Analysis of Soft factors affecting project progress

Time, both opportunities and costs. The progress is accelerated, which is directly manifested in productivity improvement. A power plant construction project that can generate electricity one day ahead of schedule means that the loan interest can be paid one day in advance, and the profit of electric power can be collected one day in advance. A customer relationship information system project is put into use one day in advance, this means that customers can enjoy products and services more conveniently, so as to produce better expectations than competitors and bring more profits. Therefore, whether a project can be completed within the specified time has become one of the important objectives of project management.

Since the main tools used to prepare a schedule are Gantt charts and network Diagrams (including cpm/PERT, Key Path Method and Plan Review Technology), many people think that schedule management is to draw Gantt charts or network diagrams, other factors that affect the project progress are ignored. Many project managers fail to learn about project management, and there are still many solutions. Instead, they only know about Gantt charts and network diagrams. Gantt charts, network charts, and other tools are hard techniques for project time management and are easy to accept and apply. However, soft techniques such as project coordination, demand research methods, and team running-in time are easily overlooked, these soft skills play a very important role. This article attempts to explore several soft factors that affect the project progress from these aspects.

I. progress should be coordinated with project scope, cost, quality and procurement

The greatest contribution of the Project Management Association (PMI) is to standardize project management into nine knowledge systems: overall project management, project scope management, project progress management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communication management, project risk management, and project procurement management. Specifically, the overall project management aims at maximizing the benefits of the project from a global perspective, and focuses on the coordination and unification of the project's special management, comprehensive management process.

To carry out project management, we must have the concept of project management, and the idea of integrating, coordinating, and integrating various project elements and special project management.

First, the project scope will affect the project progress. Generally, if other elements remain unchanged, the larger the scope of the project, the more tasks the project will complete and the longer the project will take. In turn, the less the scope of the project, the less tasks a project needs to complete, the shorter the project time. If the project progress is very tight or the delay is very serious, we can discuss with the customer whether the scope can be reduced. If the customer agrees to narrow down the scope, the progress can be effectively shortened.

Similarly, project cost and quality also affect the progress. In general, additional costs can add more resources, such as devices and manpower, so that some work can be completed in parallel or overtime. Of course, the progress and cost are not linear replacements, and the cost increase speed is generally higher than the progress reduction speed.

 

Finally, if the project cannot be completed by schedule, consider whether some tasks can be outsourced to the project team. This is one of the Coordination content of Project Procurement Management and schedule management. Of course, the use of subcontracting sometimes increases the risk of the project, especially when the supplier has not carefully evaluated.

From the above discussion, we can know that narrowing down the scope of the project, reducing the quality of the project, borrowing procurement resources for subcontracting, and appending project costs can effectively shorten the project progress. For projects whose progress is the first constraint, the idea of coordination between the above special management items is very important. Obviously, when considering the progress reduction, You can take overall into account the coordination between the above-mentioned special management, that is, cut off some tasks, reduce the quality of some tasks, subcontract some tasks, and add part of the task costs. Of course, the "Some tasks" need to be carefully analyzed by the project team.

　　2. Correct demand research methods help speed up the process

No matter which type of project, the requirements of end users of the project should be fully investigated and analyzed at the beginning of the project establishment. Many project teams immediately think about interview with users when they think about demand research. At the beginning of the project, we started face-to-face interviews with users. However, the interview is not the first method adopted by the project team.

Generally, project owners do not necessarily understand the user's business terminology, which is particularly common in information projects. In this way, some terms mentioned by users may be ignored during the interview, because they have asked too many questions and feel bad to users. But these terms have not been solved. What should I do? I had to start the second survey and look back at the terms mentioned above. Some project teams may repeat the process two or three times. At this time, the user's trust will decrease, and the user will think that such a simple question needs to be asked several times? Some terms may indeed be basic terms in the user industry. In this case, the costs of research such as travel expenses and consultancy fees keep increasing, and the research time of the Project is also extended, while the customer's trust and cooperation are gradually decreasing. Obviously, it is unwise to interview users first.

