2020 seems to be a year that is full of challenges for everyone. Starting from the intense forest fires in Australia, flash floods to landslides in Indonesia, to the emergence of the Covid-19 virus.

Starting from Wuhan, China, this virus has now spread throughout the world and marks the era of the Covid-19 pandemic until now.

No doubt, this virus automatically hits many sectors of life. In the construction industry for example, Covid-19 has also had an impact on changing patterns of project management activities in the field. At this time, the project manager must have strong resilience to ensure and manage a project progress continues to run effectively. Unfortunately, there will be many elements in the project workflow that inevitably have to be adapted to current conditions.

So, here are 7 tips how to manage a project during Covid-19 pandemic!

1. Project Execution

The Covid-19 pandemic has automatically changed our working patterns towards digital transformation. This then makes us ensure one thing, we may not return to work with old traditions, but change it to a new normal era. Like for example working remotely from home.

However, we also cannot avoid that there are people with extroverted sides who need to meet and socialize with other people. In addition, some people also find it hard to work without direct supervision because it is difficult to stay focused, even though others may not feel the same way. However, this is where your role as a project manager is tested.

As a project manager, you should wear your “leadership hat” to guide and train a team to successfully do their job remotely. You also need to do regular video conferencing to discuss how the project is progressing and how the team thinks about the effectiveness of the work pattern that is being established. Indeed, not all types of work can be done remotely. There are several tasks that also need to be done directly on site. But again, you also have to make the safety of your team the first, second, and third priority of yours.

2. Project Communications

The Covid-19 pandemic has not only changed the way you and your team working, but also communication patterns in projects. Since you and your team don’t get to meet physically very often, the need for intensive long-distance communication has become even more important.

Here are tips for holding daily meetingspo0 effectively:

1. Don’t hold the meeting for too long, keep it short but with a tight discussion.
2. Focus on discussing what the team has accomplished, what they are doing, and what obstacles they faced on the job.
3. Discuss the detailed conditions of each work unit separately with only relevant team members to provide ample information.
4. Hold regular meetings at the same time.
5. Because you have to minimize physical meetings, you need to communicate with stakeholders to convert weekly to monthly meetings into virtual meetings only.
6. You also have to communicate the adjustment of communication pattern in the project as clearly as possible to all stakeholders.

3. Project Deliverables

Project priorities may also change due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, you as the project manager must reconfirm some agreements that you feel cannot be done after the pandemic takes place. For example, before the pandemic, the client asked for the project to be completed in the 8th month. However, changing circumstances forced projects to take longer to complete, maybe in the 12th month. In this situation, you must establish good communication with clients. Even they might prefer to focus on completed the project within a set budget, not on a fixed deadline.

4. Project Risk

Even without the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic, conducting regular risk reviews should have been a routine project manager’s agenda. Let’s imagine the possibility of a delivery delay from a vendor, to the increased complexity of working remotely. If it happens, identify all the new risks, assess the magnitude of the impact and their probability, then plan responses, and calculate contingency costs for these risks.

Have to note, this emergency cost has the potential to use up the entire available management reserve budget. Therefore, you need to discuss with the client about the use of the reserve budget and the potential for project budget swelling.

5. Project Supply Chain

The impact of the pandemic on the project was also felt in the aspect of raw material availability, and this is vital when you manage a project. Therefore, immediately contact the vendor that was chosen and ask them about the potential of delayed delivery of the raw materials or products required for your project. This will help you to know the exact supply chain of raw materials to avoid progress bottlenecks.

Besides, you can be looking for a list of other potential vendors in case the previously selected vendor has a supply vacuum. Usually, when the availability of raw materials is low and difficult to produce, the price will soar. So, you should record this change of price as a new contingency fee calculation.

6. Project Schedule

No one knows for sure when this pandemic will end, including you. This also affects the project activity plans that you may have previously made. So, you should communicate with the team to identify invalid scheduling estimates and assess how it will impact your overall project activity. After you have developed a new project schedule adapted to current conditions, discuss this with your client, and consider whether there will be a contractual impact on these changes.

7. Project Cost

One aspect that was also heavily affected was the project budget. Some of the elements that may impact the project budget are supply chain costs, risk costs, contingency costs, and other potential additional costs. If the changes are significant, you may need to report and discuss them with the client for the best solution. As a project manager, you must also provide an overview of how the pandemic has had a major impact on the project. Then, provide a suggestion or solution that you offer, which of course must benefit all parties involved.

That’s all 7 tips to manage a project during pandemic Covid-19 that project managers need to know. Find more insights about project management here with Tomps.id!