Project Management Passion Play

Now here’s a thing: me talking about project management! Never thought that would happen, given my total lack of desire to manage anything (especially people and projects). Still, this old dog might have a new trick or two for you.

As freelancers, many of us work with small companies – you know, the ones run by a single person who outsources some writing, dev work or graphical creativity because he or she doesn’t have those particular skills. This is all fine and good, but it frequently means that our “boss” is someone who may not have all the skills they need for their job – after all, they never had to pass an interview, unlike us.

If you intend to hire freelancers – or if you’re involved in a project as an independent contractor and want to help your employer out – here’s some food for thought:

Make A Plan

While you presumably have a plan of what you want, the people you’re hiring have never seen it. A plan is not “be the best”. It is a reasonably detailed strategy that indicates where you are headed with what you’re doing so that your employees don’t produce the wrong thing (and cause arguments about whether you pay for the rework).

Remember, 90% of the people you’re hiring don’t give a monkey’s about your business: they’re freelancers and just want to know what you want them to do for each specific task. There are exceptional people who will get involved, but don’t count on it.

You don’t have to publish a great big strategy document, but
having some idea of what you want to achieve with things – as well as a
proper, complete, detailed spec for each task – will help a lot.

Being Vague Is Expensive

Each project needs a spec. And when I say needs, I mean absolutely NEEEEEEEEEEDS one! Without it, you’re flailing around in the dark and your scope will creep inexorably. A 10-hour job turns into a 20-hour slog, then a 50-hour marathon.

Define what you want. Don’t faff around with how wonderful everything is, how great a team is, how this is good for everyone involved – they know that or they’d sod off somewhere else! – just tell them WHAT you want, HOW you want it and WHEN to deliver it.

DMAIC and other Six Sigma principles can help here. The time you spend getting your spec right will cost you, but it’ll save you twice as much in the long run.

Oh, and don’t go back and change it until the job’s done – get Version One in place, then you can revisit and decide if you need changes.

Create A Central Store

You presumably have a server somewhere for all this content. Put everything in it, organise it and centralise your communication.

If you’re using three or four sites, online project management tools and email to converse, it’s all a big disorganised jumble and no one will be able to find anything. One store, in one place, with a separate bucket for each project (and an index of documents).

And while I think of it, use descriptive, standardised names. I don’t care how busy your workers are: people need to be able to find something quickly or it’ll cost you another 30 minutes of their time. That gets real expensive, real quick.

Hire someone to do this if you have to - a sort of “content funnel” who just administers the storage area, making sure everything has a description, a standard name, is in the right place and is listed on the index. I know it sounds expensive, but it’ll probably save you cash in the long run (particularly on a big project).

Concentrate On A Thread

When you’re running your own business or project, it’s tempting to try to do too many things at once. That’s a great way to ruin your health and get nothing done.

Variety is, indeed, the spice of life… but switching and changing all the time kills momentum. Tasks rise and fall in priority as if they were in some kind of variable-gravity environment, you lose sleep and everyone runs around chasing jobs like greasy pigs, never catching them.

Stop switching focus all the time. Stop trying to do six different things concurrently. Prioritise your tasks, stick to the priorities as best you can and, if necessary, delegate work. Of course, for that you need some employees you can trust not to cock things up (which is not easy with distant, unfamiliar freelancers) and you need a plan in place (see above).

Define Responsibilities

Yeah, I know it sucks but the people working for you need to know who to talk to when they’re stuck – otherwise they all come whining to you.

A simple text document on your (one, single, central) shared datastore works great. Name, project, responsibility. That’d work for project bucket names, as well. Then you can switch off your phone once in a blue moon because your employees all talk to each other (instead of just you).

Oh, and there’s a thought: keep a “reading list” that tells new employees where to find these index documents. Don’t just say “It’s in the store” and hope they figure it out. You might as well say “Use Google”. Some help that is!

You Don’t Like Writing

But having things on paper (or virtual paper) is essential when working at a distance. I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is.

Yes, talking’s lovely, but all it needs is someone to distract you for 30 seconds after the conversation or the lady next door’s pet crocodile to wander through the garden… and you’ve forgotten something. Specs are important and they (unfortunately) need to be on paper for reference.

What other tips can you think of for new employers and project leads?