Elizabeth Harrin's Blog, page 6

What’s The Future of Project Management in 2025 and beyond?

What is the future of project management? Let’s look ahead and see what the next 10 years will bring for project management software, jobs, and the role itself.

Does project management have a future?

If you're asking yourself if project management has a future, then I think you might be asking the wrong question! The question is: what kind of future is it going to be for project professionals?

The project management role isn't going anywhere. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report 2023 predicts a growth in project management jobs. It's a key role for business transformation, and there's no signs of that stopping any time soon. If you're in Indonesia or Malaysia, the outlook's even better!

More and more knowledge work being run in a projectized way, which means more and more people doing project management as part of their day job.

So will we need ‘professional’ project managers in the future? People who just do managing projects?

We will. There will always be complex and complicated projects that need a steady hand and a particular set of skills to bring to a successful delivery.

As the business environment gets more and more global, digitalized, uncertain and fast, companies need to quickly adapt and bring services and products to market. Project managers are the people who can make that happen.

Future of project management: Jobs

PMI says that by 2027 employers will need nearly 88 million people in project-related roles. The global demand for project managers is increasing.

That's a stat widely used in the past few years, but job ads and the market, and my mentoring clients, and other research... it's all pointing in the same direction.

The role of the project manager has long been shifting away from someone who can tick off tasks as complete on a Gantt chart and towards a strategic leadership position for effecting change in an organization.

Project managers still provide an irreplaceably human combination of leadership, integration of specialists, and ethical behaviour.

~ Arup, Future of Project Management report

We are a long way from the death of project management.

Hybrid project management (or how we always did it)

One of the project management trends we are seeing is the acceptance that a tailored approach is the way forward. In other words, we don't need to label it as hybrid project management, 'wagile' or 'agifall' or flexible project management or anything else.

Tailoring the approach that you use is professional judgement and is what project managers have done for ages. It’s certainly something I’ve used: for example ongoing iterations for development with significant customer involvement in the deliverables at all stages, but managed within a waterfall governance structure and life cycle.

Frankly, hybrid isn’t new. We don't need to call it anything specific to know that tailoring an approach to best fit the needs of the project is good thing.

Having said that, the perceived rise of hybrid project management is good news because:

Projects are more complex than everThey involve many more individuals: more than could comfortably fit in a multi-skilled Scrum teamMost large organizations aren’t geared up to run their whole operation in an agile way.

The future of project management needs to be more agile. According to research by IPMA, only 47% of organizations are using agile approaches for delivery.

And we wonder why we can’t respond to change fast enough.

The future is flexible

The way we run projects has been evolving since we started out formalizing how work gets done in a project setting.

As our environment gets more complex, uncertain and – dare I say it, political – we’ll need more and more tools to help deliver projects in that kind of environment.

For example, project managers need to respond to:

Stakeholders with shorter attention spansStakeholders with competing demands on their timeComplex and unknown technical situationsComplex and unknown geopolitical and socio-political situationsHigher staff turnover (no such thing as a job for life any more)Greater demands being put on management teamsCollaborative contracting and partnering with suppliersIncreasingly complex regulation and governance.

Project managers need options that will help them deliver. And that means being able to choose from predictive, iterative and hybrid ways of delivering the work and blending what works to get the best results.

The future of project management relies on more professional judgement and fewer textbook answers.

Project management software: The next generation

The future of project management software is interesting. I review a lot of PM software tools and there are companies now making massive leaps into integrating big data, automations, machine learning, AI and more into the way they collate, present and make it possible to use large data sets.

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Here are some considerations for future technology – project management style.

4 themes for the future of project management softwareArtificial intelligenceMobile workingAnti-workaholismAI

AI is already a feature in some project management tools and robotic processing will help automate routine PMO tasks. According to Deloitte, 70% of organizations are exploring or using AI.

Current statistics on AI in project management show that this is a growing area and the challenge for us as project leaders is that it's important to know how to work effectively with the tools that we have available.

Tools like Tom's Planner, RAIDLOG, Nimble and enterprise software are integrating generative AI and your own project data sets to surface useful insights and save you time.

While I still remain positive about the role of the project manager, I think other jobs you routinely interact with, like system testers, could be more at risk of being automated.

The use of AI in project management tools means the human’s role is elevated into a knowledge leadership position and is freed up from doing the grunt work of tasks like system testing, taking minutes or updating logs – taking the tools already in use to a whole new level.

Project management jobs aren't going to be lost to AI, but they will change, and employers are potentially going to be choosing people who have AI skills over those who do not.

Mobile working

Devices will become more powerful, but currently we still don’t have all the functions of PM software available in most of the equivalent mobile apps. That will have to change.

We need to have access to our project management software while we're working remotely from smaller devices.

Anti-workaholism

Tools are getting smarter at helping us balance the needs of work and life, and to stop us falling into the trap of working more, just because we can.

You know those pop ups in Outlook that invite us to NOT send an email at the weekend and to schedule it for the recipient's working hours? That's what I mean.

Resource management: The Continuous Challenge

For all the talk about the future of work and how project management is going to evolve, I still think we have some challenges with how we work now.

For example, resource management and capacity planning are not things that are easy to do. I have been talking about this for years.

Project managers lack the tools to effectively manage workload across teams because the solution required relies on enterprise adoption of software. And many organizations won't/can't do that.

Make everyone do timesheets and resource planning just so project teams know who’s available to work? No thanks.

Unfortunately, unless we get strategic buy in for managing projects in a professional way, the resource planning challenge isn’t going anywhere soon.

Projects on the Board: The next professionals

Arup’s collaborative thought leadership piece into the Future of Project Management talks about every top 100 firm has a project management professional in at least one C-suite role by 2030.

Maybe this role will be a Chartered Project Manager.

If we are serious about improving project delivery and delivering strategically-aligned projects that generate business value, we need organizations to take project delivery seriously. And that means elevating the discussion beyond senior managers to the board of directors.

The Chief Project Officer role is (in my opinion) long overdue already. With executive oversight from people who actually get it, projects would have more chance of completing successfully – and fewer vanity projects would get started.

Digital skills: The next competency for project managers

Digital skills are important for the project managers of the future (and – in all honest, those of us working as PMs today).

CBI’s report into what’s required to create a world-leading innovation economy says that upskilling people with digital skills is essential. The digital skills pipeline isn’t that great at the moment and they suggest more needs to be done to encourage greater ambition in that arena.

The digital skills important to project managers are:

Data analysis, analytics and managementHarnessing generative AI and being a 'prompt engineer' for your own workSecurity and data protectionLegal and regulatory complianceOnline collaboration and leadershipKnowledge management          Data-driven decision making.

Add into all of that a very non-digital skill of resilience. With all this change, disruption and digital-ness, the ability to cope with the ups and downs of the job is going to be essential.

The role of project managers in the future

The future of project management is bright. There remains strong demand for people delivering change.

I believe much of the mundane stuff of being a project manager will go away eventually, as our tools tap into the advances in technology that are already out there.

PM will move from being seen by some execs as an administrative function and towards the strategic partnership that it has the potential to be in every business – not just in those enlightened firms with high levels of program management maturity.

Skills for project managers have been shifting towards the ‘soft’ stuff for years. That’s going to be even more important with the way the future of work is going.

