Student Tips For Project Management
For many students, group projects are a dreaded headache. Instructors have tried to implement group projects into their courses in order to enhance student learning. However, the introduction of group projects in classes often results in eye-rolls and neverending complaints. If you are a student who has struggled with unsuccessful group projects or teammates who don’t work well together, then you’ve come to the right place! We have compiled several tips to help you better manage and execute group projects as a student.
Creating Tasks
The way in which you create your tasks as a group at the start of a project can go a long way.
Many students tend to split up the work evenly and then combine all the parts together at the end of the project to submit it. This method is common, yet ineffective for learning course content and collaboration skills. Several helpful tips to create effective and manageable tasks are to:
1. Identifying and Breaking Down the Project
As a team, it is important to examine the project scope, the deliverables and the timeline of your project. Once your team is aware of what is needed, we suggest that you create tasks that are categorized as “high”, “medium” and “low” effort. This way, all of your team members understand the amount of time, effort and preparation needed to complete the task.
2. Create Deadlines
When creating tasks with your team members, ensure that you are always creating subtasks to break down larger tasks. After doing this, it is important to schedule everything to be completed at different times. Doing this can ensure that all of the work is being broken down and staggered.
3. Follow the “Rule of Twos”
In order to ensure that tasks are completed in a realistic time frame, using the “rule of twos” can help tremendously. This means creating deadlines for tasks that take no shorter than two days and no longer than two weeks to complete.
Delegating Tasks
Delegating tasks during a group project in an effective manner is crucial for successful learning and completing your project with less stress.
An advantage to working in a team is that you have the ability to work with other students who bring different strengths to the table. Understanding what your teammates are good at can help you strengthen the outcome of your project, as well as the process of working together. In order to ensure that you are maximizing your team’s potential consider the following tips:
1. Have an Initial Team Meeting
Assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses and discuss how they relate to your project. By discussing this as a team, you are not only able to understand what each team member is good at but also you are able to learn more about your teammates.
2. Delegate Tasks Based on Strengths
Once your team understands each other’s strengths and weaknesses, you will have a better understanding of who can excel in each part of your project. After establishing this, you will be able to split up your tasks respectively.
3. Formulate a Team Contract
Ensure that everyone in your team understands what tasks they have to complete and when the deadlines are. Once your team comes to a consensus, it is helpful to create a space where everyone writes down their tasks, responsibilities and deadlines. This guarantees that all team members are aware of the project timeline and progress.
Staying Organized and Proactive
Once your team has become familiar with one another, it’s also important to keep all of your tasks and deadlines organized. Using online tools such as Asana, Ensightful or other project management platforms can help you collectively stay organized. When your team has established a common platform for organization and communication, we suggest that you:
1. Organize Tasks in Order of Importance
One strategy is to number your tasks by order of importance. This helps you prioritize and tackle low, medium and high effort tasks in an organized way.
2. Create Milestones
Another organizational strategy is the use of milestones. These are hard dates that you need to complete a task by. This date is typically in the middle of your project timeline and allows you to visualize the progress of your project as well as keep you on track while avoiding procrastination.
3. Stay in Contact With Your Instructor
It is important to communicate with your instructor when you are unsure of something, when you encounter a conflict or when you want constructive feedback. Your instructor can provide you with the necessary support in order to gain the knowledge and skills that you need to succeed in your group project. As a group, you can establish a way to communicate with your instructor; either through email or the project management platform of your choice.