The correct method should first ask the user to provide relevant materials and books that reflect the user's business and start literature research. When reading the document, some basic business terms of the other party can be clarified, and a preliminary understanding of the user's business process can be obtained;

 

Secondly, if necessary, ask the project team to visit the user's business processes to establish a perceptual knowledge of certain terms and business links that are literally not easy to understand.

Third, on this basis, the interview outline can be listed in a targeted manner based on issues found in Literature surveys and field visits to interview users. At this time, the interview efficiency and the interview quality will be very high, and the user will also be very professional and targeted because of the issues mentioned by the project team, resulting in a strong sense of trust.

After interviews, some project teams thought that they had obtained real and complete user requirements and began to design the project. In fact, some projects are sensitive. As the interview results are recorded, users will speak in an official statement to avoid their "risks, the demand may be distorted, and the risks during the project promotion process will be planted. The correct method should be followed by the interview to proceed to the fourth item and issue the anonymous demand questionnaire form. Because it is an anonymous domain name, more real demand information can be collected.

Finally, since interviews are conducted by individual departments or departments, each specific user or department is very clear about its own business, however, it is unclear about the business "interface" and contact with other positions and other departments. At this time, the user's Senior Business Director must be asked to make a comprehensive business report for the user enterprise. This report should be a general report, which not only allows the project team to see the full picture of the user's business, you can also see the links or interfaces between different departments and positions.

From the above discussion, we can see that the correct demand research method can not only understand the real and complete user demand information, but also establish the customer's confidence and save the project cost, this greatly shortens the project survey time. This is why some project teams did not clearly investigate their needs after spending three or even half a year. However, a project team that has mastered the correct method may obtain high-quality requirements in one month. The research time has been shortened, and the design and implementation time has become richer. If the research takes a long time and Gantt charts and network diagrams are more powerful, I am afraid they will not be able to shorten the progress! We can use numbers to describe. Assume that the total construction period of a project is 12 months. If our demand research takes three months, it will take only nine months for the design and implementation phases. If we only spend one month researching, the design and implementation phases will be extended to 11 months. Obviously, it is difficult to adjust the validity period of two months through a project management tool such as Gantt chart and network diagram.

　　3. Shortening team establishment and running-in time helps speed up the process

 

From accepting tasks, completing tasks, and disbanding a project team, a project team generally goes through five phases: formation, run-in, formal, presentation, and disbanding.

In the formation phase (also called the formation phase), project team members are recruited from various aspects. At this stage, everyone has many questions: what is our purpose? What are the technical and personal qualities of other team members? Everyone is eager to know if they can get together with other members and worry that their roles in the project will be consistent with their personal interests and career development. The emotional characteristics of project members at this stage include excitement, Hope, suspicion, anxiety, and hesitation.

In the running-in phase (also called the shock phase), the project members started to use their skills to execute the assigned tasks and started to push forward the work slowly. The reality may be different from my original ideas. For example, a task is heavier or more difficult than expected, and the cost or schedule constraints may be more tight than expected. Members are increasingly dissatisfied with the guidance or commands provided by the Project Manager. In the course of work, each member has more questions about their roles and responsibilities based on the situation of other members. The shock stage is characterized by frustration, resentment, or opposition.

After being tested in the running-in stage, the project team enters the formal stage of development (also called the standard stage ). The relationships between team members, teams, and project managers have been established. The project team gradually accepted the existing work environment, and the project procedures were also improved and standardized. The control and decision-making powers are transferred from the Project Manager to the person in charge of various activities or work contracting. The cohesion of the team begins to form. Everyone thinks that he is a member of the team, they also accept other members as part of the team.

