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Social Responsibility in Global PM

1 April 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

In a recent blog, Ty discussed work management decisions based on reliable data, and mentioned the potential for social media, effectively incorporated into PM tools, to encourage team members to post status updates, leading to more accurate, timely data for upline reporting.

Subsequent to that (there’s an expression I don’t often use), Geoff Crane (@papercutPM) posted a blog called "Achievements System for Projects?," taking the idea of including social networking elements into project management even further.

And now I want to take it a step further still. Or, a continent further. I agree with Geoff that managers are quick to criticize and complain and slow to give "atta boys" (when they remember to at all). Now let’s take a broader view and consider global teams. Typically global projects are handled at corporate headquarters, and the team members in other offices—in the same country or not—keep in contact with the "home team" by email and occasionally by phone.

Out of sight, out of mind? When a task is completed by a remote team member, that person updates the project status and is expected to immediately go on to the next task. Team members existing in this sort of isolated state really need to feel that they are a part of the team, that their efforts are recognized and have added value. Otherwise, well, it must feel as though they are just a nameless assembly line drone.

Charlie Chaplin (seen here in a scene from ‘Modern Times’) once said, "Dispair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference." Point being, if you don’t acknowledge all the people on your team, even the ones you can’t see, you may lose them. Oh, they may stay on the team, but how long will their hearts stay in the work if they never feel like they’re an integral part of the team? It’s the responsibility of the team leader in any work management environment to create a positive environment for the team members.

One solution? Use social networking – send an email to the entire team congratulating an individual when he/she hits a milestone; start a private team Facebook Group and post successes and kudos there; have a pizza delivered to that little office in … where ever. The minimal effort it takes to recognize individual contributions to a project will come back to the project manager, the team, and the project ten-fold. Job satisfaction really is important; everyone’s job satisfaction, not just the people you can see.

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Issue Management: When Risk Becomes Reality

24 March 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

We’ve discussed Risk in this blog before … Ty recently posted "Project Risk: Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh My)." Project managers—or really anyone involved with work management or portfolio management—should create a risk assessment plan at the beginning of every project, no question about it.

But what happens when an event identified in the risk register has a 100% chance of occurring? Then it’s no longer a risk, it’s an issue, and it has to be dealt with immediately. As Lee Iacocca said, "Even a correct decision is wrong when it is taken too late." While every risk plan should have a response component (eg "If option A is suddenly out, go to option B."). What do you do then? Do you have an actual plan for this? One that includes tactics, and not just an overarching strategy?

When a risk becomes an issue, it’s time to put your Issue Management and Control processes into play. This should consist of a specific set of procedures that will help you manage the issue and mitigate any negative repercussions. If you don’t know about the issue, you cannot address it, so make sure your team is willing to come to you when something goes wrong.

Keep an issue control log, and if you’re coming to the end of the phase or even the project and issues are still unresolved, get together with the project stakeholders and let them know what the situation is; work together to determine what impact the issue(s) might have, how it will be reported, and what consequences could occur. Sometimes in these cases the answer, after all possibilities are explored and exhausted, is just ‘do nothing,’ but everyone from PM to project sponsor should be in agreement, so there are no surprises.

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Resource Management – Critical to Project Management Success

9 March 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

I recently attended an inspiring webinar that discussed the importance of resource management to a project’s success; it impressed me so much I wanted to share some of the things I learned with you.

The speakers focused on some important aspects of resource and capacity control to help project management teams increase the potential for success: Capacity (know your limits); People (get the right ones and build your team); Time-tracking (capture data, track progress, reset limits going forward, and monitor results); Change management (scope creep, adjustments to spec, etc.); and Tools (have the right ones and tailor them to your needs). All critical elements for project success.

My only concern is that the speakers were discussing all the right things, but perhaps with a somewhat rosy view of reality. In a perfect world, the right team members are available when you need them, and everyone is honest and realistic about need, capacity, limitations, and the elements that make up the project plan.

In the real world, this is seldom the case. Which is probably why so many projects fail.

It’s incredibly important to monitor and manage resources during the course of a project’s life-cycle. But without some stringent controls, I fear it’s easier said than done. Of course, if project management tools were incorporated into the mix, it’s likely that managing resources would become a whole lot easier.

To hear how Allconnect is doing this using project management software, check out Amy Dowis’ interview HERE.

How do you track and manage your resources? Is it working for you? Let me know!

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It’s Geek to Me: A Team-building Story

23 February 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

One of the hardest things I faced when I was an accidental project manager (at a 3D digital content creation company) was that I didn’t know how to do what the digital artists were doing. To their way of thinking, it was a case of "Those who know, do; those who don’t, do project management," and "Why should we listen to you when we’re the artists and you just enter stuff into some business project management software program."

