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Hard to believe it’s already time to start planning for 2022 but as we know growth and success rely heavily on planning. Annual Planning is essential to realign the organization to assure efforts are geared toward the strategic goals of the organization, layout a clear execution plan, & communicating the goals and plan to the entire organization to assure everyone is united. When we facilitate annual planning sessions with organizations, we like to complete exercises to answer three simple questions: Where are we now? Where are we going? How are we going to get there? Where are we now? We like to start each annual planning exercise by reaffirming the purpose of the organization. This re-aligns the focus of leadership by reviewing the vision, mission, and value statements of the organization. This assures that when establishing goals and setting priorities for the year that the long-term vision and mission are being kept in mind. Before you can determine the next steps for your organization, it's necessary to define a baseline. Examining the current state of your organization includes reviewing the statistics and trends of the previous year. Learning from the previous year by reflecting on what went well, where were their challenges or failures, possible missed opportunities, & any changes to the market or your business provide a strong foundation for planning for the upcoming year. Where are we going? When establishing where your company is going, we like to complete a series of exercises to define the purpose & position given what you have learned in the previous exercise from establishing the baseline. The 1st exercise we like to complete is by brainstorming around one simple question - what does success look like at the end of the year? Other exercises we find helpful are completing a SWOT analysis, Start/Stop/Continue & the Hedgehog Concept. After completing these brainstorming exercises, we suggest funneling the ideas collected into goals for your organization. There are countless different types of goal formatting but the three we prefer for annual planning sessions are SMART Goals, OKRs, & V2MOM. How are we going to get there? Determining how you are going to execute on those goals is crucial for building the foundation for a successful year. Set measurable goals with clearly defined metrics, dates & targets. Break your larger goals and initiatives into set defined milestones to include actions, achievements & deliverables necessary to make progress towards your goals. Examine your resources and capacity through a series of forecasting & budgeting. From there, you can pull it all together into a Roadmap based on the goals, milestones, budget & capacity determined. Strategic Alignment Assuring your organization is aligned on the goals, priorities, and roadmap for the annual plan begins with communication. Foster buy-in by communicating motives and how initiatives relate to the strategic goals of the organization. Define the communication methods and how much information should be shared and with who. Track the progress of initiatives and goals and report out frequently to keep the organization aligned and on the same page. For a more in-depth overview of Change Management strategies and techniques – sign up for our webinar on an “Introduction to Change Management”. With your roadmap established and organization aligned, your team is set up for successful execution & growth for the year. For more tips and tools to run a successful annual planning session, view our webinar. If you want to bring in an outside facilitator to lead your organizations' annual planning exercise, feel free to reach out to contactus@echoconsultingpm.com.

You’d be surprised by the amounts of projects that fail from the simple miscommunication of not being able to clearly understand the requirements set by stakeholders. No matter what size of the project, without being able to fully understand the purpose, goals, and needs of a project, the project manager is not able to make the decisions necessary to keep the project on track and successful. Stakeholders can often be vague about requirements or sometimes are not fully clear on the true purpose and requirements for the project themselves, but it is your role as a project manager to ask the right questions to the right people to define clear project requirements. We’ve experienced the frustration of managing a project without clear requirements too many times to make the mistake again and want to share our lessons learned and recommendations. Our recommendations: Host a discovery brainstorming session to discuss not only the desired solution but more importantly the heart of the problem you are aiming to solve. Distribute a pain point questionnaire to a large range in the organization to solicit as many viewpoints as possible. Review & prioritize requirements analyzed against the goals of the initiative. Finalize requirements and scope for stakeholder review & approval to verify alignment. Throughout execution, assure your team is working on the correct activities to meet requirements and track and communicate to prevent scope creep. Managing a project is much more than a “to-do” list, it's essential to work with stakeholders prior to planning the project to define, analyze and prioritize requirements and then set up a tracking system to assure all milestones are being met.

