Specification – is it significant?

What is specification? Do you think it is significant in work? Specification is nothing but a form of communication. When we define specification, it is a written document that consists of a set of requirements defining a piece of work. This document conveys work information in clear and simple way. If you don’t know how to use specifications, it will be difficult for you to understand and accomplish tasks successfully.

Specifications are important for executing a project. Some times, your project team may come up with awful specifications as they lack knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of specifications. Here are some possibilities and limitations of project specifications.

Possibilities
# Describe the functionality of project outcomes effectively
# Help designers to be specific about clarifying decisions
# Support reviews and discussions of detailed plans before implementation
# Communicate information to everyone
# Generate team-wide point of reference for specific plans and use them as living documentations in projects
# Help to prepare a realistic schedule milestone to guide/focus the team
# Provide insurance for author(s)
# Encourage and improve the frequency of healthy discussions
# Provide opportunities to leaders to set quality bars and give feedback
# Add sanity and confidence to the team (and author)

Limitations
# Reduce the frequency of discussions between team member
# Prove author’s smartness to the team
# Shows the importance of a particular feature, why is it inevitable
# Make people think from philosophical point of view
# Act as a play ground for author’s vision

If you are a team leader, you can prepare a list of specifications regarding the project work you have undertaken and can pass that list to your team. Ask your team to review and provide feedback on it before anyone starts up the actual documentation of specifications. Hold a meeting or discussion so that you can identify and remove items from the list that the team doesn’t need specifications, and if required add items to the list which are essential to the project.

How to get your schedules work for you

My project end date is round the corner and I find it very tough to work according to my schedule. What can I do to resolve this issue?

Usually any delay in project schedule has its impact on other project parameters such as cost, resources etc. This delays the entire project progress. Your schedule can be managed if good measures are in place.

Here are some pointers to help you in managing your project schedule effectively.

#1 Set milestones according to project change rate
Project milestones need to be setup according to the change rate in the project. If the changes in the project take place at frequent intervals, then the milestones need to be of shorter length. This will minimize the risks involved in achieving the milestones.

#2 See the schedule through the eyes of a skeptic
When you prepare a project schedule, think about the practicality of the schedule through the eyes of a skeptic. This helps you to plan your schedule well by focusing on project goals and objectives.

#3 Set frequent review intervals
Accurate and timely project reviews will help you in checking the work progress and implementing corrections. You must allocate appropriate time for the review processes.

#4 Create awareness about the schedule
Discuss with the project team about various approaches that need to be adopted for schedule preparation. Such awareness will give the team members a clear understanding about their roles and project goals.

#5 Estimate the team’s capability
Prepare a schedule by keeping the performance levels of the project team in mind. Consider the performance history of the team.Prepare for the expected risks: Prepare yourself for predictable risks associated with the team and the project situations. Based on this, you can prepare your schedule well.

In brief, good planning helps you in reducing your stress level to work around with your schedule. It also prepares you in facing problems that may occur in project process as well as helps you in checking your success levels.

What to do when the work is uncertain?

What can I do when my team members say they can’t do estimates as the work is too uncertain? The best way to handle such situation is to make everyone understand clearly about what needs to be done.

First, you need to get the team’s mind set right. Usually what happens is your team member may feel unsure about providing an estimate for the work he does as he is forced to do it. Change your approach to delegating work. Ask your team members to work piecewise on what’s being asked of them and then develop an estimate. They will be clear about doing their part of work.

Here are some pointers to help you in reducing the uncertainty in specific areas.

#1 Seek suggestions and information about work from experts outside and within the organization.
#2 If the work seems unclear, ask your team to get detailed estimates for the tasks they can define in that particular area. This can include reviews and decision points for interim milestones as part of decision making.
#3 You can develop a prototype to schedule and track the work.
#4 If possible set up interim reviews for uncertain areas so that each team member can measure their work and know how far they reached off. As more areas of the project get covered, update the schedule with more details.
#5. To balance the unknown works, you can have a rough estimate of best and worst scenarios along with supporting documented assumptions from the team. These estimates will help you in preparing overall estimates of the project schedule.

Now, if your management asks an end date for the work, you can actually put a level-of-confidence number of the work estimates. It can be like about 60% confidence in meeting the end date or having a 75%confidenece level schedule. Consider the best and worst case from the estimate and provide a reasonable schedule.

How to address the fear of being committed to any dates?

My team member says he can’t commit to any dates. Why he feels so? Do they fear their estimates might get them committed to an impossible schedule? What can be done to address this fear of being wrong? The best way is a step-by-step planning process.

#1 Estimate individual work effort
Ask your team member to develop an estimate about their own work. Help them in decomposing their work into smaller tasks. It will enable them to define and understand their work clearly.

#2 Assist your team in exploring unknown areas
There may be areas in project which the team member doesn’t know enough about it. Help them in clarifying those unknown areas. In the first trial, you may not get an accurate estimate about those areas from the team member. However, you can indicate it in the project plan so that special attention can be given to those areas to avoid any schedule risks.

