Stephen Maguire's project management experience

This is the project management experience of Stephen Maguire, senior Microsoft Project Manager. Hope to be useful to everyone!

First, clarify some concepts in this article:
Project Manager: as the project owner, the project manager is responsible for drafting the progress and implementing the supervision work according to the progress. This ensures that all the work is in the correct direction and the training team is willing to complain, report the project status to the senior director.
Designer: The designers we are talking about here includeProgramDesigners and web designers, the Main Staff of website development.
Technical Manager: Senior designers in the team are responsible for internal integration of the project, development specifications are determined, and technical documents are updated.
Product Manager: Non-team members, responsible for coordinating with marketing personnel or customers, and supervising website development to meet customer and company expectations.

Chapter 1. foundation of effective teams. (4 sections in total)
1. Focus on Improving Products
The company pays the designers to develop excellent websites at reasonable time, but the designers are often occupied by other things.
The typical situation is that the designer needs to spend a lot of time preparing for meetings, attending meetings, reading and writing meeting records and progress reports, and replying to emails. These tasks cannot improve the work of the website, although some of them are self-developed by the designer, a larger part is the command provided by the Project Manager.
Although the project manager's intention is good, it violates the basic code of the Project Manager:
The task of the project manager is to eliminate all the obstacles to the designer's work, so that the designer's rights can focus on the real important work-website development.
This is not a shock to the world, but a simple truth, but how many project managers do it?
Please do not literally understand what I say. It doesn't mean that designers only make webpages and develop programs. In fact, they think about how to design, test, and train websites. Although they are not directly invested in improving websites, however, it has a significant and far-reaching impact on the quality of the website.

2. eliminate interference

if you want the team to complete the website within the deadline, you must eliminate unnecessary work as much as possible. Before you assign a job to a group member, may you ask yourself, is this job really necessary for everyone to do? As a project manager, you must always ask yourself one question:
"What is my goal ?"
in this way, work is not easy to deviate from the direction. Remember, if you want to look at things from the perspective of the entire project, you will not fall into some details.
for example, opening a project progress meeting. The purpose is to understand the progress of the project and prevent the project from being out of control. But if no one has to work overtime for every project completed on schedule, is it necessary to report the progress?
it is also common for team members to write reports, explain what they have done, and explain why they are delayed. This will often cause headaches and resentment for many designers. 8 hours a day, probably 4 hours spent on writing reports. However, normal development work has to work overtime.
please do not misunderstand what I mean. I am not saying that no progress report is required. I just remind the project managers not to pay too much attention to the "Project process ", and ignore the real product-your website. One of my experiences is: using a new method to understand the progress is easy to write, and it takes no time.
1. each time a designer completes a function (sub-project), an internal email is sent to everyone.
2. whenever the project progress may lag behind, I will discuss the solution with you in private.

3. clear goals
just as you plan to take a degree or buy a house, you have to plan and take actions to achieve the goal. To create a website project, you also need to set clear goals. Note that "completing a website" is just a vague goal, and it is not specific or clear enough.
in practice, many websites may have completed their tasks with unclear targets, but the question is, how much time has been wasted before that? Although you are lucky enough to complete the project, which of the following is more stable and less risky in implementation than planning with clear goals and control purposes?
what are the specific goals? In fact, it is not necessarily profound, as long as it is detailed enough to ensure that the project is in the correct direction. Generally, a detailed project goal can be formulated as long as the project leader takes a few hours or days. For example, this site:
Goal 1: create a website with the subject of website project management.
evaluation: the target has been clearly defined, but it is not detailed enough.
Objective 2: To provide a communication platform for website project management enthusiasts.
Evaluation: The target service object and main functions are located. But it does not reflect the deep purpose of building a website.
Objective 3: To provide a platform for website project management enthusiasts to learn and communicate with each other, and to jointly develop detailed standards.
evaluation: the goal is clear, indicating the service object, the main function, and the purpose of the website.
after the goal is determined, we will stick to this general direction. We will be the first to achieve the goal, for example, forum, standard Article . It has nothing to do with the goal or has little to do with it. It can be avoided or postponed, such as talent exchange and beautiful interfaces.