The next stage of the formal stage is the performance stage (also called the real-work stage ). At this time, the project team actively worked to achieve the project goal. This stage has a high job performance. The team has a sense of collective experience, honor, and confidence. The project team can communicate openly, honestly, and timely. Teams are highly dependent on each other. They often work together and try their best to help each other out of their work tasks. The team can feel highly authorized. In the case of technical difficulties, appropriate team members should form a temporary research team to solve the problem and then quickly share the relevant knowledge or skills within the team. As the work progresses and is praised, the team is satisfied. Individual members will realize that the results of working for projects are bringing them career development.

 

With the completion of all project tasks, the project team enters the dissolution stage (also known as the extinction stage), and the project team members are facing re-allocation.

In the above five phases, the disbanding phase has not significantly affected the project because the project task has been completed. For a project manager, it must be clear that the actual work stage is formal and performance stage. Therefore, the important responsibilities of the Project Manager are to make the establishment and running-in phases of the project team take as short as possible. In this way, for a project with a fixed overall project progress, the shorter the team establishment and running-in phases, the longer the formal and performance phases of the project team, and the more calm the project team is when assigning and executing tasks. To shorten the project team establishment stage, the project manager must explain the project objectives to the team and imagine the bright future of project success and the benefits of project success, publish standards and restrictions on the project's scope of work, quality standards, budget and schedule. The project manager should publicly discuss the composition of the project team, the reasons for selecting team members, their complementary capabilities and expertise, and the role of each person to assist in the completion of the project objectives. In this way, open information constitutes an important incentive-Information incentives, and the formation of team awareness will be accelerated.

In order to shorten the time required for the project team to run in, the project manager should guide all members to participate in the formulation of the project plan, formulation of rules and regulations, and assignment of tasks, at the same time, Members should be allowed to express their concerns. In this way, active participation constitutes an important incentive for Members-Participation in incentives, which makes it easier for team members to accept the team's rules and regulations and assigned work, team awareness can be further strengthened.

Here is an example. Assume that the total construction period of a project is 12 months. It would take us three months to build our team, and one more month. In fact, the formal and performance stages are less than 8 months. However, it would only take 0. 5 months for our team to be established, and then 0. 5 months. Then the formal stage and performance stage will be extended to 11 months. Obviously, it is too difficult to use a project management tool such as Gantt chart and network diagram to adjust the three-month validity period.

As we all know, the 2008 Summer Olympics will be held in Beijing in August and 29th, and China successfully won the Olympics in July 13, 2001. According to the International Olympic Committee, all Olympic venues must carry out one-year individual competitions. That is to say, all venues and facilities must be completed before January 1, July 2007. The information system and communication network in the venue generally have a trial run period of half a year. Obviously, the Olympic Venue Construction Project (Program: Project Group, composed of a series of projects-project) the construction start and end time is from January 1, July 2001 ~ In December 2006, the total construction period was five and a half years. Therefore, Lou Dapeng, sports director of the Beijing Olympics Committee, which states the overall idea of the 2008 Olympic Games competition, said Beijing would complete the stadium construction by the end of 2006. However, when was the Organizing Committee of the 29th Olympic Committee set up? Liu Qi, Chairman of the Organizing Committee and Mayor of Beijing, said at the opening ceremony on September 18 that the organizing committee of the Beijing Olympic Games is a specialized agency for organizing, managing, and implementing preparations for the 29th Olympic Games. That is to say, it takes half a year to build a project team. When I wrote this article, it was already in the middle of 2003, and many venues are still in the bidding stage. The actual construction time is still relatively tight.

 

To sum up, using the correct methods and ideas for project management can effectively shorten the project progress and improve the productivity of the project team. In fact, in addition to the above three factors, there are many factors that affect the project progress, such as the personal time management of project members and whether the work style of the project team is consistent. Imagine if project members cannot manage their personal time, will the progress of the entire project be guaranteed? If everyone's work style is not uniform, they need to unify the style after their work is completed, or even re-emerge, it will not only greatly extend the project schedule, but also increase project spending. The correct method is to scientifically manage personal time, unify work style or work template at the beginning of the project. Due to space limitations, we will not go into details.