Assigning Projects or Aspects of Projects
In this particular role, you are going to be making some strategic project management decisions including divvying up assignments among the different teams you will be overseeing. In some cases, you may be responsible for building those teams from the ground up. In either case, you have to identify the strengths and capabilities of each team to determine what tasks they are going to be most capable of handling.
You may also want to decide to give a similar aspect to multiple teams, especially if you are in the brainstorming stage of the project. That way you can get more than one possible idea to work with. If you break certain projects up into different assignments, you also need to make sure the teams involved will be able to communicate effectively with one another. That means not only do you need some understanding of each person's professional abilities, but also their interpersonal relationships with their co-workers.
Project Management Control
Because projects involve meetings, you will need to be the overseer in all of these meetings. You should be present when teams have their own meetings whenever possible and should definitely be involved in status meetings which involve all of the teams. These meetings are going to require a firm hand because all of the groups are going to be anxious to present their information or to make excuses for why they have not met their goals. Many teams will be most interested in pointing fingers at the other teams or even at their own members. As the person in charge of the project management tasks, you will have to squelch these tendencies and make concrete suggestions for moving forward. Sometimes you may also have to make tough decisions to remove certain members of the teams or to cut off certain teams from the project for the sake of accomplishing the required goals.
Maintain Open Communication
As the project management advisor you would also be responsible for keeping the communication between you and the teams open and easy. You should provide them with multiple contact methods so they can reach you with questions and concerns. Because this open communication is a two-way street, you should also be able to contact at least the leader of each team (if one has been designated) for status reports and questions.
You should also encourage active communication between the teams and their members. And you need to ensure that all of your communication is clear and well-understood. One of the biggest problems that affect the overall performance of a project's management is miscommunication. Consider delivering instructions, questions, and other information in both oral and written forms so that you can ensure effective transmission of the ideas and so you have a hard copy in case confusion does arise.
Establish the Project Time Line
One of the more challenging parts of being a project management advisor is developing the time line for the project. While there will be a primary goal that needs to be accomplished by the whole team, you will need to break this down into smaller goals with shorter deadlines in order to ensure the finished results arrive when desired.
You must then provide specific milestones and deadlines to each team. This is quite critical since you need to be sure that everyone is adhering to their own deadlines so that the final milestone will be reached in a timely fashion. One of the tricks most project management advisors learn early on is to push up the deadlines so that you have a bit of cushion in case one of the teams runs over their time limit. It is bound to happen so preparing for it in advance is always wise.
Review All Documentation, Files, and Other Components
Because the work of each team is going to ultimately be a reflection on you, you want to always review everything that is submitted in a timely fashion so changes can be made as necessary. Do not wait until right before the final deadline to go back through the work to review. You need to stay on top of things in this aspect.
Also, you should feel free to raise questions with the teams about how they have achieved some of their documentation and results. You need to be not only clear about the product in your hands but about the process it took to reach that point. Again, at the end of the day, their work is going to be your responsibility so it would be beneficial to you to ensure that you are submitting materials that meet your expectations and those of your employer, especially if you want to be successful as a project management advisor.
