Information Distribution


It should be obvious at this point that the project manager reviews a lot of data. Much of this data needs to be summarized and shared with others. Information distribution is the process of providing project stakeholders with the information they need when they need it. When you distribute information about the project, you are implementing your communications plan. Information can be distributed using a variety of methods , including project meetings, status reports , and formal project reviews.

Project Team Meetings

The project team meeting is the best tool for ongoing communication between the project team members , yet it is often the source of the greatest frustration and the most complaints. A successful project meeting needs to be well organized and tightly focused. A well-run meeting can be instrumental in moving a project to completion.

Leading a Meeting

Project team meetings can be the best or the worst aspect of being on a project team, depending on how the meetings are structured. You may have heard your fellow employees complain about sitting in endless meetings that accomplish nothing. A productive team meeting is an ongoing opportunity for the project manager to provide direction to the team and clarify any questions regarding completion of the project work. Successful team meetings do not just happen; they require a good deal of effort in both planning and execution. You can take a number of steps to establish a foundation for productive team meetings:

Designate a consistent day and time for the team meeting. You should obtain input from team members and determine the best time to schedule the meeting.

Stress the importance of consistent attendance. Team meetings will not be effective if key members are missing. Establishing a policy where team members will provide information in advance or send a representative if unable to attend adds emphasis to the importance of being at the meeting.

Prepare and distribute a written agenda. Team members need to know what topics to be prepared to discuss, and the time that will be allocated to each topic. Even if the team meeting topics are consistent week to week, an agenda reinforces both the structure and the need to be ready for discussion.

Start and end the meeting on time. If you schedule your team meeting for one hour , that is how long it should last. Team members need to be told, perhaps multiple times, that you will start and end meetings on time. Some people are habitually late, but delaying the start of a meeting only rewards bad behavior and punishes those who are on time. If someone arrives late and starts questioning topics that were already covered, advise them to get with you or another team member after the meeting.

Follow the agenda and keep the meeting on track. It is very frustrating to be a participant in a meeting that seems to wander from topic to topic. You developed the agenda for a reason. You can ask team members for input into the agenda prior to the meeting. If a particular subject is taking more time than planned, decide whether to remove some items from the agenda or schedule a separate meeting to allocate more time to a given issue.

Solicit participation from all team members. Some people just love to talk. You need to be aware if a few team members are monopolizing the meeting. Direct questions to individual team members to level the playing field.

Distribute meeting minutes. People will inevitably remember different outcomes to items discussed during the team meeting unless the outcome of the meeting is captured in writing. Meeting minutes should summarize the key points of the meeting, including the key elements discussed, recommendations, and action items for different team members.

Meeting Outcomes

A project meeting can be much more than just a time to update status of assigned tasks . An effective meeting can result in improved team member interaction, issues resolution, and problem solving.

Team Member Interaction The team meeting is an excellent venue to observe the interaction between team members. If there are too many surprises or people with linked tasks are clueless as to their impact on one another, you may have a group that is operating in silo mode. Team members are not expected to know every detail on every task, but there should be ongoing interaction between team members. If necessary, you may need to schedule time to review key dependencies between major deliverables.

If you perceive that intra-team communication is weak and could impact task dependencies on your critical path , you may need to take extra steps to ensure that people in charge of downstream tasks are getting the information they need regarding the progress and deliverables of any predecessor tasks.

Poor intra-team communication can be a major issue on cross-functional projects. A client representative who is writing customer manuals may need to start documentation while development and testing are still in progress, and it is essential that the writer get ongoing updates on items such as screen shots and feature functionality. If your technical team members are reluctant to interface with the client team members, the project end date could be jeopardized if the documentation is started late or requires multiple revisions due to poor team member communication. As project manager, it is your responsibility to establish the importance of effective communication between all team members.

Issues Log Updates A review of the issues log should be part of every project team meeting. This does not require a huge amount of time, as each issue is assigned to a team member for resolution at the time it is added to the issues log. You should request the responsible party(s) to review the status of a current, open issue where a promised action is in progress or should be completed. The work to resolve the issue takes place outside of the team meeting.

