7 Habits of Highly Effective Project Managers

(Editor's note: This guest post is provided by Jovaco Solutions)

Project management is no easy task, and can often be a thankless one as well. With projects that include over-demanding clients, creeping requirements, and uncompromising bosses, it is no wonder project management can be a stressful endeavor. Here are seven habits project managers should adopt to avoid falling prey to blown budgets and failed deadlines:

1. Be proactive.

Keeping one step ahead of project issues will make you better prepared to tackle project difficulties as they come. One example is to know what your past project variances are. Employ your project accounting software to track your previous project estimates for things like time and cost versus what they actually ended up to be, you can better plan in the future based on the accuracy of these past values. Another example of being proactive is to try reducing costs during design, developing better requirements, detailed designs, and prototypes early on in the project life-cycle. Putting your best foot forward is always a good idea. Effective communication is always a great way to be proactive, communicating effectively on a daily basis to keep everyone up to date on each other's status. This can be done in person, via e-mail, or through discussion forums. Daily meetings can provide full transparency, as there are no surprises if everything is regularly reviewed. Daily meetings keep status reports fresh, allowing for proactive resolutions if the project begins to slip.

2. Think about the end in the beginning.

Make a list of success criteria that you judge the project on. Doing this up front allows the project to be evaluated for meeting this criteria or not. Projects are measurable this way and offer better team buy-in. A novel approach to this is to develop the user manual for one's product or service before actually beginning development. After all, it is the user manual which describes how the product or service should operate in the first place, right?

3. Put First Things First.

Prioritize and apply effort to the most important things first. Prevent feature changes and enhancements disguised as defects from adversely affecting your priorities.

4. Think Win/Win.

Foster a win/win relationship between your team and clients. Allow for the "Features-Time-cost" project management pyramid to have flexible variables, as failing to do so risks team burnout or loss of future business with the client.

5. Seek to understand, then to be understood.

When beginning any project management task, it is absolutely vital that you listen to others first in order to fully understand the problem. Most people want to be heard rather than hear. Hearing others first allows for multiple solutions to be entertained, provides better discussions in the future, and facilitates the ability to solve a problem in a more direct way.

6. Synergize.

Team collaboration is an absolute must to a project's success. Teams with various skills, strengths, and backgrounds can positively contribute to a project's development, especially when they work together as one cohesive unit. Offer tools that maximize a team's effectiveness, keep track of their tasks and share their statuses with other teammates.

7. Hone your skills.

Things change these days faster than ever. Learn new techniques and keep your skills up to date. Invest in learning project management skills like PMI, ITL, CMMI. Not only will they keep you on top of your project management game, but constant lifelong learning keeps the mind active and receptive to new ideas and critical thinking.