Identifying Stakeholders: A Key to Project Success

Every project has stakeholders. We've heard that statement countless times, but in reality, it is a key critical factor for project success. Stakeholders are people, groups, and organizations that can influence your project and hold the key for your project success or failure. Joseph Phillips, project management author and consultant bluntly describes stakeholders as follows, "Stakeholders don't think about the integration of project, the challenges of balancing time, cost, scope, the hidden risks, and all the work that happens when no one else is around. Stakeholders are like the gawkers at the finish line of a marathon: they only want to see, and appreciate, the end of the race, not mile 15". A strong debatable statement, but in the end, it is the responsibility of the project manager to build consensus among stakeholders, address concerns and fears, and find a balance between project implementation challenges.

The Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall engaged pm-volunteers.org™ (PM-V), to secure the services of Pietro Widmer, a seasoned and experienced project manager, to support the implementation of their Licensed Pre-school and Daycare Program project. PM-V provides non-profit organizations with a source of skilled, trained and experienced project management resources, enhancing their ability to deliver projects on time, on budget, on scope, while minimizing risk.

Pietro, a consultant with over 15 years of project and program management experience acquired in the aerospace industry, shared his views on identifying stakeholders on the VJLS-JH project. Right off the bat he says that from a project management perspective his initial approach on a new project is to meet with the organization's key people to ascertain who the decision makers are, who supports the project and who are opponents of the project. He makes the case that negative stakeholders must not be ignored, as they can be detrimental to the success of the project. Pietro's positive approach reflects his resolve to address and alleviate fears of negative stakeholders and turn them into champions of the project. The value of a stakeholders list, done correctly, must not be underestimated, as it is the basis for developing a stakeholder management strategy.

Stakeholder involvement is crucial in the planning process as it increases commitment to the project's objectives and processes; it may also decrease mistrust and weariness to become involved in the project. On the role of the project manager, Pietro describes it as someone in the middle, balancing all diverging needs of the different stakeholders. One of the fundamentals for him is, and I quote, "Project management is about people, right?" In the project management constellation, the project manager serves the project in its entirety to achieve the strategic objectives of the organization, an endeavor at the satisfaction of the customer.

Laura Saimoto is a Board member and a Director of the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall (VJLS-JH). She notes that, "Pietro clearly stated the tangible results that he helped to accomplish in the scope of the project description. As a very credible and sensible outside voice with no attachments, he was able to bring clarity and focus to a context of emotional resistance to change. To sum up, he helped us to work through the fear of change with tangible project management tools. VJLS-JH, and in particular, myself, as project chair, are indebted to Pietro and PM-V for their contribution to helping us achieve our goal of opening a licensed childcare facility".

Pietro's appreciation for involvement in the VJLS-JH project stems from his enjoyment to learn about new domains and to share and apply his project management experience. He says, "This project gave me the opportunity to expand my project management experience in the NFP environment and enabled me to learn more about the Japanese community in Vancouver."

In the final analysis, stakeholder identification is a critical success factor for project success.

by Hylton Ferreira for pm-volunteers.org™

Why do so many IT projects fail?

This is a question that has been written about and deliberated upon countless times over the past years. Project approaches for successful delivery are determined by, at least in part, the make-up and size of the organization, and required project deliverables.

Historically, project failure rates in the IT sector have been significant, as outlined in this article by Peter Gordon, which cites a well-researched and documented report by the Standish Group which included 80 000 IT projects over a 25 year period. The report documents reasons for project failure, including non-adherence to budgets, overdue schedules, poor quality, user involvement, lack of executive support and clear business objectives, resources, project management skills, or emotional immaturity. Many smaller, community based not-for-profit (NFP) organizations face increased exposure to these pitfalls with their IT projects due to constrained resources and the challenges of obtaining professional project management services to support their projects.

pm-volunteers.org™ (PM-V) is a leader in mobilizing skilled volunteer project management services for charitable community non-profit organizations. In recent years, several local NPOs in the Lower Mainland of BC have engaged volunteer project management professionals through PM-V to provide project advisory and implementation support for their critical IT projects. These organizations have recognized that working with a skilled project manager can positively impact the outcome of their IT projects, mitigating some of the major risks outlined in the Standish Group’s study. Myrna Holman, executive director for bc211, is testimony that perceptions do change as she refers to their new Information Management System Implementation project.

When I learned about PM-V I was a bit skeptical. Would this organization really be able to provide a volunteer project manager who was up to the task? We were very grateful when (project manager) Shawn Hawkins signed on. It’s really quite something to get such a commitment from a volunteer like Shawn who has years of project management experience to share with us. He has been instrumental in keeping us on track. He delivered a solid project plan and a risk register. Beyond project management he has been a mentor to many of us and he took the time to meet individually with our entire project team”.

Lessons Learned

Presenting his Lessons Learned on the bc211 project, seasoned project manager Shawn Hawkins highlighted the commitment of bc211’s executive director as a major driver that enabled project success. He analyzed the strategic plan, recommended a suitable project implementation timeline, and identified key stakeholder expectations at the initiation stage of the project.

User involvement was critical to drive successful project delivery; therefore, meetings and informal information sessions were conducted on all levels to gain a clear understanding of the history of the project, to identify key staff for the project implementation process, and to initiate a risk screening process. All information gathered was filtered according to importance to reflect clarity in achieving the business objectives.

