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Submitted by: Robert F. Steele
Some like to think of project management as a nicely groomed trail with a few ups and downs and a few twists and turns. They say something like, you won t get lost if you just stay on the trail.
But most project managers know that a project hardly ever goes as planned. In my opinion, a project s trail is buried neck-deep in snow, and the only way to reach the end is not simply a matter of persistence its about having the right experience and equipment. When the manager is sinking to the hips with every step, and can t tell where he or she is headed, the project is heading for disaster.
Each winter, I go snowshoeing to my cabin in the Rocky Mountains of northeastern Utah. To get there, I meander through thick forests and climb up and down steep slopes. Sometimes the snow is over ten feet deep, altering the landscape so that even someone who knows the land in the summer can quickly lose his way in winter.
Apart from navigational experience, getting across this rough terrain requires a pair of the best snowshoes available. Going without them is out of the question, impossible, and flat-out laughable. Below, I want to talk about three features that make up a quality snowshoe and how it relates to project management.
Weight Dispersion
First, the basic function of a snowshoe is to maximize its surface area to distribute the weight of the hiker across the snow. If the hiker sinks deeper, more dispersion is required. The best snowshoes have extendable fins that add extra length for deeper snow. With wilderness like the one to my cabin these fins are a must.
Project management software, to me, is like a pair of snowshoes for the project manager. While the basic function of this tool is to distribute weight evenly across project terrain, sometimes the snow is deeper for a project more problems and risks. When this happens, processes and methodologies in this software must be able to adapt to the environmental changes. A project must have fins to keep the project manager and team afloat.
Traction
The second feature of a good pair of snowshoes is traction. The best shoes have spikes along the left and right edges of each shoe, as well as several just beneath the toes and the heels. Hiking up or down or across a slope is extremely difficult without these spikes. I ve once used snowshoes with such poor traction that it was literally impossible to go up a small hill it was as if I was walking on little sleds.
Likewise, project management software must also have traction. It must be able to keep the team from sliding backward after each step. This might be when a project scope begins to shift, for example, or costs go up, or any sort of other constraint. The project management software must be able to maintain traction / control over the chance elements that threaten a project. Like the spikes on the heels, toes, and edges of a snowshoe, project management software must have spikes in every location where the manager s contact with a project might slip.
Heel-Risers
Lastly, the snowshoes must have heel-risers. This is a device that stands up between the heel of one s boot and the top side of the snowshoe. On flat ground, it feels like walking in high heels, but, on a steep slope, the angle of your foot is level, and going uphill is more like going up stairs. This saves a tremendous amount of energy by removing the extra motion that would otherwise be made in your leg muscles.
Sometimes, when reaching an uphill slope in a project, having the correct amount of weight distribution and traction is not enough. There s still a mountain to climb and no motivation to do it. Good project management software eliminates those extra movements that unnecessarily add strain to a project, or in more serious cases, strain to a company. Excess movements can include modes of communication like phone calls, faxes, and printed reports areas where many problems can occur if not handled well. A good project management solution keeps everything together (from work documents to social network) and lets everyone know what others are working on – thus leveling out those unnecessary movements.
Even with these tools, however, projects will still be difficult. But at least it won t be exhausting or debilitating. Project managers can just climb stairs instead of sinking under slippery slopes.
About the Author: Robert Steele writes on many subjects, currently focusing on that of project management and the benefits of today’s growing technologies in a work management software. Resource:
attask.com/topics/work-management-software
Source:
isnare.com
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