For many years my work was as a Program Director. We often say that program management is like project management on steroids, where programs may be the culmination of a number of smaller discrete projects. Consider a program such as a post- natural disaster rehabilitation (or in other words, what many countries are going through now after the hurricanes of this season). As a Program Manager and Director I was very aware of how important project management skills were not only to me, but my entire team, which was spread across multiple countries. As a virtual team having a shared set of skills, practices and processes, helped us to be effectively, reduce duplication, and achieve results. Our 18th focus area in the 20 Areas for Remote and Virtual Team Activities is therefore Project Management.
Regardless of what project framework you are using - Agile, traditional or other, rojects need to come in on scope – on time, on budget and scope. As virtual teams it is important to be tracking projects on a regular basis as it is likely that one task not completed by one team member may have an impact on another part of the team. Getting into the regular practice of sharing project updates before your project status meetings, using a Red, Yellow, Green task chart, can be valuable in helping team members visually see what needs attention, before you come together for discussion. With the prior knowledge of what needs attention you can spend your time on the project status meeting working around actions and solutions on issues which have been flagged. This saves a lot of time rather than having people check in and go-round.
Tool – Project Status Reports
Time – Step 1 – Submit Red, Yellow and Green light reports prior to meeting. Pre-submission of project status reports to cut down on report back time. Status meeting may run for 20 – 60 min or more, depending on how efficient the team is.
Questions to use:
Taking a look at the project status reports:
What needs attention as it has been flagged yellow – needing attention?
What needs urgent attention as it has been flagged red – needing attention urgently?
What could this red flag derail or get in the way of?
What needs to happen in order to shift this to yellow or green?
What exact steps are needed?
Who is going to be responsible for this?
Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer
Regardless of what project framework you are using - Agile, traditional or other, rojects need to come in on scope – on time, on budget and scope. As virtual teams it is important to be tracking projects on a regular basis as it is likely that one task not completed by one team member may have an impact on another part of the team. Getting into the regular practice of sharing project updates before your project status meetings, using a Red, Yellow, Green task chart, can be valuable in helping team members visually see what needs attention, before you come together for discussion. With the prior knowledge of what needs attention you can spend your time on the project status meeting working around actions and solutions on issues which have been flagged. This saves a lot of time rather than having people check in and go-round.
Tool – Project Status Reports
Time – Step 1 – Submit Red, Yellow and Green light reports prior to meeting. Pre-submission of project status reports to cut down on report back time. Status meeting may run for 20 – 60 min or more, depending on how efficient the team is.
Questions to use:
Taking a look at the project status reports:
What needs attention as it has been flagged yellow – needing attention?
What needs urgent attention as it has been flagged red – needing attention urgently?
What could this red flag derail or get in the way of?
What needs to happen in order to shift this to yellow or green?
What exact steps are needed?
Who is going to be responsible for this?
Have a great Wednesday,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching(Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Authorized Partner
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential - (416)996-8326
Potentials Realized
Author of Effective Virtual Conversations (2017), From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching(Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Team and Leadership Development | Coaching | Retreats
Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Authorized Partner
Everything DiSC® Authorized Partner
Contact us and let us know how we can support you in helping your team reach its' full potential - (416)996-8326
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