Project success requires a dedicated leadership equipped with project management expertise and experience in order to discern what project approach and tools to adopt to overcome particular challenges. For bc211, Shawn developed a high-level project plan aided by the latest project management software. This process allowed for the users of the new Information Management System to be involved in the project implementation and enhanced the sense of ownership among the users. Emphasis was put on training to allow for post-implementation continuity, supported by a Project Completion Report for future bc211 leaders. Shawn’s enthusiasm and commitment to the project reaped considerable rewards in the success of the project. He values his association with bc211 and PM-V and, more significantly, Shawn demonstrated the ability to empower people with knowledge, preparing them to face future project challenges. He says, “…the legacy will be not only a new IMS, but also a team versed in the project management discipline and committed to applying it across the board as their organization grows. On another level, I get to showcase the outrageously successful PM-V approach, connecting non-profit organizations with project managers who get the opportunity to broaden their professional experience and give back to their community. How great is that?”

A Successful Project Outcome

The successful implementation of bc211’s Information Management System can be attributed to extensive and thorough project planning work and a commitment from bc211‘s management team to ensure all measures were in place for a successful implementation. A project plan that included extensive training on the new system also played a pivotal part in ensuring the project’s success.

From the project manager’s perspective, Shawn stated that the value of a great project sponsor should never be under-estimated. He furthermore was of the opinion that flexible project management practices wins over inflexible approaches hands down. Communication is vital to achieve project success and must be practiced on multi-dimensional levels.

Many local non-profit organizations will continue to face challenges with their IT projects due to funding constraints and rising stakeholder needs and expectations.  Some of these organizations will, like bc211, choose to reach out to the project management community for assistance and support. When these connections happen and projects succeed, there is a rich legacy of benefits for the non-profit organization, the volunteer project manager and for the greater community.

About the Author

Enthused by the developments in project management and technology, Hylton keeps up to date, writes and shares articles on project management trends via numerous social media platforms and blogs. His passion for the project management profession comes from over fifteen years of managing projects in the Electricity and Telecommunication Industry’s in Namibia, responsible for improving customer satisfaction, stakeholder management, contracts, and quality assurance. He successfully managed the implementation of voice and data packaged telecommunication solutions to corporates and was instrumental in the expansion of the national rural electricity backbone network in Namibia. Hylton, a certified Project Management Professional (PMP), holds a senior position with the GIVE Group, an organization that benefits charities through real-estate sales.  He is also a certified WikiBuddy, engaged in development of free online education content for WikiEducator.

About pm-volunteers.org™

PM-V is a grassroots initiative which connects skilled professional project managers with not-for-profit organizations, building project management capacity in the not for profit sector while giving back to the community. To date, project management professionals have volunteered and given back over 5000 hours of service, supporting 80 community projects. Go to www.pm-volunteers.org for more information.

Article by Hylton Ferreira for Annex Consulting Group.

The Project Scope Statement is more than just a statement

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a statement as “a single declaration or remark”. The project scope statement includes more detail than our proverbial understanding of a statement as a single remark.

The project scope statement identifies all of the project’s deliverables and defines the work required to create the deliverables. In other words, it creates a common understanding of what needs to be achieved by all stakeholders and creates a framework for proposed changes to be effected within the project boundaries, to eliminate nice to haves from creeping into the project.

Often, careful and thoughtful consideration in the composition of the project scope statement is neglected, resulting in detrimental results to project budget, schedule, quality, and customer expectations, as the project advances.

Considerations for a project scope statement:

Project Objectives - Quantifiable goals that defines the project’s appropriateness to the project customer and the overall success of the project. Objectives must be detailed, quantifiable, aggressive, realistic, and time-sensitive.

Product Scope description – Describes what deliverables the project is creating. The product scope description is a work in progress as it starts off vague and is updated as the project work develops.

Project Requirements – Sets the parameters under which the project will operate and determines the acceptability criteria against which the deliverables are measured. These parameters are established by the customer and the performing organization.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Project Boundaries – Project boundaries establishes what is included in the project and what is excluded from it. Strict adherence to existing project boundaries leaves no room to engage in extra work that does not form part of the project scope.

Project Deliverables – These are all the things the project will create. But hang on, it does not only include the product it will create, but also all the documentation and documented experiences which can be used for future reference on similar projects.

Product Acceptance Criteria – It includes a list of requirements inclusive of the customer’s expectations that must be satisfied prior to acceptance of the completed product.

Project Constraints – Careful thought must to be put into identifying anything that will limit the project from successful completion. Constraints can include anything from a predetermined budget, available resources and materials, imposed dates, and contract conditions.

These are but some elements to consider for inclusion in the project scope description. From your perspective, do you think all of these are necessary?

Written by Hylton Ferreira.

Seven Habits for Highly Effective Project Risk Management

When it comes to project management, over the years, the role of the Project Manager (PM) has evolved. Every project, large or small, comes with its own set of risks. As competition for bids increases, the ability to anticipate, acknowledge and create an actionable plan to address these risks becomes one of the most important elements in a capital project proposal.

For a long time, the PM position was highly focused on just the individual’s technical expertise. This is no longer the case. With the acknowledgement that project risk management is a crucial component of any undertaking, comes the increased awareness that on-time completion and remaining within budget is more about the successful orchestration and facilitation of others, than it is about technical knowledge.