We’ve all felt the frustration of attending a meeting that could have easily been an email, was not necessary for us to attend, or was a waste of time as there was no clear purpose or agenda so nothing got accomplished. With virtual meetings being more common if meetings aren’t planned and run efficiently team members often multi-task or zone out. Remain respectful of your team members time and run efficient, impactful meetings by following these simple tips: Establish a Clear Purpose & a Pre-Communicated Agenda Before you even schedule a meeting, you should establish what the purpose of the meeting is. Determining what you want to address or what decisions need to be made is the 1s step to determining if you need a meeting or if this could be achieved in an email or stand up as well as the appropriate length of time for the meeting and who you will need in attendance. Clearly communicate the purpose in the meeting invite to assure that everyone is aware of why they are meeting and what they should be accomplishing building buy-in and participation from the start. Provide a concise, well-planned agenda in advance laying out everything you plan to discuss and accomplish as well as any items that will require preparation on their end. This could be providing project updates, completing a survey, or doing background research. Assuring that participants come prepared protects your teams time by making the meeting time as impactful as possible. The agenda also services as a guide for the meeting. Making it easy to redirect when the conversation gets off track by being able to refer to the agenda. We prefer to include time estimates for each agenda item so everyone can be aware of allotted time keeping the discussion on point. Include the “Right” Group of Participants When planning a meeting, it’s essential to assure that you have the right group of people gathered for the purpose of the meeting. Confirm those who will need to provide valuable insight or decision-makers are in the room and protect others' time by providing the information in an email. We recommend checking attendance prior to the meeting to assure all required participants can attend. If you host a meeting without team members that need to provide input or be present for decision making, you will not be able to accomplish your goals for the meeting thus wasting your team members' time. Keep Participants Engaged Encourage or require participation from all participants – if team members know that they are expected to participate they are less likely to zone out. This could be through the form of an exercise, sticky notes or going around the table giving everyone a chance to speak. If you’re meeting is virtual then we recommend requesting everyone keep their camera on. Many participants may feel uncomfortable speaking up so it’s essential to build trust in the room and create a safe space for all to contribute. This will not only prevent attendees from zoning out but will also ensure that you get the most out of the meeting by gaining access to as much insight as possible. One of our favorite tactics to use is sending out a survey in advance to gather everyone’s thoughts ahead of time and using the results to start a discussion. Take Notes We recommend asking for volunteers to own the responsibility of documenting the meeting to assure no ideas, decisions, updates, or action items get lost. We find it helpful to take notes collaboratively via a shared document to assure that everyone is getting the same takeaways and are leaving on the same page. As an organization that utilizes Microsoft Teams, we love using the Teams Meeting Notes feature to collaborate on agenda items, take notes and assure action items are noted and assigned. End with an Action Plan The most important part of any impactful meeting is assuring that items get followed through with long after the meeting. We like to end each meeting with a recap and action plan. Assuring everyone understands the decisions made and verifying ownership, responsibility, and timeline for any action items. Every participant should leave the meeting with a clear understanding of what was accomplished and what their individual action items are that they are responsible for. Sending a follow up email with the notes as well as everyone’s action items and due dates is a great way to assure that everyone leaves on the same page and provides accountability for action items. Bonus Tip: Use the Right Tools If in-person, it's essential to verify that the conference room chosen has the tools needed to run an efficient and impactful meeting. Depending on your unique needs this could be a whiteboard, screen to present, sticky notes & more! If virtual, we recommend utilizing a collaborative virtual whiteboard system like Mural to recreate the environment that you would have in person. Whether in person or virtual, pulling up a project management tool throughout the meeting can be a great tool to view statuses and reports, timelines, as well as add or update any items as a team directly in the meeting. If you are interested in learning more techniques for running productive, impactful meetings, join us for a webinar on Wednesday, October 13th from 12-12:30pm. Sign up on either Eventbrite or LinkedIn to attend - we’ll be reviewing techniques and sharing our secrets to improve engagement and productivity.