#3 Eliminate the fear of risks
The chances of various risks can be a main reason for the lack of commitment. To get an estimate, you can reduce the level of risks by decomposing the efforts into smaller tasks. Start working together to define activities that are known to you all. At the same time, think about alternatives to know about the unknown. The defined tasks can be estimated and incremental milestones can be prepared to review the risks. Add a placeholder into your schedule so that you can balance the work.

Don’t forget to integrate all schedule tactics that you have learned while planning the schedule.

What can I do when my team member refuses to provide his part of the schedule?

The simple solution for this is keeping a straightforward, head-on approach.

Here are some pointers to help you tackle such situations.

#1 Find out the root cause
Your first action must be finding out the root cause of this person’s dissent. It is possible, if you conduct a one-on-one conversation with the person. Build a mutual understanding between both of you and start working step by step to solve the problem.

#2 Train your team on schedule
Sometimes, your team members may afraid that their inputs are inaccurate which can cause schedule slippage. Give training on managing their part of schedule to get the work done. Some people might be afraid of committing to any dates. You can assist them in developing their task lists and estimates so that seeing the result can make them believe in their own efficiencies.

#3 Let your team acknowledge the bigger business need
Let your team know how their efforts fit into the larger business need. Then it is easier to get their cooperation with the scheduling. They will also understand what impact might occur if the team didn’t get their part of effort integrated with other’s efforts. Further, each team member will be able to know the dependencies for completing their work.

Remember, before you try all these approaches, ensure that you are not asking for schedule detail you really don’t need to have. The objective is letting your team members know the importance of their participation in the entire scheduling process.

What to do when executives wants changes to a work already behind schedule?

You are already running late on your work deliverables and the pressure on your team is high. You are trying hard to balance the situation when one of the executives comes in to ask for some modifications in your work. You appreciate the need for including this change, but this can set you back in time that there is a risk for the work objective to be lost. How can you handle such a situation?

There are two aspects to this situation– a positive side and a negative side. Both has it own pros and cons. Both aspects have to be handled very tactfully. Let’s look at each aspect individually.

If you say YES to your executive and accept the change proposed, you feel confident that you are meeting customer requirements as the requested change is a current need which was not identified during the earlier planning process. You also know that the change proposed will further delay the outcome, which can have a negative impact on you as well as on your team.

The best approach to address this problem is to:

#1 Know the objective behind this new change proposal. Does it align with the overall work objective?
#2 Request for a meeting with the executive (who proposed the change) and try to analyze the actual need. It is possible that your work deliverable already address it.
#3 Explain in detail the pros and cons associated in implementing the change and how it impacts the outcome. This will help both of you identify alternatives, which may meet the need better.
#4 Listen to his viewpoint after your explanation, so that you are able to articulate and suggest a possible solution from his perspective.

Why can't my people follow my work schedule?

I am convinced about the importance of work scheduling and try to work around a plan. However, I find it challenging at times to get my team stand by my schedule plan and work accordingly. Is there anything I can do to get my team stay committed to the work schedule?


The first question we need to ask is whether your team was involved in planning the schedule? It can be challenging for the team to commit to a schedule NOT created by them. Apart from this, it is critical that the team agrees that the “outsider” plan is reasonable and feasible.

Here are some pointers to help you gain their participation and commitment.

#1 Let your team walk their talk.
Involve your team in the scheduling process. This gives each member the opportunity to assess their work effort and estimate it in terms of time. If you are working with a large team or have team coordinators estimate the work effort for individuals, ensure that each team member has the opportunity to review and adjust their work effort estimates if needed.

#2 Place the team on the same page
It is important that the team shares the schedule they have prepared and been involved with. Make regular team reviews part of the schedule preparation and planning process. This will help team members identify, plan and agree on timelines for work that share dependencies.

#3 Use a schedule tool to review your schedule
A ‘tool’ does not confine its definition to a software program. A schedule checklist (you can ask for one) is a good tool to use for a schedule review. You can create your own schedule checklist to ensure that it includes all the work identified to create the end result. The team will also have clear guidelines to help them get through the planning phase successfully.

#4 Use a team probe
Ask probing questions. Help your team zero down to their task as specifically as possible. Your work is at risk if your team cannot commit to the overall plan and dates. Ask probing questions to identify why team members don't agree with the plan. Identify work elements or scheduled activities/dependencies that cause them concern. Help them own their work by asking for alternative solutions. It is critical that you listen to their concerns. Consider if they avoiding commitment due to risks that are weighing on their minds, but not discussed during planning?

#5 Let them hold the baton
If you find that your team is not able to agree to a common schedule plan, ask them to recommend changes or alternatives that will increase their confidence and gain their commitment. You must however let them know that their alternative cannot compromise the overall work schedule or resource objective.

To sum up, gaining your team’s commitment is to involve individual team members in planning the work schedule, reviewing the schedule with them to identify loopholes, asking them questions to eliminate reasons that cause lack of commitment, and listening to them to address those reasons.