A number of factors go into successful project delivery. If you need to improve project efficiency to get better results in a more efficient timeframe, here are some questions you can ask to ensure you’re working as efficiently as possible.

6 Questions You Can Always Ask to Increase Your Project Efficiency

1. What is the Goal That We Are Trying to Accomplish?

An easy-to-understand vision for where the project is going will help everyone involved in the project at any level have a firmer idea of where they’re going with their work. Be sure that you have a clear vision and communicate that vision to the entire team working on a project right from day one. That will get everybody on the same page so that the whole team is working towards a common goal.

2. What Deadline or Benchmarks Are We Trying to Meet?

Timeframes matter in just about every project that you could possible undertake. Having a clear end-date for a project in mind and benchmarks to meet along the way will help you keep a project on course. Set a timeframe that will get the project done in a reasonable length of time, but not an unrealistic one that will put undue pressure on your team.

3. Will This Project Involve Collaborating with Other Teams?

Projects are almost always a group effort. Understanding the scopes of the different people involved on a project will allow work to be assigned to the team members who have the expertise to get the job done right. Consider before launching a project if you’ll need to bring other teams in to complete the project so you don’t have to make any last-minute collaboration plans.

4. Are There Any Unknown Variables to Account For?

While you can’t always prepare for the unexpected, taking a moment to consider possible scenarios that could arise during a project can help you be ready for any situation. Projects also have unintended consequences that come in addition to the goals that you set out to achieve initially. Taking a moment to consider what those ramifications might be can help you avoid unintended consequences of your project.

5. Who Will Be Taking a Leadership Role on This Project?

Clear and decisive leadership is one of the most important factors in the success of a project. Be sure that you and everyone involved in the project know from the beginning who will be taking a leading role in seeing the project completed. That will give everyone a clear idea of who they should go to if they need to ask questions or seek other guidance regarding the project.

6. Are There Better Project Delivery Tools We Could Use?

Having the right tools at your disposal can be the make-or-break factor in the success or failure of a project. There are a variety of project implementation solutions that you can get on your side to give your team the right tools to work with. You’ll be able to put everyone on the right job from day one and give them a clear view of the expectations placed on them.

Get the tools that you need to take your project to the next level. Contact Project Genetics today!

There are plenty of factors that can put a project behind schedule, leading to frustration and costly expenses. Here are some factors that can lead to delays in a project that good project delivery tools can help to alleviate.

6 Factors Destined to Put Your Project Behind Schedule

1. A Lack of a Clear Goal or Vision

Even the best worker needs direction to put their skills and efforts to the best use possible. When it comes to getting a project done in a timely fashion, you need a clear goal to work towards from the very beginning of a project. Without this initial step taken, there’s a good chance that work will end up running later than planned.

2. Ineffective Leadership and Guidance

While the people handling the day-to-day work on a project are important, skilled leadership and management is also essential to the project’s success. While any leader likely has a dozen different projects to worry about at any given time, it’s essential that they’re able to delegate well enough and manage their time so that every project has the proper guidance it needs.

3. Late Additions to the Scope of the Project

Having clearly-defined boundaries for a project from the onset is crucial to delivering results from that project on time. Trying to increase the scope of a project may seem like a way of handling related issues along with the initial goal in one fell swoop, but this can lead to the project running overschedule. You’re better off keeping the scope of the project clearly-defined and leaving the other issues for future projects.

4. Poor Quality Work Leading to Redoing Steps

They say that it’s better to do things carefully and correctly than to do them quickly and have to do them twice, and that wisdom holds true in project management. Having inexperienced or inattentive workers contributing to steps in a project can lead to those steps being redone when problems arise later down the line. Good training and assigning effective team members to projects can avoid these provides.

5. Incorrect Initial Assessment of the Project

One factor that may lead to a project running overdue is that proper expectations were never set in the first place. Sometimes, management can set deadlines for a project without taking practical considerations from the teams working on the project into account. Good project scheduling takes everybody’s perspective into an account so that the correct expectations are laid down from day one.

6. Not Having the Right Project Delivery Tools

As with any other job, delivering on a project becomes much easier when you have the most cutting-edge tools on your side. Strategic project management software, change management capabilities, and other tools at your disposal will help ensure the timely delivery of a project. Make sure your business is properly equipped before you undertake a project to avoid unexpected delays.

Get the best tools for your project when you get the assistance that our proven project implementation solutions provide. Contact Project Genetics today for more information!

Sometimes, even the best plans go awry and you end up with a project over budget. Here are some ways that you can get an overbudget project back under control, and information on where to get the best project delivery tools to help you conquer any project.

