How to improve team efficiency for project managers?

Project managers are those who play crucial roles in the whole project management. They have the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project. How do you improve your team’s efficiency for project managers? I will give some advice as follow.

1. Remove barriers

What gets in the way of a team member performing their task? Communicate about any personal or team blockers that might prevent the work from even getting started.

2. Set specific dates and follow-up

Don’t just “set it and forget it” with your team. Know that you’re there for them, not by micro-managing, but by following up to see how they’re doing. Do they need support to get their tasks done on time? Are they being blocked? You won’t know unless you follow up.

3. Clarify expectations

Make sure to communicate all the expectations for individuals and the whole team. Efficiency is not achieved in isolation. Make it clear to that team that they are to support each other as a team, in order for the entire project to succeed. And this starts with you as a vital member of the team. You model this early and often.

4. Find a good PMS

Using project management software can improve the whole efficiency including development team and test team.

When it comes to PMS, today I will introduce a free and open source project management software called ZenTao. The biggest difference between ZenTao and other PMS is it divides the complex project management process into four major items: story, task, bug, and case. What's more, ZenTao supports the whole flow management among these four items.