Project Management Software

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Keeping the Wheels Turning

30 January 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

As a young man I worked in my fathers industrial supply business. I worked in the warehouse and drove the delivery truck. We sold fasteners of all kinds, nuts, bolts, screws, cotter pins and other industrial supplies. I learned about screw pin anchor shackles, concrete anchors, structural bolts, machine tools and other industrial/construction-related tools and equipment. Visiting industrial sites all over Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, I also learned about how they were used and their value to equipment and machinery.

The linchpin has always been an interesting fastener to me. It’s small, not particularly strong; but when used to keep the wheel of a piece of machinery (or even a small go-cart) on an axle, it’s indispensable. Without the linchpin, the wheel will eventually spin right off the axle—resulting in a catastrophic failure.

The same is true with project teams. There is a linchpin, and the success or failure of any project rests on that linchpin’s ability to perform. It’s not the project manager. Nor is it the project sponsor or the particular methodology the team uses to get work done. It’s not even the project management software or other tools employed by the team to facilitate collaboration, report on progress or manage project deliverables.

Unfortunately, from a project management software perspective, the linchpin is often ignored. It’s probably because he or she isn’t involved in the purchase decision, has no budget, has no purchase decision authority and it’s felt that the needs of project managers and stakeholders are more important—at least they often have budget and the ability to purchase products.

In reality, it’s the individual contributors on a project team that keep the wheels rolling, and regardless of your methodology or software tools, in my opinion, ignoring the linchpin is one of the reasons so many projects fail. If everyone on your project team can identify with the following four statements, you’re well on your way:

I’m empowered to do what I do best—When people have the opportunity to do what they do best, we get their best work, they’re motivated and engaged—which helps them perform at a higher level. Project leaders who empower their teams to do what they do best consistently complete successful projects.
I have the tools to do my work right—This may or may not include your project management tool, but if the team doesn’t have the right tools, their productivity drops. Have you ever wondered why the same team members who won’t (or don’t) update project status in their PM software, will spend a couple hours at home updating personal status on Facebook or Twitter? I have. I believe it’s because the software solutions used in most organizations use software designed to provide value to project managers and stakeholders—not individual team members. And, if the only value the team sees in a new solution is a better way for management to “watch what’s going on”, it’s not the right tool for the team. If everyone on the team (including individual contributors) can see value, project managers and other business leaders will be able to seamlessly capture all the accurate and timely project information they need to make informed decisions.
I’m recognized for my contributions—Most people are proud of what they do and want to feel like they are making meaningful contributions to objectives that lead to value. I’m not talking about insincere “atta-boys” but I am talking about being aware and recognizing superior performance and consistent effort. Of course there may be members of the team who refuse to step up. In those instances, I think it’s important to evaluate whether or not the problem is of our creation or that particular team member just might not be right for the team. As a team member, you might be an incredibly talented and brilliant individual, but if you are unwilling to contribute your best efforts for the benefit of the team, are difficult to work with or otherwise a consistently low performer, you might not be right for the team.
I know what’s expected of me—For team members to perform at their best, they shouldn’t have to makes guesses about priorities. If they can’t reliably answer the questions, “What should I be doing now?” and “What should I do next?” it’s difficult to get their best efforts. It doesn’t make sense to expect team members to “figure it out for themselves.” That’s not to say that team members need to be directed or hand-held every step of the way either, but it does mean that everyone needs to completely understand the objectives of every project, understand their own individual role and contribution to the team and have all the information they need to keep them working toward the objective. Ambiguity in this regard is a real productivity killer.

Like most things, it isn’t really that complicated. Individual contributors on the team are every bit as critical as the linchpin is to the wheel and axle. When your methods and solutions consider the needs of everyone on the team, you’ll foster and environment where a free-flow of timely and accurate project information is available for informing smart project decisions; and your projects will be more successful.

What are you doing to keep the wheels turning?

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Productivity Suffers When Teams Can’t Effectively Collaborate

15 December 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Not long ago I read an interesting article published by the Canadian Industrial Equipment News about a recent study completed by ESI International, a project management learning company. The point of the study was to find out if organizations are successful in facilitating team collaboration.