What does that mean exactly? A report on the subject entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Project Managers” breaks down the habits that today’s successful PMs must learn in order to take their capital projects to the Best in Class level.

1) Be proactive: Anticipate potential problems and put an early warning system in place. This should include a detailed project plan, good cost accounting or production reports that show historical performance and a well-prepared timeline to monitor schedule risk.

2) Forecast completion: Begin a project with the end in mind. Firms are always looking at the forecast of the cost at completion and ensuring project trends are headed in the right direction. Setting key performance indicators via a dashboard or summary report is a great way to capture a picture of a project’s status at any time.

3) Prioritize the critical path: Be able to identify key items that need immediate attention and which do not. Set milestones for issues that have come up frequently in the past, for example, complications during the closeout phase of a project. Project risk management software is an easy and effective way to do this.

4) Collaborate: Effective PMs know how to connect people to solve a problem or complete a task. Because there are so many off-the-shelf project risk management databases that provide visibility throughout the organization, there is no excuse for everyone not to be on the same page.

5) Communicate often: Know how and when to communicate in the most effective manner. If it’s through email, in person, or both, establishing frequent and consistent correspondence will prove crucial to a project’s success.

6) Be accountable: The most successful PMs are so entrenched in their projects that any problem is their problem. The onus can’t be placed on anyone but the PM if a project is unsuccessful. This accountability can be achieved more successfully when senior management is actively involved in periodic, rigorous examination of the job’s status.

7) Continuous improvement: Best in Class project leaders are constantly looking for ways to improve. Frequent analysis of how well they are doing and how they might do better is paramount to continued success.

So there you have it: seven simple habits that will aid in effective project risk management – and the keys to make or maintain Best in Class status.

Article shared from The PM Coach.

About Chris Bell:

Having collaborated with technology titans such as Geoffrey Moore, Marty Cagan, Phil Meyers, and Keith Ferrazzi, Chris brings life and energy to technology and business topics such as Enterprise Risk Management (ERM), Project Portfolio Management (PPM) and Governance Risk & Compliance (GRC). Chris is passionate about leveraging technology and is often found on the speaker circuit sharing innovative strategies to solve everyday business challenges. He is also a published author of many articles, whitepapers and books including EVM for Dummies.

Chris leads marketing strategy, brand strategy and marketing communications for Active Risk. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Mansfield University, and has completed graduate work at Boston University, Oklahoma State University.

Requirements Gathering in Project Management : Not Enough if not Prioritized or Ranked

This is a must read article by Gratien Gasaba on collecting project requirements, and most importantly, to keep perspective when collecting requirments. She writes for PM Hut:

“If you don’t know where you are going no road will take you there”.

To ensure that one is on the right road one needs to know where this road goes. But it serves for nothing if you don’t know where you are going. Assume you are in a bus station. You may be informed that bus number 1 will take the road to place A, bus number 2 to place B, bus number 3 to place C, etc. What criteria do you use to choose a right bus and to ensure you don’t get lost? The necessary and sufficient criterion is to know where you want to go. In the above illustrative particular case, if you want to go to the Place C, you will take the bus number 3 and exclude from your choice all other buses. In other words, if conductors of bus number 1 and bus number 2 try to convince you to take their respective buses, you will reply by a strong no, while to the conductor of the bus number 3 you will reply by an exclusive yes followed by your long strides toward the bus number3.

I have seen several project managers and project staffs complaining that the project beneficiaries are too inquisitive to the extent that it is impossible to know what they need. Complaints of this kind are warnings that the project is heading to failure. They signal a lack of focus. But who is responsible to clearly define and keep the project focus? What is the starting point towards what should be the real focus? Where and how can one gets information on what is needed to be done?
This article attempts to answer the above questions and highlight the importance of collecting requirements and actors involved in this exercise.

Collecting requirements is project manager centered

It is the project manager’s responsibility to ensure all stakeholders’ expectations are well collected and documented. After all, project managers are also required to manage stakeholders’ expectations as part of communication management. These expectations may be related to the project management or to the product of the project. When collected requirements are competing, the project manager is responsible to balance them. In fact, one of the most difficult challenges for project managers regarding scope management is to balance competing requirements and rank them by order of importance.

As project manager, do you have project requirements prioritized and ranked by order of importance? If so, congratulations! It’s a good start. If not, beware you may not be focusing the project resources to the right end!

Read full article by Gratien at PM Hut.

Leading Indicators in Project Management

There are two areas where diligence is important on Projects – (1) Planning and (2) Execution. Let’s assume that planning is done as well as possible and we are now in the midst of running the project. What I often find is that projects turn yellow just before a deadline is due when the PM realizes they won’t hit the date. This is usually less than one week away which really doesn’t give the team much wiggle room to take action and correct the problem. That is why I am a big fan of leading indicators.

The one I think works best is what I call “schedule earned value” which gauges the progress of a project against its ability to meet the commitment. In the simplest definition earned value tracks how much work is performed (earned) against how much time or resources is used (burned) to determine trending. For example, if a project has burned 50% of the time (e.g. on day 20 of a 40 day activity) but only completed 33% of the work then it is fair to assume that work is behind schedule (instead of waiting until day 35 to determine that). You can also use cost as a gauge of burn rate but this is harder sometimes to track and may not be as evenly spread as schedule.