Two years ago, when I made the leap to start “working for myself” I made a LOT of assumptions. Two years in, I can confidently say every single assumption I made was wrong – and yet my decision to start Echo Consulting was right. Assumption # 1: I thought I was going to “work for myself” Reality #1: As a small business owner I work for my clients and community much more intimately than I ever did as an employee. I am more connected, empathetic, and aware of the amazing ecosystem that supports me, and my need to give back and empower others to grow. I could never “work for myself” since I find joy and satisfaction in helping others. Assumption # 2: I thought that all the other business owners and CEOs had special elusive knowledge, powers, and abilities. That because they were “bigger” than me, or had been in business “longer”, made more money, etc – That they were somehow more than me. Reality # 2: There are no special superpowers and an exclusive knowledge base. No one has it all figured out. We are all doing our best to figure it out as we go. I read a great book call “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance. The author Angela Duckworth quotes Nietzsche - “Our vanity, our self-love, promotes the cult of the genius,” Nietzsche said. “For if we think of genius as something magical, we are not obliged to compare ourselves and find ourselves lacking. . . . To call someone ‘divine’ means: there is no need to compete.” Assumption # 3: I thought the hardest part would be finding new work. Reality # 3: My community and network was much stronger than I could have possibly imagined. The hardest part was not getting a new client to say “yes”. The hardest part was having to say “No” to teams that I truly wanted to help, but I just didn’t have time. Or I wasn’t the right fit for them, even though they thought I was the right person for the job. “It’s not you, it’s me” – doesn’t work personally OR professionally. Assumption # 4: I thought I wanted to be a “Company of One”. Reality # 4: While I constantly get to collaborate with teams of amazing people with each of my clients, I missed the “safe space” associated with a team of my own. I’m a very direct per son, regardless of whether I am with a client or a co-worker but having a team that is committed to Echo’s success, that I can ideate with, dream with, build with – has been amazing. Melissa joined the Echo team full time in 2020, and Kelly joined our team in 2021! I’m already looking forward to more team members joining the Echo family! Assumption # 5: I thought I was going to offer “project management services” Reality # 5: Most of my clients don’t even mention project management when they describe how I help them. They are much more likely to talk about solving problems, improving processes, building solutions, training teams. While I still self-identify as a project manager – my clients are helping me redefine our value proposition every day. While my assumptions were completely off base, and my perspective has evolved with experience– our mission and values have not changed – and remain our foundation for the growth of Echo and our community. At Echo Consulting, we believe that learning is a lifestyle that energizes and inspires. We believe that translating what we learn into something of value, worthy of sharing, provides purpose. Growth, both personal and professional is our guiding star and how we measure results. Caring about our families, friends, clients, community, and world gives our lives meaning. We are committed to sharing the power of project management, because: all teams deserve access to high-quality experienced project management to help break down barriers to growth. Thank you for being a part of this amazing journey as we continue to learn, share, grow and care! Let’s Grow Together!

You’ve decided you need to adopt a project management system for your organization, so what’s next? Defining key requirements is essential to any project's success and choosing a project management system is no different. We’ve encountered many organizations that are not able to fully adopt a system because it does not meet their unique business requirements. Choosing to implement a project management system can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. Defining your business requirements from the beginning can build the foundation for full adoption for your team. What current pain points would you like to solve? Understanding your teams’ current challenges and pain points can be a great place to start as more than likely the proper system can help alleviate these. It also can help create buy-in from the beginning establishing big wins for your team as you articulate how the system you choose will solve these pain points. We recommend completing a pain points survey to solicit feedback from as many team members as possible. It’s also essential to review quality issues in the current system to see where balls are being dropped. For example, it could be a missed deadline due to poorly communicated timelines. Being able to map out where inefficiencies are taking place across the entire organization will give you a great foundation to define your project management software requirements and goals for what you hope the new system will achieve. What’s your teams' current process & workflow? You want a project management solution that is going to complement and improve your current system to make full adoption a success. It’s important to understand who will be using this system, their roles, and what access level they will need. Understanding the roles and requirements of each and how many will need to utilize the system will not only come into play with budget but the tool that is appropriate for your organization level. It’s also essential to understand your current process and workflow and what requirements of a system would be necessary. This is especially important with knowing what existing software would need to integrations for successful implementation. Accessibility is also an important factor especially if your team is remote or has a hybrid work model. Being able to access the project management tool from their mobile device or laptop could be a “make-it or break-it” for the overall success. What’s the goal? Understanding what your team needs to accomplish with the project management system is essential for defining requirements. I team that is solely looking to track daily reoccurring tasks will have much different system requirements than a team looking to only manage and track long-term projects. Some examples of functionalities would be task management, resource management, document collaboration, transparency, and reporting. Understanding which of these functionalities will be crucial to achieving your goals will help you establish your key requirements. Once you have defined your key business requirements, you can start the research & selection process with a clear understanding of your business needs to be able to clearly see which options check all the required boxes. Out personal favorite tool to use when researching project management systems is Capterra. We prefer this tool because it offers side-by-side comparisons, real user reviews, and helpful insights. Choosing to adopt a project management system can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. Echo Consulting offers services in not only software selection, but process improvement & training as well. Email our team at ContactUs@echoconsultingpm.com to schedule a free ½ consultation.