The findings suggest that although the majority of organizations value a highly collaborative work environment, less than one out of three organizations actually have a framework in place to facilitate it. Wishing your teams would collaborate more effectively isn’t going to do the trick. Here are a few of the key take-aways from the report identified by the CIEN:

The majority of organizations, in fact, do not work collaboratively, despite the value that they realize would come from better teamwork
Rigid work structures exist within companies that keep people from working together
Organizations are not investing in the right mix of skills training needed to improve collaboration on projects and initiatives

Another part of the survey called out by CIEN that I thought was particularly interesting was, “While 65.5 percent of respondents believe that their organization’s project performance would improve if their teams worked more collaboratively, only 27.8 percent actually do.”

I would like to say that this is a Canadian problem, but I don’t think so. I think there are many organizations in the U.S. and around the world that give lip-service to creating an effective collaborative environment, but don’t do anything about it. In fairness, I think it’s more that they don’t understand what to do than that they don’t want to do it.

I believe that creating an environment where teams can effectively collaborate requires attention to two very important factors:

The tools they use
The organization’s leadership approach

It seems like everyday there are new collaboration tools available. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that no matter how long the list, it would leave many solutions unmentioned. Although I am biased, I would like to suggest a few (there are many others we could also talk about that just won’t fit in a blog post) key elements that should be part of any potential project management or collaboration tool you might be considering:

Collaborating needs to feel natural: This is why I’m such an advocate of implementing a more social media-like approach to project management software. If the PM tool or collaboration tool your using is clunky and cumbersome to use, nobody will. We know that a social media-like approach works, maybe it’s time we stop fighting it and start leveraging the metaphor to create a more collaborative project environment.
It needs to be easy to use: If collaborating in the software is a pain, it just won’t happen (see #1). What’s more, the valuable information project leaders need to make decisions and manage the process need to be captured at the team member level. If we make collaborating easy, it will be easier to capture that information.
It needs to take place in real time (in the cloud): Let’s face it, many organizations are working with distributed teams spread throughout the world. For real collaboration to take place in real time it needs to take place in the cloud. A SaaS product allows people to log in and collaborate regardless of what time it is anywhere in the world. In my opinion, any PM or collaboration solution that limits individual users to the software installed on their desktops and doesn’t share information over some kind of universally accessible network just doesn’t facilitate collaboration. I think the SaaS model does this the best. It shouldn’t matter if you are at your desk, in the office, on the road or anywhere in the world—software in the cloud enables real-time collaboration to happen.
It needs to be available and accessible to the world: I know it’s problematic for software vendors to produce their product in every potential language spoken by project teams around the world, but at the very least it should accommodate the major languages of the world: English, German, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, etc. I know of a number of organizations with teams in the U.S., China, Mexico and Europe comprised of team members who don’t all speak English. I don’t know of any software provider that does this flawlessly yet, but I think being multilingual is an important part of collaborating for many teams.

In addition to the tools we use, the approach we take with the team can hinder or help create a collaborative environment. My team is very collaborative. It starts with how we plan our projects (we do it together) and how we interact regarding them. I’m a big believer in allowing individual team members to make decisions about how they’re going to tackle their contributions to initiatives and encourage a lot of discussion and interaction among the team.

I’ll admit, this is sometimes messy when we all have divergent opinions about a particular approach, but once we come to terms and agree, the sense of personal ownership felt by everyone on the team ensures that a greater number of projects end successfully. Encouraging the negotiations that usually happen anyway gives everyone a sense of ownership. And, if your PM or collaboration tool makes it possible to capture those conversations and negotiations seamlessly within the tool, then you’re really on to something.

If this survey accurately represents the state of collaboration in most organizations, we need to get to work making it easier for our teams to collaborate. What are you doing to facilitate collaboration among your project team members?

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Projects and Procrastination

3 November 2011 - POSTED by Tyson Steele

One of my favorite hobbies is to build custom longboards in unique shapes and designs. Once, a friend requested a board from me in the shape of a flying-V guitar.

Having built plenty of boards before, I figured I could just whip something up when the time called for it. Despite having months in advance, I put the project off, starting just a few days before the deadline.

The board was cut and sanded successfully, but the final design process was a disaster. With only spray paint bottles, stencils, masking tape, and very little time left, I stayed up all night painting, pushing the drying times to their limits. When my friend came to pick it up, the paint started to bubble and peel.

I was going to have to spend hours stripping the paint away in order to repaint it. I had no choice but to push the deadline back.

In project management, I think it is easy for team members, managers, and executives alike to get comfortable with “the way things have always been done.” For whatever reason, individuals may feel that because they have mastered their job, no adjustments need to be made to their previous project management processes. They may think that because they have successfully executed projects in the past, any future project should be smooth sailing. Once this type of thinking sets in, it is easy to procrastinate.

