Zoho Projects Gantt Chart and Defining project requirements
Gantt Chart.
Defining requirements.
Building your project is not something usually done by a single project manager.
Most projects involve several people working together as a team. If you’re working on a project for a customer, that customer must also be involved in the initial scoping of the project.
The first phase of any project is to define the requirements (the what) of the
project – what must be accomplished, and by whom?
The better you can define your requirements, the less ambiguity happens as the project progresses. Ambiguity causes people to make assumptions. It also causes people to take shortcuts to save money, often to the consternation of the cus- tomer, with ensuing arguments.
Setting realistic target dates
Every project has start and end dates. The project also has individual tasks, each with their own deadlines. The more you can define realistic dates, the less worry about overrun you have. If your dates are realistic, and you overrun, it may impact the rest of the project.
With accurate dates for projects and tasks, you can allocate resources to accomplish those tasks. When individuals know when they’re needed ahead of time, you don’t have to worry about a different project taking priority or competing for the same resources.
When a project relies on a task to be complete before the project can progress, that task lies on the project’s critical path. The critical path of a project is very important to accurately budget a project, as mistakes directly impact the date the project is completed.
Defining tasks within projects
Tasks within projects are specific activities that must be accomplished to complete the project. While many people may work on a task, each task should have a person in charge. That person is accountable to the project manager if that task is not completed on time and within budget. Project management software lists the tasks and person in charge of that task, along with other important details.
Each task has a start date and an end date. These dates may be fixed dates, or they may be dependent dates as a part of another aspect of the project. For example, a task start date may occur the day after a previous task is completed. Dependent tasks are more flexible, but may cause problems with resource allocation if a fluid task starts on a date different from what is expected, and resources have been given to another task.
Integrating your CRM with your project management system means you can see project tasks right in the CRM record. By putting your own employees in the CRM, you can track their tasks along with other CRM activities they’re assigned to complete. Managing people is much easier, as this data is consolidated into a single place.
Categorizing projects and tasks
Categorizing the work done in a project helps with setting billing rates and reporting. If you do contract work for customers, you likely bill a category of work at a specific rate. Categorizing tasks and having your labor bill against those tasks in that category makes it easy to invoice clients.
For example, you can set up categories of tasks for your team based around the kind of work they do. If you manage an advertising agency, you have people on your team who do graphics, HTML, and strategy. Each category of work is done by different kinds of people, all collaborating on a bigger project to serve a client.
Reporting on the number of hours spent on each category of work is important for the client to see, as well as for your own internal project management.
Categorizing also allows you to create reports by Category. You should be able to see what your labor utilization rates are by category. I cover how to calculate this rate in the next section. It’s important to measure how much of your team members’ time is spent on projects, so you know if you’re spending money on labor appropriately
Leading Your Project Team
Choosing who leads a project requires a thorough understanding of the person and her capabilities.
The project manager must be a good communicator and a good listener, able to translate what is happening in the project to management, and accurately assess how the project is going
A good project manager :
Defines the project requirements
A project manager doesn’t have to know
how to do every task, but must understand tasks well enough to know when
the person responsible for that task isn’t performing
Keeps members accountable for the project
The manager makes sure each person working on a project enters daily updates so that the other members of the team know what’s happening. Updates should also include the number of hours worked, both for billing purposes and for resource utilization. A team member’s late or incomplete update affects the entire team and slows down the project and causes other team members to make potentially dangerous assumptions. The project manager must step in and hold that person accountable. By reviewing each update, the project manager can also assess the efficiency of the team member. Figure 13-5 shows how a project manager can help track hours and use that same tracking for billing a customer.
One way to have team members track time on a project is with a timer. It keeps track of their work down to the second, even if you only bill in specific increments. It automatically enters hours, while providing an easy interface for entering work done.