Project managers will need to be the humans on the team. We’ll need to connect with others with the skills that you can’t get from your robot colleague:

EmpathyStrategic thinkingFunCreativityMotivation and persuasionThoughtful customer serviceListening.Looking forward: Summary

Project management evolves to meet the needs of today’s workplace problems. We’re facing the kinds of evolution we’re seeing at work because the nature of the work itself demands it.

Efficiency is more than having the right process. It’s also having the capacity as a team – not simply as a project manager because the role is getting too big for one person to do everything – to lead increasingly complex work and solve difficult problems almost daily.

We can do it. We are doing it. And the best project managers are improving how they do it every day. Are you?

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: What’s The Future of Project Management in 2025 and beyond?

Managing Multiple Projects: Statistics

What are the key challenges when working on multiple projects simultaneously? How do you prioritize work when everything is important?

I asked 570 project managers these questions (and more) to find out what life is like in 2024 for project managers leading multiple projects, to follow on from my research on the same topic in 2022.

In this article, we’ll dive into my 2024 research results and you’ll learn:

The 3 challenges that project managers struggle withThe key skills required for managing multiple projectsHow many project managers are overwhelmed with workThe scale of AI tools in use by project managers.

View the raw data

Scroll down to interrogate the data set which is embedded at the end of this article.

This wasn’t a survey about project portfolio management at the PMO level. Instead, I wanted to know what it’s like as someone who has a workload made up of several projects – because that’s the world I live in too.

Interested in how these managing multiple projects statistics differ from other research I've done? Check out these:

Project management statistics and survey results (2023 study)Managing multiple projects research (2022, this informed my book, Managing Multiple Projects -- first edition)Project management report (2021, this research is where the much-quoted "most project managers lead 2-5 projects" statistic comes from)Stakeholder management original research (2017)Collaboration tools for project managers survey (2015)Social media in a project environment (2011)Blog reader surveyMost project managers work on related projects

Most project managers reported managing 2 to 5 projects, which is consistent with my other research and past surveys. So no change there.

This time I asked about how those projects are managed, and 73% of the time it’s with an individual plan.

What is strange is that 50% of respondents said that their projects are related in some way, for example by client, so they absolutely could consolidate plans. Only 14% consolidate plans by sponsor or client/customer. 

Leaders are not making use of the opportunity to consolidate plans – although we should also acknowledge that sometimes the portfolio of work you get means you can’t easily consolidate anyway.

Survey results for: How do you manage the projects you are responsible for?19% of project managers are overwhelmed

Nearly 1 in 5 project managers is overwhelmed. And a further 55% say they manage, but they aren’t loving the job. In fact, only 26% said they thrive on the challenge of managing multiple projects.

I’m not sure what we can take from this because everyone is different, and if I had done the survey, I would have answered differently depending on what day it was. Where do you fall on the spectrum?

Survey results for: How do you find managing several projects at once?65% of project managers say they struggle with perfectionism

Project managers are busy people, but one personality trait is common in my mentees and also in project managers I meet: perfectionism. I wanted to ask about this, as it can hold you back from managing your time effectively when you juggle multiple projects.

65% of project managers report struggling with being a perfectionist.

Nearly 50% said that being indecisive was a problem. That can lead to not being able to move forward without more data or more consultation – and while that could be a good thing in certain situations, sometimes you just need to move on.

Survey results for: Do you struggle with any of these?

35% of survey respondents said that putting additional time into preparing was a struggle for their time management.

Yes, we have to do a good job, but when you’ve got several projects on the go, it’s impossible to give every task the gold-plated standard. Some tasks have to be done well and some tasks simply need to be done.

A project manager says...

I have found that getting to know my weaknesses has helped, for example, if I procrastinate why?
If I over prepare or am a perfectionist why is this and how can I address those fears?
If I struggle to adopt new ways of working and to change then how can I help myself effectively?
Also, to recognize my organization's culture and what can and cannot be changed has helped me to let some things go as beyond my control to change.

Most project managers prioritize their own workload

Half of project managers prioritize their own workload because there is no one else to do it for them.

16% have workloads prioritized by the PMO17% have workloads prioritized by their manager

And if you don’t have those in place, or another way, then the only option is to try to work out what is the most important work yourself. That’s not easy, and it’s an extra burden for project professionals.

Survey results for: How is your work prioritized?

A project manager says...

It's chaos, but the cat-herding can be incredibly rewarding when it's successful. I try to focus less on how many projects I have and more on clearing the path for the implementers. They don't need me to do their job, they need me to enable their job. Getting the red tape out of their way builds an incredible sense of shared focus and camaraderie.

Communication is the most important skill for managing multiple projects

Unsurprisingly, and in line with last time’s survey results, communication was ranked the most important skill for managing projects by 90% of project managers.

Survey results for: What skills are important for managing multiple projects? (Respondents could select several)

Communication was closely followed by:

Planning/scheduling (84%)Stakeholder engagement (62%)Team management (53%)Resource management (50%) and more on that belowLeadership (49%)Risk management (39%)

Governance came in last at only 31%. My own experience bears this out – when you’re busy, you lose a lot of the governance and attention to detail because you just don’t have time to fill in yet another document that no one will read. Focus on doing the governance documents and processes that make a difference.

A project manager says...

I don't enjoy managing multiple projects, especially as the majority of my projects do not interlink, they are separate work areas with separate teams. Day to day, things are always a rush, and I don't have the time to really understand the topics of work, the projects themselves and get to know the teams well enough. It always feels like you are at the surface level. There is no time to plan properly in order to get ahead of situations, and feels like it's a constant battle of issues arising.

Most project managers curate their own templates

I thought that most project managers would have access to a standard document repository in all but the smallest of organizations. However, this doesn’t seem to be the case. 63% of project leaders say they have their own library of past documents that they use to build out their project documentation.

Only 35% have access to a PMO library of standard templates.

People were able to select more than one answer here, so it’s possible that some survey respondents have their own template library and a PMO standard document repository.

Survey results for: Do you have access to standard document templates?

A project manager says...

I think the biggest thing I would like to know is how I can create my own checklists. We did have a PMO, but it's been dissolved and I've been largely left on my own.

Managing resources on multiple projects

90% of projects use shared resources. In other words, the subject matter experts working on your project are also working on other projects. Having a dedicated, full-time team is rare.

The most common way to get people to work on projects is to talk to team leaders. That’s been part of the PMI resource management processes for as long as I can remember, but in reality, project managers often don’t have the seniority or authority to simply secure resources just by asking.

Nearly 40% of project managers already have known resources by the time the project gets to them which I think is good.

Survey results for: How are resources allocated to your projects?

A project manager says...

It is incredibly challenging. Through this role, I’ve learned more than ever that common sense is not common, resources cannot always be relied upon to do the work they’re assigned to do and/or by the deadline they’ve agreed to do it. Vendor management has also gotten significantly tougher over the years - requiring SOWs and business requirements to be more explicit and detailed than they’ve ever been in the event it is identified that there are issues with deliverables (quality, gaps in requirements, timeliness) - I’ve personally experienced all 3 this year with at least 2 projects. Meetings are more often than not recorded (us and vendor). RfPs and POCs are also increasing because there is a lack of trust that vendors can deliver what they’re selling. It’s an aspect of project management that I don’t particularly love.