I think almost everyone does this, some more than others. However, it is a problem when projects are procrastinated to the point where time, cost, and quality standards are compromised. It becomes a major problem when procrastination is a habit in every project a person does, when a deadline is always pushed to the very end.

Project management software can certainly help keep project teams and their tasks on schedule, but if a project has been delayed for too long, the level of tooling doesn’t matter. Like the drying times for a painted surface, some projects just can’t be rushed.

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Does Your Team Work Like a Well-Oiled Machine?

25 October 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Over the weekend I spent several hundred miles on my motorcycle tooling around Utah. It’s easy to take for granted that the motorcycle is going to function properly, but sometimes when I’m out in the middle of nowhere I have to ask myself, “Is there anything you forgot to check before you left?” Not that I expect anything to go wrong, but even being as few as 30 miles away from the next town could be a problem on some of the lightly-traveled roads I like to ride.

Regardless of the type of work we do, keeping the team working well together is sometimes challenging when project teams are composed of team members with various experience and skill levels. Here are a couple of suggestions that might keep your team working like a well-oiled machine:

Technology can help keep the team together: I always carry a cell phone when I’m out on a ride so I can call for help if there ever is an emergency. Project teams can leverage technology in the same way to work together regardless of where they work in the world. The Internet has made it possible for project leaders in Europe to manage teams in China or South America, and executives in Cincinnati to have access to real project information to make informed decisions.
Because you don’t always get to pick your team, you need to make the most out of the team you’ve got: Most of the time project leaders don’t get to pick their team—nor does the team get to pick their project leader. Building a good working relationship with everyone on the team is important. Earlier this month, I went on a big group ride with 400 or 500 people I didn’t know. Despite the fact that most of us had never met before, we had to trust that nobody would do anything really dumb on the road. What’s more, there were a number of people I got to know and really had a good time.
It’s not fair to expect any team member to do all the heavy lifting: When I ride with someone, it’s usually my brother-in-law Paul. Although he’s been riding a lot longer than I have, it wouldn’t be fair if I left all the ride planning up to him for every ride. The same is true for project teams, the same team members shouldn’t be expected to do all the heavy lifting for the team. When everyone works together and carries their share of the burdens associated with a project, the project is more likely to be successful and the team is more likely to pull together as they all work to overcome challenges and help with the heavy lifting.
Stronger and more capable team members should mentor and help less experienced team members improve their skills: I’m a firm believer in always learning and improving skills, at work and in everything else I do. When Paul and I ride together, once we’ve returned home, we usually talk about the ride. We talk about how we could have made it a better, safer ride. Our goal is to make sure we’re safe and have a good time. Similarly, how we treat less experienced members of the team and potential learning experiences can positively or negatively impact how they perceive their role on the team. I will always be grateful to the more senior people who took an interest in me during the early years of my career and taught me the things that didn’t appear in the HR manual or company training.

Successful teams don’t just happen. Neither do productive working relationships. As project leaders, it’s important for us to remember that we need to build an environment where healthy collaboration and communication can thrive. We need to us the technology and interpersonal skills at our disposal to foster a good team environment—which is no less important than the project management software we use, the work management methodology we employ or the details of our project plan.

What do you do to keep your team working like a well-oiled machine?

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Scope Creep to Scope “Timber”

21 September 2011 - POSTED by Tyson Steele

Earlier this month I went to my cabin in the Uinta Mountains of Utah to do some maintenance. As I was clearing the nearby forest of debris, I decided to cut down some dead pines to make room for other smaller ones. I was not ready for what was coming.

When cutting trees in the past, I usually used a chainsaw. On this trip, however, I only had an axe, and without thinking, I chose to start with the pine having the biggest trunk. After about five grueling hours, I was on the same tree, ready to give up. Eventually, though, the tree snapped, and I felt pretty accomplished.

Timber

However, completely buried in the task of chopping, I didn’t realize that the tree would fall across the road – my only way back home. For all the work I did, I was going to have to do it three and four times over just to get back home.

Sometimes, for all the work invested in a project, success just ends up being a big problem in disguise. For me, it was due to neglecting a few fundamentals of project management.

First, I was not prepared. With any project, it is important from the beginning to identify as many project constraints as possible and plan accordingly. In my cutting down the tree, I had no plans whatsoever – no way of knowing that the work involved would be so strenuous, long, and come with such unpredictable results.

