Monitoring at the Individual Level
For you to monitor a project, it will require that individuals provide updates of where they are and how long it has taken to get there. Monitoring needs to start with team members. However, be careful not to stifle positive attitudes, productivity, and creativity by imposing too much clerical work.
Make sure team members know how you want their reports to read. Don't make the process overly complicated or team members will shrug it off or not hand in the reports on time. Remember that less is more. The less you ask of your team members, the more likely it is that they will provide you with timely updates. Get basic, but specific, information as opposed to nitpicking for details. The setting will dictate the level of formality necessary and the amount of information to be reported. Keep it simple. Let's look at a few examples:
Someone volunteering to make costumes for the community center theater production may simply tell you she has completed five costumes in three days and has three more to complete in the next couple of days. Since this is a volunteer position and there is no pay, you don't need an hourly assessment. You may, however, want to ask if she has all the resources she needs to complete the task.
Someone writing a brochure may write down that she has completed the first draft of three (out of four) pages of copy in seventeen hours. She estimates that it will take her one more day to complete the first draft of page four. This example would include hours, since the copywriter is being paid by the hour.
Someone on a project to assemble 200 new vacuum cleaners for demonstration purposes will have a report that tells you that between January 4 and January 8, twenty-nine shipments arrived and the first hundred of the vacuum cleaners had completed phase one of assembly. It took 300 man hours at a cost of $12,395. This example may require more detail since the project has a greater scope and a larger budget. Ask team members:
To provide the information that you need
To hand in written reports on time
To report potential problems
To include milestones reached
To let you know if they need more resources to complete the task
You will need to evaluate reports or updates from team members, whether it's a verbal update, as in the first example, or a more detailed report. Can you find solutions to the problems that are presented early on, before they become large-scale problems? It's important that you address these concerns.
It's also important to ask the team members for comments on the project. Comments will run the gamut from rantings to significant predicaments. You will need to determine the severity of problems and make a hierarchical list starting with significant actual problems and continuing with potential problems. If you are out of a particular resource, that is a problem. If you will run out of a resource if you keep using it at this rate, that is a potential problem. Both need to be addressed. Make sure, however, that a potential problem is real and based on the current project assessments and not on a hunch or a guesstimate.
Getting written or verbal comments from team members can help you avert potential problems. Be sure to take notes. It's likely that people working directly on individual tasks will be able to point out key areas of concern.
Rank all current problems 1–10, with 10 being the most serious. Then number all potential problems as 1–10, with 10 being the most serious. Look at your lists. Those problems ranked 5–10 on your current list of concerns should take precedence, with potential problems ranked 5–10 addressed next. Then you can take care of the smaller problems ranked 1–4, and finally, address the potential problems ranked 1–4.
Comments will also need your attention. Let team members know that time is limited and that you would appreciate concise comments that pertain only to the project. Separate those that pertain to the project and those that pertain to the project team, such as conflicts between members. Rate them and prioritize them as well. Discard those that are not project related. Also, look for consistencies. If one person says that the work area is too warm, you can suggest opening a window near where that person is working. However, if twenty-two people say they are too hot, you'll need to seriously consider a better air conditioner. A consensus of opinions can point you to key concerns of team members.
Your lists of immediate and potential problems will provide significant points for discussion in project review meetings and will also give you key points to summarize with stakeholders. Depending on the problem and the stakeholder, you can determine which information to pass along and which can be solved without alerting others. For example, customers don't need to know that three of your team members have left and need to be replaced, as long as deliverables are ready on time. Stockholders, on the other hand, may want to know if one of the three people who left is also the CEO.
If you see a problem on your list that you can solve with a quick phone call or flick of a switch, make the change or have someone else do it. It's always nice to knock out a few problems quickly.
Determine which problems need to be communicated to others and which ones you are expected to handle. The level of authority you have and the nature of the project will dictate your best course of action. It's very important to know what is for public consumption, what is for key personnel to know, and what is and isn't for the media to sink their teeth into. Some projects will require detailed accounts or public posting of every written document. Others will require that you make the changes and move on. Judge carefully who you apprise of current and potential problems. Remember: Problems can become magnified when they are communicated to the wrong people, or are not communicated to the right people. Either way, your position as project manager could hang in the balance.
Some activities in a project seem to follow Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. If you're lucky, these nightmare aspects of the project will be minimal. Any activities that have proven to be troublesome in previous projects are worth monitoring more closely. You may also have to monitor people who've been tardy or lazy in the past more closely, but first give them the benefit of the doubt — a new project might mean a new attitude.