A project manager says...

Across the projects I work on I often encounter accountability issues when leading projects. Although the projects are given the green light to progress and are closely aligned to strategies and there are defined stakeholders the organizational culture tends to operate on the side of over consultation. This results in lack of decision making as no one person takes ownership even if this maybe their responsibility. This leads to circling around different stakeholders to try and secure a decision. This in turn creates delays in progressing the work or in some cases the project become shelved and no longer seen as a priority.

Do AI tools help manage projects?

In a word, no. AI tools do not (yet) help the majority of project managers do their daily work. Only 19% of respondents reported having access to and using AI tools. Everyone else either doesn’t have access to the tools or does not use them.

The barriers to access flagged in the verbatim comments were mostly around security concerns and AI tools not being ‘within policy’ to use. I think policies need to catch up, otherwise more and more employees will start using AI tools outside of the officially-sanctioned products. Shadow IT has always been a problem but it may be more of a concern as individuals try to tap into the tools that are out there but that aren’t officially in use.

Survey results for: Do you use AI tools for project management?Tracking time (or not)

Most project managers (54%) don’t track time on their projects, but it’s very close. The survey did not ask people to say what industry they worked in, so I would assume that people who do track time work in professional services, agencies or other client-facing roles.

They could also work in in-house roles on projects where activity can be capitalized for accounting reasons if they are creating an asset (like we can do here in the UK) and that would require them to track time at least at a high level.

Survey results for: Do you track time on projects?

A project manager says...

I love the fast pace and no two days are rarely the same. You have to be super organized and it helps if you have the same sponsor or stakeholders for some projects. Working on multiple projects is a great way to get to know a vast range of stakeholders across your organization across, both business and technology, as well as external vendors. It really helps me to leverage governance materials and documents from previous projects so I’m not starting from scratch each time.

My projects would often in at various stages of the lifecycle so I had to prioritize my time based on which was at a most critical point or which had the most critical issues - but balance it so that I was still on top of all milestones and kept up good communications with stakeholders / sponsors.

I often found I had to work late or at weekends as I had little time during the work day as would be in back to back meetings due to the volume of projects I was managing in parallel - this was the only time I had a chance to catch up on actions from meetings, emails, write documentation. I tried to keep my Fridays as meeting free as possible or block out time in my calendar if I needed to prepare a document and was struggling to find the time.

What can we learn from these results

So what does this survey tell us? Here are my key takeaways.

With nearly 20% of project managers reporting overwhelm, we run a serious risk of losing talent.Most project managers are perfectionists! We want to do an amazing job and don’t like it when organizational culture or workload means we can’t.Managers need to play a much greater role in setting priorities.Organizations need to up their game by creating standardized documents and processes for project management to alleviate the burden of having to create new materials on every project.Consolidate your project plans to save yourself time! Learn how in my book, Managing Multiple Projects .View the data Survey notes

This survey ran from end of June to early August 2024. It was promoted to my community on email and social media, so respondents self-selected to take part. There were 732 participants, resulting in 570 completed surveys. Around 6% of 680 respondents to the screening question answered by saying they were only managing one project, and they were excluded from continuing with the survey.

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: Managing Multiple Projects: Statistics

Black Friday Training Bundle 2024

Happy Black Friday! Years ago, BF wasn't a thing in the UK and now we have BF weeks... so to get in on the action I have a promotion for you.

I'm often asked when I'm teaching so-and-so course again, and the truth is that I now have so many classes that at one a month, you could be waiting a while before I get inspired to deliver that training again.

But the good news is that they are all recorded and available as virtual, self-paced training, and this year you can catch up on anything you've missed!

I've reviewed all of my past workshops and training sessions, and I've put them together as a bundle at substantial savings from buying them all individually.

The training bundle includes:

Project Prioritization Lessons Learned Made EasyManaging Money on ProjectsConfident Meetings ManagementVisual Communications for Project ManagersSmarter Time Management

It also includes two bonus trainings:

5 Ways to AI Proof Your CareerStakeholder Engagification

Why learn with me?

I'm the author of several project management books and I've been leading business and tech projects for over 20 years. I'm an APM Fellow and a mentor, and I still work as a practitioner alongside my writing and training.

In these training sessions, you will learn:

How to set up a simple process to prioritize projects once and for all!How to set up a simple plan for capturing and acting on lessons learned.How to confidently go into your meetings and get to a good resolution.Why you need to think visually (even if that is not your style), and easy tips to make your presentations look more professional.How to make the most of your time and supercharge your productivity.How to improve your critical thinking and build your emotional intelligence.How merging engagement and gamification creates engagification, a methodology to help people take action on projects.

And I guide you through understanding the fundamental principles and best practices for your project's finances - this is the session not to miss as so often job ads require budget confidence in a role!

Plus you will receive all of the templates and other resources that were offered with each workshop!

Buy now

Purchased separately, all of these training sessions come to a value of $127. You can get them all from 26 November to 2 December for $89.

What past students sayFAQ

Here are some FAQs to help you decide if this is the right training for you.

What’s the time commitment?

Overall, the time commitment is about eight hours, although you can do the training at your own pace as they are recorded sessions.

What’s the background of the participants?

Generally, in my courses, we get a good mix of people at various stages in their careers and from different industries. These training sessions attracted beginners and mid-career professionals when they were taught live.

Can I claim PDUs?

Yes. I will give you attendance certificates to use as evidence for your portfolio. However, I am not a registered PMI-authorized trainer.

Can I claim the cost through my company?

Yes. Get in touch, and I will send you an invoice.

What’s the cancellation/refund policy?

I want you to be happy with the training. There is a 14-day refund policy.

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: Black Friday Training Bundle 2024

How to be Awesome at Getting Things Done

Whether you’re planning an event or taking responsibility for getting tasks done, you’ll definitely have projects as part of your work – and you may even be leading some.

In this introduction to managing projects training session, I will help you understand what a project is and how to balance the competing demands of time, cost and doing a good job in getting your work successfully over the line.

We’ll look at ways to stay organized, break down the work and how to prioritize your growing To Do list. And we’ll talk about managing expectations of the rest of the team and keeping them involved throughout.

You’ll leave with plenty of practical tips for managing your work, and a template you can use to get any project off to a fantastic start.

Why learn with me?

I'm the author of several project management books and I've been leading business and tech projects for over 20 years. I'm an APM Fellow and a mentor, and I still work as a practitioner alongside my writing and training.

In this training you'll learn:

How to identify what success looks likeThe challenge of balancing time, cost and quality and how to do it the right wayPractical tips for prioritizing work and managing your timeHow to manage expectations so that satisfaction levels stay high -- even if you hit delays or problems.

Plus there will be plenty of time to ask questions about your project and time management challenges!

The live training will be on 13 November, 7:00 pm (GMT)/ 2:00 pm (EST).

Buy nowWhat past students sayFAQ

Here are some FAQ to help you decide if it's the right training for you.

What’s the time commitment?

Overall, the time commitment is about an hour, although as it’s a live session I’ll stay on as long as necessary until all the questions are done.

What’s the background of participants?

