I have been in several projects where the delivery team has been made up of motivated people, even enthusiastic and with the skills and capabilities needed to achieve a successful outcome but with a key deficit. The project itself is not their primary ‘day-job’ but a secondary effort they can put time to, non-dedicated project teams.
It’s more and more common that projects are delivered with ‘bits’ of people than dedicated project teams as organisations increasingly are squeezed and seek to eek out as much productivity from their limited resources as they can or ‘make-do’ with the people they have.
While every project manager will tell you they want dedicated resources on their project to give the best chance of meeting the time, cost, quality triangle of successful delivery, the reality is that projects ebb and flow with periods of work on some people higher at times and lower at other times. Optimising utilisation and maintaining motivation and focus from the people working to deliver the project is a key activity.
When working with a volunteer-force or part-time participants there are a number of things to focus on to help achieve a great outcome, here’s some of the focus areas I’ve used:
Goals and priorities
Helping people stay aligned on the critical tasks is a major need when team members are balancing multiple commitments.
- Use a visual roadmap to help people ‘see’ what tasks are when and the relationship with their activities
- Make it clear to all what the overall goals and key milestones for the project are so they can understand how their contributions fit
Scope and Tasks defined
Clearly defined tasks and the scope of the work is crucial for non-dedicated team members to be clear on what’s needed.
- To avoid ‘overloading’ those that are cognitive switching between this project and other commitments, define the ‘must-have’ deliverables and the ‘nice-to-haves’
- Manage expectations on deliverables, deadlines and quality and do it collaboratively giving flexibility where possible to accommodate competing priorities
Flexible, transparent scheduling
Project timelines need structure to keep on-track but non-dedicated team members appreciate flexibility.
- Accommodate various schedules through staggered meeting times, especially useful if your team is remote and across timezones
- Have flexible ‘check-in’ options and asynchronous updates (weekly reports/forms or project logs) for people to provide their updates at their convenience
Mindful Communication
Those working part00time on a project rely on consistent and effective communication to stay aligned
- Encourage the open communication about scheduling conflict or competing priorities so that proactive adjustments have time to be made
- Have a collaborative workspace (tools like Slack, Teams, Google Chat, etc) for the back-and-forth projects need with questions, quick updates, sharing to help avoid meetings and maintain team continuity/flow
Task Tracking & project management
Ensure non-dedicated team members can stay upto-date with accessible and intuitive tools for task progress.
- Documentation needs a home people know to go to for easy access, templates, reference material so Sharepoint, Dropbox, Google Drive are all helpful here
- Tasks and Project management benefits from easy tools for assigned tasks, deadlines and progress like Trello, Asana, Jira depending on your flavour
Accountability
Maintaining accountability is essential while respecting the non-dedicated nature and limited availability of team members.
- Highlight each contributor’s role in project advancement suing milestone charts and dashboards
- Have check-ins periodically and retrospectives to celebrate and make adjustments where needed
- Do not micro-manage, lean on outputs and results while empowering autonomous working for team members
Recognition
Critical for a team balancing multiple projects/priorities is engagement and morale build through recognition of contributions.
- In meetings flag the individual and team achievements to pump things up
- Formal recognition where possible with certificates or awards, gift vouchers work and I’ve also seen hot-air balloon experiences given elsewhere
Adaptability
A team working part-time on a project will inevitably face changing priorities and constraints so change and adaptability will be needed
- Encourage open dialogue and give the team a voice in shaping their workflows and ways of working
- Plan for team members to be unavailable and have contingencies for activities to continue in their absence where possible
Using some of these tactics can help maintain the productivity and accountability while also fostering an open, collaborative enviornment for team members to feel valued and invested in the project’s future and success.