in home environments, such as low internet or broadband speeds that make it difficult or frustrating for employees to join virtual meetings or access corporate systems;
  • The home environment may not be suitable for more than casual, remote working because of a lack of privacy to conduct business, especially where the role involves customers;
  • Team culture can suffer because of the lack of spontaneous interactions that happen in an office around the water cooler or coffee machine.

Solutions

  • Trust your team. Don’t micromanage. Trust them and give them space.
  • Because you’re not always working face to face, managers need to focus on ‘making their team a team’. This requires a different approach to building and maintaining a team that performs.
  • A manager and their team must work on its culture, creating social time, holding virtual team building, and continuing to celebrate success.
  • Working remotely means continuing to give clear and direct feedback to your team members.
  • Involve the team in setting it up remote working. This ensures that they have a say in how it works and can help improve performance.
  • If working remotely across a region or globally, remember time zones and allow flexible working hours when people accommodate other zones.
  • Hold regular check-ins with team members to gauge how they are coping with remote working, especially if they’re new to it.

Collaboration

  • Invest in a collaborative project management software tool that integrates project management with the project artefacts, such as plans, schedules and documents. Use a tool that has messaging features to integrate communications into one hub that the team consistently use.
  • Use the right project management method to break large projects down into phases that can use Agile or Scrum techniques.
  • Working remotely may require team roles and goals to change. Make sure that these roles and goals are clearly defined and communicated.

Meetings

  • Hold meetings but eliminate unnecessary ones and don’t overuse video and web chats.
  • Virtual meetings must be focused on what needs to be done.

Communications

  • Use communications channels carefully and consistently. Don’t use too many, such as mixing email, instant messaging and text as important communications will get lost. Using the messaging features of your collaborative project management software integrates communications with actions.
  • Don’t forget to phone! With all the technology options available, it’s often the most human option that gets results.
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