A weekly meeting to set the direction and ….
No one likes to attend meetings. They are always too long
and most of the time, have no agenda. However, these meetings help set the
direction regarding the health of the Professional Services Organization (PSO)
as well as the Project Management Office (PMO). When running a meeting once a week, the
manager must set a consistent agenda so the resources know what to expect. First and foremost is an overview of the
status of the current projects. Second is a discussion of projects that are red
or are at risk of going red and what must be done so that will not happen. Third
and most importantly, is a discussion of projects in the pipeline. Let’s take these one at a time.
What is the status of the current projects?
This portion of the meeting should not be a full blown
discussion of the status of each project, but rather a brief overview of the
projects that are on track. This should
be the shortest portion of the hour and should take no longer than 10 minutes, mainly
because you want to focus on the projects that need help and what is in the
pipeline. The status should be something like, “The project is green and on
schedule as it moves into the testing phase.” Short, sweet and to the point.
This weekly update does not negate the importance of the
status meeting; the status meeting involves the client and that meeting should
be meaty. But the weekly status meeting this is not the audience for a lengthy
status. This portion of the meeting is to keep everyone informed on which stage
the projects are in and if there are any roadblocks in the future.
Which projects are red or at risk of going red?
This portion of the meeting should take no longer than 15
minutes. I say that first because the project managers in charge of the project
should come prepared to state what the issue or issues are with the project. These
should be stated succinctly and to the point and without the BS that may have
taken/is taking the project to red. The manager needs to know:
·
What is the main reason that the project has
gone red?
·
Does the client understand the problem and is
the client helping to resolve the problem?
·
What is the solution to bring the project back
to green?
·
What is the cost of the solution and the project
going red overall?
·
Has the solution gone before change management
and has it been scheduled?
The manager also wants to hear that the project manager
believes that this solution will keep the project in green for the duration of
the project.
What projects are in the sales pipeline?
The next part of the meeting should take about 35 minutes
and may include the sales manager. What is needed from the sales manager is a
rundown of those sales that are closed or at least 85% closed. With the sale as close as 85%, a project
manager may be assigned to begin the project’s initiation phase (i.e., putting
the scope together and beginning the Statement of Work). This gives both sales
and the PSO a heads up to what is coming up and allows them to begin the
process of getting the correct communications to the prospective client.
Now, you may ask, “Why does this have to be the biggest part
of the weekly meeting?” The answer is because the PSO or even the PMO cannot
survive very long if all it discusses are current projects. The PSO needs fresh
projects to meet their revenue and career objectives.
With this meeting set up as I have described, the PSO can
grind out the project and meet their annual objectives for the organization. I am open to discussion at any time on these blogs or anything else related to project management you would like to explore. If you would like to comment about this blog, please do so by posting on this blog or by responding in an email at Benny A. Recine.You may inspire a blog article. I look forward to your comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment