Ithuta JV

Source: TenStep Tom Mochal

One of the primary responsibilities of a project manager is to build a project schedule and assign activities from the schedule to team members for execution. After you assign work to team members you should hold them accountable for having the work completed within expectations.

On the surface this sounds very cut and dry. However, is it really fair? Let's raise it up a level. Let's assume that you are the project manager and you are assigned to a project after the estimate for schedule and budget are already completed. You might not think that was fair since you did not have a part on creating the estimates. You would probably think that if you are held accountable for the schedule and budget, you need to be involved in creating the schedule and budget.

Now you see the problem with assigning work to team members. Is it fair to hold them accountable for work if they did not have any input into the estimating process? The answer is also “no”.

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There are two ways to make sure that the team members buy into the estimates for schedule and budget. One way is to see if you can get the team members involved with the estimating process up-front. This is not always practical, but sometimes it is possible. (In fact, you may need the help of the project team members to actually create the budget and schedule to begin with.) If the team members had input into the estimating process, they can be held accountable for completing the work within these estimates. (If the team members don't feel they can be held accountable for estimates that they help to create, then you would have to ask yourself whether the numbers are really valid.)

On the other hand, on many projects the project team members are not assigned until the project schedule is already in place. The people that created the initial estimates have to make some assumptions about “average” team member performance and make estimates based on those assumptions.

In this case it is appropriate to assign work to a team member and ask them to validate whether the estimate seems reasonable. You are not looking for an estimate with a 100% confidence factor. You are just trying to validate whether the estimate for schedule, effort and budget seem reasonable. If the team member says yes, then you can hold them accountable to complete the work within those estimates.

Of course, when you first assign the work, the team member may not know enough to say whether the estimate is reasonable or not. It may take a little time and they may actually have to start working on the activity. This is fine as well. In this case, you assign the work, along with the estimated effort, budget and deadline. You then ask the team member to validate whether the work can be accomplished within these estimates. If the team member feels that the estimates are incorrect, he needs to communicate this to you AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. In this case, the team member is obligated to provide a more realistic estimate. The project manager can push back to validate that the new estimate is more accurate than the old one. Some negotiation may occur. However, when the project manager and team member are in agreement, then the project manager can hold the team member accountable.

The key in this scenario is that the team member must notify the project manager that the prior deadline is unachievable as soon as the team member realizes it. It is not acceptable for the team member to wait until the original deadline is missed and then say that the estimates were off.

These approaches are the way to hold team members accountable for the work, while also being fair to them by allowing them to have input and buy-in to the estimates. Once they have this buy-in, then they can legitimately be held accountable for the work.

Make Sure Team Members Know What Their Assignments Are

One of the basic responsibilities of the project manager is to assign work to team members. However, some project managers are not always clear on the work to be done and the person that is responsible. This causes uncertainty in the team and can result in some activities running late. In fact, if you have managed projects for a while, you have probably run into this situation. You might ask a team member the status of a critical assignment and he may tell you that he did not realize that he was assigned to the activity. A good way to test whether your directions and assignments are clear is to ask team members what they are responsible for completing in the next two weeks. This is not something you need to do with every team member every week. However, it can be valuable to ask once in a while, or when a critical activity is due, just to validate whether you are assigning activities clearly. If the team members know what is expected of them, chances are that you are effectively and clearly assigning the work. However, if team members give you different answers than you expect, it may mean that you need to work on being clearer and more precise.

If team members understand the work perfectly but don't deliver on time, you may have a performance problem. If they deliver the wrong work to you, on time, you also have a problem. However, if the team member is not clear about the work he has been assigned or the due date, then the project manager may have a communication problem.
When you assign work to team members, be clear about the following:

• Activity name(s), from the schedule
• An explanation, if necessary, of what the work entails
• Start-date and end-date. The project manager needs to be clear on when the activity can start (probably immediately) and when the activity is due. If the team member cannot meet the deadline date, he needs to let the project manager know as soon as possible.
• Estimated effort hours (optional). The project manager should communicate the estimated hours required to complete the activity. This is usually of secondary importance compared to the due date. If the team member cannot complete the activities within the estimated effort hours, he needs to let the project manager know as soon as possible. However, on most projects, if the activity is completed on schedule, it is not as important if the work took more or fewer actual effort hours.
• Estimated costs (optional). If the team member cannot complete the work within the cost estimate, he needs to let the project manager know as soon as possible. If the activity only includes labor, the cost overrun will be directly related to an overage in labor hours. However, if there are non-labor charges involved in the activity, it is possible that these non-labor costs could be over budget.
• Deliverable. The team member needs to understand the deliverable or work component (a portion of a larger deliverable) that he is expected to complete. If there are quality criteria to meet, the team member should know these quality requirements.
• Dependencies. Make sure the team member knows his relationship with other activities – ones that are waiting on him or ones that must be completed before his can start.
• Other resources. If multiple resources are working on the same activities, they must all understand who the team members are and they need to know who has overall responsibility for the activity.