Adopting a project management system can be a big win for your team especially if it is implemented successfully. A project management system not only tracks incoming and ongoing projects but can improve visibility, resource management, productivity as well as clarify accountability. At Echo, we know choosing a project management tool isn’t the end – the tool must be properly implemented, and the process must be fully adopted to be effective and bring true change to the organization. Below we’ll share 5 of our top tips for a successful implementation of a project management system. Define Business Requirements for Vendor Selection Defining your key business requirements prior to vendor selection is essential to a successful implementation. We’ve encountered many organizations that are not able to fully adopt a system because it does not meet their unique business requirements. Choosing to implement a project management system can be a costly and time-consuming undertaking. Defining your business requirements from the beginning can build the foundation for a successful implementation. When defining key business requirements, we recommend starting with examining what pain points you’d like to solve. This can also help create “buy-in” from the start by welcoming as many participants as possible through conducting a survey. It’s crucial to review quality issues in the current system to see where balls are being dropped and opportunities for optimization. It’s also vital to understand your current process and workflow and what requirements of a system would be necessary. This is especially important with knowing what existing software would need to integrations for long-term success. Initial Gap Analysis Once you have selected a vendor, completing an “Initial Gap Analysis” between your selected software platform and your current system will give you a clear understanding of the gap and actions needed to close the gap for each functionality. A gap analysis is a simple process in which for each functionality you analyze the present state and the desired future state and then examine the gap and what action steps are required to bridge the gap to achieve your desired state. Detailed Implementation Plan Having a strategic and communicated implementation plan provides a sturdy foundation for successful implementation. This should include identifying your project team, budget, defined project plan, schedule, communication plan as well as a plan for testing and training with your team. Other important factors to map out in this planning phase are data migration, cutover, and the system architecture. A clearly communicated implementation plan allows for clear expectations and accountability to keep the project on time and budget and allowing for minimum disruption to the daily operations of the business. Data Migration When migrating from a current system, it’s important to have a detailed data migration plan in place making sure that data is correctly migrated and optimized to assure the accuracy of your data remains intact. When mapping out data migration we recommend spending considerable time clearing up your current data system. We like to use the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” as an example. We encourage our teams to reduce by getting rid of “ROT” or redundant, out of date, or trivial data, to reuse by remapping all metadata, and recycle by standardizing across the system if possible. Pilot We encourage testing with a pilot group prior to rolling out to an entire organization. Having a pilot group allows you to make improvements from the feedback you’ve solicited and lessons learned prior to rollout. Not only can this provide opportunities for optimizations but it helps protect the organizational “buy-in” by having as many problems worked out as possible before introducing and implementing to the entire team. Bonus Tip: Training, Training, Training! Change is necessary but we all know it’s not easy. Resistance is natural when faced with a new, unknown system – proper training and support can help alleviate this from within your team. Training can consist of different formats whether that’s webinars, office hours, recorded videos, or quick reference guides. It’s essential to provide your team with ample training and support to gain buy-in and confidence in the new system. Implementing a new project management platform can be a costly investment in both time and money. To succeed and assure your organization receives its ROI it’s essential to have clearly defined requirements prior to selection, complete a detailed analysis, map out a strategic project and data migration plan as well as pilot and offer supportive training. If you’re interested in learning more tips to successfully implement a project management system, watch a free recording of our webinar. At Echo, our project managers empower teams for improved delivery and measurable results so that you have the peace of mind you need to fully focus on your company's growth and success. We offer services in software selection, process improvement, and implementation, as well as training.

