Status meetings are a common occurrence on many projects. Project teams get together and project managers solicit the status of individual tasks from team members to update project plans or maybe understand the tasks individual resources are working on. These are certainly necessary activities but is a meeting the appropriate forum for soliciting this information.
Project team members and especially the more senior staff are typically strapped with a large volume of work and required to produce in a short period of time. Meetings in all forms take these especially as well as all team members away from focusing on their work. Some meetings are needed as these same members need to coordinate or make decisions with other team members or members of the customer staff. This problem is more acute when team members are heads down on difficult tasks or troubleshooting problems when uninterrupted focus is helpful to finding answers.
If not in a meeting, then how do project managers get the information needed to properly manage the project? In my projects, I ask the team members to carbon copy me on email traffic going back and forth between the project team and the customer. By monitoring this traffic, the project manager can understand the status without interrupting the resource's work or focus. When traveling, additional opportunities are available when eating meals. The project manager needs to know the staff as some individuals like a break during meals so sensitivity to the individual's needs must be acknowledged. There will be times when direct interaction on status is the only mechanism. By using these avenues to gain status, the project manager can minimize the amount of time spent getting status enabling the resources more time to focus on their work.
What should be the agenda of periodic meetings with the project team?
In my meetings, I focus on three things: 1) the needs of the people on the team, 2) what I am working on to assist their efforts, 3) outside influences on the project whether those be within the customer or company in which we all work. The needs of the people can be anything from technical issues on which they are working, access issues to for example a source control tool or test executive. They can be personal needs such as personal time off or needs to coordinate with other team members or customers. This aspect focuses on the team members and what they need to be successful and efficient. If there are ways that I can help, then those actions are taken.
One of my primary focus areas is risk identification and management. This is my opportunity to brief the team on my contributions as well as where their assistance is needed such as in project planning or the program management plan. The risks I have identified are documented, understood by all parties and the progress briefed to the team.
Outside influences can hinder a project as we all know. Understanding these influences and working to mitigate the effects is something project managers can spend more time doing. These influences can be related to company policies, issues with housing arrangements for team members visiting from overseas, etc. By spending time in these areas, the project manager can demonstrate they understand the day to day challenges, care about the lives of their people, and work towards making better work places. What the project manager gets in return is a happier and most efficient work force which leads to higher levels of productivity and predictability.
Finally, I open the floor to any topic that any team member wishes to discuss so this is not my meeting but the team's meeting. Typically, the topics are coordination between team members, when to work together on technical issues, more junior members asking for advise or discussing ideas on a task or issue. I have faciliated discussions about hotel arrangements, personality issues between team members and customers. A wide variety of topics are discussed and can be.
I know the question is coming so these meetings typically take less than 15 minutes when hosted twice a week. On rare occassions they go longer but that is typically because the team members are having longer discussions on a topic. Keep the meetings short!
In conclusion, status meetings for the collecting status are a distraction. PMs should find other ways to collect status information so the team members can remain focused on the tasks at hand. Keep the meetings short and focus on the needs of the team members.
