Every project has a set of deadlines, some with more urgent ones and some with more leniency. When working in a group, what is an effective manner for holding individuals responsible for reaching deadlines and making sure everyone is thoroughly informed of these dates? How important is it to be reaching deadlines in a timely manner?
The team must agree to a schedule and must stick with the schedule, or else it will lead to failure and late work. At the beginning of every project, the team leader must make sure all teammates understand their individual and team goals. Without understanding both the goals, it can lead to miscommunication and overall bad results in the project. If one individual on the team is falling behind, the team leader must speak to the individual privately and see if they need some help with their work. Communication between team members is essential to reaching the correct deadlines in the project. Without communicating with other team members, it will lead to imperfection.
@ajy6 While I agree that sticking to the schedule is important, the most important part is designing a schedule that has realistic deadlines and does not rush people or give others more time than is necessary. Of course the project leader also needs to also keep a good dialogue with the team members and ensure that they set good realistic goals each day. By having this daily communication and daily goals it ensures that everyone stays focused more consistently rather than weekly check ins for example.
The team leader must have adequate experience to be able to set realistic goals for each of the team members. Ideally, those goals should be divided based on the skills that each team member has. After initial goals are set, especially in large projects, frequent meetings should be held where updates would be exchanged so that everyone is up to date with the work of the other team members. In some cases, work of one member might be dependent on the work of another team member. Troubleshooting should also play a major role in those meetings since in most cases the team cannot afford a particular member falling behind.
When working in a group, it is essential to hold individuals responsible for reaching deadlines and making sure everyone is thoroughly informed of these dates. One way this can be achieved is via a Gantt chart. Gantt charts help keep everyone on track by organizing project tasks and setting owners for each item. It also provides visibility to each task and helps keep team members accountable. If any of the group members envision risks with the deadlines that were set, it is necessary to communicate these delays to leadership early on. Furthermore, it is important to reach deadlines in a timely manner as it is a direct reflection of the team members progress. A lot of business deals are contingent on deadlines and in some cases, not meeting a deadline could result in a company losing a significant amount of money.
In my opinion, the team should have a detailed plan and the project manager should ensure every team member fully understands the plan. The plan should be designed biased towards urgent or leniency. Also, after the plan has been posted, the team manager should take the responsibility to remind the team member at some points. However, handling projects in real life could be stressful and it is usually difficult to meet deadlines even with a detailed plan since there might be some unexpected issue. To deliver a project on time is one of the most important goals of the project team. As a team manager, monitoring the working process of each team member could be a helpful method which could make sure individuals finish the work on time. At the same time, good communication should be another helpful manner. The team members should bring out their questions and concerns and other members should help with those questions.
In my opinion and what I've seen work very well is projects that have very clear outlined action items for everyone to complete, in order to make sure the project gets done in a timely manner. For long-term projects, weekly regroups are always a great method to check in with your team and see if any support is needed and get progress on where their action items are. You can see if someone has been working on what they need to be doing, or if they are falling behind you can correct it right there. Support can be given where necessary. In shorter term projects, I find it's helpful to be clear that if deadlines can't be met, then you need to reach out for support or help, which is OK. I think projects fall apart if people can't meet deadlines but never reach out for help.
As mentioned above a weekly check-in is probably the best way to make sure everyone is on the same page. Due to the number of responsibilities and interpersonal differences that can occur in a project, some team members may need extra help. If that is the case it is on the project manager to work around such differences to meet the deadlines. However not all deadlines can be met on time and when delays do occur the team as a whole should be able work together to make up the difference without any real input from a leadership position. This usually only occurs when team members are able to work together cohesively and everyone is on the same page.
When working in a group it is important to hold members accountable for deadlines. Accountability builds trust. Accountability for the group means that individuals meet deadlines, understand and follow guidelines to meet objectives/targets. Deadlines can be set independently and together as a group with personal and shared goals in common. It is important to celebrate successes in meeting deadlines as well whether they are urgent or lenient. It is also important to address the mistakes and lessons learned after each deadline has been met or not met.
@ajy6 In agreement with your statements regarding the importance of the project leader clearly defining team goals, establishing proper communication, and adhering to a schedule.
Project team leaders face numerous challenges in ensuring adherence to deadlines, fortunately, several tools exist which can facilitate establishing timelines and deadlines. One of the ideal ways to manage timelines and to ensure that all deliverables are completed on time is through the use of a Gantt chart. A Gantt chart helps the entire team know which task need to be accomplished before moving on to the next task in need of completion. One example of Gantt chart software that can be used to link specific actions and timelines is OmniPlanner. The advantage of such Gantt software is that it is designed to automatically move the end date when the timing of a subtask changes due to real-world eventualities. However, even with this software, the project leader should work with the team to ensure that any delays do not overextend or derail the entire project (Levin & Levin, 2019).
Does anyone know of any other Gantt chart software that could be beneficial to project timelines and deadlines?
References
Levin, S., & Levin, M. (2019). Managing ideas, people, and projects: Organizational tools and strategies for researchers. iScience, 20, 278–291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2019.09.017
Meeting a project deadline is very important. The team should have a detailed plan and a realistic deadline date. The project leader should ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows each task. Ideally, project deadlines should be met on time. But, realistically people have their own lives and that may cause stress to individuals. The team leader should check in to make sure everyone is on task and knows the goal of the project. Every week the team should have weekly meetings to make sure the project deadline is met. In the case o the project having a delay, the whole team should meet and work together to make up the difference.
@ahmadfarhan I agree with your opinion about weekly check-ins. The project team leader should always check in with the team to make sure everyone is on task and the project is complete by the project dateline.
@ajy6 Communication is very important when working with others. If there is an issue, that individual should talk to the team lead. If not, there will cause issues and delays with the deadline. Everyone wants a healthy work environment and with good communication, everyone can be on the same page and achieve their tasks.
Project Deadlines are very important. Personally, I don't like being late in any aspect of my life. Especially when it comes to my work life. With that being said, many deadlines in the the field are flexible as people know that things hat you can not control may be a factor. Things such as supplies, or manufacture errors are out of your control and may cause you to push a deadline back. You have to be just as flexible as your deadline to meet expectations.
Every project has a set of deadlines, some with more urgent ones and some with more leniency. When working in a group, what is an effective manner for holding individuals responsible for reaching deadlines and making sure everyone is thoroughly informed of these dates? How important is it to be reaching deadlines in a timely manner?