As you are embarking down the path to select a project management system, it is really important to ask yourself: What are the main benefits I am hoping to gain from using a project management system? By asking yourself this question, you can be sure that you are keeping your top priorities in mind as you are exploring different options, reviewing feature capabilities, and even testing out free versions. Each time you look at a new tool, you can review the key features that will meet the highest priority benefits you are looking for. In this blog post, we are going to cover the top benefits we hear from our clients as they are adopting new project management software. Prioritization When looking at a project management system, many businesses want to leverage a system that can support their need for prioritizing work effectively across their team. Using a tool that can clearly report on the top priorities for the team as well as the status of those priorities, can help leaders stay focused on the organization's largest strategic initiatives. This can also ensure individual contributors are able to stay on task and on schedule with those critical items. project management systems have several features that can help with the goal of prioritization. A few include dashboard and reporting capabilities, priority level setting, capacity planning, goal setting and more. Automation Workflows I think it's safe to say that we can all use time savings in our work. Automation workflows allow team members to save time in communication, meeting attendance, manual planning, and more. In today's landscape, automation is a must-have. Whether you're looking for specific stakeholders to be automatically notified when tasks are completed or setting up task dependencies to ensure projects can move forward seamlessly - most project management systems today allow for varying levels of automation which can help your team to become efficiency masters! Boost Productivity If your team member is having to spend a lot of time identifying what needs to be done or waiting for a direction from someone, this can really slow them and your business down. By adopting a project management system, you can help your team members spend less time planning and more time doing. Transparency Transparency is a key benefit we hear our clients are hoping to gain from a project management system. This is especially true for team leaders and managers. The ability to gain insight into the workload of each team member currently has on their plate as well as the status of key milestones or deliverables helps managers to support their team more effectively. Project Management When a business is looking for project management as a benefit within the software they choose, they are often looking for features such as dependency capabilities, a timeline or GANTT chart view, budgeting capabilities, time tracking, and often reporting or dashboard capabilities to be able to show different stakeholders specific data or information that is relevant to them. Collaboration If you are working within a team that requires frequent collaboration and communication, a project management system can really help streamline those processes. Common features within task management systems to support this includes tagging team members to notify them of updates, commenting within specific tasks or milestones, uploading documents for review, etc. Identifying the ways that would be most helpful for your team members to collaborate is a key insight to keep in mind as you are searching for the right tool. Reminders At a very basic level, a project management system can really help your team members by reminding them of upcoming due dates for projects. In addition to checking your project management system each day for an overview of the work you and your team have, you can also set up reminders for yourself to be notified of upcoming deliverables as well as activity that has taken plan on projects you are keeping track of. Accessibility A key benefit of using a project management software is that you can access it from anywhere! All project management systems offer capabilities to gain access to your system from your laptop, tablet or your phone.

