Angela Brister's Blog

A Project Management Process with Brainstorming

2010-05-31T20:37:00.002-04:00

GOAL: 5 Tips for Productive Brainstorming

Tell me and I'll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I'll understand. ~ Chinese Proverb

One of the most challenging, yet fun, parts of project management is starting the process itself—with team members to define their tasks and assigning responsibilities to those with relevant skills.

This comes after you’ve identified the PMO (project management office). In a previous blog, I wrote about setting the stage with the PMO. This is where you organize your passel of team members and gather tools such as location and equipment to begin production.

The Cycle of Decision-Making

With your PMO in place, the next step involves the cycle of decision-making; this sets the tone, pace and eventual results of your project.

There are three steps to group decision-making:

Brainstorming
Research
Resolution

5 Tips for Productive Brainstorming

Let ideas roll and pop—but do not compliment or downgrade comments. Why? Because no judgment enters at this stage, even as no idea is a bad idea. Preface every session with this statement. And, take notes.
Encourage wild and outrageous ideas to spark and foment more ideas.
Quantity counts (not quality), at this stage. The more ideas emerge, the more likely good ideas are to be found.
Build on ideas. Encourage fast ideas and keep expanding on them to widen your repertoire. Adapt and improve on ideas.
Encourage everyone to participate—including you, as you keep up taking down notes.

Emphasize that each idea produced belongs to the group, not to the person who said it. This way, group ownership by team members makes it easy for everyone to buy into the ideas generated.

Good ideas produce strategic outcomes. Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist, cautioned, “Do not repeat the tactics which have gained you one victory, but let your methods be regulated by the infinite variety of circumstances.”

BIO: A corporate executive and entrepreneur, Angela Brister is the author of When Life Hands You A Project, Manage It! Visit http://www.angelabrister.com/ for more online project management ideas. You're welcome to quote from this article and credit the source to Angela Brister at: http://angelabrister.blogspot.com/.

What Are Successful Project Management Skills?

2010-05-26T21:30:00.004-04:00

GOAL: Discovering Your Inner Manager

As a career manager, I’m often asked what skills are needed for successful project management. My answer? Your confidence in pulling off successful projects—every time. That’s how you build a solid reputation, too.

Being a successful manager is not in the genes. Rather, it’s most encouraging to know that anyone can learn and master the basic concepts of planning, executing and completing a project on time and within budget.

It’s no mystery too, that everyone is faced with having to manage life projects on a daily basis. Say you’re growing an indoor potted herb garden.

You’re involved in project planning “how to” steps when you:

Think through how to get started with the necessary equipment—what kinds of herbs to grow, getting the seeds, new pots and/or pretty recycled containers, and where to place them in your home or office windowsill.
Implement your plan by potting the seeds, watering them and rotating them around to catch either sunlight or artificial light.
Harvest the results to savor fresh basil in your salad and soup with gusto.

As you can see, project planning and management have been going on for as long as human beings have had to chow down elephant-sized plans into bite-sized morsels to get the job done.

In other words, deftly chewing through an assignment from beginning to end with productive results is project management in a nutshell.

Three Skill Secrets
Three skills are essential for productive project planning:

Focus
Planning
Patience

When you’re focused on writing that research paper well, you give it your all—with due diligence, thereby inspiring excellence.

You’ll also plan your research strategy with online and offline academic, trade and/or professional sources for the most reliable and respected sources.

Patience with self and others is crucial—to avoid jobs done hurriedly with little traction for results.

Tell us what your tips for successful project management are.

BIO: A corporate executive and entrepreneur, Angela Brister is the author of When Life Hands You A Project, Manage It! Visit http://www.angelabrister.com/ for more online project management ideas. You're welcome to quote from this article and credit the source to Angela Brister at: http://angelabrister.blogspot.com/.

What Is a Working Definition of Project Management?

2010-05-20T20:25:00.003-04:00

GOAL: A Manager Who Problem Solves & Doesn’t Give Up!

Who and what constitute a working definition of project management? YOU!

That’s right. Project management is a guided process that depends on a person taking charge, who is ultimately responsible for the program’s final outcomes.

That’s why project managers are always on their toes—in anticipating problems and avoiding them, putting out fires as they arise and setting the overall tone to achieve win-win outcomes.