Problem Solving Project teams are constantly called on to make decisions with imperfect information. This can be a frustrating and scary proposition, and it is your job to lead the team members through the problem-solving process. People tend to rush into a solution, so make sure that the problem is clearly defined and there is consensus. Dedicating a short amount of time to brainstorming may uncover a solution that would not have been thought of without encouraging team input.

An example of a common problem that may be appropriate for project team discussion is delays to the project. A consistent approach to the resolving delays will make the team more effective:

  • Determine the root cause of the delay.

  • Identify the responsible team member.

  • Develop a corrective action plan.

  • Implement the corrective action.

  • Track results.

Team members are not the only stakeholders who need to be informed of project progress. Status reports are another method to share project information.

Status Reports

The project sponsor, the client, and other stakeholders do not need the same level of detail regarding project progress as project team members, but they do need to be kept apprised of project progress. This is why most project communications plans include the regular distribution of a status report.

The status report can be provided via access to a shared folder, email, or even voicemail. The specific distribution method should be identified in the communications plan. The key to success is a consistent report format that paints a clear picture of the current state of the project. A typical status report will include:

  • Summary of project progress compared to schedule and cost baseline.

  • Completion of any major deliverables or milestones.

  • Status of outstanding issues.

A more formal method for communicating information on the project is a project review.

Project Reviews

A project review is a formal presentation by the project manager or project team members to the sponsor, the client, and other executive stakeholders. While some sort of status report is produced on almost all projects, a project review is optional in nature and will vary greatly in structure and content between organizations.

Organizations that regularly conduct formal project reviews may have a set monthly or quarterly schedule. We have seen project reviews done at the executive level that cover numerous projects and span several days, with all involved project managers presenting to an executive team.

The information in a project review will be based on your organizational or sponsor needs. A review presented for just the sponsor is easier to prepare for, as you can set the agenda based on what is important to the sponsor. If the audience includes the client or other executives, you may want to solicit input from the attendees regarding expectations for the review session.

The presentation should include an agenda with time limits for each topic. Your time with these busy executives will be limited, so you will need to stay focused and to the point. Topics to consider for a review agenda include:

  • Major achievements for current review period

  • Budget summary

  • Major issues

  • Risks and mitigation or contingency plans

  • Planned achievements for next reporting period

Project reviews usually include both handouts and slides, so make sure your presentation room has all of the equipment you will need. An example of a project review handout is shown in Figure 8.2. Either the project manager or project team members may be involved in the presentation. The key to success is to make sure that each presenter is clear on the information they will provide and the time allocated to the session. If project team members will be making portions of the presentation, it may be worthwhile to do a practice session, at least for the first review.

click to expand
FIGURE 8.2 Project Review Template
Note  

You'll find a sample of the Project Review Template, which you can use for your own project reviews, on the CD-ROM that accompanies this book.

When you report a project's progress to an executive body (a function you'll undoubtedly be actively and routinely involved in during your project career), you'll want to go prepared with a document that presents the important things these folks will want to know in a summary fashion. Generally speaking, unless there's some technical issue that they need to know about in order to help you make an operational decision affecting the project, you'll want to avoid anything remotely technical regarding the project. Instead, you should focus on things that are relevant to decision makers :

  • Tasks you're currently working on.

  • Issues that you've encountered .

  • Estimated percentage complete.

  • Estimates of how closely you're following your project budget and timelines .

Some project reports also include a set of characters that help identify whether a manager should be concerned about a project element. For example, you might use an open circle to denote that everything's moving along just fine, a gray triangle to note that there's some concern for a given element and a black diamond to illustrate a major problem. The idea is to give executives something to scan that allows them to easily drill into hot spots and get more information about a key issue as Figure 8.3 illustrates.

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FIGURE 8.3 The Executive Project Summary Worksheet

When you're reporting to a formal project review body such as a project review board (PRB), you'll take more time to elucidate detailed components of the project-but you'll still want to avoid technical discussions. For the majority of people, you'll lose them more quickly by having a technical discussion than you'll help them. The key here is to find a way to say what you need to say without resorting to technical acronyms or expecting that people will understand what even simple terms like 'server' and 'router' mean.

Note  

You'll find The Executive Project Summary Worksheet template on this book's companion CD-ROM, for use in your own project management.




Project+ Study Guide (Exam PK0-002)
IT Project+ Study Guide, 2nd Edition (PKO-002)
ISBN: 0782143180
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 156

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