Secrets to Successful Project Management

I may be a newbie to the Atomic team, but I know a thing or two about leadership. I spent eight years in the military, first with the military police, leaving as an Army lieutenant. At my last project management position (for, ahem, the U.S. government), I was a liaison between a group of engineering students and state officials.

The engineers were brilliant—in the laboratory, they made magic. But when they had to explain their ideas to a room full of senators … well, there was a disconnect. That’s where I came in.

Communication

Some people think project managers just kick people’s butts until they get their work done—and they’re right. But the best project managers are also great communicators.

Here are some communication tips I’ve picked up:

  • Learn to read people. Take note of clients’ differing communication styles. I picked this skill up through my military police training. Body language speaks volumes; take note of people’s actions and follow their lead. Once client may want to be kept up-to-date daily; another may need no more than a call every few days.
  • Practice active listening. I learned active listening from a great book, Verbal Judo (I can hear the groan from the Atomic office now—everyone’s sick of hearing me talk about it). It’s a form of conversation that helps you engage with the person you’re talking to, often by rephrasing one of their statements in question form. So, for example, if your client says, “I think users are confused by the navigation menu,” you could reply, “So you think the structure of the navigation menu is difficult? Tell me more about it.”

When two sides aren’t seeing eye-to-eye, try, “I understand what you’re saying, but …” It lets the other person know their concerns are being heard, and lets you offer your two cents.

  • Mix it up. Try out different forms of communication, even the ones you’re less comfortable with. Practice makes perfect.

Organization

Projects are a mess of milestones, expectations, plans, ideas, people, and messages. I arrange them into a well-oiled machine that gets the job done. To stay organized, you can use sophisticated software or a good old-fashioned to-do list (I use both). Choose what works for you—just have a system.

Here are more tricks I’ve learned:

  • Automate as much as possible. For example, I’ve got my iPhone sending task reminders to my e-mail, in addition to my pencil-and-paper lists.
  • Get everyone in the loop. Try a project management system like Basecamp. The tool allows users to upload files, share a calendar, and set milestones. It’s a great way to keep communication on track.
  • But wait for the go-ahead. Make sure everyone involved is willing to use the system you’ve chosen. If you throw a system at them that they aren’t familiar with, you’re going to run into problems.

Leadership

Though it may seem obvious by now, another key quality of a good project manager is strong leadership. My time in the Army taught me firmness and compassion, but most importantly, respect.

While it’s often tricky for ex-military people to transition to the business world, I’ve made my experience work for me. Here’s what I recommend.

  • Be who you want to be. There are endless types of leaders—I’m a lead-from-the-rear kind of guy, but it’s up to you to decide what sort of leader you want to be. As with your communication style, choose an approach that fits both the client’s and the project’s needs.
  • Step up to the plate. Always let clients know that you’re leading the project—they’ll want to know who’s in charge.
  • Embrace conflict. When you’re handling multiple projects, sometimes you have to decide which one you’re going to stay late for (sometimes, the answer is both). Things may not turn out how you expect, but you’ll always learn something you can apply to future projects.

Project management is tough. But the results are worth it. As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “To do great things is difficult, but to command great things is more difficult.” I try to do both every day at Atomic!

,

Slurping Up Bugs with Mantis

Come with me, friend, to a day in the life of a developer.

You’re working on a new website. You’re in the testing phase. Colleagues and clients are starting to interact with the site and give you feedback.

On Monday, your client emails several change requests. On Tuesday, your designer posts a list of tweaks in Google Docs. On Wednesday, your traffic manager tells you about a few requests the client gave her over the phone. And on Thursday, your client sends an update to the email he sent on Monday.

It’s Friday, and you’re ready to start your fixes. Where in the world do you begin?

Enter Mantis Bug Tracker.

Mantis is an open-source tool written in PHP. It’s designed to help developers describe, assign, and resolve bugs. We use Mantis to avoid the situation I described above: multiple change requests, spread across different media, in no order, and with no accountability.

