IT project management experience sharing

The initial stage of a project is the most important stage. When taking over a new project, the project manager should first learn as much as possible about the project from various aspects, such:
　　
1. What is this project?

Who proposed the specific things to solve the problems. The more detailed the previous work is, the less surprised it will be. The less risky the project will be.

2. Identify project stakeholders

For example, investors, specific business teams, operators after the project is built, and technical supervisors. In many projects, apart from the complex structure of the owner, some other units will also be involved, such as the project supervision company and the owner's Industry Authority. The project manager needs to understand the views and expectations of each person on the project. By understanding your views and expectations in advance, you can analyze what people will support you when you encounter problems in your project, who will oppose you for what purpose, so as to prepare friends in advance to fight against the enemy and let things develop in the direction you want. There are no friends forever, no enemies forever, and only consistent interests. This sentence must be remembered as a project manager;

3. Understand your company's views on this project

The first is whether the senior leadership attaches importance to it. This determines whether the company will provide the most powerful support as required when you need resources. Leaders say yes to their support. What you need to do is to understand the company's actual expectations for this project. Do you want to increase the project or make money? Whether you want to make a model project or simply want to be perfunctory, the attitude of the company's leaders to the project determines your strategy for this project, and this strategy will have a direct impact on your project plan;
　　
4. Understand the project's Resource requirements

First, timeMany projects are usually required to be completed within an almost impossible time range. For this purpose, you must fully consider the risk control plan of the project.Second, personnelBased on the project budget and past experience, roughly calculate the number of roles of the project team in the future, whether or not each role is owned by the company, and whether it can be fully used by the project, whether or not you need to recruit other personnel. The recruitment preparation should be started as soon as possible. Finally, we need to prepare some equipment. We need to reserve the key devices for the project as soon as possible. In the future, no matter whether the devices or people are waiting for the equipment, your time is wasted;

5. Project Manual

A good project description not only clearly describes what will be done (mainly about what to do, rather than how to do it), but also describes how to check thoroughly. That is to say, it not only shows what to do, but also lets the customer's business personnel (generally do not know the technology) Know what the project is done. Simply put, the project manual describes what the project does and how much each task is done, and how to check each result.
　　
6. Communicate resources with your company and customers

Before making the plan, you need to fully communicate with your manager and customer about the resources. Because many resources are unclear, you need to write a report to analyze the risks of the project and the resource requirements in detail. What will happen if some problems cannot be solved. If the resources are insufficient, you need to change the policy at the top to increase investment in this project. Some companies even give up the project with the conditional permission. In short, no one can complete an impossible task. If the project manager cannot detect risks as soon as possible, then he can only become a martyr.

7. Set up a project team

Many project managers do not have the right to select their own team members, so try to exert your influence to find the people you want. The composition of members varies greatly depending on the project, and it is difficult to have specific requirements,However, you must have people who are proficient in customer business.In many small projects, this person is the project manager himself, and the big project will be equipped with industry experts, so that they can communicate with the customer without talking to the duck, both parties can understand each other. I often see that our technicians talk to customers in full technical terms, and the results make customers confused. In turn, he also accused customers of not understanding the technology. In fact, customers who know what they want to do are already good customers. customers who do not know what they want to do, or who do not know how to do it, but who want to know what they want to do, the customer chooses you, rather than the customer. If you have a customer, you will get a salary. Just be calm.

* Insert: For customers whose requirements change every day, make sure to follow the rules in advance:
(1) Unified contacts

If the customer specifies a person to communicate with the project team, either Zhang or Wang can give a few comments. If they disagree, you have to offend the leaders, at the beginning of the project, we had to set rules. My project team had only one opinion and asked you to unify the rules before talking to me. I don't want to be involved in the conflicts between your internal business departments;
(2) All demand changes must be written. Remember this!

In this way, there are many advantages:
* If you have written evidence and want to change it in the future, you have the evidence he requested before and tell him: What you said before;
* It is easy to manage demand changes. You can clearly understand how the demand evolves slowly to better understand the customer's purpose;
* It is most convenient for a customer to make a move. You do not need to spend his or her resources. Therefore, it is irresponsible to ask whether the request is reasonable and whether it is consistent with the purpose of the project. However, if he wants to write a written request and sign and seal the statement, he will be more cautious. As soon as he writes something, his mind will be more profound, and many unreasonable requests will be lost;

8. Communicate with three groups of people: your leadership, your team members, and your customers

Communicate with these people to let them know what you are going to do, and when you want them to prepare these things will be your main job. Since communication is so important, it is also important to define the principles of communication in advance. Many communication principles are hidden rules. If you have been working in a department for a long time, it is a legitimate thing to apply these rules. However, you are facing multiple departments or even multiple units. If you do not clarify the communication rules, you will suffer losses in the future.

