Technology of project progress control

Project Progress control is an important responsibility of the Project Manager. As the saying goes, "Time is money" is not much obvious here. Project management is the same as self-driving home for the new year. In fact, according to the definition of the project, "self-driving home for the New Year" is also an uncompromising project, but it is more fit for everyone's life, more likely to resonate, let's take it as an example.

 

From the passenger's point of view, if you have been in the car for a long time but have not reached the expected destination, you will have questions. Generally, you will ask the driver where it is ", if the driver's answer is not so satisfactory, this question will accumulate. To a certain extent, you will begin to doubt whether you are confused. If this question remains unsolved, you will eventually ask for a stop. If you are taking a taxi, it will cause the passengers to get off the bus and continue moving forward.

 

The same is true during the project, because of the "invisible" nature of software projects, the customer's psychology is more fragile and unstable. If the progress given by the project manager is unverifiable every time, the customer's questions will accumulate and eventually burst into an intolerable state.

 

People will have their own "psychological expectations" for the completion of a thing. This value will be adjusted and become more and more accurate as people learn more about it. A passenger takes a bus to his destination. If he is familiar with the route, he will generally follow key landmarks and time-related customs. For example, from Nanshan Science Park to Shenzhen Railway Station, it generally takes no more than one hour. If you drive to Shenzhen south, you will surely go through the window of the world, Civic Center, King Tower, and finally to the railway station. What do passengers think if they don't see the window of the world after half an hour when they exit at 8 o'clock in the evening?

 

The same is true for projects. The customer's Psychological Expectation is the arrival time of the project's "milestone event. The project manager develops a project milestone to influence the customer's psychological expectations. However, this kind of behavior is a double-edged sword that affects the customer's psychology and also limits the project.

 

In fact, there are two levels of project schedules: one is the microscopic layer. At this level, all things are tasks one by one. When a project is down, there are hundreds of tasks to complete, this layer is the focus of the project manager and project team members, and the most accurate progress description. The other is the macro level, which is the focus of customers and stakeholders outside the project, every progress is a milestone, and the Progress description at this level is not very accurate.

 

From the psychological point of view, the progress given by the project manager is correct. The key is whether the gap with reality is within the scope. If the customer continues to think that the project progress description is accurate, the more confident the project is, the better the support for the project is, and the higher the tolerance for errors. If you have no confidence in the progress of the project, the project will be put pressure on and the handling of mistakes will be more severe.

 

Common Methods for how to grasp the progress and progress reports are "blocking" and "sparse". The so-called "blocking" refers to concealment. The project manager can make the progress fake and beautiful, but it will be repaired very badly if it cannot be delivered at the end; while "Dredging" means Truthfully reporting, allow project stakeholders to master the main details of the project transparently. In practice, many project managers adopt the compromise method, some report truthfully, and others conceal it to avoid unnecessary troubles. But in fact, the project manager must be able to "Tell the truth.

 

The first is "the actual completion ability of the project team". The common point is the maximum number of tasks that can be completed every day and every week. If the project manager and the customer know the speed, the customer will not make excessive Progress requirements, and the Project Manager can reject all progress requirements that exceed the capability. This "Capability" is actually the source of "Say No" by the Project Manager. In reality, many project managers fail to understand the true capabilities of the team, and fail to fulfill their responsibilities.

 

The second is the "Project Progress prediction capability". If the project manager can finish the task at a time, the project work will become smoother and smoother in the future. Most of the conflicts between project teams and customers are caused by "inaccurate Progress prediction" or "unpredictable progress". The progress has repeatedly broken through customers' psychological expectations, it cannot be thought.

 

In actual project practice, it is difficult to assess and predict the project progress, but it is not completely impossible. We can look at it from the moment the project is finished. At the time of completion (after the change), the progress of the project is undoubtedly 100%. One week ahead, I think the progress can be predicted, however, if you push it for a month, it will blur. In other words, the Project Progress prediction becomes clearer as the project progresses.

 

First, analyze "Why is fuzzy". The problem lies in two aspects: "task breakdown" and "temporary task". For the former, we can gradually break down and solve it point by point. For the latter, we can reserve time. We can first write a large task in the task list, and then refine and evaluate it before processing. As the work progresses, the task list will become finer and more accurate. For "temporary tasks", time is reserved in the schedule.

 

Next, we will analyze "How To Be clear".

 

The first is the "estimation", which writes all the tasks that can be thought of at that time into the schedule. Do not be afraid of not going into detail, or be afraid of being inaccurate, but remember to refine all the tasks that can be refined in time;

 

The second is "record". The Project Manager records all the tasks that have been done by the project team to the task plan. After a certain degree of accumulation, the project team's task completion speed can be seen from the schedule, that is, the actual completion capability of the project team. The unit of this competency value can be "task/Day", "working hours/day", and "working hours/week. At the same time, we can get the value of "unscheduled workload". This value can guide the project team to adjust the time reserved for "temporary tasks.

 

The last step is "optimization and prediction". Based on the results of the previous two steps, we can forecast and adjust the future progress in a timely manner.

 

In short, the following three formulas must be followed in Project Progress Management. Anyone who understands elementary school mathematics can do this:

Development speed = completed workload/time consumed
Current Progress = completed workload/total workload
Remaining Time = remaining workload/development speed = (total workload-completed workload)/development speed

In practice, we know the "completed workload" through "Recording Tasks", get the "development speed", and gradually approach "total workload" through continuous refinement ", the "current progress" and "Remaining Time" are more and more accurate.

 

Project Progress Management is actually not difficult, isn't it? What is really difficult is to "dispel Fear ".