I expect most of the people who will be on the course with you will be early career professionals or those who want to get into project management.

Normally at my courses we get a good mix of people at various stages in their careers and from different industries.

Can I claim PDUs?

Yes. I will give you an attendance certificate that you can use as evidence for your portfolio. However, I am not a registered PMI authorized trainer.

Can I claim the cost through my company?

Yes. Get in touch and I can send you an invoice.

What’s the cancellation/refund policy?

I want you to be happy with the training. There is a 14-day refund policy.

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: How to be Awesome at Getting Things Done

RAID Log Practitioner Course Review

As a project manager, we’re constantly tracking actions, risks, issues, and more – these are the bread-and-butter activities for project managers to keep the project on track. But have you ever learned how to use a RAID log properly?

I hadn’t. It was something touched on in various training courses I’d done over the year, but I’d never had training on the ‘how’ of RAID logs. Until now. I took the RAID Log Practitioner training and it was surprisingly worth it!

In this RAID Log Practitioner course review, I’ll share:

Why it’s worth doing a course specifically about RAID logsWhy it’s especially good for early career project managersHow to get the certificate.

I’ve used RAID logs in my project management practice for over 20 years, and I learned things on this course – the stack rank constraint priorities exercise was a real eye-opener and something I can definitely use with my stakeholders.

How I did this review

I joined a live, instructor-led online training course in October 2024 and took the certification test.

What is a RAID log?

I have a super-detailed article on what is a RAID log (the short answer is that RAID is an acronym of Risks, Actions/Assumptions, Issues, Decisions/Dependencies, and it’s a tool that project managers use to keep on top of their project work).

RAIDLOG is the company that runs the Practitioner course.

Why do a course on RAID?

I know, I had the same thought: is it really worth spending 4 hours learning what to put into a spreadsheet? What really do you have to learn about that? Especially as there are lots of good articles and videos about it online already.

However, I was surprised at how deep the course went. We dove deep into risk management and other areas, as well as the value of historical logging – and how this can save you!

I was skeptical about whether it was worth doing a whole course on this. But it turned out to be a good use of my time, more than just a refresher. So many nuggets of information!

Going through the agendaWho is the RAID Log Practitioner course for?

As a result of doing the course, I can say that it’s aimed at project managers who want to, or who do, use RAID logs for the daily work management. It will help to have some knowledge of what they are and how you want to use them, but the training started with the basics so you don’t need any prior knowledge.

I thought the course was good for people who have had ‘general’ project management training, but who haven’t had any ‘how do I actually do this’ training.

This course is great for:

People who want to work as a project/PMO analyst who would have responsibility for updating logs in their day job.Early career project managers who want the confidence that they are focusing on the right things that will keep the project moving forward.Project managers who want to ensure they are tracking work and staying as organized as they can.Project managers who need to get PDUs and want to do an interesting course! This training will offer you 4 PDUs and a certification.

66% of people surveyed (data shared in the training) said that RAID logs help keep them organized, and I certainly feel that is the case for me.

Other benefits shared in the training were communicating with stakeholders (51%), keeping the project Green and being a useful vehicle for covering your backside and keeping a record of what has happened.

About the course and structure

The training is made up of 4 parts. These are:

Introduction to RAID logsRAID fundamentalsUsing your RAID logBeyond RAIDIntro to RAID logs

This was a very short overview section, followed by a quick break. It looked at what RAID is, why we should use it, the history of this tool and the trainer shared experiences of what happened in a project that didn’t have a log.

RAID fundamentals

The bulk of the training time, I’d say about 50%, was spent on reviewing the different types of items stored in a RAID log.

This part of the training looked at risk management, issue management, decision making and tracking, change requests, dependencies, lessons learned, action tracking and some of the other things you can include in log tabs.

We went into a lot of detail such as probability and impact scales, different types of lessons, action planning to manage items, trust bricks and a lot more.

Going through the dependency sectionUsing your RAID log

This section covered how to use the list for communication and management, sharing it with stakeholders. We learned about using the log instead of meeting minutes and how to consolidate risks etc at portfolio level, how to use it for project recovery.

Beyond RAID

This was the section I was most looking forward to as it covered the use of AI, integrations and the future of the RAIDLOG software. It was the shortest part of the training overall.

Meet your trainer

My trainer was Kim Essendrup, PMP. He is a coach and trainer, as well as being the co-host of the PM Happy Hour podcast. More relevant, he’s the CEO and co-founder of RAIDLOG.com and the author of The Ultimate Guide to RAID Log.

His style was easy, the slides were good, he got the audience to interact with the material. Kim clearly knows his stufff and included examples, quotes, stories etc to make it an engaging course.

How long does the RAID log training take?

It’s a live training course that takes 4 hours. There are (very short) breaks.

How the assessment works

There is a graded quiz at the end of the training. There are 10 questions. I didn’t find it very hard and there is the opportunity to retake if you need it.

What certificate do you get?

You get a downloadable PDF certificate, and a shareable LinkedIn badge. The certificate is 'published' in that you can share a link so that others can verify your achievement. You can see mine here.

You can submit your PDUs whether you pass the test or not. If you do pass, the system will automatically submit the PDUs for you – just make sure your PMI ID is on the record.

Pros

The benefits of doing this training are:

It’s a great way to get into detail of a practical tool that will really help keep your project on track and moving forward in the right way.You are encouraged to create risks, issues etc during the training so you can get practical experience of how best to phrase and document items.It’s a live training, so you can ask questions.

The training is not tool-specific, so while you could use RAIDLOG to start tracking your activities (and you get 6 months professional license included in the cost of the training), you could simply use a spreadsheet or whatever your PMO mandates for project management software.

Cons

The disadvantages that I found are as follows.

Four hours on Zoom is a long time. We did have breaks, but it made me realize that I have to struggle to stay engaged.Sometimes using the software to discuss the feature felt a bit long, like entering trigger dates and showing how to sort by those.I am jealous that I don’t have the software – heat maps and the sliders are really good, and you just can’t get that easily in Excel.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the company delivering the training also sells a project management software tool designed to manage your RAID log. The training was NOT a subtle pitch for the tool, but they did use the tool for exercises during the training. If you think your delegates would be very sensitive to anything that might feel like ‘sales’ then you might want to let them know that is how the course is going to be.

We used the RAIDLOG software for practical exercisesRecommendation: Should you buy this course?

If you are worried about work running away from you, then it’s worth investing in this training because it will help you in a very practical way.

It covers topics like risk appetite, risk tolerance and risk thresholds, plus deep dives into decision making, issue management processes and more. These might be new for you, and even if you think they are going to be a recap it's worth it.

I learned things on this training, despite having done the job for many years. It’s only going to take you an afternoon and you'll come away feeling like you have a renewed interest in making your RAID log work for you.

I was given the opportunity to take the RAID Log Practitioner Certification course in October 2024 by the training company – thank you!

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: RAID Log Practitioner Course Review

17 Questions for Project Kick-Off Meetings + Checklist

As I've got older and more experienced, I've also got lazier when it comes to preparing for project meetings. Recently I was completely caught out when I checked my diary in the morning. That afternoon I had four external people coming in for a meeting that I had forgotten about!

Visit the free template library.