The best way to install this rigor is to set up interim milestones against the plan and track them closely. This way as we risk interim milestones we can still track our progress against the major goals. The key is to track at a granular enough level to be able to see trends before they become issues and set up actions to correct them.

Article by Randy Wills and Kerry Wills for PM Hut.

The 5 W's of Successfully Working in a Global Project

Due to the global nature of projects, nowadays it's quite common for project managers to have project teams that include members of different nationalities and cultures.

Rather than making positive or negative conclusions about a culture, project managers need to build awareness and understand that cultures exist relative to each other. The challenge is to determine the actions that will enable them to successfully manage projects and reconcile the relative differences.

Project managers should consider the five W's to successfully work collaboratively on a global project.

Who: Who is working on the project? Everyone. It is rare to find a stakeholder or team member working on a project that has little or no contact with people from a different culture of their own.

What: What skills do project managers need to develop that will make them credible in another culture's eyes?

A project manager may be fluent in one or more foreign languages, for example. While that will help him or her communicate with others, it will not give the project manager the understanding on how a culture understands deadlines or other aspects of business. Project managers must listen and observe while working in a global setting to learn these things.

Where: Where is there opportunity to learn? Project managers should interact with people of different cultures inside and outside of the business world to navigate through unfamiliar cultures. Next time an intercultural opportunity arises, seize the moment to observe, reflect and learn.

When: When is the best time to collaborate with a multicultural team? Select an activity where all or most of your team members participate, such as a project status meeting. Does every culture respect a set meeting time, for example? In some cultures, there are no written rules of time etiquette, and a single event can be interpreted in a multitude of ways.

Why: Why should you care about multicultural traditions? As a project manager, you will have to manage teams that are partially collocated and across time zones. You should be somewhat comfortable in foreign environments and cognizant of local customs to continue learning and effectively conduct projects.

Article by by Conrado Morlan for Voices on Project Management

Managing Multicultural Teams

As project managers in a global environment, we are now more often expected to lead multi-regional projects. This adds the element of different cultures -- both national and organizational -- that adds can add complexity to projects.

Perhaps your experience is similar to mine when working with project teams in a global environment. My multicultural project team consists of senior stakeholders, a deployment team and a technical support team. All team members have varying experience in the organization, but also can come from very different cultural backgrounds.

There can be a struggle when starting a project in a culture that you are not familiar with. How do you bring everyone together to share a common vision and commitment on the project delivery? I have learned that I need to develop strong cultural competencies to manage a multicultural project team effectively and to establish connections with the team members.

I like to use three tactics when on-boarding a new team member from a different culture:

1. Explain the purpose and benefits of the project to help establish the bond between the team member and the project objectives. Stress the importance of his or her role and how his or her local experience and knowledge will benefit the project.

2. Discuss any concerns that the team member may have, such as with language or customs. This can also help break the ice and show that you understand how difficult cross-cultural relationships can be.

3. Emphasize what is important to you, whether it's work ethic or communication methods, and why it's important. Don't assume that all of your expectations are globally understood.

When I manage a project abroad, one of my preferred ways to build cultural awareness is by spending time visiting popular spots where the locals meet. For example, at restaurants, coffee shops, sporting events and shopping centers, you can observe customs, traditions and behaviors.

Your observations in those settings can help to answer your questions about the culture. But it's just not observation that will help you.  People are very proud of their cultures and customs and are often keen to help you understand them. This supports the need to build a rapport with your team, whilst also building your awareness.

It's also important to understand your own culture's norms and behaviors. That knowledge helps guard against interpreting another culture's behaviors in terms of your own unexamined expectations.

Article by Conrado Morlan, PMP, PgMP for Voices on Project Management .

The Role of Executives in a Lessons Learned Session

In a lessons learned or project review session, your attendees will usually provide feedback freely. Hopefully, they know the purpose of these sessions and their roles in it.

But what about when your sponsor or upper management is present? What are their roles?

Rather than shelter upper management from lessons learned, consider their value in these sessions. Don't have upper management viewed as attendees who just want to hear the rehash of problems that the team doesn't want to relive anyway. Nor should you have upper management included to be a part of the blame game.

Ask your sponsor and upper management to be open minded and supportive advocates in receiving feedback toward improvement.

Here are three ways to get upper management to engage:

Talk: You, the project manager, must engage upper management in the discussion. Review the timeline and other milestones that took place on the project. Upper management could talk about how the goals of the project and the team's successes intertwined with the strategic goals of the company.  The team would appreciate this perspective on the significance of their activities.

Listen: While some discussion points may not be pleasant for upper management to hear, their presence assures a level of impartiality to the team. Knowing someone from "up top" is listening reinforces the team's drive to be a part of a high-performing group. Getting to more favorable end results in future projects would become even more desirable for the team.

Share: Have your sponsor share comments about the purpose of the project and its greater use to the organization, the end users and the community. Have them elaborate on processes. Ensure early on that they recognize processes mentioned in the discussion that could be rewritten or are no longer necessary. This sharing will foster bonding with the team.

Article by Bernadine Douglas, PMP for Voices on Project Management .

