Project training covers the mechanics of how to use the software for project management but often doesn't deal with the details of how to apply these techniques to the real world. Setting up a proper work schedule is one of the core concepts to proper project management. An unrealistic schedule dooms the project from the beginning.
Workers Should Make the Estimates
Many employers make the mistake of sending only project managers to Project training. In fact, all of your staff can benefit from at least a basic understanding of the software and project management principles.
The only person who knows how fast Joe can complete a task is Joe. If Joe's boss tries to estimate how long it takes, the estimate is likely to come out far too large or small. Let your workers set their own goals and you create more realistic schedule.
"But Joe will inflate his estimate," some managers reply. That's a personnel issue not a project management one. If you can't trust your employees to make realistic estimates, that falls outside the scope of using Project. Managers are often surprised that when they give their employees the chance to do the right thing, most of them do.
Don't Use Tight Schedules to Motivate
New managers like to use their Project training to implement short schedules with no room for error. They think this motivates their employees to work harder. If workers see they are behind, they redouble their efforts, right? Wrong.
Unrealistic schedules merely depress employees. Faced with insurmountable obstacles, your staff feels doomed and loses the incentive to work hard. You can't simply force people to work past their capacities, not for very long anyhow.
Even if employees fall for this trick, and it is just a trick rather than good management, you end up with burned out staff that make more mistakes and does less work in the long run. A reasonable schedule gives the workers achievable goals, and workers who are on or ahead of schedule feel happy and motivated.
Planning Means Changing
A 19th century Prussian general, once said, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy". Neither will your project plan. An error common to managers fresh from Project training is to make a plan, carve it in granite, and assume all will proceed as expected. When complications come up, they badger their staff to keep the plan on track.
Your first project plan will be wrong. As the project unfolds, unanticipated crises and expenses turn your original estimates into so much nonsense. The only choice is to change the plan as new events arise. By doing so, although your completion date will change, it will become more accurate. You will also learn about proper planning.
Your second plan will also be wrong, but less so. The more experience you get, the better your project planning you will get. However none of them will survive unchanged.
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