It was an informal pre-kick off meeting for something that might turn into a project. I had a couple of hours to prepare which was plenty, but it made me feel a bit uncomfortable. It could have been worse -- at least the meeting wasn't at 9am.

We talked through the bare bones of what they wanted to do and I think there is something there. The next step will be properly initiating the project.

In this article, we'll talk about what you should include in that kind of meeting: the project kick-off meeting.

But first, let's talk about the project initiation phase and what needs to happen at the start of a project to set it up for a successful finish.

The project initiation phase

You kick off the project through the project initiation phase. This is where you get all the information together to work out exactly what it is you are supposed to be doing, by when, with whom.

It's the very first part of the 'real' project, after the business case is approved but before the work starts.

How long is project initiation?

There is no simple answer to how long the project initiation process should be. On a small project, you could finish project initiation in a morning, following a chat with one other person.

On a big project, you might run multiple workshops with various different groups of stakeholders, each getting you closer to understanding the full project scope and objectives of the project. That could take a couple of weeks before you get to project execution.

And you might need extra time to build your project plan and schedule after that. Project managers would call the planning phase a different part of the project lifecycle, but sponsors don't see it that way in my experience.

They see 'person doing thinking and planning and not delivering anything' and 'the 'doing' work has started'. They don't much care about the specifics of how to manage a project as long as someone is doing the work in a noticeable way for them.

Don't let anyone tell you are taking too long for project initiation. It takes as long as it takes. When you feel ready to start properly planning, then initiation is over.

What documents are created in the project initiation phase?

The business case should have been completed before project initiation.

During initiation, you are creating the project charter (or project initiation document) and any other essential project documents. These would include the risk management plan, the communication plan, and a detailed project plan.

Typically, in this phase you are trying to establish:

The project goals: get these from the business caseKey stakeholders - so you can invite them to the kick off meetingPotential risks: these might also be in the business case.

The idea is that you are starting the project from a strong foundation, and the list of questions and outline for the kick off meeting will help you.

Read next: The project documents (and templates) you need to manage your project.

Your pre-project questionnaire

I've prepared a list of essential questions to ask when starting a project. These are questions to use in your project kick-off meetings, and during the initiation phase so you fully understand what needs to happen.

Here they are:

Why is this project important?What's the problem you are trying to solve?What are you expecting the project to achieve? What do you see as the high-level objective?Have the project's requirements been documented yet? If so, where? By whom?What's the solution that has been agreed upon, if any? What analysis was done about the proposed solutions?What are the project's success criteria? (Read more about success criteria in my definitive guide to project success criteria)How does this project tie back to company strategy?How is this project going to be funded? Have all the funds already been secured?What are the constraints?What is most important: time, cost or quality management? Or would you rank something else as the defining measure?Who benefits from the project?Who are the other stakeholders?What is in scope?What is deliberately out of scope and why?What internal and external dependencies should we be aware of?Have you done this sort of project before? If so, who can I talk to in order to learn about their experiences?What risks are you aware of already? How risky do you think these risks are? What do you think of these risks I know about already?

As you can see, there is a mix of project planning questions and other pre-project questions in the list. These are what I would typically ask during a project initiation meeting to get the green light to continue.

The questions related to project funding should (in theory) have already been sorted out as part of the business case. In fact, most of the answers to these questions should have been asked at business case time.

And sometimes, the funding isn't secured, even though the business case is approved -- or you only have funding for part of the project.

You might ask different stakeholders different questions, so pick and choose from the list depending on who you are talking to. I would run a series of individual one-to-one meetings and also a team kick-off event.

Consider using transcription software to capture everything discussed in your meeting.

The project initiation meeting

The project initiation meeting is a meeting you have at the beginning of a project to set expectations for the rest of the work.

You might call it a kick-off meeting (I do, sometimes, as it sounds less formal and therefore less daunting for people who will be attending).

You're starting with the end in mind. The more you get right at the beginning, the more of a solid foundation you start from, the easier project closure will be.

Who attends the project initiation meeting

The core project team will normally attend the project kick-off meeting. This includes:

You, as the project managerThe project sponsorThe key day-to-day customer representative, assuming the project sponsor is so senior they won't actually know how the processes or systems work in detailAnyone else who will be working regularly on the project team.

If you are going to use a legal person to draft a contract mid-way through, you wouldn't invite them to this meeting. The objective is to get the right people in the room so you can all agree on what is going to be done and how.

The initial meeting could be just you and one other person, or you might have a packed meeting room. It just depends on what it is going to take to get the work done.

You might choose to run several different meetings, each with different attendees, focusing on a different topic. Then you'd combine the output of each meeting so you've got a complete view of everything that affects project initiation.

Project kick-off meeting agenda

I have another article with detailed guidance on how to create a meeting agenda, but there are definitely some specific topics you'll want to include in a project initiation meeting agenda.

An agenda for a project initiation meeting looks like this:

Welcome and introductions.

Don't assume everyone in the room will know each other or have worked together before. Take time to introduce everyone and state their roles and what they will be responsible for on the project. This conversation is also useful to feed into creating a roles and responsibilities template for the team and a RACI matrix.

Equally, don't assume everyone has worked on a project before. You might need to do a 'what is a project manager and what will I be doing' introduction to your own role.

Clarify the goals.

Get the project sponsor to talk about the project objectives. Mention key dates, what has been promised and share the highlights from the business case if there was one.

The point of this is to set the project in context, so link it back to the company's strategic objectives. This helps people understand why they are working on this thing. When people understand why, they are more likely to actually do the work.

Confirm the scope.

Talk about what it is you are going to be delivering. Be specific. Talk about what you aren't delivering too.

Project approach.

Talk about how you are going to get the objectives delivered. You aren't doing detailed planning in this meeting. It's more about ensuring everyone is on the same page for the way the work is going to happen.

For example, if you are going to use Agile methods, make sure everyone is aware of that. If they haven't worked with Agile before, you might need to do some follow-up sessions to help them understand what it means to work in an Agile team.

That's a meeting that can be planned for early on in the project -- as soon as possible, really.

Confirm how you work as a project manager.

Set expectations for weekly/monthly reporting, team meetings, time recording, and anything else you need the team to be on the same page for. Layout the time scales for updating you with progress on tasks.

You can even outline what the agenda of the weekly team meeting will be, or what you expect to be discussed in the standups.

If you use project management software, talk about how it works and how you expect others to use it (if you do). Generally, I don't expect the rest of the team to input data directly into our project management tools, but you might need to explain to them how to do that or set them up with a login.

If your team has to track their time spent on the project, then make sure they know how to do that too. This isn't the right time for a lesson in how to use the time tracking software, but note down who needs help with that and schedule some time for them to get some training or support before they need to start using it.

Next steps.

Normally, your next steps will be to do a planning workshop with the people who will be doing the work. Get the people in the kick-off meeting to tell you who needs to be involved in that from their areas.

You'll have been writing down next steps and actions as you go, so summarize what you've noted down. For example, any follow-up meetings or training, or providing logins to people so they have the tools, skills, and access they need to do their work.

AOB.

Any other business. Give people enough time to ask questions and raise additional points that haven't yet been covered.

You can also confirm the date and time of the next sessions, for example, your first weekly team meeting, if you haven't already covered that in the next steps.

