Posted by Crystal Nichols on Wed, Apr 14, 2010 @ 05:56 AM
If you’ve been in project administration for any amount of time, you know that the sheer administrative tasks surrounding your job can, at times, be overwhelming. If you’re not on top of your game, your projects can fail, and fail miserably. If they do, your company is going to lose valuable resources, both in time and money, and you’re likely to be out of a job.
Fortunately, you’ve got what it takes to be a successful project administrator. You just need a little bit of encouragement and advice along the way. Here are 5 project administration tips that will help you keep your laser focus and make sure your projects come out on top.
1. A project’s implementation methods can’t be separated from the project’s nature. In other words, the type of project you’re administering will strongly influence how exactly you manage it. Take, for example, a project that utilizes commercial licensing. The way you govern your project will be heavily influenced by external factors, including things like corporate strategy, the structure of the organization, the organization’s financial priorities and even existing, established procedures.
2. Finances are key. Money makes the world go ‘round, and it's also what makes your projects get approved in the first place. Know from the start what costs are allowable and which aren't, know what to do if there's an overexpenditure, understand any cost sharing requirements and keep on top of fiscal management.
3. Stay in compliance. Yes, compliance is more important in some industries than others. However, issues like conflicts of interest or auditing requirements are just as important as, for example, things like OSHA. Follow your organizations policies and the laws governing your industry to an exacting specification. Compliance isn't just about covering your hid or protecting the company, in many cases it's about safety, saving money and serious liability.
4. Remember the human factor. Ultimately, whether a project fails or succeeds has a lot to do with the people involved. Keep on top of the HR area. If there are personality conflicts on a project team, do what you can to minimize them or to at least manage the fallout. While vendors can become territorial, even personnel from different departments within your organization may decide that they need to jockey for position or credit. Keeping people in line is at least as important as keeping to a schedule and a budget.
5. Vendor management. One of the most important aspects of your job, and the reason you're doing the job instead of someone else, is because you have skills at managing vendors. You need to be able to work with vendors to contain costs, to keep schedules and to keep in compliance with your project requirements. Vendor management is easy when you've got a good vendor, but can be a nightmare when a vendor falls through or lets you down. Knowing when to drop a vendor is nearly as important as being able to select the vendor in the first place.
Unitiv's Project Services include:
- Temporary staffing and implementing specific solutions
- Integration, testing, staging of equipment and installation of software before delivery, or onsite before you deploy the asset (this includes software configuration)
- Upgrades to your data center systems
- Proof-of-concept support for new technology or platforms
- Program and project management services
- Specialized staffing
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Posted by Crystal Nichols on Wed, Mar 24, 2010 @ 06:56 AM
At the core of any good technology implementation is a strong project manager or a strong project management team. The fact of the matter is that it’s the people working a project, for the most part, which will determine whether the project succeeds and whether it does so in a cost-effective way.
And that’s where it really matters, too: the cost of a project. With effective project management techniques, you can make sure that your project come in under budget and ahead of their deadline.
Here are five ways to use project management to reduce the costs of your project:
1. Correctly identify costs in the planning phase. The planning process is, in many ways, based on guesswork. You’re making a bet that your project implementation team will be able to get your project done the way you want it done and at a certain cost. Accurately identifying costs is key to avoiding unexpected items down the road as the project gets underway. You need to include the scope of work baseline, the project schedule, your human resource plan, a risk assessment and environmental factors all in your budget process, too.
2. Utilize in-house expertise appropriately and effectively. Now, some project managers wind up trying to turn in-house personnel into experts in fields they really aren’t that knowledgeable in. Furthermore, it’s often an inefficient use of your company’s resources to use in-house personnel when you can hire the work out. For example, if you’re using your network engineering team to crimp cable, you’re going to save money on the project but cost the company in other ways.
3. Effectively manage your human resources. Find ways to make sure that your project team and anyone working on your project are working efficiently. Audit hours, and be ready for things like planned vacations and other contingencies. Few things will cost you more than having to hire in an expert at the last minute because one of your key personnel has had her honeymoon on the calendar or six months.
4. Constantly audit. Know where you’re at, in terms of your budget, at all times. Make sure you’re not over on costs, and if you are make sure that those who need to know about it do. If you need to have the project budget revised, do it sooner rather than later.
5. Know how to handle your vendors. If a vendor isn’t cutting it, keep on them. If a vendor finds a cost overrun for a situation that should really have been (or even was) suggested during the budget process, put the necessary pressure on the vendor to meet your needs as promised for the price as promised. When that’s not possible, make sure that you’re still getting the best value, and that the vendor isn’t passing along the costs of last-minute necessities to you.
Posted by Crystal Nichols on Mon, Mar 01, 2010 @ 06:27 AM
As any project manager can tell you, some projects hang by a thread. Knock just one element out of sync, and the entire thing can come tumbling down like a house of cards. Rather than spend your time figuring out how to recover from a disaster, here are some of the biggest pitfalls you should avoid in the first place:
1. Forgetting to pay attention to the small details. While it might seem relatively unimportant, spelling the name of your client’s company in project updates for weeks on end is a serious black mark against you. Minor oversights can cause significant but unnecessary friction. Even the most minor details of a project process – such as backing up the data servers that store project plans or other relevant information – can cause huge issues.
