Be SMART with your Project Management | Force0six
We often are sold the dream of a software product. A salesperson will pry open the doors to your business after months of courting you using the good ole "white picket fence approach" with the intention of selling you a piece of software that they have developed and it will deliver on all of your expectations. The demo you are given is built specifically for you, and most often, specifically for your checkbook. A dream come true right?
I think we have all been in this position all to often. Over sold and under delivered.
As CEO of Force0six, I have seen this all to often and I believe transparency is key in all aspects of software sales, project delivery, and project management. I'm not here to sell you a product. I'm here to deliver on your expectations.
Let me give you a little insight as to why.
First and foremost, the customer engagement starts and ends on trust. Its important to earn the trust of your customer. They need to trust you and what you are selling, how you sell it, what you deliver, and how you deliver. They must trust your approach. They want to know that you will do everything to deliver on time and within budget.
Being raised in the technology industry has taught me a few things over 17 years. I've learned to be SMART with my approach. SMART is:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time Based
SPECIFIC: Project managers are the ones responsible for determining and setting the goals which are appropriate for the project. And one of their priorities is deciding which goals are actually helpful. One of the criteria for determining this is by asking oneself if the goal is specific. Being specific means that an objective must be able to answer all four W questions, which are:
What needs to be done?
Why should we do it?
Who are involved in accomplishing the goal?
Where can we get the necessary resources?
Being specific means that one must identify the requirements for achieving a goal and the problems that will most probably be encountered.
MEASURABLE: Project managers and team leaders must also establish objectives where success or failure can be concretely measured. Having a benchmark or standard for success provides something with which to measure the workers’ progress against. This would lead them to be more urgent and efficient in their work in order to achieve the set criteria for accomplishing their objective.
ATTAINABLE: All project managers should give attainable goals to their workers. Having them work on extremely difficult jobs will decrease their productivity and will have an effect on their morale. It’s no use telling 6 bricklayers that they must build 42 homes with 42 differently-designed entry ways in 3 weeks. They might just rebel and worse, they might consider your next objective unrealistic as well. It’s also important to note that extremely easy goals are unhealthy as well. It takes away the pride of hard work and achieving difficult objectives successfully.
RELEVANT: A goal’s relevance cannot be stretched enough. A goal may be specific, or it may be measurable or attainable and time-based. But if it doesn’t have any relevance to the project, it is practically useless. Setting irrelevant goals also says something about a project manager’s state of mind. Try saying to your software development team that they must finish a wash and wax detail on 500 vehicles in 2 hours this afternoon and see where that takes you.
TIME BASED: Having deadlines for accomplishing a certain goal gives workers a sense of urgency. This comes from the fact that they have a time frame within which they have to finish a task or objective or they will be considered as under performing. This also serves as a way to measure the efficiency of a team of workers in achieving a particular objective.
Work SMARTer, Not Harder!
Contact Us for any questions. At Force0six, We are with you through technology