A Different Mindset: From Project To Program Manager

As a project manager, leading a project to success provides a feeling of accomplishment. Having been successful at several projects, project managers could see becoming a program manager a likely career move.

But when PMO managers were asked about the most critical factors for success, developing the skill sets of project and program managers were an area of concern, according to PMI's 2012 Pulse of the Profession. As a result, many organizations will renew their focus on talent development, formalizing processes to develop competency.

In my opinion, developing a program management mindset is a key first step to successfully transitioning to a program management role. For example, moving from the linear world of a single project to the molecular world of programs can be daunting. Plus, you'll face the new experience of leading other project managers.

Here are some practices I have found valuable to adopting a program management mindset:

1. Think big picture
A common misperception about programs is when they are viewed as one big project. Keep in mind that a program is an interconnected set of projects that also has links to business stakeholders and other projects. Adopt a 'big picture' attitude to the overall program and avoid fixating on a single project's details.

2. Create a project manager trust model
As a project manager, you develop trust with individual contributors performing delivery activities. As a program manager, you have to develop trust with project managers. Create a common interaction framework with every project manager for progress reporting, resource management, etc.

3. Encourage project managers to say "so what?"
As a program manager, you will deal with additional reports, metrics and other information that you didn't experience as a project manager. Encourage your project managers to start dialogs with "so what" outcomes. This will get right to the direct impact on the program. Have them support these outcomes with relevant information from their reports, dashboards and metrics.

4. Establish credibility with business leaders
With programs, customers are typically in business functions. Immerse yourself and your project managers in their business. Training, site visits and status meetings held at business locations are good ways to immerse your team in the customer's business.

5. Develop long-distance forecasting skills
Forecasting several weeks in the future is satisfactory with a project. However, a program with projects moving at different speeds and directions requires a longer forecast horizon. Set your forecast precision in terms of months, not weeks. In addition, look for multi-project forecasting considerations such as holiday blackout periods and external project dependencies.

Article by Kevin Korterud for Voices on Project Management .

What does a Project Sponsor really do?

Your project sponsor is the key link between the project management team and the organization's executive management. An effective sponsor "owns" the project and has the ultimate responsibility for seeing that the intended benefits are realized to create the value forecast in the business case.

A good project sponsor will not interfere in the day-to-day running of the project -- that's the role of the project manager. But, the sponsor should help the project manager facilitate the necessary organizational support needed to make strategic decisions and create a successful project.

With respect to the project, effective sponsors should:

• Create alignment. The sponsor helps keep the project aligned with business and cultural goals.
• Communicate on behalf of the project, particularly with other stakeholder groups in senior management. The sponsor also communicates his or her personal commitment to the project's success on multiple occasions.
• Gain commitment. The sponsor is a key advocate for the project. He or she "walks the talk" and gains commitment from other key stakeholders.
• Arrange resources. The sponsor ensures the project's benefits are fully realized by arranging the resources necessary to initiate and sustain the change within the organization.
• Facilitate problem solving. The sponsor ensures issues escalated from the project are solved effectively at the organizational level. This includes decisions on changes, risks, conflicting objectives and any other issue that is outside of the project manager's designated authority.
• Support the project manager. The sponsor offers mentoring, coaching and leadership when dealing with business and operational matters.
• Build durability. The sponsor ensures that the project's outputs will be sustained by ensuring that people and processes are in place to maintain it once the project completes its handover.

If you have a good sponsor, look after him or her. If your sponsor does not understand the role or is unwilling to fulfill the role, however, you need to speak up. Carrying on without an effective sponsor raises the probability of project failure and you as the project manager will be held accountable for that failing.

It's important to flag the lack of effective sponsorship as a key risk to the project. It may not make you popular, but you have an ethical responsibility to clearly define risks that need management attention.

Ultimately the organization's executive management is responsible for training and appointing effective sponsors. If this has not happened, as project managers, all we can do is help those sponsors who are willing to be helped and flag a risk or issue for those that are missing or unwilling to support "their project."

Article by Lynda Bourne for Voices on Project Management.

Project Risks + Proactivity = Success

Risk management as a best practice is critical to project success. It forces the team to consider the deal breakers on a project, and to proactively prepare and implement solutions.

PMI's recent 2012 Pulse of the Profession report found that more than 70 percent of respondents always or often use risk management techniques to manage their projects and programs and these practices lead to higher success rates.

Here's an example of how risk management could have saved a project:

A project manager oversees an electrical team that is responsible for installing electrical and audio-visual equipment. The construction and civil engineering teams hand over the completed and decorated site, ready for the final phase of the project. To the project manager's dismay, the projectors do not align with the screens, rendering them not fit for the purpose.

What went wrong?

The civil and construction teams had altered the dimensions of the rooms; the customer failed to communicate the changes to the electrical team. Assuming the project was executed according to plan, the project manger planned and submitted the electrical drawings based on the original dimensions of the room. These plans were made redundant when the room dimensions changed, which upset the equipment's position.

To correct the situation, the project manager drew and submitted new electrical drawings. The site's walls and ceilings had to be reopened to accommodate the changes, which caused delays and increased cost, rework -- and frustration.

Had there been a robust risk identification and implementation plan, they would not be in this situation. Too many assumptions were left unchallenged and risks pertaining to the many external dependencies were overlooked.