Second, I was not equipped with up-to-date tools. In project management, the team should have the tools they require to quickly and efficiently do the job. Project management software plays an especially significant role in eliminating time consuming management processes. It makes the difference between an axe and a chainsaw. In the time that I cut down one tree with an axe, I could have cut down thirty with a chainsaw.

Third, I applied no strategy. I did not make the proper cuts in order to direct the fall of the tree. In project management, when a poor methodology is applied, the amount of effort being put into a project doesn’t matter if it is going into the wrong place. Just because a project seems to be “cutting” well does not mean that it will “fall” well.

Any project with poor planning, old tools, and no methodology will obviously encounter problems. Like cutting down a tree, if you aren’t careful with a project, scope creep can come so suddenly that perhaps a more fitting term is scope “timber.” It just crashes and turns into another project, even bigger than the first.

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Does Anybody Still Use the Pony Express?

6 September 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Utah's West Desert From April 3, 1860 to October of 1861 the Pony Express carried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California. Before the telegraph, the Pony Express was the most direct means to send a message to points west. During the 18 months the the Pony Express operated, it reduced the time it took for mail to reach California from weeks or months to about ten days. It was state of the art for its day. However, I don’t think anyone uses the Pony Express anymore.

Over the Labor Day weekend, I spent a little time on the bike and one of my rides crossed the old Pony Express route. It is a pretty lonely road now, I can only imagine what it must have been like in 1861. I also thought about how communication technology has developed since the days of mounted couriers racing across the desert.

Needless to say, email, text messaging, and instant messaging (and don’t forget telecommunications) have changed the way we communicate with each other. Although I didn’t check, I’m sure when I was out on the old Pony Express route, I could have taken my cell phone out of my pocket and called home—what a difference 140 some odd years makes.

The big question for us now is, "What’s the best way to communicate and collaborate with our project teams?"

I wish I had the magic bullet answer.

If you’re like me, email is a very big part of your day. I probably spend about as much time in email as I do any other application on my computer. I also have a text messenger up all the time and my desk phone and cell phone are right next to my computer—not to mention the opportunity to walk over to the next desk and have a conversation. Needless to say, I am very connected (there are also a number of people I communicate with regularly through my project management software, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter). I have found that depending upon the type of communication, what I’m communicating about and who I’m communicating with, I tend to choose the most appropriate method for sending and receiving messages.

As project leaders, we have a lot of communication tools at our fingertips (we also have teams spread around the world). Choosing the right communication and collaboration methods to help our project teams get work done is critical to project success. How do you determine the best way to share information and collaborate with your team?

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Do You Remember?

3 August 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

the little people I think it was Geoff Crane (@papercutpm) who suggested a while back that you wouldn’t walk into the carpenter shop, lay down the power screwdriver on the bench and expect it to build a piece of furniture. It’s not the tool—it’s the carpenter.

I was talking with a friend of mine the other day and she shared with me what I think is a pretty common workplace complaint. "My boss has forgotten what it’s like to actually do the work." Have you ever felt this way? I know I have.

I don’t think it matters if you’re a project leader or have any leadership responsibilities, if you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to forget what it’s like to be the individual contributor at the team level. Although there are some project leaders who have never actually worked as a member of the project team prior to becoming a PM, I think most of us have. Do you remember what it was like?

It’s easy to forget that it doesn’t really matter what work management methods you use or what project management software you log into, the real linchpin to project success is your team. Do you spend enough time outside of your office working with the team? Do you have a complete understanding of the part they play in project success?

You might be surprised to know that a little over a year ago AtTask sponsored some very enlightening research conducted by the folks at Forrester regarding this topic. They asked knowledge workers if their managers completely understood their contribution and what they did. 40% said NO. It was even worse for the executives. 60% said NO.

I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what my project team is doing and I imagine that you probably feel that way too. Unfortunately, perception is reality, and this research suggests that our teams don’t see it that way.

So what do we do?

I think there are three things that will help move the needle:

Step away from the computer and spend time working on the project with the team. Take an active part in the project as an individual contributor if you can. At the very least, make sure you understand the limitations of the work environment so you can remove roadblocks and impediments to performance.
Keep your door open. Be accessible. It might feel like you’re making more work for yourself that way, but part of your role as project manager is to lead the people on your team, which means they need access to you.
Pay attention to team member accomplishment and acknowledge them appropriately. For the most part, people are proud of what they do, and a little recognition for accomplishing something difficult goes a long way. When appropriate, praise should be public and specific. Vague platitudes don’t work.

