Your No BS Guide To Being A Rockstar Project Manager

Mar 02., 2010 1 Comment

Over the past several years I have worked with companies of all sizes and specialties and regardless of what my job title may have been, my job’s responsibilities have been that of a project manager for web/interactive work. For those of you who may be new to being a project manager, I’m sure you’re finding that quality resources about being a project manager are difficult to come by, especially if you don’t have the time to sit and read a thick book on what is usually, when you get right down to it, a simple process.

Want to be a rockstar project manager? Here are the basics you need to know:

Prepare, Prepare, Prepare

This part of being a Project Manage isn’t any fun but it’s the single most important part of a project. It closely resembles the excitement of taking a 2×4 to the face.

This process commonly includes writing the following documents (this does not include planning documents during the design process):

Specifications Document – This is a high-to-mid level overview of the project. If you’re working on a new web site for a client, it should document things the client wants included without going into a lot of the techie talk. Outlining a contact form, for example, you would want to list the fields they want included in the form, the order in which they appear, which fields are required, who receives the form submissions and so forth.
Functional Requirements Document (FRD) – To put it plainly, this is the Spec Doc for your development team. It is a very detailed document explaining how, at least initially, everything should work. Using our contact form example, the FRD should include, in addition to the items listed above, specifics such as “Submissions need to be stored in a database on X server” and “Client will need the ability to export form submissions at will, based up on a client-specified date range. The system should export the records in a .CSV file“

Just remember, as agonizingly painful as this process might be, the more detailed and precise you are now, the better you’ll look, the smoother your project will go and the clearer everyone involved will be about what specifically is required and requested.

Be Organized

Make sure everything relating to your project is kept together in one place. Anyone who has ever set foot into a real estate office would have seen their property files, many several inches thick, on the agent’s desks. There’s a reason those files are so huge: They are the go-to source of information on a given property listing and because of that, they must contain every scrap of relevant information possible.

This is how your project’s records should be maintained. It’s invaluable to be able to produce meeting notes and printed authorization for project changes on a day when the entire city block’s power is out and you cannot access your email or online project management system. Trust me, I know, as has happened to me more than once.

Folders for my projects contain dated copies of all estimates, contracts, meeting notes specifying who was present, and anything else that I might need quick, off-line access to, which brings us to my next point.

Cover Your Ass

My dad always said, “If it’s not in black and white, then it never happened.” Taking his advice to heart has saved my hide more times than I can count. As a project manager, you need to have your act together and, assuming you’ve done your preparation and you’ve kept everything organized, you’ll have no problem holding folks (yourself included) accountable.

Before I begin work on a project, I get a sign-off from the client, after they’ve read the Spec Doc, in black and white – whether that’s in an email, fax or a note physically mailed to the office. Our developers have specific instructions to not write a single line of code unless they have received a comprehensive and clear FRD telling them the scope of their work.

If a client says “You didn’t tell us we were responsible for writing our own content!” You can show them in the signed project contract and Spec document where you stated something straight forward like, “Content to be provided and managed by XYZ Company.” That’s not to say you can’t go above and beyond by helping your client out with “unassigned” aspects of the project.

Not sure you need to hold onto something relating to a project? Ask yourself, “Could this be used in my defense down the road?” If the answer is anything other than a “No,” keep it. In fact, keep two copies of it, just for posterity’s sake.

To put it bluntly, you’re leaving a trail of facts proving your innocence in a court of the professional world at the drop of a hat.

Don’t Be A Jerk

Don’t confuse holding the reigns with absolute control. Things can go wrong even if you do all you can to steer the project in the right direction. If you whip or jerk your team around too much, they’ll become disenfranchised and their care level will plummet. Make this mistake with your clients and their trust in you will wane and they’ll rightfully take their money elsewhere.

As a project manager, you’re the go-to guy for questions, complaints and concerns about the project, from anyone even remotely involved. You’re responsible for delegating work to the right people, enforcing a certain level of quality of work and keeping the project time line moving forward.

We all work best in an environment which fosters respect and clear expectations. Subjecting your team to the opposite will damage the integrity of the project far more than possibly having to eat the cost of hours spent cleaning up mistakes.

Communicate

Learn how your client prefers to communicate and, while remembering to Cover Your Ass, go with it. I have some clients who are never at their desk and have asked me to call their cell phone. Others have said to email them because they don’t like talking on the phone. Remembering how your clients prefer to communicate will increase the impact of your attempts to talk with them.

Clients will be extremely appreciative and accommodating if you are proactive in your communication about a project, even if the news you have is bad. Don’t forget, the deadlines imposed by your client are likely the result of deadlines handed down to them by their higher-ups.

If you think you won’t meet a deadline, contact your client and explain to them why you might not be able to meet the deadline, what you and your team are doing to try and avoid missing the deadline and, depending on the circumstances, offer them an olive branch if you do miss the deadline.

Even if your project is on track, there are no problems and everyone is happy, contacting your client to check in and see if there’s anything else you can do to assist them will go a very long way.

Do you have any tips or process recommendations I didn’t cover? If so, leave a comment and let us know!