 

* Insert: methods and skills for communication:

 

The first is to define the information flow mode and Medium, Push or pull. The promotion means that the project manager will actively publish information, whether by phone, email or written, to ensure that the information is delivered to everyone. This situation is suitable for small projects with fewer people. The project manager is a Web server, and you need to ask him what information you need. Of course, if the project manager isn't so tired of posting himself, he will publish the information to the public media. What's simple is the whiteboard, what's more complicated is the public information interaction zone of the project. The potential rule is that if I send a message, you don't need to say that I didn't tell you. It seems boring to say that it involves incomplete information communication responsibilities. Of course, these are general methods, and they should not be absolute. In general, active communication and passive access exist at the same time, especially for leaders, the project manager should take the initiative to communicate with the leadership.

 

The second problem is the document problem.Many people are afraid of writing documents, but the project manager must keep in mind the principle that "good memory is not as good as bad writing. Why can't I tell you why? It is because there is no evidence. At the beginning, the project manager should clarify with the customer that some documents must be signed. For example, the project log of the project manager should be signed by the customer at least every week, and all other things that reach consensus should be discussed, for example, the meeting minutes and even the speech records of leaders must be written into documents and signed by both parties, so that they can be well documented in the future. Remember: What you say is the same as what you did not say. It is only after you write it down and sign it. There are still some questions, such as the report you submitted and a multiple-choice question for the leaders (including local leaders and customer leaders). The result leaders are overwhelmed, making you feel at a loss and delaying the progress. At this time, you can wait, but pay attention to keeping a record indicating who is responsible. In addition, if you are at the beginning, you should negotiate with the leaders: if you do not receive a response from the supervisor three days after the instruction is submitted, you will take the initiative. For example, the approval process for different events: what level of events are recorded in the project log, what level of events require both project managers to sign the Memorandum, and what level of events require both leaders to sign the contract annex. The more thoughtful you think, the more active you will be in the future.

9. Project Plan

 

First, find several key team members, such as customer business experts and system analysts, and divide the project modules. A project is divided into several parts, each part is completed, and information between modules is exchanged. What is the requirement definition, and how is the requirement defined here. Here, we need to emphasize that there are many ways to accomplish a goal. You need to choose one that you are most familiar with, rather than the one that looks perfect. This idea will reduce a lot of risks for your project. Sometimes the customer will be moved by a new technology and insist that you adopt the new technology, you should tell him: you choose me to do this project, I should allow myself to do things in my favorite way. The new technology is tempting because there are not many people who suffer, and I don't want you to be the first victims.

 

Using a plan will make your work clearer. For example, using Microsoft Project software, after you fill out the form, you can know how many things the project has to do, what resources are required for each task, how is the relationship between them, how long it takes, and what marks are there after completion. All the results are shown in the form of a dry graph. After you finish this table, you will be surprised to find that, the project end time on the Gantt chart lags far behind your planned end time (the contract owner will never ask for your opinion first ). Of course, people who have studied project management will talk about WBS, optimization paths, and other things. However, my experience is that you cannot optimize these things until the end of the plan. If you haven't encountered this problem, please confirm whether you have listed all the things to be done and correctly evaluated the time they need before I congratulate you on selecting a simple task.At this time, you have to consider sacrificing time for some tasks (which also means quality. What are the criteria for sacrifice? The strategy of this project!The strategy we mentioned in section 3. My experience is that if you keep up with everything, the result may be that you have not done either of the ten things well. Therefore, if you invest your resources in something you are familiar with and have a certain grasp of, the final result is ten things. You have made three excellent products, three finished items, and four delayed items for some reasons, is there a lot of beautiful transcripts?Strategy determines the priority, and the priority of correctly arranged tasks is the main embodiment of a Project Manager's ability.

10. project implementation phase.

 

The main task of the project manager during this period is to maintain communication with the customer leaders and their own leaders. When communicating with customer leaders, pay special attention to this. Unless you need the support from the other party, you need to be specific. Otherwise, you can tell them everything is normal, in addition, the attitude should be positive, and do not describe details that leaders do not understand,Unless he is a technical expert, you need his technical experience. Otherwise, you can report whether the progress is normal and whether your countermeasures and plans are appropriate when there is a problem,For example, resource calls need to be detailed..

 

In addition to project progress tracking meetings, there are also many seminars that require you to use brainstorming methods to solve the problem. Many of the attendees are technical staff. They are characterized by attention to details, lack of overall picture, negative pessimism, and strong self-esteem (if not, you are welcome to make a picture, as the host of the meeting, you must not be a judge as long as you are responsible for raising questions and recording their views. One problem is that there are many aspects. from different perspectives, the phenomena are completely different. Think about the stories of blind people. These technicians tend to be proficient in one aspect and express their opinions from their own perspectives. Unless in some special circumstances, you should think that the solutions they propose, from their perspective, it is the most reasonable.Your strength is to master the priority of things, evaluate the priorities of various aspects, and then draw a suitable (rather than the right) solution based on their opinions.. Therefore, at the meeting, you must fully respect everyone's opinions and praise those who have made the comments better,Never bring the meeting into endless debate(You want to let everyone know that things are not black or white, but diverse. Alas, the troubles caused by our education ...). After the meeting, you will write your own documents and make decisions. At the meeting, everyone's face was taken care of, and there was little resistance to implementation. If you had any opinions, you could talk to him privately. If you still couldn't convince him, you need to let him know that, because you are responsible for this project and you are responsible for risks, you should judge this priority. The Organization's senior leadership is not necessarily at a higher level than the ordinary members. However, they must bear the risks of the organization and the asymmetry of information. Therefore, they must have a higher priority than their subordinates.

