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      Doctor: I’m not a fan of rap. I prefer something soothing. Like Lorna Shore.

      Project triangle and other shapes

      Project managers have a favorite figure: the triangle. It’s not simple. It consists of three constraints that define the quality of a project: scope, budget, and schedule. The ideal PM knows that these are not just project control areas. It’s a balancing act of project management. The simple analogy is “fast, cheap, quality.” Every variable affects every other variable. And it’s not a math problem. The client is spending real money, and the real reputation of the company and the team is at stake. The ideal PM understands the consequences of unbalancing the triangle, so from the very beginning of the project works with the client’s expectations and chooses an approach of working with balance. People have invented other shapes – project squares, hexagons, etc. But they are more like project control tricks, and working with balance is not the main thing. For example, there is a heptagon: plan, cost, scope or scope, quality, customer satisfaction, risk and resources. Who likes what you like. At least a circle, if it works well.

      Control of project milestones and process adherence

      No one likes the word “control”, it carries negativity. But if the PM is perfect, he or she has made preparations for the project, set goals, outlined project milestones, milestones and key metrics, and loaded the team with what will be done and how it will be done. Then control has a positive intent. Traffic rules are also control, but they are only useful. Either everything goes beautifully according to the process or there are problems. PM provides monitoring and control of process compliance at all stages of the project to detect deviations and problems in time. Of course, not to find fault, but to make decisions to fix them. I mean problems, not blame. An ideal PM is not a supervisor or a babysitter. He knows how to set up process monitoring in such a way that he needs minimal effort to know about problems in advance. This can be done in many different ways. Through culture, rituals, and Google Sheets. The main thing is to make sure that no one suffers. Then it will no longer be control, but management.

      Team effectiveness

      The job of the ideal PM is to make the team productive. To do this, you don’t need to develop KPIs and make dashboards for tracking. An effective team works on the principle of minimax. Maximize results with minimal effort and cost. An ideal PM makes sure there is nothing unnecessary and useless. No unnecessary communications, no processes, no downtime, no rework, no wrong decisions, etc. Nothing should get in the way of people working and showing team qualities that individually team members don’t have. If the PM is really good at his job, the team will be effective. It simply can’t be otherwise. Just having the perfect PM on a team does not make it effective. Any new team goes through 5 stages: formation, confrontation, normalization, functioning and breaking up. By the way, Dr. Milestone, this model was coined by your fellow psychologist Bruce Tuckman. Therefore, the task of the ideal PM is to get the team to the functioning stage faster, when the team reaches its potential and starts delivering results. You need to understand what stage the team is at and give it enough time to go through this cycle. How long the cycle takes depends on the team and the context. If the team is going to go on a quest before going to a bar, the team will go through all the cycles in a couple of hours, but if there is a big project to be done, it can take several months to reach a good level of performance.

      Translation of principles and culture

      The worst thing a PM can do is to make up rules and force everyone to follow them. Moreover, if at the same time he will not follow them himself. An ideal PM carefully and permanently communicates the principles of work to the whole team, because it creates a common understanding of how work should be done, what is bad and what is good. Like Morpheus, he should plug a bio-port into everyone’s head and download the team’s cultural code. Even earlier, the company’s HR brand, recruiters and onboarding should do this, but we understand that everyone likes to sugarcoat reality. At the project level, the ideal PM broadcasts his cultural code and demonstrates it by his own example. He may not completely copy the company culture. This applies not only to the team, but also to the client. For the client, this process has a special job of teaching the client how to do the job in a cool and efficient way. At a minimum you will keep the client within your principles. At most, you’ll teach the client or their team something new. There can’t just be one perfect PM. The more the better.

      Communication management

      Without communication management, you can forget about the effective and comfortable functioning of the team. Consequently, you can forget about the results. Communication is the foundation of interaction and maintaining context. An ideal PM knows how to organize communication between all stakeholders and participants so that it is clear where and how everyone communicates, what meetings are for what and what is discussed at them, what is done, how it is done, when the key milestones are, and what responsibility each participant has. It’s not about communication skill, it’s about interaction design. The ideal PM doesn’t have one that talked to someone somewhere but others didn’t know or didn’t understand. He makes sure that from the very beginning there are no uncontrolled communication flows, everyone knows their roles, expected results, when important deadlines are, who can be brought together directly without mediation, and for whom you need to be an information broker.

      Change management

      Since “eliminating uncertainty” is the second name of an ideal PM and risk management is routine, he cannot be intimidated by any changes. Therefore, he is characterized by quick and adequate response to changing conditions and unplanned situations. He does not sow panic in the team himself and does not let others sow it. Does not lose focus, but takes responsibility for solving problems that arise. Overall, it’s unclear what else there is to explain. He is able to adapt to new conditions and revise plans, while maintaining the quality and timing of the project. And when a PM is like that, the team is flexible. He reacts calmly to everything and comes to the rescue. The ideal PM identifies possible sources of change from the beginning of the project, and systematically transitions from old conditions to new ones, smoothing out resistance and loss of team productivity. Of course, he’s not Dr. Strange who can roll everything back and get away with it. He’s cooler than that! He’s the perfect PM who is ready for change. And is willing to apply his skills and tools to deal with change depending on context and scope.

      Document flow

      Of course, it’s too boring for turquoise organizations and should be handled by special people. But no matter how perfect a PM you are, what good is it if you signed a contract with postpayment in 5 years and endless revisions. There are lawyers and financiers almost everywhere, but the ideal PM understands the documents himself. Why they are needed, what the approval process is and what you need to pay attention to so you don’t get caught in an endless hell of client manipulation. Naturally, your clients are different, you have a great relationship, and it will never come to a shootout with wording from the contract. But trust me, sooner or later it will, and you’ll be visiting Dr. Milestone afterwards. Lawyers can help you check strange wording, signatories, and the date of the power of attorney, but the ideal PM knows how to organize the paperwork process and always pays attention to the subject matter of the contract, terms and conditions on time, payment, liability, and acceptance of work. And when the time comes to meet the horseman of the apocalypse – the start of work without a contract – he knows where to lay the straw and how to communicate with the client even in the mail to minimize problems.

      Closing gaps and conflicts

      I’d like to say about

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