Written by: Alex Leonard, PMP
Presentation Overview
On May 21, 2024, the PMI Atlanta Chapter met at Motion Recruitment in Dunwoody, GA. To kick off this live and engaging event, the PMI ATL Agile Forum Program Manager provided an overview of project management methodologies and common frameworks. This was a perfect segway for our guest, Diamond Walker, to walk the audience through her unique project case study. She discussed the challenges she experienced while managing a New Web-Based Application project.
Ms. Walker described the scope of the project, and how she and her team navigated stakeholder change resistance and low engagement, constantly changing requirements, heavily skewed timelines, and limited resources. Diamond reviewed the relevant factors pertaining to the background of the project and how things evolved amidst the challenges. She provided the audience with advice on approaches to employ if they are faced with similar challenges.
Some of the recommendations provided included:
- Analyzing each stakeholder’s communication style, to know how to best address and respond to concerns
- Implementing team-building activities to foster cohesion when team morale is at risk due to adverse stakeholder influence/behavior
- Communicating openly and frequently when faced with conflict
- Being proactive and providing solutions or alternatives to address concerns
- Seeking mediation or neutral third-party facilitation to assist with resolving conflict
- Prioritizing tasks when faced with limited resources and changing requirements
- Leveraging technology to optimize resource utilization
- Eliminating inefficiencies to streamline processes and improve project efficiency
When bringing key stakeholders up to speed in an environment of constantly changing requirements, many stakeholders on Diamond’s project had competing interests. In this type of situation, a Project Manager must negotiate with stakeholders in a way that encourages their buy-in without introducing scope-creep or sacrificing other elements of the project like requirements, timelines or resources.
Takeaways
- Do not take things personal and make every effort to understand your stakeholders
- Gird your loins and keep all lines of communication open and document efforts taken to resolve conflict
- A Win is a Win and celebrate all team accomplishments, no matter how small
- Understand your “Why” and keep team morale high and remind them of the benefits to a successful project outcome
Next Event
Join us at the next PMI Atlanta Agile Forum on Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Register at www.pmiatlanta.org/events/event-calendar
Event Pictures