The AOB section of your meetings should get shorter over time as people get used to how to bring up topics for the room's attention, but you should always include it in case there are things you have forgotten to discuss.

Typically, the actions from AOB are to make time to have further discussions, so note that in the action summary of the meeting.

During your meeting, you should aim to answer the questions from the pre-project checklist above, where you haven't had those responses from your one-to-one meetings with stakeholders.

Should you invite the client?

If you are doing a project for an external client, you might want to think twice about having them along to your first project initiation meeting with your internal team. It might not be appropriate for them to be there.

However, you should have a kick-off meeting with the client. If you work in an agency environment where you are approaching the client kick off with a statement of work to discuss, and so on, then read this guide to project initiation from The Digital Project Manager. My experience is all on in-house projects.

After the meeting

After the meeting, capture and circulate meeting minutes to record the important points.

Now you've got the work kicked off, you'll want to book in some project planning sessions. Getting your plan fully fleshed out (with a detailed work breakdown structure if you use that tool) and a schedule built is your next step.

The most important project question

I always ask people: Is there anything else you'd like to add? Since I started asking this question when interviewing people for this blog or just in the course of my normal job, you'd be amazed at what gems of information come out.

Don't assume that because you are a project manager you know what to ask! When asked an open question, people give you lots of other information that you wouldn't otherwise have got. Try it!

Once you've carried out your kick-off meeting, and go through project initiation, the next stage of the project lifecycle is planning. As you think about how to get the work done, consider how to avoid common scheduling mistakes, so you and the rest of the team know exactly what to do.

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This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: 17 Questions for Project Kick-Off Meetings + Checklist

How to Track Percent Complete

When you are trying to calculate percentagecomplete in a Gantt chart, you need to take into account various differentfigures, and get lots of information from other people. Or do you? There aresimple ways to track percent complete on your project, so you know what toinput into your software.

In this article we'll look at 3 methods to track percent complete.

What is Percent Complete?

It's a way to track project progress against the project schedule - quite an important part of how to manage a project.

Percent complete on a project refers to how far through you are for any given task (or the project overall). Consider it an indicator of project progress.

On a Gantt chart,percent complete is represented as a fill on the Gantt bar. For example, if the project task is 50% complete, the bar will be filled halfway across. You get a visual representation of how much progress has been made on the work.

In the image below, you'll see that % complete is represented by the color green. The blue section of the bar represents work not yet done. There's also a column that gives you the % complete number.

This Gantt chart was made with ConceptDraw 8, but most professional project management tools have a similar highlight.

If you have a project summary task, that will track the actual percentage for all the sub-tasks. It can be quite misleading, so if you are using it to communicate at a high level to senior stakeholders, I'd add some narrative to explain the current status.

Percent Complete in your project software

The percent complete method your software uses is down to whether it's an enterprise tool that integrates with timesheets or not.

If your tool is integrated with a timesheet app, the percent complete of the task may increase automatically as your team members book time to the task. However, that might not be brilliantly accurate, depending on how good the team's time tracking is.

In your software, there's normally a column on the left-hand side of the Gantt chart that lets you manually enter percent complete in a field, and this is how I do it in tools that don't integrate with timesheets.

But how do you know what to put in the percent complete field? Is it just a guess?

Well, that's one way of doing it! Here are 3 ways of calculating percent complete on a project.

Percent Complete Tracking #1: Professional judgment

The first way to calculate percent complete for your project is to use your professional judgment or that of your team.

There is no percent complete formula here - you guess, estimate, or rely on the thought processes of your subject matter experts. Ask them how they rate progress on the task. They mentally compare the actual duration of the work done to date with the forecasted amount of work, and assess how close the task is to being done given that effort. They give you a number. Then you type it into the percent complete column.

This is the easiest option, as long as your team gives you the right answers!

Tip: One of the reasons you might not begetting accurate responses from your team is that they don't believe that the schedule is achievable. Learn what to do if that's thecase for your team.Percent Complete Tracking #2: Weighted activities

This is a more complicated percent complete calculation to track progress, but it could be worth doing for longer tasks that are made up of several activities, or that have arbitrary points in them. For example:

A week-long task that has a decision-making meeting halfway through the weekA task to build 500 lines of code, that could be split into 2 chunks, each of 250 lines A testing activity made up of 20 tests, that could be split into 4 sections, each of 5 test scripts.

In these cases, you wouldn't want to make the task smaller by splitting it down, but you know there is a point at which you could track progress. In the last task example, you would allocate % complete based on how many test scripts the team had got through.

When 5 test scripts are completed, you allocate 25% completeWhen 10 test scripts are completed, you allocate 50% complete... and so on.

When your task can be easily sub-divided(but not in a way that would make you want to split the task up for theschedule) then you can allocate % complete based on a specific measure of howfar through you are.

If your task doesn't break down neatly in a numerical way (e.g. 10 test scripts = 50%) then you can allocate a % complete based on hitting an arbitrary point in the activity, for example a sign off meeting, or completing a document to the point that it has gone out for review but hasn't yet been ratified by the whole team.

This method takes a lot of thinking and sometimes you'll have to set your % complete targets before the task has started so that everyone has a common understanding of what's being tracked and how it will be measured.

It's a big overhead for what's actually not that important in the vast majority of cases. Think carefully about whether it's worth adding this level of formal granularity to your project tasks, or whether professional judgment is enough.

I have used this technique but it's not something that is relevant to most of my projects. If it feels like a good fit for the way your team (and customer) wants to manage the work, then go for it.

Percent Complete Tracking #3: Arbitrary amounts

The final way of working out what to put inthe percent complete column is by using an arbitrary, fixed figure.

For example: when a task begins, you giveit 20%. When the task finishes, you make it up to 100%. The task would never be25% or 90%. It could only ever be 0%, 20% or 100%.

This method of tracking gives you a percent complete that broadly reflects the current task progress for the purposes of scheduling, even though it's inaccurate in real life.

It gives you enough of a steer to adequately manage the plan. It's low stress. It's easy. It's useful if your team constantly give you incorrect percent complete figures and you no longer trust their judgment.

Do you need to track percent complete on projects?

Tracking percent complete is helpful for project managers. But it's not essential. If you create a really simple schedule using my free Excel Gantt chart template, then it would be too much effort to color the cells to represent percent complete -- I wouldn't bother.

You can mark a task as complete, in progress, or not started, and add notes to summarize the current position.

Whether it's worth tracking percentage complete on your project tasks depends on how robustly you need to track and report progress. If you feed progress data from tasks into your project dashboard, then you need it to be accurate.

The biggest problem with using percent complete as the way to assess progress on your project is that it is too often subjective. And just because you've managed to make loads of progress this week doesn't mean that progress is steady.

Use your own professional judgment and choose a way to track progress that makes most sense to you. Learn more about categories of project management methods here.

Get a free Excel Gantt chart template in my project management template library. Access the library here to get access to the Gantt chart template and everything else!

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: How to Track Percent Complete

How to Balance Work and Festive Season: Productivity Hacks for Project Managers

While some projects might have an end of year deadline, in my experience, most projects finish when they finish. So there’s every chance that your projects, like mine, will run through the holiday period.