As part of this risk management, proactive communication with the customer and other teams should have been planned. For example, the project manager should have considered and asked questions about how the contractors and sites would be monitored and controlled. What would the frequency and type of communication be like with stakeholders?

There should have been an assessment of 'what if' scenarios. What happens if the deliverables are not as expected? What are the risks if there are problems with contractors? What is the impact of not having dedicated resources on the team?

These types of discussions and questioning would have alerted the project manager and team to proactively plan to manage the quality of contractor work and employ the necessary resource on the project team.

Article by Saira Karim for Voices on Project Management

Work to Live or Live to Work?

Working with multigenerational project teams has taught me that commitment is a common attribute for team members of every generation.

But every team member approaches commitment in a different way. Different generations place different values on pursuing work-life balance.

A strong work ethic is a characteristic of the older members of the project team, part of the silent generation. Members of this generation tend to want to work a reduced number of hours to be able to devote time to personal activities.

Baby boomers, the generation referred to as workaholics, consider work a high priority and greatly value teamwork. In my opinion, they are focused on their achievements and are willing to work long hours to achieve project success.

Generation X is good at controlling their time. This generation has a desire to control and set a career path, personal ambitions and work time.

Generation Y is driven by a strong preference for work-life balance. Many Gen Yers look for jobs that provide them great personal fulfillment.

In my opinion, one of our tasks as project managers is to find ways to shed the stress in our project team members' lives. Part of that is to better understand the work-life balance needs of team members from different generations.

To bring a better work-life balance to any generation, define more accurate project schedules based on flexibility, telecommuting and time off.

Article by Conrado Morlan for Voices on Project Management.

Why Projects Suceed - Articulating the Value of Project Management

Balancing Strategy and Tactics

By connecting the dots between tactics and strategy and creating a balance between the two, the successful Project Manager provides true leadership to team members, stakeholders and the executive sponsors. That balance is required for any project or campaign, as illustrated by one of my favorite quotations:

“Strategy without tactics is the longest road to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” - Sun Tzu

Or as I like to paraphrase…

“Tactics without Strategy: a lot of running around. Strategy without Tactics: a lot of sitting around.”

OK, I’m not as poetic, poignant, or published as Sun Tzu, but you get my point. The successful Project Manager provides this balance for their teams and projects and ultimately ensures effective commitment management and value generation.

Summary

Driving “value” is only part of the battle for Project Management. Being able to articulate that value is crucial for successful Project Managers. Whether it’s motivating team members to participate in project activities, or getting stakeholders to pay attention to your project requests, describing the value of project management so that it is understood by stakeholders is a key to project success.

Get full article by Roger Kastner at:
http://www.pmhut.com/why-projects-succeed-articulating-the-value-of-project-management

More about the Author:
Roger Kastner is a Business Architect with Slalom Consulting who is passionate about raising the caliber of project leadership within organizations to maximize the value of projects. You can read more articles from the series on “Why Projects Succeed” here.

Is Project Management the New Quality?

In the 1980’s and 1990’s quality management seemed to be taking over the world’s organizations and businesses. It seemed quality improvement, kaizen, value added management, LEAN, six sigma and so on were all seen as the tools for helping organizations improve performance every year. A large number of the world’s best practice organizations led the way with massive investments in training, systems, equipment and culture change programs. It now appears that most of these organizations that were leading the charge to quality have largely led the retreat as well. Few organizations now seem to have highly paid Quality Managers, Quality Departments or Quality Systems as such.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s it was often said that organizations had to improve somewhere around 10% year on year just to stay relevant compared to competitors and constant changes in technology.
Constant improvement and prevention of errors, waste and mistakes, I believe, is built into most of us.

If that is correct then my question now is: If quality improvement was so vital to every organization’s success then, how is it happening now?

My answer is project management.

Organizations, both public and private sector have embarked on a huge project management kick and most don’t seem to realise it. A cursory review of job titles in the public sector has thousands of staff with project in their title. They could be project managers, project team members or project officers but most are not formally trained project professionals and don’t really do formal projects that would meet today’s definition of a project.

How did this happen and what does it mean for organizations?

I believe it happened because quality became too expensive, too difficult, time consuming and too risky to stick with and far too hard to obtain tangible results that could be directly attributed to the quality effort. You can have the greatest product in the world but people have to see the need to buy it and reasonably believe that it will produce the desired results. In the end after such a huge investment there had to be significant results and in a lot of cases these results couldn’t be put forward for all to see. The belief was no longer there.

In today’s climate it is much easier to sell executives and decision makers the concept of project management as a “go forward” type vehicle for most organizations. This has, just like quality management did before it, generated a support industry made up partly of zealots and believers established to support organizations through their project management transition. This means training, accreditation, materials and record keeping systems to accommodate them all. One of the other negatives is the amount of energy some industry insiders are happy to spend arguing/discussing the merits or otherwise of the various project management methodologies available and which one is “best”.

Amazing how wedded some people get to methodologies instead of being more interested in getting the best results. Reminded me of the old quality management days.
Progress down the project management road so far is pretty mixed to say the least. Catastrophe databases have appeared on the internet documenting some of the more spectacular project failures around the world.

This makes depressing reading.

