Today in the Project Management Guide we are looking at our day to day work, the real meat of what it means to be a project manager. This is where we really earn our keep. Not surprisingly, there is a lot to this, far more than be covered in one blog post!

However, as part of helping brand new project managers, I want to give you a very rough overview of what I try and make sure I do on a regular basis. These things help me make sure I have a grip on what is actually happening with the project.

The most important thing to do is make sure you have a clear idea of progress. The best way to do this is face to face. Now, many project managers, particularly in software development, like to have a very short stand-up meeting at the start of every day. It is done standing up as this helps to naturally speed the meeting up!

This frequency of meetings may not be appropriate for your project, though. While it may be possible in a software project to break all of the tasks being done into bite-sized chunks which can sensibly be reported on every day, it may not be possible in other industries. For example, while it would be possible to get a daily update on the number of bricks laid on a construction site, is this information worth getting?

If you gather progress information too frequently, there is a danger that you will get an exaggerated view of progress – no-one wants to come to a meeting and report only tiny progress, but if a task is large, that is all that can be reported on a daily basis!

The key message to take away is that the progress updates you get need to be timely, useful, and accurate.

• Timely – so you can take any action needed at the right point.
• Useful – so you can do something with the information, rather than just get swamped by it.
• Accurate – so that you are actually getting the truth about your project.

Now, the frequency that will hit these criteria will vary for you, both on the industry you are in, and on the individual project. It may also vary depending where in the project you are, so don’t be shy about changing the frequency when it makes sense.

I’ve worked on one project that had daily updates when we were negotiating contracts with three possible suppliers, because we needed to make sure everyone knew where we were, and to share information about issues raised by the suppliers. The same project dropped to a weekly schedule once we got into the rollout of a very large network infrastructure, because that was the most sensible way of sharing that information.

And, of course, think about whether these meetings actually need to include the whole team – I’ve already written about my dislike for meetings, so only have everyone there if it makes sense!

Now, one reason for having getting this information is to give you a clear idea of progress. Another is to find out about the issues team members are having. Getting this information is vital – you want to know about all issues as soon as possible, because, in general, it is easier, better, and cheaper to deal with the issues early.

Whenever a new issue is raised, you must make sure you log it. We’re going to need to figure out how we deal with this issue later, so make sure we capture it.

The next thing I do, now I have all this info, is to assess progress. This means taking a look at what we have actually achieved, against what we had planned to achieve. Are we miles away from where we should be? Have we made some error in our estimation of the work?

Now, I need to examine the issues.

• What sort of issue is it? A change in requirements, a problem we didn’t foresee, an unavoidable risk occurring, a new risk spotted, a change in the external environment?
• What impact is it going to have? Will it effect quality, timescales, budget?
• What can I do about it? Are there actions I can take as project manager to solve this? Or do I need to refer it up to the Executive?
• What impact would there be in taking action to deal with this? What cost? What timescales? What quality impact?

We’ll go into more detail on risks and issues in a later guide.

On a regular basis, I want to make sure the Executive, and anyone else selected by the Executive, gets an update on the project. I do this by condensing the information on progress and issues I have already gathered. I should put in to this report information about issues we have come across, both to keep the Executive informed, and to flag up issues that may require action later.

And lastly, I need to receive any completed sections of work, and assign new ones. Obvious as it may sound, it bears repeating: No work should be going on that the project manager a) isn’t aware of, and b) hasn’t approved. The point of having a project manager is to make sure that the effort in the project is guided sensibly to achieve the aims. That becomes an awful lot harder when people are doing things on an ad hoc basis!

That’s a brief (a very brief) overview of what you need to be doing. I’ll be going into more detail on these in later guides. For now, it is over to you – what else do you try to do on a frequent basis? What are the must do things I have missed out? Let me know!