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Dos and Don'ts in Managing Global Projects

• In managing global projects, it is essential to develop cultural self-awareness. The first, and most important, step is becoming aware of your own cultural orientations and the impact they can make in managing projects across cultures. You must prepare for cross-cultural project encounters with purpose and thoroughness. Here are a few dos and don'ts to consider.


DO
• Develop your cultural self-awareness.
• Set realistic expectations for yourself and others.
• Accept that you will make mistakes, but remain confident.
• Be patient.
• Slow down. Make relationships.
• Keep your sense of humor.
• Keep your integrity.
• Stay objective. Minimize blame.
DON'T :
• Assume similarity.
• Try to adopt the orientations of the other culture. Adaptation does not mean adoption.
• Dwell on comparing the other culture with your own.
• Evaluate the other culture in terms of good or bad.
• Assume that just being yourself is enough to bring you cross-cultural success.

things you can do to help develop multicultural excellence in Project management

• Multiple languages: Recruit core team members who speak multiple languages
• Multicultural experience: Provide core team members with multicultural experiences.
• Cross-cultural experience: Arrange cross-cultural experiences for extended team members.
• Continuous improvement: Acknowledge the continuous need to improve cross-cultural experiences for all team members.

How to Develop Multicultural Excellence in Global Projects

As we rapidly evolve into a global community, many project managers find themselves managing project teams across vast geographical landscapes. To improve your success probability in such environments, it is essential to develop multicultural competencies.

Diplomacy & Persistence

Any experienced project manager will tell you that effective project management deals primarily with people, not with software tools or hardware or project schedules. It takes a diplomatic project manager to smooth out the people problems that invariably arise among team members and among all stakeholders, in general.


Persistence is essential when managing the various obstacles in a software development effort and is often overlooked as a contributing factor in the success of a project.

A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected – a well-planned project only twice as long as expected! Experienced project managers will tell you that this popular quote is only half in jest. Project management effectiveness is as much needed as meeting milestones and deliverables on time. There are many factors that make a project manager effective, and paying attention to all of them is essential in ensuring the success of software development efforts, particularly when they're outsourced.

Problem Resolution Effectiveness Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Problem Resolution Effectiveness Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Problem resolution skills will be called upon on a daily basis in any software development project. Good project management depends upon proactive and quick resolution of these problems, greasing the skids for the development teams to do their jobs properly.

Project Leadership Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Project leadership consists of a variety of skills and qualities: communication. leadership, ability to motivate, ability to negotiate, organizational skills and conflict resolution skills. Projects can be successful only in as much as the project manager uses all of these skills.

Outside Contractor Facilitation Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Outside Contractor Facilitation Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

This is particularly relevant when parts of or the whole development effort is outsourced. Project management effectiveness takes on additional complexity when it involves another organization with its own priorities.

Stakeholder Responsiveness Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Stakeholder Responsiveness Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

The project manager needs to be responsive to a number of stakeholders, the development team, business sponsors, peers, partners such as sales, marketing, human resources, end users (if it is an internal application) and customers (if it is a software product). All of these stakeholders may have different priorities, and the project manager has to juggle all of these priorities effectively.

Development Team Facilitation Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Project Management Effectiveness Criteria :
One of the key functions of the project manager is to remove obstacles in the way of the development effort and the team members. How well the project manager facilitates the work of the team makes a lot of difference in the eventual success of the project.

Responsiveness to Changes in Business Goals Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

Changes in business goals are inescapable, especially in projects that have long development cycles. The project manager needs to make sure that these changes in business goals are effectively translated into appropriate adjustments in the technical direction. Many projects may meet every milestone and deliverable on time and on budget, but if business goals have changed, the efficiency achievements may not mean much. The software developed will be off the mark because of changes in business goals.

Business Goals Effectiveness Project Management Effectiveness Criteria

One of the primary functions of project management is to translate the business goals of a software development effort to a set of technical goals. The entire effort will be successful only if the business goals are effectively translated.