I had to find a way to not only build team cohesion, but also find a way to garner their respect to insure they listened to me and worked with me, so the projects we did together were successful. In the case of this sort of project based work, failure was simply not an option—the 3D content was commissioned by a customer for use in a commercial, movie, or simulation, and it had to be ready to use on or before the due date. No excuses.

What to do? This was a completely foreign situation for me (I’m told I’m quite likeable, really). I’m fairly creative and artistic, so I tried to learn how to create digital content using a ‘simple’ 3D modeling program; sadly, I was really not very good at it. But in the process of trying, I did learn a lot of relevant terms and concepts that were incomprehensible to me prior to my aborted attempt to walk the walk. I could now look at a wireframe model and see an inverted polygon; I could look at a texture-mapped image and find areas of interpenetration, I could speak with them in their own geeky-3D language!

And, just like that, everything was ok. Turns out all they wanted was to know that I felt their pain, respected their work, recognized their genius, and appreciated that what they did was definitely NOT something just anyone could do. Some call it mirroring; some call it mentoring; I call it team-building.

When starting a project, it’s important to first develop a rapport with your team. Everyone has a different approach to this … some use pizza and donuts, others do team-building exercises and games, and far too many just don’t bother to do anything more than fix deadlines and yell at people. Can’t see this last one ever being very useful.

How do you turn your new teams into cohesive units?

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The Project Stakeholders – Friend or Foe?

19 February 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

What makes someone a stakeholder, anyway? Let’s see … project sponsor; customer; investor, CEO, champion .. actually I think it really means anyone who has any stake in the project or the outcome, but for now let’s focus on the sponsor/champion persona.

I was reading a discussion string on LinkedIn the other day about what factors lead to project failure, and the poster and most of the commenters agreed that the #1 factor leading to a failed project is stakeholders. This surprised me, but I guess I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never managed a project where I’ve had to deal with this personally. But I do see it and hear about it, so I wanted to consider it more closely.

Stakeholders seem to all start out as an avid champion of the project, regardless of their title or vantage point, but over time they tend to fall into one of three categories: friend, foe, or neutral. The friend is the easiest to work with – they have a vested interest in a successful outcome, and really want to see you and the project succeed. The neutral parties were most likely excited and invested at the beginning of the project, but have lost interest or been distracted by other things over time.

A foe is not someone who is against your project, but it might be someone who competes with you for resources or tries to allocate them to other projects. Anyone in project management or who performs project based work will have to deal with this conflict eventually. The trick is to do your best to anticipate the situation and communicate your resources needs … a preemptive strike, if you want to look at it as conflict resolution.

So, it all appears to come down to Stakeholder Management, which we’ll leave to another post (except for this cartoon, which just amused me).

I will say that a flexible online project management tool with good reporting capabilities can go a long way to keeping stakeholders informed and so at bay. But I think the real trick is to avoid the pitfall of coming to see ALL your stakeholders as "The Enemy." It’s so easy to get into an us-against-them mindset, but this is completely counter-productive.

How do you see your stakeholders? What advice do you have to offer to other project managers to keep their stakeholders all planted solidly in the ‘Friends’ category so they can get on with the job of project management?

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Communication in Project Management – It’s All About Sharing

12 February 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

We all spend a lot of time talking about how critical it is in the project and portfolio management arena to communicate. About how to promote communication throughout the organization when doing project based work, and how we will get enough information out of our teams to report up to the stakeholders and satisfy their needs. But do we spend enough time planning exactly what should be discussed, beyond the "I did this," You do that," and "When will this be done?" questions/answers? I think we sometimes miss the real meaning of collaboration. It’s much more than a simple status update once a day/week. Your team is actively working on projects, and it’s a good bet they have some truly valuable feedback—isn’t it worth a bit of your time to listen to them?

As we all know, a team leader has a lot on his/her plate, not the least of which includes boosting individual team member productivity, team effectiveness, and overall organizational success. You’ve already seen to it that your team is comprised of all the right people, with the right skills, knowledge, and motivation; a focused group of pros that have a clear understanding of the deadlines, milestones, and expectations relative to the project. So, take advantage of all those wonderful minds.

Set a monthly team meeting that has nothing to do with milestones or deadlines, and everything to do with teaming and sharing ideas. Then open the floor to feedback. You can go into the meeting letting everyone know that any thoughts or suggestions that all agree have merit will be brought to the attention of the stakeholders, without offering any guarantees. This at least gives your people the opportunity to be heard. This alone should increase team cohesion, motivation, and productivity. Feeling like part of the project, and not just a cog in the project works, helps everyone feel like they have more of a vested interest in a successful outcome.

It becomes a win:win:win situation – your team is happier, management likes the camaraderie and output, and your job is just a bit easier.

Do you encourage your team members to offer their thoughts and feedback? How has it worked for you?

