Project time management is a crucial skill for any project manager who wants to deliver successful outcomes on time and within budget. However, managing time effectively can be challenging, especially when dealing with complex, uncertain, or changing projects. In this article, you will learn some practical tips on how to streamline your project time management and avoid common pitfalls.
The first step to streamline your project time management is to define the project scope clearly and realistically. The project scope is the set of deliverables, features, and requirements that the project aims to achieve. By defining the scope, you can avoid scope creep, which is the tendency for the project to expand beyond its original goals and consume more time and resources. To define the scope, you need to consult with the stakeholders, understand their expectations and needs, and document the project objectives, boundaries, and assumptions.
This is key to the project success. The goals might move along the way. But have a detailed plan right from the beggining is key to a safe environment.
"Go live" driven projects rarely succeed. You can have the perfect project plan, scope, resources, the details worked out and management support; however, if you don't have proper governance and true leadership commitment that is maintained throughout the project, you're at risk. A few common things in my experience that delay projects is an unwillingness to adopt new processes, modify policies or drive accountability. Others include, organizational culture and losing focus (and sometimes resources) to competing priorities. Of course there are more but most of these can be mitigated before the project even begins starting with proper pre-project planning, governance (as previously mentioned) and budgeting for proper change management.
Defining scope is so important. It prevents all of those side conversations and "rabbit holes" from occurring. You can say, "Wow, that's interesting - but it's outside the scope of what we're discussing. Let's come back to it later."
If I may, predicting within the timeline is in crisis forward occurs is equally important to managing time efficiently Project/programs, no matter their complexity, be led by a clear dashboard. A dashboard that looks at all of the indicators and additives that create the appropriate triggers. In doing so, you realize when the project Timeline is no longer efficient before it puts the project at risk.
Monitor Task Progress: Regularly track and monitor task progress within EZELOGS construction software. Encourage team members to provide updates on their tasks, mark task completion, and track any delays or issues. This real-time visibility allows for early identification of potential delays or bottlenecks.
The next step is to break down the work into manageable and measurable tasks. This is also known as creating a work breakdown structure (WBS), which is a hierarchical representation of the project deliverables and activities. A WBS helps you to organize the work, assign responsibilities, estimate durations, and track progress. To create a WBS, you need to identify the major deliverables, decompose them into smaller components, and assign a unique identifier, a name, and a description to each element.
One of the practical ways to manage scope, schedule and deliverables is using a RACI or other matrix of decision makers. In my experience, I’ve seen project schedules expand or deadlines extended because teams are trying to keep everyone apprised of every detail and decision owners are not named. This is not efficient especially in growing organizations. The result is either too many people trying to be decision maker or several people not included and missing important information. RACI identifies which person or groups are Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. This makes meetings easy, gives PMs clear stadholder connections and makes sure no one is left out, even if they are only to be consulted or informed.
The proper execution of this task will provide the project leader a solid view of the available resources to roll the project. If resources and goals do not match, there is a great opportunity for routing adjustment.
Once you have a WBS, you can create a realistic schedule that shows the sequence, dependencies, and deadlines of the tasks. A schedule is a tool that helps you to plan, monitor, and control the project time. To create a schedule, you need to estimate the duration and resources required for each task, identify the critical path, which is the longest sequence of dependent tasks that determines the project completion date, and use a scheduling method, such as a Gantt chart, a network diagram, or a calendar, to visualize the project timeline.
The best schedule is a dynamic, flexible schedule. Your due dates should have enough room for error. If you're a small team, stay organized, but don't let organizing the project become the death of you. Do the minimum amount of organizing that you need to make the project successful. Leave the details out.
The final step is to monitor and control the time throughout the project lifecycle. This means comparing the actual performance with the planned schedule, identifying any variances or deviations, and taking corrective actions to bring the project back on track. To monitor and control the time, you need to collect and analyze data on the progress, status, and issues of the tasks, use tools such as earned value analysis, variance analysis, or trend analysis to measure the schedule performance, and communicate the results and changes to the stakeholders.
By following these steps, you can streamline your project time management and improve your efficiency and effectiveness as a project manager. You can also avoid common time management mistakes, such as underestimating the work, overcommitting the resources, ignoring the risks, or failing to communicate the expectations.
Probably the key step in all of project time management is "monitoring and controlling the time". While it can be very factual and data driven, it must also be human-centered in terms of communication styles, listening to the team members, and giving them some level of autonomy to get their jobs done and to avoid micromanaging. Also, listening carefully so if issues pop up adjustments can be made.
You could also consider utilising project management software: Implementing project management software can greatly assist in monitoring and controlling time. These tools provide features like scheduling, task tracking, collaboration, and reporting, making it easier to manage and track project timelines. Also Setting realistic deadlines: establishing realistic deadlines for each task and milestone in your project plan. Consider factors such as the complexity of the task, available resources, and potential risks. Setting achievable deadlines will help prevent unnecessary time pressure and increase the likelihood of successful completion.
The big time and the small time: While planning time management, consider the contingencies and unexpected obstacles that consume from your timeline, while planning for the full project (Big time) you shall add buffers (small time) to catch up/recover and end on time your project.
Suitable information systems and discipline on how this information is stored and shared are also important and can save valuable time for a project