Covid-19 brought a huge shift in the work culture of many businesses. To stay safe and prevent the spread of the virus, people had to close their offices and work remotely. The companies that had already been working with the offshore development teams with great project management capabilities did not get much affected by the change. The companies, as always, had the convenience to share their workload with the offshore teams without any hassle, even during the pandemic. However, the ones who never tried their hands in remote working culture had to face some major problems.

Many of their projects went on hold or failed during this global crisis, owing to the inevitable factors like shelter-in-place orders, unavailability of resources, cost to run business, quick-change management, etc. Effective and professional project management is key to sail through this type of crisis and a seasoned senior Project Manager who has the following qualities can get you through this-

  • Outstanding communication skills.
  • Acquainted with all the necessary technologies
  • Agility and resilience
  • Change management
  • Stress management
  • Leadership quality
  • Decision-making skills

Though remote work seems complex at the start especially for maintaining the coordination among the team members and managing the projects remotely, however, as you get the grips on it, it will become your choice. Here are some of the most effective tips that can help you through the process during the pandemic.

Tips to Manage Your Project During the Covid Crisis

  1. 1. Clear communication & collaboration is the key

    Communication and collaboration is the key to successful project management. Project development is a vast process, which takes numerous meetings to be conducted properly. Before the pandemic, there was no barrier between people; they were free to reach out to each other and communicate. However, despite this freedom, the factors like a huge time consumption in arranging the meetings, and availability of the team members,  cannot be avoided. This is not the case with the remote working process.

    In the remote working approach, people are dependent on digital mode to communicate. Being just a click away, the digital mode of communication tends to be comparatively more time effective as well as productive. Hence to track your project status, you can connect to your team members through messages, calls, as well as arrange virtual meetings over the digital medium.

  2. 2. Flexibility in Working Place and Time

    Before the pandemic, workplace flexibility never stood out enough to be noticed; it was just a desirable perk for the employees. But, now things have changed, workplace flexibility or remote work is not just a perk anymore, instead has become a powerful practice as well as a necessity, which if used right, can work in your favor. And for this, the project manager needs to take the charge, showing trust in the team and giving them the flexibility to work as per their convenience.

    This tends to expand the horizons for the manager, and the team members, developing a sense of accountability among them. Therefore they do not work just to meet the working hours, instead, focus on delivering a quality project to their clients on time. The flexibility during the pandemic has only increased the productivity- the desire of every company, opening doors for remote work in the future.

  3. 3. Data Centralization and Project Monitoring

    Sharing content to every team member safely, to keep them updated, is one of the biggest challenges in remote work. Tracking the project every time by sharing the content over the network risks confidentiality as well as the integrity of the data. Also, it adds unnecessary tasks to the task list of the employees.

    The best thing that can help the project manager to manage the projects smoothly as well as reduce the cycle is data centralization. Data Centralisation not only reduces the movement of the data, diminishing the probability of occurrence of data risks but also helps in the project monitoring process.

    The team members can place the data in a centralized shared place, which can be accessed by the project manager to track and monitor the project whenever desired. Data Centralisation not only helps in maintaining data security but speeds up the project monitoring process as well.

  4. 4. Get Grips on the Technology

    The project management strategies and skills are important, but it can only work if teamed up with the right technology. Technology is the foundation of remote work culture, without which remote work cannot stand. The entire remote work is guided by technologies and software. Here are some technologies that can streamline the project management in remote work-

    • Data centralization tools like Google Drive
    • Project Management tools Trello, Freedcamp.
    • Communication technologies like Skype, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom.
    • Remote desktop access tools like AnyDesk, Team viewer.

  5. 5. Keep Tab on the Project Schedule

    The best way to deliver the project on time is to strictly keep a tab on the project schedule. The project manager should be extremely vigilant through the project lifecycle, keeping track of each stage of the project development as well as resolving the project related issues on time.

    To do this, the project manager should develop a priority scale for all the project related tasks as well as deliverables. The MoSCoW prioritization technique can be used here, based on which you can prepare your project plan, hence check the project status as well as the project completeness during the review process.

    MoSCoW has four categories- Must-Haves(such as design and code), Should-Haves( a competent team and processes), Could-Haves( DFDs and E-R diagrams), and Won’t-Haves(the things that are desired). This priority list should also be circulated to the entire team so that they can coordinate their tasks accordingly.

Conclusion

Remote working- the new culture in the market, is not a new concept. It has been in practice for decades, though not as widespread as now. Pandemic has increased the demand for remote working culture, in fact after practicing it for a while, the companies are considering it as a promising approach for the future as well, thereby reaching out to the remote/offshore teams to handle their projects. However, you should be cautious while hiring a remote team for your project. Make sure the team is dependable, competent, as well as fits your criteria.

So, if you are also looking for a reliable remote team for your project, you can reach out to us. As an offshore software development company practicing for 20+ years, remote working and project management is in our DNA. Our team is trained to satisfy what the client is looking for – fulfilling their project requirements as well as providing creative ideas. Accurate reporting, trust, ownership, and a go-to approach are some of the qualities that we swear by. Ace is a trustworthy offshore technology partner with PMP certified professionals you can lean for your technical project needs.

Keeping your project on track during Covid-19 type crisis_cta