A project manager is a whole different breed of go-getter who never ever gives up easily. Why? Because there’s just too much at stake to abandon ship. “PM” (project management) managers are creative problem-solvers with bags full of experiences to guide and innovate on solutions as needed. Solutions and resolutions will always have to be unique to the challenges at hand.

A Working Definition
That’s what a definition of project management is—the person at the helm of every project is the one responsible in overseeing and successfully completing all stages of the plan; even if it means:

changing the scope of the plan to meet goals
switching around team members to complete various tasks
working longer and harder than anyone else to get the job done.

For example, each day you get to the office, it may seem that something is always going wrong with the project. In my book, When Life hands You a Project, Manage It! I define a snag as any obstacle that consumes your time or hinders your ability to move forward. It’s like facing a nuclear meltdown on a daily basis. The trick to success, though, is fairly simple.

You have to manage the project—not let the project manage you! Your ability to maneuver your way out of, or around, obstacles is what makes you a successful project manager.

BIO: A corporate executive and entrepreneur, Angela Brister is the author of When Life Hands You A Project, Manage It! Visit http://www.angelaBrister.com/ for more online project management ideas. You're welcome to quote from this article and credit the source to Angela Brister at: http://angelabrister.blogspot.com/.

Project Management & Positive Living Rewards

2010-05-18T20:53:00.001-04:00

GOAL: How to apply the essentials of project management to enrich your life

Do you notice how you mirror your work activities to every day living? It’s an undeniable statement of fact that our lives are systemically intertwined in everything we undertake—whichever way we cut it.

That’s why I totally subscribe to the basic philosophy that, in learning the basic essentials of project management and applying positive and high standards to every endeavor, we benefit on the job and end up happier and more contented with our lives, other people and our surroundings.

Every day, we’re faced with ideas that can impact and improve our lives. However, I’ve also observed that immediately after these inspirations appear, the mind asks, “If I could possibly pull that off, where would I start?”

Indeed, what is the difference between the person who tries—and the person who doesn’t?

Having the confidence to try new ideas is definitely a key factor. Where does confidence come from? From knowledge and experience. From learning the essentials of project management, which gift you invaluable insights that every successful person needs to know, in order to live a happy and satisfying life.

The five essential stages of project management are:

• Define
• Plan
• Execute
• Monitor
• Closure

Imagine if it was that simple to define your goal, create a plan for success and execute the plan. At that point, all you’d have to do is watch out for red flags that may hinder successful results.

However, eight out of ten failed projects can be attributed to the person in charge—the project manager. It’s the manager’s inability to take ownership of the project that becomes a major roadblock. They are stymied by their own fears and insecurities, which stifle successful outcomes.

Every successful project manager knows how to overcome personal and situational limitations. So can you. When you’re able to learn and apply the essentials of project management, the possibilities are endless in enriching your life, too.

BIO: A corporate executive and entrepreneur, Angela Brister is the author of When Life Hands You A Project, Manage It! Visit http://www.angelabrister.com/ for more online project management ideas. You're welcome to quote from this article and credit the source to Angela Brister at: http://angelabrister.blogspot.com/.

Manage It! Guidelines

2009-12-01T20:01:00.002-05:00

GOAL: Creating a project management methodology for positive results

I’ve gathered some guidelines to better manage projects gleaned from numerous observations and hands-on experiences while at the helm of diverse assignments.

Time and again, I’ve found that a well-defined, yet flexible, project management methodology significantly enhances the actions you’ll take for constructive project results.

Here are my recommendations for successful project outcomes:

• Accept each project with a positive attitude

• Always get commitments in writing
• Don’t depend on e-mails or voicemails to relay pertinent or time-sensitive information

• Always prepare for meetings ahead of time

• Learn to take feedback and evaluations professionally, not personally

• Reward your team to consistently promote high performance levels

Every good manager needs a practical and effective methodology for managing projects and people. A pragmatic methodology not only adds to a manager’s confidence in achieving high standards consistently, but also instills confidence in others such as team members and clients. Find out more in, When Life Hands You A Project, Manage It!

Everyone benefits by sharing experiences. What are some of yours?