Is your team struggling with miscommunication, lack of viability, poor resource management, or lack of accountability leading to frustration, missed opportunities, and inefficiency? A project management system might be the answer you are looking for. Miscommunication Causing Conflict It’s no secret that lack of communication can have severe impacts on a team’s collaboration, teamwork & morale. When items are spread out via many methods of communication, slack, email, texting etc, it’s easy for messages to get missed and lost. Poor team communication can create unnecessary confusion or misunderstandings causing frustration and inefficiency. How many times have you experienced a miscommunication leading to missing requirements, accountability, or deadlines? The Project Management Institute reports that 56% of projects fail because the project leaders and team members weren’t on the same page. A project management system can help alleviate this challenge by offering an umbrella for all communication to be handled efficiently allowing real-time updates and the ability to set who is accountable, deadlines, dependencies, requirements, and more! Everyone is clear of what they must do and when. Implementing a task management system keeps teams on the same page alleviating miscommunication and unnecessary frustration. Lack of Visibility With so many concurrent tasks happening simultaneously, the amount of time spent on meetings, back and forth communication, and reporting is endless. With the real-time updates that a task management system allows, you can easily see the status of an item, what is dependent on that item being completed, the expected completion date, and more! It also allows for a better picture of your team’s workload. By having all the tasks in one system, you can easily see who is overloaded to better prioritize and either reschedule or redelegate. Unrealistic Deadlines, Time Management & Resource Management Without an overarching system, it can be difficult to have a proper bird’s eye view of all the simultaneous projects and tasks. This can easily lead to frustration and team burnout by overloading them with too many projects and tasks than they would be able to successfully complete, not being able to prioritize the high-impact projects and tasks, as well as poor budget and resource management. Having a project management system in place allows for a clear, overarching view of all projects and tasks to better be able to determine priority, how resources should be allocated, overall budget, where your team's time is best spent, and more accurate timelines. Lack of Accountability We’ve all experienced the blame game the inevitably occurs when a ball gets dropped. This can often be due to a lack of accountability. The entire team is unsure who owns what and therefore assumes someone else is handling it. A project management system allows for leaders and teams to clearly communicate who is responsible for each item by assigning tasks, setting deadlines, and noting requirements. Everyone is clear what they are responsible for and can easily communicate if their portion is completed. If these challenges resonate with you, maybe it’s time for your team to adopt a task management system. Feel free to email our team at ContactUs@echoconsultingpm.com for a free ½ consultation and to learn more about how Echo Consulting can support your team through software selection, process improvement, training & more!

There are many reasons organizations choose to hire a contracted project manager versus using someone internally. It could be that they are a smaller scale organization that can not take on the financial overhead of a permanent project manager or have a short-term need for one to handle a temporary project. Or if an organization's project manager is out on a temporary leave and they want an expert to assure the project still runs smoothly. The possibilities of scenarios are endless but what are the pros and cons to evaluate when deciding if hiring an external project manager is the best fit for your organization? Pros Hire an Expert Outsourcing allows you the ability to hire a project manager that is an expert for the project at hand. Someone who more than likely has a specialized skill set and extensive experience handling projects of this nature, therefore, has been able to learn from their experience and knows the best practices to follow. Utilizing an internal team member as project manager who does not have this expertise could result in costly and timely mistakes. Employee Burn Out Your team members already wear too many hats and have their plates full. Distracting them with the added responsibility of handling a project could have a negative impact on their regular responsibilities and they would not be able to devote the focus to the project that is needed to assure all deadlines are hit. It can also cause staff burnout by loading the employee with more than they can successfully take on. Save Money Between salary, benefits, equipment, office space, and overhead cost of keeping a project manager in-house is very expensive. Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to only pay for the hours and timeframe you need for the project therefore costs much less than keeping a project manager in-house. Unbiased Perspective A temporary project manager has the advantage of a fresh outlook. They are able to look at the business with an unbiased perspective with no knowledge or emotions involved in company politics. This perspective allows them to see problems that are often overlooked by internal team members as well as be able to make tough decisions such as ways to cut costs or improve a process without fear of the impact on the company politics. Cons Lack of Relationships It’s no secret that an external contractor will not have those pre-established relationships build within the team. This can be a challenge when establishing leadership and trust. Similarly, everyone has their own unique communication styles and there can also be a learning curve when understanding the best way to communicate with each person. Knowledge While external project managers come with the knowledge and expertise related to a specific type of project, they will need additional time to be explained internal procedures, stakeholders, resources, and company operations. As previously stated, this will allow an external contractor to offer an unbiased perspective, but they will need to take the initial time to learn and understand the unique functionalities of your organization. Curious if hiring a temporary project manager is right for your organization? Check out our page on project management services or contact us to schedule your free initial consultation at contactus@echoconsultingpm.com.

