Outsourcing project management: How to do it correctly

Project management outsourcing also known as external project management is a unique service that allows people to run their mid to large sized projects effectively. Outsourcing project management helps you improve the efficiency of the organization’s activities. Contract companies help others complete their projects through their professionalism, competency, and experience in order to help you complete complex projects that are required by your company.

Qualities you should look for

When outsourcing your project manager, there are a few traits that they should have to ensure that your project will be completed on time and provide the quality you need.

You need to look for a project manager that’s able to collaborate and communicate effectively with everyone that’s on your in-house staff. They need to share the following characteristics:

• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving skills

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Ability to cultivate and enhance your team environment

• Technical Literacy: The ability to use technology to help collaborate and complete projects

The project manager should be able to bring more value to the team, not detract from it. When outsourcing, you also need to check if they are from a legitimate contractor. Hiring a project manager can be a long process, but gauging their technical abilities and their methods of solving problems will help you find out which one is the right fit for your company.

How to effectively utilize your outsourced project manager

Now that you know what qualities make a good project manager, you have to know the right practices to help them complete your projects. Here are some steps you should follow so that they can regulate work and assist you from the start until the end of the project.

Start with a plan

When your organization uses multiple tools to (Example: one small business that uses social collaboration tools instead of one direct PM solution). You’ll need to establish a hierarchy and a communication plan.

You need to take time to address how you’ll communicate with your workers. Look at the following things:

• The frequency of communication.

• Which medium can be used for communication.

• Project measures when issues arrive.

Location

This doesn’t refer to your company’s geographical location, but the location of the project. If your workers are remote, project management tools will help facilitate your employee’s work environment.

Create one tool to help manage the storage policy and the document management. It allows you to enforce the policy and keep your workers, regardless of the location, on track. Unless all of your documentation is stored in one location, it’s harder to manage and increases the chance of project failure. So, we suggest that you keep the project stored in one centralized location so that all of your workers know where to send their contribution to your project.

Make the work accessible

While absence makes the heart fonder, that doesn’t apply to your project. Restricting your access makes it harder for your contracted work to complete their job. This is where user management such as user permissions and guest access is a great asset to your team,

How can you determine the right level of access for your workers? You have to decide how much access they need in order to complete their part of the project. Most of the time, your contracted work will be paid on an hourly basis, and it’s up to your project manager to help provide the resources and information needed to complete their tasks.

Closing thoughts

Overall, if you’re planning on outsourcing project management, you have to be clear about your expectations and duties of the manager. Remember, they have to work with your team and help them collaborate with each other in order to finish the project. Thus, take the time in finding the right one to increase the quality of your results, and help your team complete the work in a time-efficient manner.