Setting goals is to describe "what you want to accomplish" in a clear language, so that every member of the team has a clear concept. As long as you make the goal clearer, the direction of the entire project will change dramatically. Remember this: clarifying detailed project objectives can avoid wasting time on unnecessary work.
It may take you a day or two to set the target, but the relative reward is very worthwhile!

4. design priorities
Like buying food, some people buy canned food because it is the cheapest, some people buy frozen food because it is the most convenient, and some people buy fresh food because it is the best, because in their minds, the priorities are different, the same is true for website development: the same program is written by different designers.CodeIt must be different. Some think that the code is more concise and better, some think that it is the most important to be easy to use, and others prefer to pursue the execution speed.
The project objectives and website development priorities are not the same, but they overlap and affect each other. Therefore, we need to establish the following basic idea: the project objectives guide the project direction, the design order affects the design process.
Different projects have different priorities. Generally, the priority list for programming is as follows:
1. Size)
2. Speed
3. Security
4. Testability
5. Easy to maintain
6. Concise
7. Reuse
8. Portability
In addition to the priority order, you should also establish quality specifications for various considerations. For example, if you think that the size is a priority, then how big is qualified? If you can determine the most appropriate priority in advance and establish quality standards, the team will not waste time and the overall style of the website will be consistent.

Chapter 1 Summary
Looking back at the content discussed in this chapter, we can conclude that the good foundation for website development is:
Determine what you want to achieve and how to do it, let every member understand the goal, and focus on this goal, set the design priorities, and relative quality specifications.

Chapter 2 effective operation methods
1. When to modify the error?
If I ask you, what is the right time for debugging during website development? What would you do?
A. Test and modify all functions together after they are developed;
B. Remove an error immediately;
C. It doesn't matter. It takes the same time.
The correct choice is B: remove an error immediately!
For the project, the worst case is to be specially organized by bugs, so it is too late to complete the project goal. If you only focus on development and leave the bug to the end, the completion rate of the project will be overestimated. It seems that the project to be completed is about to be completed, but it still takes three months to correct it. Microsoft's experience is:
(1) The later the bug is cleared, the more time it takes;
(2) immediately remove insects during the development process, so that you can learn the experience earlier without making the same mistake;
(3) If you can ensure that there are no errors, You can accurately estimate the project completion time.
Therefore, designers should regard finding errors as an important thing and do not delay for any reason.

2. Email time traps

email is a great tool, but it can also be used. Improper use of email may also affect productivity.
I often find that many designers like to interrupt their work by email. They don't mean they send too many emails, but they stop working as long as new emails come in, let's take a look at the news and new things and start to reply to emails. Some designers receive a letter once every five minutes, so that nothing can be done in a day, because the design work requires a whole period of time to think about and sink into it.
in order to solve this problem, I advise new designers that batch email recovery should be done. You can take a look at the day before work, noon break, or before work, but don't keep reading emails.
3. Good methods for sharing

work strategies are very important because they are made up of a lot of experience and thinking. These strategies or methods are combined, it can improve personal productivity and quality of work to a higher level.
as a supervisor, you should encourage team members to propose suggestions for improving work efficiency. It is also important to guide the team members in thinking. For example, the following two questions:
A. Why is the Progress always lagging behind?
B. What measures can be taken to prevent future lag?
the possible answer to the first question is: too much work is required, tools are too difficult to use, and the boss is an idiot. The second answer may be: reduce the dependency on work, purchase better tools and enhance communication with the boss.
the two problems have different directions. The first is to explore the causes and lead to complaints. The second is the future improvement method and the solution.
the more accurate the problem is, the more powerful the problem is, the more beneficial it is to achieve the project goal. Let's look at three questions:
A. How to ensure that the project is completed on schedule every time?
B. How to complete the project on schedule without working overtime?
C. How can I complete the task on schedule without working overtime or increasing manpower?
the third question force everyone to think creatively and seriously review the work itself which deserves improvement. A more accurate question can stimulate the thinking process and stimulate more creative answers.

