Frequently Asked Questions
What makes a great team?
A high-functioning team has a clearly defined common goal. Every team member does not need to be the best and brightest. Instead, the team needs to respect each other, understand their roles, and have a project manager who removes obstacles and keeps the team focused on their day-to-day job duties so that they can deliver a quality product.
What makes a great project manager?
Project managers are super-organized and adeptly balance customer requirements and corporate objectives. And they handle everything required for completing successful projects – requirements, risk, budget, quality, resources, and timelines.
But great project managers learn the nuances of individuals and teams and discover what will make them even more successful. One team may need frequent check-ins, while another may prefer weekly. Tweaking processes to adapt to different situations builds cohesive teams that are like well-oiled machines that get better over time.
A great PM will mentor and develop personnel for the company’s long-term health. When PMs put this effort in, they are rewarded with teams that want to stay together, reducing turnover and resulting in higher-performing teams.
What are some tricks that PMs use to ensure on-time projects?
For me, decision matrices and by-whens are the foundations of on-time projects. Identifying decision makers upfront means faster and better decisions because confusion exists and the process slows down without it.
Every action item should have a by-when, which is the date something needs to be completed. For example, when you tell someone to create a new dashboard, provide a timeline (by-when). I need this by next Friday for a meeting with the customer. Now, the person knows when you need it and the target audience. Providing the additional context will ensure it is completed on time and tailored to the situation and make the person feel included.
What happens when you are about to miss a deadline?
Talk with your team. Be transparent and see if the team can find a solution. Teams like to be part of the solution.
Alert management and stakeholders, even if you already have a solution that avoids the problem entirely, to build trust and transparency. Document what happened and how it can be resolved, and use it as a learning opportunity for the future.
If you do not have a solution, present stakeholders with alternatives with pros and cons so that they can make an informed decision.
How do you address scope creep?
Scope creep happens in every project, so project managers need a way to combat it, and trade-offs are one way. When someone comes to me with a new feature, I ask them which feature they will remove, what additional headcount will join the team, or I provide them with a new timeline.
There are only three project variables – scope, resources, and timeline. If one changes, the others must also. For example, if the scope increases, you must either extend the timeline or increase the resources.
How do you ensure products meet quality standards?
Following well-defined protocols delivers high-quality products, including:
Define quality metrics before the project begins. What standards must you meet to release?
Write unit tests for the code.
Use tools like Jira and TestRail to track and test all features, bug fixes, and optimizations.
Perform QA in every sprint, including functional, regression, and integration testing.