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Thread: IN need of PM help

  1. #1

    IN need of PM help

    Need some ideas how to transform My Team.

    Im looking for ways and if possible examples of how you solved the following problems. if possible any tools you may have used.

    1. improve collaboration amongst your team
    2.Improve collaboration between the different components or projects in the Program
    3.Prevent charms ( ie the team has ideas on products and the customer whats the product but we seem to do the in between badly
    4. managing a program with multiple projects (each project with its own team )
    5. we have development partnerships with vendors how did you track and correlate the information vendors ( ie SW/HW roadmaps ) gave you and help you deliver better products/solutions
    6.Best way to measure and track projects ( ie once KPIs or metrics have been defined) and tools you may have used.
    7.keep program and projects in sync and the individuals working on these things together in terms of overall objectives / deliverables.

    Essentially its a new Program level team thus the organisation has many projects going at the same time, links with vendors already but no real project management experience or program management experience. things are not being tracked, people dont know what other people/teams are doing, essentially they have the resources in place but they are not leveraging them.

    So what I am asking is if you were approach to be program manager what kind of things would you implement and how.

    so thinking along the lines of roadmap 3 months, 6 months, 12 months.

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Hi mooret,

    I have moved this from general chit chat because it is a professional computing question, and belongs on the front page IMO.

    I am sorry that I cannot respond right now as it is rather late and I have to be up early, particularly as we have just had our first serious snow of the season

    I will reply Monday evening (GMT)


  3. #3
    AO's Filibustier Cheap Scotch Ron's Avatar
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    Wow. That's a very tall order mooret. Tons of books have been written on these topics. While the textbooks will not necessarily ensure success, they will get you headed in the right direction. That said, here is one of my tips. A must-do for all my projects... The daily huddle...

    One way to improve collaboration is to get folks talking to each other more frequently. There may be many issues why there is no collaboration. You need to seek out those barriers. In some shops, there are trust issues. In other shops, the culture doesnt support collaboration. There could be skills gaps. You will need to have one-on-one conversations to uncover the real barriers. In the meantime, implement a "daily huddle". This might spark the sharing.

    I have a daily huddle first thing every morning (same time, EVERY day). It can be a conference call or a meeting on the floor, or both. Very informal. Typically lasts less than 30 minutes. The purpose of the huddle is to identify (and possibly resolve) tactical issues that are affecting your folks ability to get their current tasks completed. I basically go "around the room" and ask if anyone has any issues. There are many benefits to this approach. Problems get resolved. Transfer of knowledge. Just general awareness of who is working on what and who has what expert skills. Most importantly, it gets the team talking to one another. May not be able to resolve all issues at the meeting. Complex issues need to be taken "offline". At one shop I worked at, this meeting was an awakening for IT mgt. They used it to find out what was going on within the organization. This helped them to begin a dialogue with the business heads to implement a better planning process with the business community. You should take notes and distribute them immediately after the meeting. Detail the issues and the resolution. Distribute to your entire team.

    CSR

    P.S. A must read ... "The Mythical Man Month" by Fred Brooks.

  4. #4
    Senior Member codenamevirus's Avatar
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    Thumbs up

    Hi

    Quote Originally Posted by mooret View Post
    Need some ideas how to transform My Team.

    Im looking for ways and if possible examples of how you solved the following problems. if possible any tools you may have used.
    I'll try to be as much clear as possible, with how me and my team work in co-ordination.

    1. improve collaboration amongst your team
    2.Improve collaboration between the different components or projects in the Program
    4. managing a program with multiple projects (each project with its own team )
    7.keep program and projects in sync and the individuals working on these things together in terms of overall objectives / deliverables.
    Collaboration in itself is a very big word to deal with. I suppose, that by collaboration you mean in terms of the tasks and goals to be completed. And, since my work is mostly related .Net technologies, most of the tools I use are based on Microsoft Technologies, which may or may not suit your environment.

    We use here some of the Microsoft tools like Project Server, Team Foundation Server for the above purposes. The Project server, help me in assigning and monitoring the progress of the project tasks allocated to each of my team member across multiple teams and also the progress of the complete team on a whole. Also I can provide them with clear guidelines, the deadlines and any other piece of information that may help my team members. The project server has various features like measuring the progress, crisis reporting, etc which will further help you in keeping the team in sync with each other, just in case one of the teams gets a lag in their progress.

    The Team Foundation Server helps in maintaining the code for each of the modules as and when they are complete, in co-ordination with this, I also prefer to use the Visual Studio 2008 Team System edition, it helps going through the various processes of the SDLC in an organised manner, right from the designing till the maintaining of the product.