Instead, Mantis gives us:

  • A central web-based repository for all bugs, fixes, and updates
  • Dropdowns that let us organize fixes by category and severity
  • A color-coded status system that lets us mark fixes as new, assigned, resolved, or closed
  • A “closing the loop” feature that notifies the person who reported a bug when it’s resolved
  • A messaging system that captures all conversations related to a particular fix.

 

Organizing our quality control process in this way has had a big impact on development. Communication is smoother. Accountability and productivity are higher. And frustration is a lot lower.

In short, using Mantis has enabled a faster, more thorough, and more organized process of getting a web site or application ready to launch.

For a developer, that’s a lifesaver.

,

Moving Forward, Looking Back

One of the things I love about working at Atomic Interactive is that every project gives me a chance to learn something new. That’s because the culture here is not about hanging on to old processes just because “that’s how we’ve always done things.” Instead, it’s about being open to new ideas and expanding our minds!

For me, a key part of that is going back after a project has been completed to analyze what we could have done better. Maybe we could have worked more efficiently, or used a different tool. Maybe we could have communicated more clearly with the client – or even within our own team.

Mind you, this review isn’t about finger-pointing. It’s all about understanding that, no matter how good we are, there’s always something we can improve upon. (As a dear friend of mine used to say, “the biggest room in the world is room for improvement.”) That’s especially true in the interactive environment where new technologies pop up daily. It’s our job to try them out – and if they’re promising, becoming familiar with them and adding them to our toolbox.

Sometimes being innovative means rejecting new technology. As Atomic’s project manager, I’ve started organizing all our project information in binders. Yes, I mean an ugly, old-school, three-ring binder. Of course, we use an online project management system, too – but sometimes it’s easier to grab a binder and head to the desk of a designer or a developer with site maps, wire frames or other information in hand. Hey, if a tool helps us work more efficiently, we’ll use it. Even if it’s not flashy or new.

On the other hand, if I discover that a tool is not working, I’m not afraid to pitch it. Sometimes you can get stuck trying to tweak a process to death – when what you really need to do is scrap it entirely and start fresh.

So if you see me bent over my notebook long after a project is completed, you’ll know what I’m doing. Revisiting the project one last time and refining the process that works best for Team Atomic and our customers.

, ,

Is your website helping your business?

Often when I’m talking with a potential customer, they get stuck one question. Is improving their website really worth the investment?

They might want a good website in theory. But paying for it can seem like money spent on overhead, without much return on investment.

That’s why I help customers figure out clear business goals for their website, before they get started. Goals intended to help their business grow.

Those goals could include things like having more customers:

  • Fill out a “request for estimate” form
  • Click a “chat with a salesperson” button
  • Download a brochure, sales flyer, or white paper
  • Watch a sales video
  • Download a coupon
  • Sign up for a mailing list
  • And, of course, make a purchase!

Once we set goals for a website, its value becomes more clear. And our job as web developers also becomes clear: design a site that will achieve those goals.

We do that in a lot of ways. By creating a professional website that lends credibility to the business. By building intuitive navigation that lead visitors through a desired “path” in the site. By making contact information easy to find. By creating easy-to-use forms. And by designing effective calls to action.

The proof in the pudding is when we measure results against the goals. We can measure just about anything using Google Analytics. But we also love to hear firsthand results from our customers. Like when HotSpring told us that the majority of their sales were now coming in through their website. Or when K12 Gallery told us that online donations were starting to roll in.

From my perspective, a beautiful website is great. But if it’s not helping your business grow, it’s just so much ink on … well, a screen.

, ,

Managing scope changes

As Atomic’s project manager, my job is to plan our projects and keep them on track. Sounds easy enough … maybe even boring. But there’s one little thing that keeps my job challenging.

Changes.

Scope changes. Schedule changes. Software changes. You name it, I’ve seen it. In fact, it seems to me that no matter how carefully a project is planned, some level of changes are inevitable. That’s just what happens when a creative concept evolves into a reality.

So instead of closing my eyes and hoping that changes won’t happen, I’m always ready for them. Here are some of the strategies I use to keep our projects on track in the face of the unexpected.

