How to Make Global Project Management Effective

The advent of globalization has made global projects pretty common these days. Today, the project managers are working with their remote overseas employees and managing the projects virtually. Like regular projects, the global projects also feature a few agreed parameters and acceptance criteria. The project managers are bound to meet those criteria and the deadline and budget of the particular project. In the case of global projects, the managers need to put extra attention to achieve the project objectives. The project stakeholders belong to different geographical regions and even from various cultural backgrounds for a global project.

 

Managing a global team can be full of challenges. Teammates coming from different time zones can be a problem for the project manager to assign tasks and get reports. Other than this, there is always a language barrier. As teammates are from different countries, it is obvious that they won't speak the same language. The difference in the culture of these teammates in a global project team can create some minor issues in project management as well. Last but not least, global project managers often face problems due to the national holiday of various countries of the teammates. The managers will have to schedule important meetings in such a way that these never fall on the national holiday of any country.

Due to all these challenges, the companies count on Project Management solutions for handling their international projects. But, if you follow the following tips regarding effective global project management, it will be a piece of cake to manage those projects. So, let's begin.

 

1.       Short Meetings-

For global project management, the managers should be extra careful about the time zones of the employees. They must not call for an impromptu meeting at an inconvenient hour. The project managers should inform the employees at least one day before the meeting. Due to the time difference, the managers should keep the meetings to the point and as short as possible. This way, the employees in the foreign land go through a lesser amount of inconvenience.

 

2.       Encourage interaction between teammates

As a global project manager, it is your responsibility to encourage teammates from different countries to communicate with each other. If they go through fun interaction, it will be easier for project managers to build trust within the team. It will help the team members collaborate in a better way. Not only this, but proper interaction will also boost the efficiency of the team.

 

3.       Celebrate achievements

It is important to praise the employees after the completion of each global project. Once the deadline is met, allow your employees to take some rest and go on vacation with their families. This kind of activity will boost the unity of the team.

 

4.       Set multiple short-term goals

Instead of setting a big goal with lots of tasks, set a short-term goal. This way, employees will remain pressure-free and will be able to put their 100%. If you set multiple short-term goals over a period of a few weeks, there will be a consistency in your team, and you will get to see gradual progress in the global project.

 

5.       Project management software

All the employees of your team should use the same software platform. This way, it will be easy for team members to keep track of the project works. They can update the project easily with the help of the same software. Not only this, but if the employees use the same software platform, it will also be easy to spot errors. As a result, ultimately, the project will be error-free. The software can be bought from providers of project management services.

 

6.       Focus on a culture of employees

The Project Management Solutions are successful because they focus on the cultural background of the employees from different countries and work accordingly. As a good project manager, you should learn about the cultural norms of your employees. This way, you can prevent other teammates from offending any employee for lack of knowledge related to his or her culture.

 

7.       Manage the language barrier

If there are employees from different countries of the world, they will speak in a different language. But, English can be a common language for your team. Encourage all the employees to speak in English so that everyone can participate in project meetings.

 

8.       Don't comment on the work style of employees

Project Managers should not pick on their employees all the time regarding minute things like work styles. As a project manager, you should be bothered about the efficiency of the employee only. Give them the freedom to work on their own time and in their own work style. Otherwise, they can be pressurized.

 

If you follow our eight tips regarding project management services, you can be a successful global project manager. So, try to memorize all these points and apply them to your real life.