My Project Management Lessons » meetings

Make Good Use of Calender Time Scheduling

michael — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:22:17 +0000

Microsoft Outlook or similar programs allow you to send meeting requests to people. This is a quick and effective way for meetings to be set without wasting time calling around for available times.

If all members of your team use the calendar function properly, they would have all their meetings and busy times entered into their calendar. When you request a meeting of them, you will be able to see available times in a simple bar chart and book accordingly.

Confirm Meetings

michael — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:16:52 +0000

If you (or others) are to travel for meetings, confirm that they have been scheduled. Projects with committees or bureaucracy may overlook setting the times or places and informing everyone of a meeting properly. Confirm the meeting before leaving for it. Related Posts Make Good Use of Calender Time Scheduling Regular Projects Review Meetings Copy [...]

Be Very Reliable

michael — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:01:42 +0000

If you say you will be at a meeting, be there on time.

Make sure work is completed on time. If it cannot be, document why (variations, wet weather, changed conditions).

Reliability and delivering on time will mean you will get better (more important) projects, more money, and more responsibility.

You want to be someone who people can say “He can do it”, not “don’t give that project to him.”

I have known many project managers who avoid going to the weekly company project managers review meeting because they consider it a waste of time. This leads to the director/manager of that person to consider them unreliable (and sometimes complain about their lack of attendance to those who did show up at the meeting). The advantage of going to a weekly review meeting is that you can get a feel for resource availability and learn from the problems and mistakes of other projects (this is particularly important for new project managers).

Copy Minutes of Meetings to Attendees

michael — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:23:31 +0000

Copy notes or minutes of meetings with the client to the client. Don’t just keep them in the project file.

This is important for legal reasons, as you can then prove that the client was informed.

Keep a record of when and to whom the documents were sent to.
Get confirmation (email or writing) that they were received.