4. Meaningless punishment
Punishment is a kind of psychological reinforcement. Punishment is a scolding, reprimand, and threat to employees, just like sending a horse to obey the commands of the master. I found a team member lagging behind! I called it and gave him a heavy dose of the drug, so that he could not take it lightly later.
This kind of management means should be condemned, and I absolutely do not encourage anyone to do so. Think about the new debugging strategy we mentioned earlier. If a designer finds a mistake, it takes him several days to solve the problem. Of course it is not the result he liked, but the supervisor has threatened him, will the designer check the error again in the future? We hope that everything will be natural and there is no need to increase the distress of our team members. We do not emphasize who is the boss, who is the slaves, and who must obey.
If the supervisor's intention is to make the team members work harder, it would be a big mistake. Such scolding can only arouse the anger, annoyance, and frustration of the team members. In fact, the problems of these projects are often in the management aspect. The goal is unclear or the ambition is too big. Designers just encounter bad supervisors. In fact, their abilities are not inferior to those of designers in other projects. Therefore, give up scolding. scolding will only make the project worse, and there is absolutely no improvement effect.

Chapter 2
In this chapter, we mainly clarify the following points: we should adopt strategic operations and constantly find some simple and effective ways to improve our current work, small changes may produce amazing results.

Chapter 3: Keep progress

We all want the project to follow the planned process, but the fact is always unsatisfactory. Sometimes it will be a little ahead of schedule, and in most cases it is lagging behind ,. Even the most smooth project can't be executed in full accordance with the plan, but if you let the plan go at will, one day you suddenly find that the project is too far off-track and cannot change the direction, if the remaining time is not enough, the project will be finished. The project is like a rocket targeting the moon. If there is not enough precision, it will not be able to hit the target at that time. Intelligent supervisors know this truth. They often pay attention to the accuracy of the project, correct the direction at any time, and keep the project from deviating from the plan. This chapter describes some effective policies to help you maintain the project progress.

1. Looking forward
I always believe that the main reason why the project is derailed is that people do not seriously think about how to keep the project running smoothly. It would be too late to wait for the problem to happen if there were no preparations. I didn't spend 30 minutes thinking about this issue a month ago. Now it may take several hours or days to fix it. This is the so-called "passive work ".
the solution to this kind of passive work is to turn passive into active, discover potential problems in advance, and try to avoid them. There are many ways and techniques to train yourself to "look forward", but to sum up, it is just a simple decision:
regularly pause the work at hand, and then think forward, make necessary corrections at any time to avoid major obstacles in the future.
I have been used to thinking about the following questions for more than 10 years every day and list the answers:
what can I do today, what's more, it can help the project go smoothly in the next few months?
This is a very simple problem. However, if the supervisor reviews and thinks about it on a regular basis, he will be able to think of many wonderful ways to protect the project from attacks.

2. clearly define the scope of requirements
there is a story: I am on a business trip to a hotel. Sometimes I go to a restaurant for breakfast, and sometimes some guests come in and you can see that everyone is eating breakfast, ask the waiter: "What time does your breakfast end?" I saw the hungry guest jump backwards and muttered to myself: "I really want to have lunch ." Then the waiter hurried away before he could explain to him that he was ready to order lunch. The guest asked at the end of the breakfast when he wanted to have lunch. He asked, "Is lunch available now ?"
in this story, what I want to say is: people may not really want what they ask, be sure to determine what he wants to do.
During website project development, customers or leadership often encounter strange demands. Once, the chief designer came to me in a panic and told me that the customer was in trouble. The customer was not satisfied with the newly designed interface and required the same design as a famous website. If this is the case, it will take another week to complete it. However, the deadline is very short. After listening to his statement, I must admit that if we do that, our progress will be finished, and I am also curious about why the customer has such a requirement, so before I reply to them, ask the customer manager to find out the reason for this requirement. In a short time, the customer manager came back with a smile.
"they just took a fancy to the dynamic drop-down menu of the website and thought it was attractive."
well, I know what he is laughing, we already have a ready-made template for such a dynamic menu. You just need to replace it with the existing design. Our designers are not clear about the customer's preferences.
most customers do not explain the reason when making a request. This situation is too common and may even happen to your management. If you cannot see their purpose from their requests, you can ask them not to accept them rashly until they have figured out what they want to do, we 'd rather reject their requests than waste such time.

