Do you plan your project effectively?

Planning is like laying down the foundation for any project. If the foundation is strong, building will definitely be strong. There are several steps listed below that will ensure the successful planning for any project.

Please Note: I am giving these steps based on the experience I had in my past company and based on the research. These steps might change if you are using any tool or following any organization’s process.

Step #1: Project Definition
It’s very important we define the project well. All the questions should be well answered in the initial requirement gathering, like what is the purpose of the project? Who will be the end users? What is the business objective of the project? Etc. This proper project definition helps all the stake holders understand the requirements and ensures successful delivery.

Step #2: Gathering all the requirements
The second step is to gather all the requirements. If we are implementing the project using the latest project management technique like scrum, then taking the initial requirements would be enough. However, gathering most of the requirements at this stage is preferred

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Step #3: Work breakdown or Milestone Creation
Once we have all the requirements, it’s important we perform the work breakdown. This means, we take the requirements and create the initial breakdown. Each initial breakdown will be named as a Milestone. Each milestone will have a deliverable.

Step #4: Define Timeline
Once we have the milestones created, we will have to define the timeline.

Step #5: Defining & Assigning tasks
Once we have the milestones and timeline associated. We will have to again breakdown each milestone into tasks. Creating and assigning the tasks helps responsible people assigned. Making sure a task is assigned to an individual with a proper due date ensures the successful delivery.

Keep tracking the project and hope this article helps. All the Best!

Top 10 qualities of a team player!

When we talk about team player. Is it just a person working in a team or a person effectively working in a team? Of course the second one!

What qualities do you all think, a team player should persist. Lets have a look at some of them below:

Quality #1: Use your strength

Do you know what you do best? One should be able to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Always use your strength. You might excel in communication etc... whatever your strengths are, you have something really valuable to offer to your team. 

Quality #2: Understand Objective

If you would like to be a good team player for your team, always understand the objective. Why you all are working on the project? Whats the use of it? Whats your role in the team? What is the outcome? etc... 

Quality #3: Power of Questions

Questions are always the communication starters. One must start by asking a question. This helps whole team understand the business perspective as well as helps in the whole project itself.

Quality #4: Be Reliable

This is one of the most important quality of a team player. It's not only the quality but I would say, its the professionalism one must persist. One should always deliver what they commit.

Quality #5: Effective Communication

Team always needs a person who can speak up, express their views, ask questions clearly, directly and honestly. It's again a very important quality to update and communicate the progress regularly to the team.

Quality #6: Problem-Solver

One should always take the initiative to take the ownership of the project and volunteer for solving thee problems. This makes a person definitely a better team member.

Quality #7: Share!

Common saying- "Knowledge increases by sharing". One should always share what they know. It often leads to team building approach.

Quality #8: Treat Respectfully

One should always treat team members respectfully. In a team, every team member is important and plays a significant role. It's important they are treated with respect and courtesy.

Quality #9: Exhibits Flexibility

Teams often deals with changing project conditions. Good team players always exhibits flexibility in the favor of the project success.

Quality #10: Sense of Humor

Lightness holds team members together. Relieves stress from their lives and make the environment easy to work.

How to conduct effective Business Meetings?

When we talk about business meetings, what comes in our mind? Certain number of people, meeting and discussing over a topic. 

Does it make you tired to attend a meeting? Is it just like listening to a person who is coordinating a meeting? or is it like all the people talking at the same time? 

Well, here are several points one should keep in mind when coordinating a meeting:

1. Meetings should be a productive use of time. There should always be agenda points as well as some outcome of the meeting.
2. Meetings should have proper Meeting Agenda. People should be informed about the meeting prior to the meeting along with meeting agenda so they can come prepare for it.
3. There should always be one person conducting the meeting who takes the lead. This avoids confusion and let the meeting go in a proper direction.
4. Meetings should be time-boxed. Meetings should always end in certain duration of time. This helps us maintain our schedules as well as never make a person feel tired of meetings.
5. There should always be an Outcome of the meeting. This can be like follow ups, to do list etc for each team member.

How to prepare Meeting Agendas?

1. Ask your team mates to provide you their agenda items if they have anything to be discussed. This gives each team member a chance to express their point of view and help the coordinator of the meeting to manage it well.
2. Once you have all the points, sequence them and assign timings to each agenda items. 
3. Have question/answer round at the end of the meeting.
4. Have team mates schedule next follow up meeting.

Hope these points help our meeting coordinators to conduct effective meetings.

How to write effective business emails?

There are certain points to be taken care of while writing emails to clients. Emails are the electronic medium of communication. Generally, we communicate project information, status reports etc... via emails and those have to be communicated effectively to the clients/customers for one's business needs.

Below are some of the points one should take care:

1. Using Greetings & Gestures: It is very important one should first greet the person to whom they are writing an email. Asking about one's well being provides a person a sense of importance as well as help improving relationships between the two parties.
2. To the Point: Always talk to the point whenever communicating via email. Never write long emails as nobody is interested in reading long stories. Getting to the point makes a person more interested in reading your stuff.
3. Use proper Subject: Subject is the summary of the email. This needs to clear and talking about the content of the email. Based on the subject, a person chooses to open your email from their inbox. 
4. Short & Concise: Never write long sentences, instead cut down the email in the form of numbering or bullet points and then provide status reports. This makes the email more concise and helpful for the readers.
5. Use proper Email Signatures: Using proper Email signature shows one's professionalism and good in terms of marketing one's business. A sample of Email signature is below:
• John Doe
• CEO of XYZ Company
• Email: john@xyz.com
6. Using "To" Email Address: Always use the email address to whom you are sending an email and expect response from them.
7. Using "CC" Email Address: Always use the email address from whom you don't want any response and you just want them to be aware of the matter.
8. Write different emails for different subjects: It is recommended to write different emails for different subjects in order to avoid confusion for the readers.
9. Talk about positive points first and then the negative points.
10. Talk about insight/summary and then details.