Like most things, these suggestions are not original to me. I’ve picked them up over the years from wise mentors or the school of hard knocks—but that doesn’t make them any less valuable. Simple as they sound, give them a try and see if your team doesn’t come to appreciate the fact that you understand what they do (and maybe they’ll even be willing to do a little more at those times when you need a little extra effort).

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Is Email the Best Way to Communicate and Collaborate?

14 July 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

email As many of you know from my last couple of posts, I’m spending the week in Japan meeting customers and preparing for a presentation at the PMI Japan conference to be held on Saturday. I’m having a great time (despite the record-breaking heat).

Over the last several months, I’ve had a couple of conversations about the effectiveness of email as a project-related communication medium. Today I had an interesting conversation with a very sharp Japanese project manager about her efforts to eliminate email and manage all their project communications through their project management software. Before I weigh in with my opinion, I’m interested to know if any of you have attempted or been successful at the same thing.

Tell us about your experiences and in the next day or two, I’ll share my opinion regarding email, collaboration and project communication. Is email an effective tool for sharing project information? Is there a better way? What are you doing to successfully promote communication and collaboration?

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Trust the Team to Get You There

13 July 2011 - POSTED by AtTask Newsletter

Japanese Imperial Palace I’ve spent the last couple of days in Japan preparing for a presentation at PMIJ this weekend. A little over thirty years ago I lived here, but a lot has changed (not to mention my ability, or rather lack of ability, to speak and read the language). As I’ve been bouncing around from place to place via the incredibly convenient mass transit system, I’ve had to trust the directions I’ve received as I’ve expressed where I want to go and have been given instructions on how to get there.

Since it’s been so long since I’ve lived here, I’m just not as savvy about the train system and reading kanji as I once was—and couldn’t help but relate this to how I rely on the members of my team to accomplish their objectives to subsequently accomplish ours.

In a city like Tokyo (where I have never lived), it would be silly for me to tell the people at the train station the route I want to take to see the Imperial Palace or other site of interest. They have a better idea on the way the system works and can tell me what train to board and where to board it. I trust them to get me to my destination (and they haven’t let me down yet).

We need to trust that those closest to the work have the best understanding of what needs to be done, how it should be done and how long it’s going to take. It doesn’t make sense for us as project leaders to micro-manage the process to the point where we minimalize our team member’s experience, in favor of what we may have forgotten or never even knew. And yes, doing so I would call silly.

If you don’t now, may I suggest that you give this a try. Before you commit your next project plan to the Gantt chart of project management software, involve the team in the planning. Share with them what the project is trying to accomplish, and why. You might be surprised at what they will commit to doing, if given the opportunity to contribute to a worthwhile objective.

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The Importance of a Good Foundation

12 July 2011 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Kokura Jo In Utah, if something is 100 to 150 years old we think it’s old. However, in other parts of the world, the foundations are old enough that they existed long before the Utah Pioneers settled the valley. I was reminded of that last month when I visited London and walked around the grand buildings that predate the formation of our country, and this week as I’ve had a couple of days to visit a couple of Japanese historical sites.

I don’t think it really matters what type of project we’re working on, before we can empower the team to really make a difference, we need to make sure that we have a good foundation of work management best practice. Otherwise, the project structure we build will never stand the test of time. Here are a few practices I have come to rely on as the solid foundation to a successful project:

Make sure the project has a strong sponsor. Every project needs a sponsor who will evangelize the value of the initiative throughout the life of the project.
Make sure the project is adequately funded. The temptation is to take whatever funding is offered, but without adequate funding—it’s usually the project manager who ends up in hot water when the project fails for lack of financial resources.
Pick the right team. Make sure the team includes all the skills that will be needed for success. Just because someone is available, doesn’t always mean they are the best to work on your project.
Plan. Planning is more than just preparing to deliver the final product. It should involve a continual process of evaluation and adjustment.
Know the end before you begin. Make sure you know what the outcome of a successful project is before you start. What does "done" mean? Financial experts call this an "exit plan."
Prepare for change. The very nature of projects create change. Whether it’s a new product or an improvement in process or technology. Makes sure to prepare for the change.

Regardless of the particular work management methodology you choose, or even the project management software you use, if you are able to encourage some foundational project management behaviors that have proven to produce successful projects, I can’t promise that your project will last for hundreds of years, but you’ll likely become skilled at leading successful project teams.

Are there any other foundational practices we should add to the list?

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