    3.Prevent charms ( ie the team has ideas on products and the customer whats the product but we seem to do the in between badly
    For this, you need to have some co-ordination experts or consultants on your side. People who are good with communication skills and can easily absorb the requirements, the processes and the know-hows of the system that has to be developed. There are people out in the market, who are very good at these and can help you in getting the detailed Software Requirements specifications of the project and will also help in creating the initial Software Design of the system.

    Just in case, you dont want the information to be disclosed outside and maintain the confidentiality, you can sign in a "Non-Disclosure Agreement" with the person-in-charge, which will bind the consultant you hire, legally.

    6.Best way to measure and track projects ( ie once KPIs or metrics have been defined) and tools you may have used.
    Apart from the above mentioned tools, you can also use available in the market for reviewing your code. This process is a very signicant as it helps in tuning the performance of the system and also in checking the quality of the written.

    Some example tools are:
    * NUnit to write unit tests
    * NDoc to create code documentation
    * NAnt to build your solutions
    * CodeSmith to generate code
    * FxCop to police your code
    * Snippet Compiler to compile small bits of code
    * Two different switcher tools, the ASP.NET Version Switcher and the Visual Studio .NET Project Converter
    * Regulator to build regular expressions
    * .NET Reflector to examine assemblies
    * LoadRunner
    Check this MSDN Link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc300497.aspx

    5. we have development partnerships with vendors how did you track and correlate the information vendors ( ie SW/HW roadmaps ) gave you and help you deliver better products/solutions
    I have a Program Manager who deals with all the above. Sorry, cant provide more info on above.

    Essentially its a new Program level team thus the organisation has many projects going at the same time, links with vendors already but no real project management experience or program management experience. things are not being tracked, people dont know what other people/teams are doing, essentially they have the resources in place but they are not leveraging them.

    So what I am asking is if you were approach to be program manager what kind of things would you implement and how.
    Since you are new to all this, I would say "Welcome to the Real World". Managing processes is one of the process which are not one of the easiest jobs...its the most tedious and hectic job to do. You can start up with the above, which may release some pressure off your head.

    Few suggestions:
    1. Find a very good Network Administrator - who can bind your Project Server/TFS/Exchange Server together. These apps work great together.
    2. Find a good and experienced PM.
    3. Keep as many people possible, who are good in communication skills.
    4. Get organised ASAP, or your work burden is going to increase with chaos with each coming day.

    BEST OF LUCK!
    CodeNameVirus

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    OK mooret, I'm back!

    1. improve collaboration amongst your team
    2.Improve collaboration between the different components or projects in the Program
    Collaboration = communication

    You need regular team meetings and departmental meetings so that people know what is happening in their own team and projects, and less frequently to learn about the bigger picture.

    As a Programme Manager you should have Project Managers reporting to you and they, in turn, should have team leaders reporting to them. These are the guys who present at your team and department meetings.

    3.Prevent charms ( ie the team has ideas on products and the customer whats the product but we seem to do the in between badly
    That suggests to me that you do not appreciate the vital role that Business Analysts play in the development and delivery process. Customer expectation management tools can help here...........DOORS for example.

    Who is taking responsibility for this? You, or your customers (are those internal or external BTW?) somebody has to, or you projects are doomed to certain failure.

    4. managing a program with multiple projects (each project with its own team )
    5. we have development partnerships with vendors how did you track and correlate the information vendors ( ie SW/HW roadmaps ) gave you and help you deliver better products/solutions
    7.keep program and projects in sync and the individuals working on these things together in terms of overall objectives / deliverables.
    That is called "programme management"

    1. Adopt a structured methodology, and insist that your vendors adopt the same.
    2. Manage your projects in accordance with the chosen methodology.
    3. Delegate!!!
    4. Get a project administration office to handle co-ordination and report gathering. Good project admins are worth their weight in gold.

    6.Best way to measure and track projects ( ie once KPIs or metrics have been defined) and tools you may have used.
    Have a look at Artemis Views or the like. MS Project just cannot hack it.

    Fundamentally speaking, you need to build a chain of command. That needs to be based on talented individuals. You cannot learn project management from a book or in a classroom..............it is an innate talent tempered by experience.

    Just my thoughts mate

  6. #6
    Disgruntled Postal Worker fourdc's Avatar
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    You can try another website I frequent techrepublic.com

    It has quite a following with a lot of HR and personnel type info.

    Dave
    ddddc

    "Somehow saying I told you so just doesn't cover it" Will Smith in I, Robot

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