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The cost of ego vs. good business sense

9 February 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

Last week Ty Kiisel posted a blog about pulling the plug on a good project gone bad. It got me thinking about a project a former employer initiated a few years ago. I was brought in late in the game and asked to review it from the sidelines, as my director suspected the project was going badly, the vendor was off track, and the company was wasting money.

I reviewed the project and found a number of issues that needed to be addressed, but as is typical in the case when project management is spread out over too many people or non-existent, I heard excuses and a reminder that I was not the PM. So I contributed content when asked to do so, watched the work "progress," and wondered at what dollar amount someone would cry uncle. It actually took another year and about a million dollars to get to that point; a shame really – it was a very good idea, just executed very poorly.

The point here is that this project went way over budget and way off schedule because of one thing. Ego. The CEO. who gave the thing the thumbs-up in the first place, was simply not willing to see or admit that it was just not working. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying to just give up whenever things get difficult. I’m just saying there is a point when you’re throwing good money after bad and it’s time to review your options.

As Ty mentioned in his post, all project based work should have a solid start-to-finish plan; and that plan should include an exit strategy in case things just don’t work out. Also, it is never a good idea for a company to hire an outside vendor and then not assign project management oversight to an internal person. In this case, the vendor answered only to CEO, and neither he nor the SVP of Marketing were willing to admit a mistake had been made and the project was a failure; it was only after both were let go that the project was abandoned.

Have you experienced anything like this? How far have you seen an ailing project go before someone recognizes a problem exists and is willing to pull the plug?

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Work Management in 2010 – What’s on the Horizon?

21 January 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

I was pleased to read in a recent Project Times article (Top 10 Project Management Trends for 2010) that "The Implementation of New PPM Solutions Will Soar." Of course, representing a portfolio project management software developer it makes sense that I’d be happy to see more companies adopt a PPM software solution. But to be honest, I’m pleased that people in the know (in this case, J. LeRoy Ward at ESI International) are convinced that "Program and project managers, under pressure from senior management to demonstrate project portfolio performance and its impact on the enterprise, will make the pitch for – and win – resources to implement project portfolio management solutions. This will provide the fact-based decision-making senior management needs.

I believe this trend to adopt comprehensive software tools, combined with the skills of trained project managers (see Ty’s blog post "Six Keys to Successful Project-Based Work") will go a long way to improve the success rate of projects. Right now, about 66% of all project fail. I can’t imagine anyone would complain if that failure rate dropped significantly.

Ward listed a number of other preditions for 2010 (metrics, governance, risk management, etc.) … what are yours? What do you see changing and improving in project management in the next year or two?

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Does a successful project manager = a successful project?

20 January 2010 - POSTED by Cindi Smith

Does a successful project management professional guarantee a successful project? Well, we all know there are no guarantees in life, but generally speaking I believe having a strong manager goes a long way toward ensuring the success of your project based work.

When a company takes on or initiates a new project, there’s more to it than just setting a goal and throwing some resources at it. A project manager is not there just to gather data, create spreadsheets, and/or deliver reports. Anyone could do that. Successful project managers know that it’s having the right people and implementing the right processes that leads to success.

Let’s look at the key criteria that make a project manager successful:

1. They have a realistic understanding of the project objectives—what "success" will look like. They make sure the objectives are correct for the project and for the customer, and also line up with the overall company strategy. They have read and understand the entire project spec, and know what it will take to complete it.

2. The successful project manager will involve all the right people right from the start to determine the best path to achieving the objectives laid down in (1), and translate that into the right deliverable(s). They will involve all the project stakeholders and insure each one has the same understanding of the project goals and objectives as the people performing the individual or group tasks that make up the project.

3. They are able to hang tough, no matter what. When change requests come through (and they will) the successful PM can be strong and just say "no" when the next great idea for an improvement comes along that will add to the ‘coolness’ but not to the value or the project objectives. If it doesn’t add to the value or positive ROI it’s a no-go. Easy to say; hard to do. But necessary to keep on schedule, on budget, and on target.

4. The successful PM has the ability to learn from others’ and their own mistakes. They are able to keep the timeline and the project clean and simple, choose quality over everything else, and deliver exactly what’s been asked for; no more and no less.

5. They gather the best and the brightest team members available and set each to work doing what they do best. Building a good team and getting to know them creates a positive and effective working relationship as well as a strong and cohesive team dynamic. Keeping the lines of communication open—with the team, up the line, and across other teams and departments—practically guarantee the project will succeed.

It’s clear to me that the experience, character, and leadership abilities of the project manager (ideally, combined with the best available project management tools) will lead a team to deliver a project successfully, not the reports, charts, and presentations he or she prepares along the way.

Has this been your experience? Do strong leaders deliver successful projects? Or are there other variables that factor into the equation?

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