 Project management (PM) teams focus on delivering technical, customer, or internal process projects on time, on budget and with exceptional quality. While there is no scarcity of projects within any organization, there are shortages of project managers to drive them. A common solution is to load the PM team’s plate to the point of missed delivery dates, burnt out people, and disappointed customers.
Assuming quality hiring for the existing team, there are three options to address this: 1) Hire more PMs (full or part time) 2) Reduce the number of projects 3) More effectively leverage the existing team For the first option, most organizations do not have the affordability. Typically, there is limited political appetite to prioritize and reduce the number of projects to align with PM bandwidth. The most cost effective solution is to elevate the capabilities of your existing team to yield more productivity and improved morale. In his article titled, “Project Overload: Are You 'Killing' Your Best People?”, Duncan Haughey lists several ways to elevate PM capability with a focus on spreading knowledge across the team. 1) Classroom Training Formally expand the PM team's knowledge of traditional project, goal and time management. Use your in-house expertise, external trainers or a combination of both to deliver the training. 2) External Certifications If the type of projects being driven warrants skills supported by professional certifications, setup vehicles for your PM members to rise to the occasion for the benefit of themselves and the company. Let your company fund those interested to enhance their capabilities i.e. PMP, Agile. 3) Internal Certifications This approach can support certifications fine-tuned to meet your PM organizations’ skills and competency requirements. Internally develop courses that certify PMs with company recognized level names i.e. gold, silver, and bronze or expert, professional, and team lead. Company projects can refer to the certification type and equivalent competencies required to successfully manage the project. 4) Brownbag Lunches Use informal lunch gatherings to bridge the benefits of social interaction and cross knowledge sharing. This is a great way to build camaraderie and provide sharing of information vehicles. 5) Peer Partnering/Working Together This is especially effective when you have many experienced and junior level people on the team. Peer partnering helps promote mentoring and a culture focused on total team success vs. individual success. Your staff are your best assets so be sure to leverage them for both project management and team development. 6) Brainstorming I added this one to Duncan's list. Tap the expertise of your team for some deep dive brainstorming on some of the biggest PM issues facing the team. For example, setup a multi-hour forum to develop ways to resolve a bandwidth problem. The session could highlight novel responsibility sharing and delegation ideas. With a safe environment, it is amazing what solutions people develop. Encourage “out of the box” thinking. These approaches are positive ways to deal with project management resource scarcity that both benefit the business and the team.
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