Project Over Budget? How to Rein in a Project

Identifying the Cause

Understanding what has caused a project to run over budget is the first step in bringing the project back under control from a financial standpoint. Recognizing breakdowns in the communication and coordination between team members involved on a project is one good place to start looking.

Problems that a project may run into also often have their roots in the planning stage. Developing better planning methods that lay out a clear and concise vision for the project from day one can stop problems cropping up later down the line.

Find Ways to Reduce Cost

While you should always be careful not to damage the quality of a project by cutting corners, bringing a project back into its budget often requires finding ways to cut down on expenses without damaging the quality of the project. Finding ways to reduce costs in materials, supplies, or services can all help chip away at the expenses incurred.

An example of a way you might cut down on costs of a project without detracting from the finished product would be to reevaluate your training methods. Formal training sessions may be able to be replaced by less expensive online training sessions that still communicate the same information instead.

Fine-Tune the Project’s Scope

One common reason for a project to exceed its initial budget is that the scope of the project grew to surpass what was initially planned. Such a project ends up demanding more hours of work and other resources to succeed than were accounted for when the budget was being drawn up.

You may consider drawing back a project’s scope in order to have it better fit the financial resources that you have available. Work with the client you’re carrying out the project on behalf of to determine what parts of the scope can be dropped as a way to bring the project back on budget.

Reassign Your Human Resources

Sometimes, having the right people in the right roles can make all the difference in bringing a project that has overran its budget back under control. Taking a moment to assess how you’re spending your most useful resource, your employees, is an essential step of project management.

While getting newer or inexperienced workers hands-on experience on a project is vital, doing so on a project that is already overbudget may not be the best opportunity. Consider reassigning these workers to other tasks and have more experienced, productive workers put on the project to get it moving on schedule.

Use More Efficient Project Delivery Tools

The right tools on your side can improve the efficiency that you get a project done with, reducing expenses to help you stick to your budget. Strategic project management tools keep everyone on the same page so you get the most out of your workforce.

To get the most cutting-edge tools on your side, trust our team of project management experts and the world-class tools we deliver. Visit Project Genetics today for more information!

Remote work is quickly becoming the norm. While it comes with a number of advantages, it can also hinder your approach to managing workflows. All is not lost, however. You simply need to find new ways to connect with your team members. Here, we’ve listed a few tips that are both effective and easy to follow.

Managing Workflow in the Era of Remote Work

Remote work naturally gives your team a high degree of flexibility, but that doesn’t mean they should complete tasks as they please. A regimented approach must be given to work requests and assignments to ensure your team meets deadlines.

Daily schedules that combine flexibility with accountability can help work move in a smooth, linear pattern. This type of scheduling gives employees what they want – nearly 80% of team members surveyed believe pliable scheduling allows them to be more productive but also ensures projects stay on task.

Stay Organized

Organizing and managing schedules in one place, such as Kronos practice offerings, can further simplify your management role. Kronos provides second and third-level support in timekeeping and scheduling, allowing you to compare work completed with hours worked.

Consider Your Collaboration Methods

The freedom provided by remote work often leaves employees feeling isolated and demotivated. You can counter these ill effects with steps that help all team members feel part of the pack.

Start with a business and process analysis that helps you understand your own internal processes. You can then identify areas that need to be improved for efficiency and efficacy. Also, consider your collaboration methods to ensure they create a team environment. Remember that all employees should feel both seen and heard, even if they’re not housed under one roof.

Implement Best Practices

It’s easy to stay connected when in-house teams share the same office space. But tracking work completed when each employee resides in a different location can be tough. You might even say that assigning tasks to remote workers comes with a degree of uncertainty. You don’t know if the deadline will be met or the quality of work delivered will be on-point.

Implementing a best practice framework can help you manage projects from start to finish, regardless of where your employees may be. In fact, the right framework can help you:

• Design strategic company-wide objectives
• Manage the works delivery lifecycle
• Execute reusable processes for consistency

Build Employee Skills

Wherever they’re based, employees need ongoing training. Partnering with the right consulting firm can help you create a skilled workforce in which each member supports the other. An experienced consultant can be especially helpful when you’re undergoing a digital transformation, as often happens with remote work situations.

Likewise, employees need healthy competition. This urges them to work harder and positively prove their mettle, but contests should be structured so team members never feel inferior. You can start by creating a deadline to complete a project. Offer rewards when individual goals are met within a specific time frame. Winners might then receive cash prizes, company swag, or gift cards.

Managers often find it challenging to keep remote workers engaged, motivated, and productive. But these tasks become much easier when you choose the proper consulting and technical solutions. We provide full end-to-end support services, from Kronos offerings and process analyses to SMaRT best practices and enterprise training. Learn more by contacting Project Genetics today.