5 Tips to Completing Projects on Time

Our first encounter with projects was probably at school; be it a written essay for English, or to build a model of something for a science project. As early as that time itself, we were already carefully planning; asking what our deadlines were, how many and who we could work with, and so on.

A good manager prepares a plan and commits to deliver as per the plan, in the agreed time, cost and quality required. And beyond that a proactive project manager uses fluid communication and essential preparation to guarantee success. On that note, 5 tips managers use to complete projects on time.

Know the strengths and weaknesses of your team

Calling in the right people has always been critical to effective group conferencing. This means that their strengths and weaknesses need to be known, so as to strategically select them.  Too many people in a project can render it either inefficient or ineffective. Once you have carried out an  evaluation of the same, select the ideal players so you can channel their strengths toward the benefit of the entire team.

Familiarizing yourself with your team’s weaknesses, too, is essential. This would allow the ability to prepare the necessary extra resources to help counteract the same.  If you need more players on the field, go recruit more, but be strategic about it. Too many people in a project can slow it down.

Document the scope of the project before you start

Executing a project means an efficient allocation of tasks and resources in limited time. Defining the scope of the project ahead of its launch is critical to the project’s success. Preliminary research is necessary to ensure the accuracy of the project’s idea. This then is complemented with preparation of a brief, so that the scope of the project can be communicated to everyone involved.

It is necessary to know what a project consists of before an undertaking . Breaking down the project into feasible tasks with due dates attached to them, will facilitate the project in being much easier to achieve. In the process, your team will be more productive, moving the project along on schedule.

This also allows you to respect the time of your team members. Respecting the time, in this context, is also to respect the work-life balance of each of the members in your team as well, as much as you would yours. It also comes down to making yourself available as well.  When it comes to the crunch, they’d need your help, even as a team. It is important to involve your team while laying out the scope here. It’s easy to set a perfect looking schedule and plan, but doing this without the input of your team members can prove disastrous.

In cases like this MultiCall is handy as a solution to discuss with your team. It brings people together, and gives everyone the right and ability to contribute value to the conversation. Whether an Instant Call or Scheduled, You can choose directly from your contacts, or add the same from existing groups, or via manual entry of their number.

Use Collaboration Tools

“Sorry, I only found it now. It got lost in the mail”

Sending out endless emails with attachments is time-consuming and inefficient. With so many emails that clog your team’s inboxes every day, the pertinent information you’re sending may get lost. It is in this context that a communication tool like MultiCall helps. With the ability to call your entire team in one go, one of the primary features MultiCall offers is call monitoring; giving you complete control over the call.

This is inclusive of being able to mute/unmute participants, so as to help avoid disturbance due to noise on call.  The app also requires data only for initiation of call, and offers superior voice clarity on par with, if not better than a regular phone call.   And even in the event that a user gets dropped, theycan re-join the call by simply dialling back the same number.

When In Doubt, Communicate

Be it for questions, concerns or anything pertaining to the deliverables of a project, communication about the same is key. For this, managers also have to be as approachable as possible so that the team feels comfortable coming to you with questions or concerns.

Set aside time to answer questions.  Communicating in a professional and respectful manner,  with acknowledgement of work  done well helps build trust with your team, even on call. But communication isn’t just in the various stages of the project; it’s important to communicate, and even celebrate milestones as they happen.

This is a good opportunity to ensure rewarding the team for jobs well done. Productivity will skyrocket as and when your members feel appreciated for their contributions to the betterment of the company. Yes, some team members may have a more integral role than others, but every person in that team has a relevant role that is key to the project success. The Call Monitoring System allows you to maintain check-ins with the entire team, and they can report on progress, plans, and challenges together with you.

Don’t plan every detail of the project

And yes, we mean this quite literally. Being flexible is not only crucial to being a better manager, but also towards the project’s efficiency too.  Maintain enough flexibility to counteract the occasional surprise that is bound to arise from time to time.  This includes avoiding micromanagement of your team more than needed, due to its negative impact on morale and productivity. As Steve Jobs said “It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do – we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do”

No project is perfect. It’s necessary to always account for the variable changes that occur while the project is being carried out. As a project manager, one can succeed in completing the projects on time by adapting accordingly and proactively. In the process, the manager and his/her team can reach more, now.

“Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating the talents of those who work for us and pointing them toward a certain goal.” – Walt Disney