In the development process, the internal management should pay attention to the idea of taking acceptance as the purpose at all times.The final deliverables of each task must be checked. For example, [interface requirements: elegant and concise], I do not know how to check this requirement.Therefore, when assigning tasks to the development team, consider how to check the results..It is important for the project manager to always consider how to check the results and deliver the results to the customer.I have heard that some old project managers plan projects in reverse order, that is, they first look at the acceptance and acceptance criteria, and then decide the work plan. Many projects have started for a long time and do not know how to accept them, so there is a high possibility of problems in this project.The project is designed for acceptance. Our role is not a research institution, and our goal is to get results after so much effort is paid.
　　
11. demand changes

There are two types of changes: one is to partially change the original goal, that is, the demand change;The other is that the target is not changed, but the customer is not satisfied with the current implementation method, from process implementation to interface layout. It is inevitable to encounter such a situation, mainly because the communication in advance is insufficient and the customer gradually figured out the problem and changed his previous thinking as the project progresses. At this time, if you need to change and your strategy permits this situation,Pay attention to the following points:

1. Make sure that the previous document records the previous conclusions and whether the customer has signed or not,If not, stop your work and confirm your plan with the customer. Then, ask him to sign the plan to avoid having to speak without creden;
2. Sit down with the customer and discuss the fundamental purpose of his modification,Are there any options that can achieve the same purpose, but at a lower cost for you?
3. (work in the early stage of the project)Clearly define the change process. Generally, the customer specifies a person to sign the process.(Otherwise, every customer leader has the right to put in a barrier, and you will waste it ),Submit it to you in the form of a formal project file. Then, you will evaluate and analyze the impact on the cost and progress. After your leadership agrees, submit the relevant comments,It is mainly to explain the reasons for changing the design and point out the uncertain consequences resulting from the change (this is written first, and if it does happen later, at least it is not your fault ). Then let the customer sign the signature.Have you ever seen my family sign a disclaimer before the hospital has performed surgery on a patient? Right, let's learn that, and let everyone realize that any change has cost and cost.

 

12. Customer Training and System Acceptance

 

1. pay more attention to the surface work before giving the customer training.Many programmers believe that whether the logic core of the system is correct is the key. As for how the interface is, whether the words on the interface are accurate is irrelevant, and the training is also a matter of confidence, where do you want to talk about it? The people who have heard the following are Yun, Yun Shan, and fog. The training effect can naturally be imagined. In my experience, if you are still unable to determine whether the logic meets the requirements after multiple tests, you should spend at least a little effort on the interface. Pay attention to the layout, words, and links of each interface,In short, do not let the customer see something he should not see.For documentation, prepare at least two documents: user manual and training manual. Many of these two documents share the same content, but they have different perspectives. User Manuals are often used by system designers to explain system operations and functions in modules based on their own ideas. training manuals must be conducted by the customer's business personnel, based on how each role handles different services, how to achieve the goal by using a series of functions of the system.Therefore, before the first training, whether the system interface is complete and correct, and whether the training documents are complete are critical factors. If the first shot fails, it will be a lot of trouble in the future.

As a project manager, there are several things in his mind: What to do, how to do it, how to deliver it, the resources on hand, and the priority of each task.These four aspects are conflicting.Priorities,It is usually to put the speed first, and leaders from all parties will give you the deadline, so the progress is the first; the province is the second placeThe fundamental purpose of an enterprise is to make a profit. If the income cannot increase, the cost should at least be controlled;Good is the third placeNo way, no one wants to keep improving, but without powerful resource assurance, the quality has to be sacrificed first;Finally, there are many customers with a steady stream of requirements. How to Reduce the expectations of the customers and bring them back to reality is also the internal work of the Project Manager.
　　
Before acceptance, in addition to the document work, we can deliver the results. It is very important to spend more time figuring out the customer's business process.
　　
My biggest experience in acceptance is the issue of proof. That is, never let the customer think this way: You must have evidence to prove that your system is okay.In this way, you are no longer playing. Microsoft has so many days to install patches every day for XP. It is neither possible nor evidence for your program.You need to let the customer understand that the so-called acceptance is that I ran the test case according to the test document, and the results should be consistent with the expected results, some minor errors are allowed to be corrected after acceptance. He can give comments on the test case..Therefore, both parties should confirm the test plan and test cases before acceptance.. If he thinks the system does not meet the requirements, he should prove that the system deviates from the initial design. Therefore, do not put the evidence upside down by referring to legal concepts.In addition, it is wrong to think that the system is perfect for acceptance. The software development contract must indicate the cost of the maintenance period after acceptance. Otherwise, the customer is worried that your support will not be available once acceptance, naturally, it is difficult for your project manager to submit your homework.