StrAlign (verb): To align to strategy. (noun): A tool to help teams focus on the highest impact projects. What if you had the ability to prioritize incoming work on an ongoing basis to support your organization to focus on the highest impact work? Imagine if you could save time and decrease frustration by making meeting time more impactful? We are excited to introduce you to StrAlign, a working prototype built by Echo Consulting to reconcile competing priorities and help teams focus on the highest impact projects. Our goal is to provide a tool that teams can use for ongoing, dynamic prioritization utilizing team-sourced input and leadership-driven strategic goals that allows you to lay the groundwork for successful execution of the highest value projects. StrAlign is a prioritization web app that quantifies the value of projects based on their impact to the strategic goals of the organization. Unlike time-consuming and expensive strategic planning meetings and homegrown excel calculations, StrAlign enables individuals to compare projects relative to each other via a user-friendly app and consolidates the results so that Managers can make data-driven decisions informed by their teams' combined expertise. Rather than the typical "upvote" popularity contests with other idea/innovation management platforms, StrAlign drives users to make individual instinctual decisions about which project will provide the most impact comparatively speaking. By framing the question in relative terms and requiring everyone to provide their input on their own, StrAlign harnesses diverse perspectives and experiences and quantifies the results - helping bridge the information gap between decision-makers and the individual contributors and subject matter experts on their teams. Interested in learning more? Check out StrAlign’s website, sign up to receive updates, or schedule a demo to see StrAlign in action!

In today's blog post, we're going to cover the 5 phases of a project management lifecycle, which would typically fall under the Waterfall/Traditional project management methodology. These phases can be followed for both large and small projects. A project management process can be as simple or as complex as is needed for the particular project you are working on. We hope you can apply these phases in any capacity that is helpful to you within your organization. The 5 phases of traditional project management are: Initiation, Planning, Executing, Monitoring/Controlling and Closing. We will dive deeper into each one of these phases below and identify the core components and activities within each. Initiation The first step within the Initiation Phase is identifying the problem. This can often be the easiest part, as we uncover problems within our businesses each day. The key here is to ensure you have done your research, you fully understand the depth of the issue and you are clear on how this is impacting your business. Once the problem is clearly identified, the next step is one of the most critical - articulating the goal. It is essential that before a project is launched, the goal is very clear AND it is communicated to all relevant stakeholders. In order to articulate a goal clearly, we recommend following the SMART goal framework: S - Specific M - Measurable A - Attainable R - Relevant T - Timebound For more information on SMART goals, see our blog post here. The final step within Initiation is identifying the 'who'. This should be stakeholders that will be actively engaged in the project (sponsors, champions, project managers) as well as team members that will be impacted by this project. Planning The next phase of this project management methodology is Planning. Now that we have identified the problem, articulated the goal and identified the who - we can jump into defining the solution. A solution is the output you hope to gain from completing this project and that is expected to meet the goal that has been articulated. If the solution does not fully meet the terms of your SMART goal, this will result in a failed project. The second step within the planning phase is breaking the project down into logical steps. Now that we have the goal and an understanding of what the solution should be, we need to outline how we can get from point A to B. Depending on the project scope, the amount of time spent on this portion of the project can vary greatly. At a high-level, for the planning you should: Outline the Steps Identify Action Owners for each Include Expected Timeline and Milestones Executing In the executing phase, we are navigating through the steps that were broken down as part of the planning. This is generally led by a Project Manager; this phase can include a regular cadence of status meetings, recurring reports to identify issues or risks along the way, as well as identifying successes and documentation for future use. The main two pieces within the executing phase is to build the solution and test the solution. Once the solution is built, we want to do various test to ensure the solution meets the goal. Monitoring & Controlling The next phase within this methodology, Monitoring and Controlling, often overlaps with the executing portion. The objective of this phase is to confirm the solution meets the goal after execution. If within this phase, it is identified that we have not yet met the goal - we will enter back into the executing phase to further modify the solution. We will continue to move through this cycle until it is confirmed that the solution is meeting the goal of the project. Adoption (Hidden Phase) A piece of executing and monitoring/controlling that is often forgotten is adoption within the organization. Although it is often forgotten, it is critical to a successful project closing for if your organization does adopt the solution - the project has failed. According to the Project Management Book off Knowledge, “it is becoming even more important to have a contextual framework for effective adoption.” Here are pieces of the framework we at Echo Consulting incorporate into our project planning. Cutover Planning: Typically throughout the length of the project, there may be additional stakeholders involved in ensuring the execution goes smoothly (namely the Project Manager). It's important to ensure all duties and responsibilities are outlined for ongoing management (operations). Communication: It is important to ensure the proper stakeholders and team members are informed of the project and solution completed and how this will impact their particular roles. Training: Training is generally needed to ensure the team members are adequately prepared to adopt the new solution. Buy-In: We can make plans to hand-off responsibilities, communicate to the right stakeholders, and train the appropriate teams, BUT if we don't have buy-in from the participants, we will still not be successful in our project closing. Closing After the project has clearly been executed, monitored, tested, and adopted - we are ready to close the project. Congratulations - you have made it through the 5 phases of project management.

Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the Mothers out there. At Echo Consulting, we are proud to have so many Mothers on the team. You may be surprised by this but raising children & managing projects in many aspects aren’t that different – you start with hopes & ambitions and plan for how you want to nurture them to achieve that vision. Mothers are often considered the “project managers” of a household as cited in Science Daily “almost 9 in 10 women answered they felt solely responsible for organizing schedules of the family”. Mothers set and communicate expectations, keep the team on task and on schedule, as well as provide stability and guidance in uncertain situations. But how has our experience as Mothers contributed and helped certain project management skillsets grow? Setting Expectations Establishing and communicating expectations is vital for any cohesive project team or family. Setting the limits and expectations at the start is crucial for success. As Mothers know, it can be natural to set expectations for the family prior to any situation whether that’s a trip to the beach, grocery store or daily morning routine. Establishing the expected behavior, who is responsible for what items, timeline etc. For project teams, this important step can often get missed under the assumption that everyone knows their role and responsibility. Follow-Up This can also be said for following up with those expectations and responsibilities. Mothers are often accused of “nagging” – but what happens when items aren’t followed up with? Permission slips and doctor appointments get missed, lunches get left on the counter and homework fails to get completed. The same can be said for projects – each step needs to be followed up with if not communicated that its completed. This can often mean having to be the “bad guy” to assure reports get filed and steps are completed. Building Buy-In Building “buy-in” from resistant team members during projects can be one of the biggest barriers to full adoption and a project’s success. I think we can all agree that toddlers are the most challenging team members to build buy-in from. Have you ever tried convincing a toddler to eat their vegetables or brush their teeth in the morning? This experience can change the way a person approaches communication. Finding out what motivates different individuals and what their goals are and how we can align when communicating to reach shared goals and objectives. Time Management Both parenting and project management require the ability to manage time and priorities seamlessly. To juggle multiple requests, issues, and tasks at once with the ability to prioritize what is most impactful in that moment. It requires a high level of organization to keep track of everything as well as communicate to the team or family. Stability As a parent and project manager it’s important to remain infallible in any situation that may arise. This includes keeping a level head, making sound decisions, and keeping calm for the team. This can require a lot of self-regulation in situations not wanting to display panicked facial expressions or negativity. Both in parenting and project management, you set the tone and the team looks to you for guidance on how to act. Building Self-Sufficiency At Echo Coaching, we strive to build self-sufficiency not dependency. We want you to be successful long after the project is completed and to do that we focus a lot of energy of workshops and champion development to build that self-sufficiency. The same can be said for parenting, while it’s wonderful being the person to put your child’s shoe on each morning or fix their hair, is there anything better than them obtaining that slice of independence and mastering the task themselves? You achieve that by coaching, talking them through the process, and encouraging independence while remaining on the sidelines for support if needed. “Invisible Labor can Negatively Impact Well-Being in Mothers” Science Daily. Posted January 22nd, 2019. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190122092857.htm