2. Missing scheduled milestones. For a project to be successful, you and your project team must hit certain deadlines. It isn’t always something external, like a supply chain issue either. Sometimes, it can be as simple as forgetting that a crucial team member is on vacation during a critical week.
3. Faking it. If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t pretend you do. You might wind up working overtime just to keep up with the project. In addition, you can wind up with serious cost overruns just because you weren’t knowlegable enough to answer a question accurately. You need to admit your own limitations before they wind up totally breaking down your project. Ask for help if you need it, but never make a guess if you can help it.
4. Accepting the blame for someone else’s mistakes. Carrying someone else’s black mark is never a good thing. Just like you need to own up to your own problems or limitations, don’t allow someone else to get away with pushing the blame off on you.
5. Underestimating people issues. The fact of the matter is that some teams are forced to work together in spite of their own protestations. Factions can develop, as well. In some cases, it’s just a matter of “Us vs. Them“ between contractors and employees, or between several contractors. Watch out for tension across the team, and be prepared to address people issues firmly and effectively.
6. Ignoring the end user. Whether it’s the development of a customized application or whether it’s building a new facility, you need to keep the lines of communication open with the end user. Otherwise, you’ll wind up undoing all sorts of work on your project. Get the stakeholders and users involved with the process.
7. Not learning from mistakes. No, the world of project management is, in general, not very tolerant of mistakes. However, having a project fail due to carelessness is a vastly different proposition than having a proect fail while you were doing your best. If you can learn from your mistakes at every stage of the game and on every project, and apply those lessons to future projects, you’ll be light years ahead.
Unitiv's Project Services include:
- Temporary staffing and implementing specific solutions
- Integration, testing, staging of equipment and installation of software before delivery, or onsite before you deploy the asset (this includes software configuration)
- Upgrades to your data center systems
- Proof-of-concept support for new technology or platforms
- Program and project management services
- Specialized staffing
We have a track record of success that we can share with you.
Click here for more details.
Posted by Dan Webber on Fri, Sep 25, 2009 @ 06:00 AM
As a CIO, I have been through 32 mergers, acquisitions, and dispositions and have thrown away countless other opportunities - I believe 68 of them. The following are tips from my years of experience:
1. KISS - Keep it Simple and Succinct. Yes I know the final "S" is usually something else. Stick to the basics and make sure your decisions are aligned with the business objectives.
2. Listen. Listen to the business. Listen to your peers and other members of the executive team. Listen to your staff. If new to the organization, send out a survey in the first week and understand the good, the bad, and the ugly. Perception is reality.
3. Communicate. Let everyone know realistically the costs, the timelines, and the expectations. Communicate often, openly, and in the language of the customer.
4. Stay close to and know your key employees. Identify them early. Nurture them. Grow them. Praise and celebrate the wins, no matter how small.
5. Inventory. Know what technology is in place and how it aligns to your key set of applications. Understand what monitoring systems are in place. Review the knowledge base of the help desk to see where there are the opportunities. I know this sounds simple with today's technology, but many organizations still do not do the basics.
6. Renegotiate licensing and maintenance terms with your vendors.
7. Get your applications under control. Understand what guidelines are already in place, adapt and communicate your standards and manage to that expectation.
8. Institute a sound governance model. Ensure that the demand funnel matches the capacity of the organization and is communicated in a standard format. Utilize strong project management principles.
9. Continually assess and evaluate. Don't sit still. Make appropriate changes along the way.
Every challenge is different. But if you start with the standard guidance. You can easily adapt, so that you can Plan the Plan and Work the Plan.
Dan Webber is a CIO in Atlanta, GA. He delivers his unique
perspective as Chief 
Information Officer on technology, business, and
the Atlanta IT industry. He is a recent recipient of Oracle's CIO of the quarter award.
Posted by Mike Magee on Thu, Aug 13, 2009 @ 08:45 AM
I have this conversation with myself all the time. Can I fix that water leak or the occasional mechanical problem around the home? What about landscaping design? I can do that right? Maybe, but at what expense? I have to remind myself that time spent trying to do something I have no idea what I am doing is wasted time.
What I try to do instead is what I call Trusting Genius. In any business there are individuals that are so accomplished in their field of expertise that they just make everything appear simple. I have been fortunate to work with many individuals in information technology that did just that. I have never been much of a techie-type guy myself. I have always been the one trying to get the systems administrator to help me with a project. If what I asked them was within their expertise they would jump in and do it with ease. I am still amazed by how easily they can make a complicated IT project sing.
That brings me back to why I feel it is important to Trust Genius. Just because you feel you can get by with your work around doesn’t mean you are not wasting money and time. Every hour you plug alone trying to figure something out is an hour you could have been focusing on your genius.
You would be better off getting the expert involved and letting them solve the problem or complete the project quickly and efficiency. I understand that management sees this as expense they don’t need. But they need to realize that opportunity cost, during these times can mean the difference between and a successful project and one in which you just get by.
Mike Magee is a Senior Account Executive at Unitiv.
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