The private sector and the public sector seem to be both struggling to successfully deliver major projects, especially IT projects. It almost seems at times that the projects are managing the people and not the other way around.

In this country, we have a public transport ticketing system that cost taxpayers more than the last Mars landing. We have a payroll database brought in at a budget of $40M that still doesn’t pay staff the correct salaries and has blown out to $400M so far and still going. There was a federal government initiative to encourage home-owners to get roof insulation installed in their houses to save energy. Included in the unintended consequences of this project were four fatalities including a number of young and inexperienced installers who tragically and unknowingly ended up in harm’s way just trying to earn a living. This project was obviously a rank failure as soon as the first person lost their life but it should be noted that professional inspections were then required for 50,000 dwellings and a further hundred or so houses burnt down as a direct result of the project.

It is the same overseas as well. There is a litany of spectacular project failures in driver’s license databases, stock market programs, travel systems, baggage handling systems, construction projects, disaster management restoration programs and now, more recently stimulus spending programs.
There is research that suggests that around 1/3rd of all projects fail in progress and are abandoned before they are finished. It also seems that roughly half of all projects come in close to double their original budget.

The research also suggests that around 1/6th of all projects come in on time and on budget.

Is this good enough? I think not.

What can be done about it?

Will project management eventually join quality management and the dinosaurs and be consigned to the history books?

Article by Stewart A Brown for PM Hut.

More bout the author:
Stewart A Brown is the Managing Director and owner of Blueprint Planning Solutions Pty Ltd.
Stewart holds a number of qualifications including Mechanical Engineering and Development, Quality Technology and Quality Improvement. Stewart earned a Graduate Diploma in Quality and a Masters in Business from Queensland University of Technology. In addition, Stewart has been trained by Nippon Light Metals in process improvement and has accreditation to deliver KAIZEN projects. Stewart has also delivered many training sessions using Value Added Management, Project Management, Decision Making and Process Improvement Tools and Techniques. Stewart was an accredited Team Leader for the Australian Business Excellence Awards and has also served as a team member for the Australian Mining Industry Safety and Health Awards.

Reacting to a Problem

Things go wrong in projects, that’s fair enough. Lets take it as read that your trying your best to identify, remove or mitigate risks (if not stay tuned for more articles on the ins and outs of risks soon). But what do you do when something goes wrong, something that you under estimated or just plain missed (and this happens to all of us.)

First things first you need to understand what the impact of the problem is. Not the running around waving your hands screaming everyone’s going to die sort of impact, but the sober, sitting back, emotionally removing yourself for a moment and analysing from different perspectives sort of impact.

To get started consider who is actually involved and try and put some numbers on them (it’s usually less then you expect), next figure out the ways in which people have been impacted and split people above out into these groups. Write all this out and you’ll soon have a pretty good idea of what the actual impact is and you’ll have calmed down and feel a new mastery over the situation! By completing this little exercise you’ll now have a well defined tangible problem against which you can plan out your actions.

Article by Pete Winn(http://www.petewinn.co.uk) for PM Coup

Project Management Knowledge Versus Technical Knowledge

As project managers, we have to manage various tasks in multiple lines of work. At times, we operate from our technical background and impart that knowledge and expertise more than our project management knowledge.

There needs to be the distinction of when we use our "project manager hat" versus our "technical specialist hat."

Many project managers work in two common extremes: process focus or technical detail focus. This is common for junior project managers and for project managers who are new to an organization. That often happens, in my opinion, because those project managers haven't developed their management style yet or haven't adjusted to the organizational culture.

When the project manager thinks something is going wrong on a project, either with how someone is performing a task or the results of a deliverable, we often try to fix it. We do that with our strongest toolkit -- usually, that's our technical background. We often take over and hijack the task just to do it "our way," based on our experience.

Remind yourself that as a project manager, you have a different role as a leader. You also can't be a technical skills expert for your team.

Realign yourself to the deliverables. Gain a clarity of the project goal, the project management approach you are using and your role in managing the given project resources.

Project managers can be quite connected and attached to the project outcome. But when you see an opportunity to improve something based on your technical expertise or what you would do differently, stay focused on your role, which is to deliver the project according to the business requirements, aligning with the business sponsor and the organization. Let your team handle their tasks according to their experience and expertise.

Article by Dmitri Ivanenko for Voices on Project Management
http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2012

Change happens...so embrace it!

Change is nothing to be afraid of; in fact if it wasn’t for change, there wouldn’t be a need for project management.  Isn’t that what we do as project managers; manage change?  Yet often I have noticed that some don’t understand what they should do when change occurs in their project.  I believe the reason for this fear of change is because they react to change rather than plan for change.

The Doberman

A few years ago I was helping my son with his paper route.  I was driving him around the route because this one Sunday’s edition happened to be quite large due to the number of advertisements.  I remember watching him approach one particular door, but before delivering the paper, he made an abrupt turn and raced back to the car.  I saw fear in his face as he approached me and I asked him why he didn’t deliver the paper.  He informed me that there was a ferocious Doberman at the house and he was not going to deliver the paper.  Before I knew it, Dad was volunteered to deliver the paper.  As I approached the door, I discovered that the ferocious canine was indeed just a little Dachshund, a Weiner dog.