We do need to recharge, rest and reset, and so do the people on the team. So how do you balance the pressures of work and leadership’s desire to keep hitting those milestones, over the festive season?

I’ve been project managing for over 20 years and I’ve had to balance my workload with taking time out for family and having a personal life over that time, like we all do. I love Christmas, so I want to be able to celebrate while not worrying about work. Let me share some of my tried-and-tested tips for doing exactly that.

Plan your time

Time feels more limited over the holiday season in the run up to year end because the days are shorter (for us in the Northern hemisphere at least). There’s also:

Pressure from management to get work delivered before the end of the year for a tidy closeMore people off workChildren off school (and before that, carol concerts, shows and so on)Personal objectives to meet for performance reviews.

Plus, I simply want to end the year knowing I’m in a good place work-wise. So we have to be smart with how we use our time.

Read next: Time management tips for when everything is a priority

Book your time off

If you haven’t used your entire holiday allowance, check to see what time is owed to you and book it.

Encourage the rest of your team to book their vacation days too.

Prioritize your tasks

Set clear goals for what you are planning on achieving, and check in with yourself – is that really realistic? It’s easy to be over-optimistic about how much you can do. Make sure your goals align with people on your project teams.

If you use time-blocking, then double down on that to get through more periods of focus time and blitz your to do list. If you don’t use time-blocking then start! It works for your personal responsibilities too, like batch cooking.

Lean into your project management software, action logs and RAID to stay organized.

Review your schedule

Will your schedule stay true over the holiday period? That’s when IT implements change freezes, colleagues are off and suppliers close their offices.

Review your project plans and double check that your dates are achievable. Plan extra time if you need it.

Watch your stress levels

Burnout, anyone? This is the worst time of year for feeling under pressure as there’s definitely a sense that people are weighing up what they have achieved in the year and wanting to squeeze out a little bit extra. Plus holiday parties – that’s a recipe for expectation and stress.

If mindfulness techniques work for you, great. Personally, I’m more likely to do a yoga or Pilates video from YouTube. Whatever your personal relaxation technique, make the time to fit in something that supports your mental health.

Set boundaries. Only two evenings out a week? No more than 6 guests round at a time? Whatever your personal red lines that will help you avoid overwhelm and stress, make them. For me, it’s writing all the Christmas cards on the first available day of December as then that’s a chore that’s done.

Holidays bring a lot of distractions, so think about what would help you stay the most focused. For me, that’s a To Do list, and delegating holiday chores to family members so we spread the load between us.

Stay on the same page with your team

Keep the communication lines open with your team. Set expectations about when you will be working and when you are off, and don’t check Teams messages, Slack or email while you are out of the office. (Easier said than done, I know.)

Review the project schedules and if things need to move as resources aren’t available, then make those changes as early as you can to manage stakeholder expectations.

Use your email signature to alert people to upcoming leave and then set an out of office message.

Stop asking people to travel. With our November, December, and January weather, the less time you spend on the roads or standing on station platforms, the better. Remember, they’ll want to fit in personal activities as well, and it’s hard to make it to the kids’ end-of-year show or do some holiday shopping if you’ve got to travel back from a job site miles away.

Delegate and outsource

Delegate and outsource: this goes for personal tasks as well as work tasks!

Identify any tasks that can be delegated or outsourced. Now, to do that, you need a reliable support network, so hopefully, you’ve been working on creating that during the year so your team members have the skills they need to pick up work from you and from each other to cover for absence.

It really helps if you have smooth workflows, documented processes, and have got as much as you can automated.

If you are delegating approvals while you are off, make sure the delegate knows how they work and what might be coming through the approval pipeline. When I go away, my manager gets any workflow messages for me so can approve things like purchase order requests on my behalf.

Focus on team morale

Not everyone is a holiday person, but it’s nice to organize virtual or in-person events for the team. It’s a way of recognizing and appreciating the team’s efforts throughout the year, and it’s a bit of a workplace tradition in many places.

That might mean going out for a meal, organizing a potluck or a fuddle, or simply congregating in the kitchen at the office for a glass of something cold and some nibbles.

Set a good example for everyone else: you should be able to have a healthy work-life balance, and that shows people it’s possible. Honestly, I’m not sure that I do, as when things are busy on projects, I work a lot, but I’m pretty good at giving people the impression I’m not drowning unless they need to know!

Work smarter, not harder

Easy to say, not as easy to do. Here are some suggestions for boosting your personal productivity that you can lean into at this time of year but that work all year round.

Find a productivity app or approach that you love and stick to itPut all your Christmas plans and notes in a bullet journalCreate a conducive work environment at home so you can work away from the buzz and distractions of the festivitiesBalance work tasks with festive activities – it’s OK to make time for fun!

Balancing work and the festive season as a project manager requires careful planning, prioritization, and a strong focus on both personal and team well-being. But isn’t that the job all year round?

Take a deep breath, get yourself organized, and think about how you are going to plan out this hectic time to meet all your commitments. Set realistic goals, actively manage your stress, maintain clear communication with your team, and embrace the support of your colleagues.

The holidays should be a time of joy, and business hours aren’t going to get in the way of that! It might feel like your work-related projects are taking a backseat to family activities or even chores and holiday preparations at home, but that’s most likely the case for everyone.

In this season, spread the holiday spirit and navigate work at home and in the office without sacrificing either your professional responsibilities or your personal time to recharge and celebrate. Happy holidays!

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: How to Balance Work and Festive Season: Productivity Hacks for Project Managers

KPIs for Project roles

People often ask me how project managers can be evaluated, or what targets should be set for people in project roles.

It’s a bit tricky to provide a one-size-fits-all answer, but I have come up with some Key Performance Indicators for project managers, that you can use as a starting point for your own team.

I find it easiest to start with the ‘why’ of why your team exists. If you don’t have a mission statement or purpose statement for your team, start with that.

Here’s a very generic one that I drafted for a coaching course assignment that you can use as a starting point:

Our vision is to provide project management expertise to enable the organisation to deliver the strategy, driving the right change, at the right time, in the right way, transforming us into an agile organisation.?

OK, on to the KPIs. These are not KPIs for projects – those are however you track project success, so you’ll normally be using measures like cost variance, schedule variance, planned value, cycle time, planned vs actual hours, billable hours etc.

You can track that sort of KPI through your project management software.

But I’m more interested in how you track an individual project manager’s performance. What goals can you set for them that help you compare project managers in a team or assess how well they are doing?

KPIs for Project managers

There are so many ways you could track how well a project manager is performing, but I think it’s quite separate from how the project is going. After all, we can’t always control for all the variables and you’ll probably find that cost, schedule and changes all happen whether the project manager is the best one on the team or not.

All projects have clearly defined goalsAll projects have benefits clearly identifiedAll projects have a defined schedule and project budgetAll projects have a change impact assessment completed for key rolesAll project milestones, risks and issues are documented in the toolAll completed projects have a closure document that includes lessons learned

If you want to pull up the project management software dashboard at the time of a performance review and check their project’s resource capacity, profitability, CPI, SPI, EV etc etc, then do, but give the project manager a chance to explain why their numbers aren’t the only thing that determines whether they are doing a good enough job.

