Project Management When Out of Town

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The project manager should make sure that the assignments aren’t too much for the employee to handle on their own. He should also make sure to try and divide up the work equally. The project manager should figure out what tasks need to be completed in order to finish the project. He should then decide how long each of those tasks should take, what order they need to happen in, and who has the most expertise in each area. The project manager should try and have the teammates work on tasks together as often as possible to ensure that everyone is staying on the same page and isn’t overwhelmed.

Developing a Gantt chart would probably be a good idea to give the project manager as well as the members of the team an idea of whether or not the project is on track. It will also inform everyone as to how many tasks are left and about how long those tasks are going to take to complete. Letting everyone know whether or not the project is on track will help them to manage their time. If they are ahead of schedule they can feel less rushed and if they aren’t on target, they can try and implement changes to fix that as soon as possible. If you are keeping your team well informed and in the loop as to the status of the project that they are working on, it should be no problem for the project manager to leave town for two weeks. Regular teleconferences to boost morale and keep everyone on their game should be scheduled as well.

To energize the team, I would recommend that the project manager offer some type of incentives for either individual tasks being completed before/on time or at the end of the project as a whole. That way, the employees have something to looks forward to and want to work faster and hard to receive that reward. They also would feel less like they are being worked to death because they are going to be personally striving to complete tasks quickly. They know that when the task is completed they will receive their incentive and that will excite them.