These last couple days have been got. We are breaking records, and the cool weekend can’t come quick enough. Yesterday it was 97 degrees, breaking the old record of 94 degrees set in the 80’s. It normally isn’t this hot this early. At work our air conditioning is only working in half of the building, so it is working overtime just to maintain a tolerable temperature. So what does all of this have to do with project management? Happy, comfortable employees work harder.
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford
Big Things Coming
We have a big event coming up on May 23rd, and plan to release about 7 new products. Only half of these are even ready for full production. And if they all were all ready by now, we probably would have already launched them. The fact that these products aren’t ready is not an issue. The challenge is that we need to get all of them created, reviewed by legal, and then sent to print. Once the products are ready we need to create all of the marketing material, such as web promotions, print promotions, flyers, postcards, store display signs, video for the internet, and videos for the live events.
Adjusting to Cuts
I’m sure that IT departments across the US have made cuts over the last year. We have all had to deal with the reality of the current situation. So how do you deal with the staffing adjustments you made in the past, and compensate for the increased work load of the current?
One solution would be to pick up some temps. Without committing the long term work force, you can hire some very well qualified individuals to help get you over that hump. We have had tremendous success with Pride Staff, and Express Employment Professions, both of which are temp agencies here in Stockton, California. Though we use Express nationwide, as we host events across the US.
Having a strong workflow management is the only way to adjust to increased work load, without adding additional staff. IT receives projects from just about every imaginable source within a company, and even outside of a company. If all of these tasks are not funneled through an easy to manage task management list, you will lose too much time.
Lost Time
Your staff needs to be effectively communicated to. Without an easily managed task management system for all projects to funnel through, your staff will have a lot of dead time between projects, and questions will not be addressed very quickly. In addition, if people are allowed to circumvent the task management system, tasks will not be completed on time, and your days will be chaotic. Often executives of companies feel that their tasks will be completed more quickly if they circumvent management, going directly to the laborers that perform the task. While their personal task might be completed slightly a head of schedule, the company will suffer. They do not see the impact on the overall workflow.
Team Work Project Manager
About two weeks ago I started putting our current projects into a site on http://www.teamworkpm.net/, and then 3 days later, I introduced the site to our graphic designers. The following day, to our programmers, and the next to the balance of the IT department. This site was met with excitement from everyone. It was rolled out in stages to the department to ensure a smooth adoption, and was a complete success. The next step would be to start introducing the site to the rest of the company.
All of the staff that have begun using this site have really enjoyed it. I was glad to see that the adoption went so smooth. I had been exploring various project management applications and task management resources, when I stumbled on teamwork. It is very close to Basecamp, but came out a head.
Hopefully within the next couple weeks, I will be able to introduce a login for management throughout the company, so that they can track the progress on their projects, without being able to interfere with our workflow. For now, I just meet with them regularly to give them updates.
Originally Posted on Successful Thinkers Meetup By Josh Shackelford
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