KPIs for project coordinator

These KPIs could also work for a team coordinator, team PA or other admin role.

All project meetings are booked within a reasonable time frame (depends on type of meeting)All travel requests are booked within a reasonable time frame (depends on requirement)Team meetings are booked, minuted, recorded every quarterTeam org charts are kept up to date (within a week or a team change)All communication is professional, proof-read and dealt with in a confidential manner as appropriate.

As you can see, these are less about KPIs in project management and more about how the individual is doing their job.

KPIs for PMO analystAll project action logs are updated within 48 hours of status meetings.80% of purchase orders are raised within 48 hours of request.All project lessons learned are added to the database within a week of the meeting.The project schedule and milestone schedule are kept up to date.Promote efficient ways of working by providing support as required to other team members in using the project management software tool efficiently.All status reporting is completed in line with the PMO calendar each month.KPIs for PMO Manager

These measures would also be suitable for someone in a program management role. Adjust as necessary!

All Tier 1 projects have clear capacity and resource plans.Employee engagement is more than 1% above the true benchmark.100% of strategic plan initiatives are signed off at the relevant governance forum.All pipeline and in-flight projects are using the project management software tool.Programme board packs are prepared and distributed every other Tuesday.Lessons learned are identified across the portfolio and used to inform future projects.

You could also add in customer satisfaction (or NPS). I wrote a book about how to do that easily without any reliance on fancy software, and it works really well with internal customers.

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: KPIs for Project roles

Questioning and listening: Your mentoring power skills

Mentoring, at its core, is talking to other people and sharing your experience. A successful mentoring relationship relies on the mentor (that’s you) being able to ask effective questions and listen to the answers.

In this article I’ll show you how I use effective questioning and active listening, and how you can use them at work to improve your mentoring practice.

Technique 1: Effective questioning

Effective questioning is a learner engagement technique where the question supports the learning goals and encourages the learner to respond in a particular way.

In other words, if you ask better questions, the mentee (or student) is challenged to respond in a particular way and that helps them with their own learning in the moment.

It’s great because it helps you understand the problem more effectively so you can offer constructive feedback, if that’s appropriate.

There are 3 ways that effective questioning can be characterised (Uni of Tennessee):

Structure: open or closed questions where there is the potential for a range of responses or yes/no answers.Cognitive effort: how much effort the student needs to put in to process the question and respond appropriately.Directionality: exploratory questions that prompt a wide range of thinking/responses or convergent questions that encourage a topical discussion to get narrower, used depending on the goals of the conversation.

In The Coaching Habit (Bungay Stanier, 2016) the author advises that we avoid asking ‘why’ questions when working with colleagues/direct reports as it can come off as judgemental (“what were you thinking??!”).

Instead, reframe questions to ask them as a ‘what’ question (“what was your goal with that?”).

Cornell University says effective questions are those that are understood by the listener and provide a challenge but aren’t too difficult to answer. If the question is virtually impossible, your mentee isn’t going to get anything out of the exchange, and neither are you.

How I use effective questioning

The point of questioning is to encourage reflection, and I do ask a lot of questions as a mentor. They help me understand the situation so I can properly advise, and help the mentee reflect on what they did/are planning to do in any given situation so they can take the right course of action next.

When I teach group classes, I am trying to avoid asking if there are any questions at the end, as often that puts students on the spot, or they don’t have time to type or frame their question in the time allocated.

I’ll try to collect questions in advance or even make up a few commonly asked questions so I have something to talk about to fill the silence while people come up with questions of their own. I signpost that question time is coming up from the beginning, so people can prepare their questions.

Being able to ask the right questions at the right time helps me, especially if I don’t know a lot about their project, work or department.

While there are some universal truths in office life, a lot of being able to guide someone is situation dependent. Being able to understand the situation and any associated office politics or opportunities for conflict can be helpful in working out a strategy to address a challenge in conjunction with the mentee.

Read next: What you need to know about project management communication

Technique 2: Active listening

Active listening is listening in a way that helps you understand the mentee’s perspectives. Knowing how to listen actively is a skill that you can develop for your professional relationships, and you’ll find yourself relying on this in your mentoring process.

We all know how to listen (even if we don’t do it all the time). But what does active listening look like?

NHS England describes 6 ways to demonstrate that you are actively listening:

1.     Define terms

Make sure everyone has the same understanding of jargon. An effective mentor will check in to make sure that the mentee understands what they are saying, and ask questions if they hear a term that they don’t know.

2.     Repeat and paraphrase

I use this a lot to make sure I have heard and understood correctly, often using the words that the person used but in a different way, or similar words so it’s not literally repeating what they have just said as that sounds annoying.

Communication skills are so important in so many aspects of workplace life, and building this simple step into your everyday repertoire will help in lots of situations.

3.     Don’t interrupt

Make sure people have the time to complete their sentences and their thoughts.

If you have to interrupt because you’ve run out of time in the session, make a note of what topic you were on so you can bring it up again next time.  

4.     Listen between the lines

This is about looking out for and listening for feelings, assumptions, values, fears etc. I haven’t really reflected before on what this looks like for my mentoring approach, but I do think I’ve become quite good at it over the years.

Also, having children has helped as they are unable to articulate their feelings and I’ve had to pick them up from body language, facial expressions or their choice or words and tone.

5.     Don’t rush to fill silences

I talk quickly and I am getting better at leaving gaps. This is something I could work on more. Having a pause allows us both to slow down and reflect, and also to deepen our understanding of the topic at hand.

6.     Feedback impressions

The NHS website suggests checking observations with assumptions and gives the example, “If I were in your shoes, I might be thinking…” and then letting them say whether your assumption is correct or not.

This gives you both an out if you’ve misinterpreted the content.

Active listening as a mentor

During my day-to-day role, and while working in my mentoring capacity, I try to demonstrate active listening.

Sometimes, at the end of a session, mentees say that they feel heard. That’s really important to me as it means I have managed to demonstrate empathy and show them that they are not only not alone in their work challenges, but also that their concerns are valid – and that has come across during the conversation.

How I demonstrate active listening

I demonstrate active listening by watching my body language, for example nodding and smiling at the right times, and looking directly at the camera to make eye contact instead of at the screen, as that makes your eyes look like they aren’t directly looking at the person.

It’s particularly hard to demonstrate active listening on camera because I often I do have something else on my screen alongside their face, like the notes I am typing as I go through the call, or their CV or some other relevant document we are looking at together.

I think I’ve got a lot better at almost exaggerating some of the queues that you’d expect to see in person, not so it looks fake, but so that the behaviour is obvious and a clear signal to the other person.

I find it harder to demonstrate active listening when the other person does not have their camera on; fortunately this does not happen that often. If you mentor colleagues who do not have their cameras on, encourage them to change that! Or meet in person.

Taking it further

Questioning and listening are two sides of the same coin and you’ll use them in mentoring sessions and in your own work. Show up with realistic goals and a positive attitude and you’ll find these two skills will help you a lot.

Honing these skills, alongside your emotional intelligence radar, will go a long way towards making you the effective mentor you want to be… even on days where it feels like you haven’t said anything meaningful to your mentees!

This article first appeared on Rebel's Guide to Project Management and can be read here: Questioning and listening: Your mentoring power skills