  • Talk openly about the impact of changes. Sometimes a client thinks of a new requirement or new idea partway through a project. We can always accommodate these requests, but it’s my job to make sure the client understands exactly how those changes would affect schedule and budget. That way the client can make an informed decision on whether to implement the changes or stick with the original plan.
  • Be honest about delays. Every now and then, it takes us longer to execute a task than we thought it would. (Yes, it’s true – we do make mistakes!) In those situations, I always let our clients know right away that we need to bump our schedule back a couple of days. Clients appreciate this honesty, and it helps them to better plan their review cycles accordingly.
  • Constantly monitor and adjust milestones. If we miss a milestone in our project schedule, we don’t just throw up our hands and say, “well, we’re sunk now.” Instead, I constantly readjust project milestones as needed. If we get behind on a deadline, I find out if we can expedite subsequent ones. And, if needed, I crack the whip and get our team really cranking to help us meet a deadline.

Of course, in my fondest dreams, all projects tick along perfectly, with every milestone met to the minute. I’ll keep hoping for that … but in the meantime, when changes come along, I’ll be ready for them.

, , ,

What’s Up with Wireframes?

We mentioned in our previous blog entry that we’re a little bit obsessive about project planning. And we admit it—we are. But that’s because we’ve seen too many web projects derailed because of poor planning, or no planning. And that’s not what we want for our customers.

So we take planning and project management seriously. One critical step in those efforts is creating a wireframe for any new website.

What’s a wireframe? A wireframe is very simple design that lays out the essential elements that go on each of your web pages. A wireframe for a common webpage, for example, might include placeholders for a header, navigation, body copy, an image, a search function, a “call to action” box, and “contact us” information.

It would look something like this:

Why are wireframes so important?

  • Wireframes save time because they give web designers clear direction on what needs to go on each page of the site. With a creative brief in one hand and an approved wireframe in the other, a designer  begin developing a great visual image for your site – without having to worry that he might be leaving a critical functionality off of one of the pages. Too many web projects jump straight from creating a sitemap to beginning design, without creating a wireframe in between—and too much information falls in the gap in between.
  • Wireframes also save money because the basic elements of the site have been determined and approved before the creative design process ever begins. So there’s much less chance that a design will have to be torn apart and done over—which can drive costs up quickly.

Even though we’re a newfangled interactive firm, I guess we believe in the old-fashioned principle of “doing things right the first time.” We know that’s the right thing for our customers.

Want to learn more about wireframes and Atomic’s project management strategy? Contact us anytime.

, , ,

Things to ask when looking for a new web provider

1. Will it have a content management system (CMS) in the back end? A CMS will allow you to make changes to your web pages easily, at any time, just as easily as making changes to a Microsoft Word document. A CMS helps you to:

  • Save time. You can make changes instantly yourself — there is no need to send changes off to someone else, wait around for them to make them, check behind them to make sure they were done correctly, etc., etc.
  • Save money. If you can make changes yourself, there is no need to pay a web designer $75 to $100 per hour to make changes to your site indefinitely into the future.

2. Will it be built using current Web content standards (as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium – /www.w3.org/)? Using W3C standards helps to ensure that:

  • Your site will work in multiple browsers (Explorer, Firefox, etc.) and on mulitple devices (PC, Blackberry, tablet computer, etc.)
  • Search engines will be able to most easily find your content. (This has to do with whether the text of your site is coded properly — search engine “spiders” look for certain codes and if they are not there, they cannot easily find your keywords.)
  • Your site is “forward compatible.” That means that any design changes you want to make to the site can be done very easily. In other words, you can make one coding change and quickly change the look of your entire site, without having to re-do the coding on every single page. This also will save significant $$ and headache in the future.

3. Can you create a professional design that will …

  • Put us on par with our competitors?
  • Help us capture a larger share of the marketplace?
  • Showcase us as a 21st-century company commited to progress and quality?

4. What is your work style?

  • Can you advise us of best practices in web design and development?
  • Will you develop a schedule and project plan for my site development, or will I have to?
  • Can you advise me on a web strategy for my company, or will you just “take orders and build what we tell you?”
  • Can you give me a reasonable cost estimate up front, or will I have to guess what my costs will be at the end of the project?