3. That is to say, no
when a customer or superior has unreasonable demands, the Project Manager will accept the requirements. Due to some pressure, supervisors prefer to consult people rather than stick to the best choice for the entire product or their own team.
sometimes, the other party's request may be very reasonable and you want to agree, but because your schedule is full, you can't help it, you have to say "no" to them ". However, in my experience, many supervisors still accept such requests in order to avoid conflicts. They just don't know how to complete these tasks on schedule. I just want to talk about it later, the ship is naturally straight to the bridge head. In fact, things are rarely so easy-if the ship carries too many goods, it means that the ship's hull is straight and it cannot go through the bridge.
these supervisors are not familiar with it and are reluctant to take over the tasks they cannot accomplish. It is really a long pain instead of a short pain. At that time, they will not be able to finish the tasks as scheduled, unfortunately, the entire team must work overtime. Therefore, the best way is to honestly take your schedule, and explain your remaining strength to the customer or superior, and try to arrange a compromise on the schedule or work content. This is much better than the result of making a request without any conditions.
I did not encourage you to reject any unplanned demands. I just stressed that you should never promise anything that others cannot do, which is harmful to both parties.
it may be unpleasant to say "no", but this is a brave attitude to face problems. After "no" is completed, it is the beginning of trying to solve the problem. Knowing that the problem is not feasible is the beginning of the problem.

4. You cannot satisfy everyone
As a supervisor, you must always face various requirements. For the efficiency of your work, you must learn to say "no" at the right time ". No matter how euphemistic you are, the other party will not like to be rejected. They may think that you are wrong. However, you must understand the fact that you cannot satisfy everyone, what you need to do is to coordinate, rather than finish everything.
What should you do when you encounter conflicting demands? Is there a more effective way? This is the purpose of emphasizing the project objectives. For example, if your goal is to complete the main functions of the website, the additional decorative functional requirements should be declined. Of course, you will be complained. Please be patient and explain the problem to the customer.
Everyone is unwilling to be hated by others. This is human nature. But as a project supervisor, you must understand the truth: If you want everyone to be satisfied, you will be overwhelmed and cannot do anything.
Remember: Do not hurt the work process to favor others. You should always make appropriate decisions based on your own goals.
Similarly, you should consider the advice to your superiors before making a decision. The project objectives should be given the highest priority. I do not advocate resistance to authority, but emphasize that superiors are also people and may make mistakes. Their suggestions are not necessarily the best. If you want to be a good supervisor, you must carefully measure all the suggestions. No matter who makes the suggestions, you must determine that they meet the project objectives before adoption.
If the superior asks you to do something and you think it is inappropriate, you should explain your thoughts to the superior before proceeding, maybe the superior will give up his suggestion after agreeing with your idea. Maybe the superior will approve your idea, but please still consider his opinion, no matter what the result is, at least communication is helpful to each other.
Remember: you are responsible for the project. Do not let anyone's suggestions hinder the Project, including suggestions from superiors.

5. Cool, but not important

Website project development cannot be just for fun, challenging, or personalized purposes.
Sometimes, designers suggest adding fancy or undesirable features. Their starting point is good and they are eager to make the best products to meet customers' needs. They just don't know how to do it, which is the most beneficial to the product. Such features should not be included in two categories: first, they do not match the future direction of the product, this feature is only available to others. Second, it is a special requirement of the customer. Sometimes, functions are not necessarily the best. (every website develops chat rooms, forums, voting, mailing lists, message books, counters, but not necessarily useful .) It is more important to have your own unique style. Adding too many things to the product may make the product expand too much, and it also takes too much time and energy for designers, it may not be worthwhile.
In this case, what should you do? You should explore the motives behind this demand. Think about it. Is there any strategic value for adding these features to the product, and can it actually improve the product? If it's just cool and there's no other convincing reason, don't waste time on it.

Chapter 3 Summary:
So far, it is essential that you know what kind of work should be fully invested: strategic work consistent with the goal. However, this is not enough for you to maintain the progress. You have to try to put aside unreasonable demands, restrain everyone's desire to pursue "cool", and try to reduce the work that does not improve the product. If you cannot learn to say "no" or understand what other people really need, you will find yourself stuck in the mud and doing things you shouldn't do.
The key to ensuring that the project goes as planned is that the project manager fully understands what to do and prevents improper interference.