Four Keys to Managing Change

Just as my son was afraid of something he wasn’t expecting, we can be afraid of change if we are not prepared to manage that change.  Here are four key things to remember, which if followed will help us be prepared when change happens.

1.  Make sure there is a change management process in place.

Either the organization or the project should have a well defined change management process implemented so you will know what to do when change occurs.  The project manager needs to be able to understand, who approves changes, what steps must be followed to get that approval, and what mechanisms are required.

2.  Have a solid scope, budget and schedule defined.

This is critical because change can occur to any three of these constraints.  A shareholder can request additional scope be added to the project.  Management might decide to decrease the budget due to funding constraints.  The market might dictate the project needs to be delivered earlier than planned.  When these three constraints are well defined, you will have a baseline in which to measure the change.

3.  Analyze the impact to the project.

The project team, lead by the project manager, should analyze the impact of the change to the defined scope, budget and/or schedule.  This impact will be documented and presented to the decision makers of the project.

4.  Insist on a decision prior to acting on the change request.

Based on the documented impact and following the change management process, get a decision for approval or rejection of the change request.  Don’t make the mistake of acting on a change request prior to obtaining an approval from the decision makers.

As you follow these key recommendations, you will be prepared when change requests hit your project…and you won’t be afraid.

Article by Mark Phillipy (http://www.sensiblepm.com/change-happens/)

About the author:

Mark Phillipy is the Sensible PM. I have over 15 years of project management experience in the IT industry. I have been involved in all aspects of software development and implementation using both traditional Project Management methodologies as well as Agile methodologies.

Nontraditional Ways to Get Feedback for Lessons Learned

When capturing lessons learned, feedback can come from anywhere. Don't dismiss comments because of how you receive them.

Consider that you may want to receive feedback from the quality assurance manager who's always on the run. Talking on a mobile phone while he or she is driving from site to site may be illegal, though.

Or consider the database administrator who transitioned off your project in phase one, who no longer has security access to the project, and is now busy on her next project.

So how do you get their feedback?

It isn't easy to reach out and receive the lessons your stakeholders may want or need to share toward improving the next project.

These two unconventional communication methods can be used to help in lessons learned:

• Try a text or Twitter message. Texts and social media aren't only for the younger generation. But to use them, you must to be concise. You may ask your stakeholders to drop a quick message and provide more detail later when they may have more time. 

• Host a blog site. Start by setting up categories to receive feedback on particular areas of the project, for instance. Using the categories will allow a better way to coordinate the comments, and give the stakeholders a fast way to respond.

In lieu of attending an in-person project review, receiving lessons learned material by other traditional methods could work as well. Contact a stakeholder by e-mail. Dial the person on the telephone. No matter what, reach out for feedback.

Article by Bernadine Douglas for Voices on Project Management.

A Project With No Project Charter?

Also known as the project initiation document, the project charter is a high-level document created at the start of a project and referred to throughout the project's duration. It is the foundation of the project, a basis for how the project can evolve. The charter should state the purpose, main objectives and vision for a project.

Many project professionals may consider the project charter as 'more documentation' or a 'mere formality.' But the truth is that if they start to consider creating a charter as a best practice, many problems or issues can be eliminated.

However, I regularly meet project managers that manage their projects without referring to or even knowing the existence of their project's charter.

Why?

Here are some reasons a charter is left out, based on my experience:

1. Project management immaturity, lack of project approaches or poor project governance by the sponsor or organization. There's a lack of awareness for the need of a charter or formal authorization process.
2. At project initiation, there are no clear measurable objectives or reasons for the project. Hence, there is nothing to write.
3. The charter may have been written, but is filed away or lost within the organization's documentation system. This could be a symptom of high staff turnover or poor information systems.
4. Requirements and other changes to the project deemed the existing project charter obsolete.
5. The project has been initiated or is continuing without real executive commitment. 
6. The project is considered too small or simple to be chartered, so writing a charter is considered a 'waste of time.' 
7. A charter may exist but contains information that is rigid. Details, budgets and milestones may be unrealistic and unachievable, and therefore not referred to.
8. Alternatively, the metrics and information contained in the charter may be too broad and ambiguous and therefore not referred to.

However, without a charter, a project is headed for problems including:

Risk of diminished value and importance of a project, if its purpose and strategic benefit are not documented, agreed and formally recognized.

Delayed decision-making. Getting management and sponsors to sign off on things becomes difficult. There is no one to champion for the project and responsibility for it is passed around.

Difficulty managing expectations. Without a collectively agreed to charter, there may be frequent disruptions and disagreements from stakeholders. They will have differing intentions, opinions and understanding of the project's outcomes.

Risk of failure. When there is no clear, recorded statement of a project's goals, it's more prone to fail. The project charter includes the business case and other additions, which serves as a constant reminder of the project's vision, mission and critical success factors.

Lack of authority. The project manager will be plagued with problems from lack of authority to spend the budget, the ability to acquire and assign resources, and a general power needed to make day-to-day decisions and actions. This will also make it harder for the project manager to attract good suppliers, vendors and resources to work on the project. This can create a culture of dissatisfaction and apathy within the existing project team.

Subject to scrutiny, delay and bureaucracy. The project can expect numerous changes and deviations, which increase the risk of not delivering and reaching the projects goal. It could eventually become a financial burden to the organization.

Article by Saira Karim for Voices on Project Management