When you are working on a big project, it can be very beneficial to have a strong team around you. Sometimes, making sure this team is working efficiently can be difficult and so projects tend to fall behind schedule. If you have a big project that needs to be completed and a client that you want to impress, you’ll want to avoid this at all cost. Managing your team and understanding how to get a project completed on time can be very important.

If you’d like to know more about how you can reach that important deadline, keep reading our 5 tips below!

1. Choose the Right Team

If you are having the opportunity to choose the team for your project, make sure to think carefully about this decision. You’ll want to choose people who can really help the project and people with the individual skills that can make a real impact. It is important to choose people that can offer different skills so that they can help at various points throughout the project. There is no point in choosing a few people who all have the same skills as you’ll waste time with them all working on the same thing. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t have more than one person working on an element but often the old saying of “too many cooks spoil the broth” can be true. Choose a team that works effectively together and understand each other’s skills well enough to get a project completed on time. You’ll also want to choose a team that get on well together as any sort of conflict might slow down the process.

2. Use A Workflow System

When you have chosen your team for the project, you’ll need to make sure that they are working as efficiently as possible. With a big project, there are often individual tasks that need to be worked on by different members of the team. Sometimes, certain team members can spend too long on menial tasks which can slow down the whole process. If you’d like to try to get your big project completed on time, you can use a workflow system to organize your tasks. One way to do this is to use a Kanban board which uses columns and swimlanes to organize different tasks in a project. Kanban boards can be designed to suit your type of project and you can choose how many columns you would like to have in your own personal one. Tasks will move along the board as they get completed. This is also a great way of ensuring that the workload does not get too heavy and that things that are in progress get completed before other tasks get started on. If you’d like to know more about this type of system and learn what a Kanban board is, make sure to take a look online at websites like Kanbanize.

3. Improve Communication Channels

Having effective communication between your team members is vital in ensuring that a project is completed on time. It is important that all members of the team are sure of what is expected of them and how long they have to do each individual task. If you are the leader of the team then you need to make sure that you are contactable and that you can answer any questions. This is also important for team members being able to talk to each other and help each other out. Communication is key to any project and you must consider how you are going to communicate with your team effectively if you want to make sure that your big project is completed on time.

Communication is not only important between the team itself but communication with the client is also important. Make sure that you understand exactly what is expected of you and check in with the client every now and again. This will help to ensure that the project is completed to the standard that they would like and that you won’t be left with lots of things to fix at the end of it. Improving communication channels on all ends is important to get a project done quickly and effectively.  

4. Don’t Waste Time on Small Tasks

If you are in charge of your team, it is likely that you will be the person who completes the small daily tasks. Although these may be important, you should be aware that some of these tasks can be automated. Automating tasks like data summaries, timesheets and expense forms can save you a lot of time. If you are able to have these tasks go on in the background, you’ll find that you can spend time on other important parts of the project. All you need to do is find some software that can help you to complete these tasks without having to worry about them. Take a look online and you are sure to find something that suits the type of project that you are completing. Avoid doing manual tasks that are seen as time wasting and you can help your team complete the project on time.

5. Set Goals and Deadlines

Although your main goal is to get the project completed on time, it is important that you set smaller goals that you’d like to achieve throughout the project. These can be time measured goals that allow you to monitor if you are staying on track. To do this, you should sit down with your team at the beginning of the project to come up with some of the goals together. You can also involve the client on this to make sure that they are happy with what is going on. Having regular meetings to assess where you are with your progress goals can really help to add some focus to the project. Working towards individual deadlines can make the whole project seem more manageable. Make sure to praise your team if they manage to meet the individual goals as this will motivate them to keep trying hard. A motivated team with goals to reach will help you to get your project completed on time and to a great standard.

Final Thoughts

If you are trying to get a big project completed on time, there are many things that you can do. One of the most important things is choosing your team carefully and making sure that they understand their individual roles and responsibilities. Having a happy, motivated team will help you to get your goals set and reached with ease. It is also important that you make the tasks clear and easy to understand. You can easily do this by using some workflow software like a Kanban board to organize the different tasks that need to be done in order to complete the big project that you are working on. Saving time on small manual tasks can be a very effective way of saving time on your entire project. Automate anything that you can to free up your time, giving yourself more freedom to help your team out. Make sure to plan your project carefully and you will be sure to reach your project deadline.

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