Project Management Tools

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Strategically Thinking About Managing Work in the Cloud

10 May 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

There’s a lot of talk about working in the “cloud” these days. If you’re like me, you have some personal storage in the cloud, a handful of the apps you use every day are in the cloud and your company is always looking for new ways to work in the cloud.

Earlier this month, Mark Thiele suggested, “As an IT community we are still stuck in the past relative to the strategic nature of cloud. Many of us are looking at the adoption of cloud as just another technology, and are leaving the decisions on how to adopt, own, and manage the cloud up to engineers.” Managing the cloud “…is not an engineering decision—it’s a strategic one,” says Thiele.

I agree. What’s more, managing work in the cloud just makes strategic sense to me—particularly with distributed teams. I know of a number of project managers that regularly work with teams spread throughout the country, and the world for that matter, who deal with time zones, languages and the communication issues associated with the every day. The cloud makes it possible, but they’ve all developed strategies that make it work.

The world has become a pretty small place since I started my career—the technology that allows me to interact with colleagues instantaneously from around the world continues to blow my mind. Computers, cell phones, VOIP, and video conferencing allow me to work from almost anywhere in the world. Although my adult children harass me about growing up when dinosaurs ruled the earth, we did get a lot of work done without cell phones, personal computers, or SKYPE

As convenient as things are now, there are some unique challenges to working in a global project environment. Organizations regularly working with teams from around the world need to consider their strategy for dealing with cultural, language, geographic, and time differences that can sometimes make working with global teams problematic.

The Challenge of Different Time Zones: Collaborating with teams in South America, China, the UK, and Cincinnati can sometimes be problematic. For example, as I write this at 7:45 am local time, it’s 11:45 pm in Tokyo, 2:45 pm in London, 12:45 pm in Rio, and 10:45 pm in Beijing. The challenges of putting together a project team meeting with a globally diverse workforce are sometimes as basic as determining what time to hold the meeting.
A Possible Solution: Nobody on the project team should be asked to regularly stay up until 2:00 am just to make it more convenient for you. Everyone on the project team should be able to share the burden of an inconvenient meeting time once in a while. A simple solution is to try to hold team meetings when everyone is at work, which might be early in the workday where you are and later in the workday where part of the team is located—at least everyone should take turns meeting at inconvenient times.
The Challenge of Bringing the Team Together: Sometimes it’s important to bring the team together, which has the potential to be pretty expensive.
A Possible Solution: At @task, we have global project teams that work out of Europe and Asia. Although we don’t get together often, we do get together. Online project management tools help organizations collaborate and work together in different countries, timezones, and languages—but the need to get together doesn’t completely go away. Personally meeting together as a team once or twice a year is important for building morale and team esprit de corps.
The Challenges of Different Languages: The nuances of different languages beg for miss-communication. Even where your particular language is spoken as a second language, it’s critical that communication be clear. We need to be cautious, particularly where the lion’s share of communication is written, where body language and facial expression are not available to aid understanding.
A Possible Solution: Video conferencing is a good option, but at the very least, make sure emails contain all the information necessary to communicate your ideas clearly. I try to address all my emails with a salutation and a name to remind me that I am actually communicating with a real person. Even amongst my co-workers, where English is our native language, we sometimes misunderstand and misinterpret an abrupt email.
The Challenges of Cultural Differences: If part of what defines us is our shared experiences, taking time for global team members to become better acquainted, and share experiences to create a team culture is important. This is true even if your team only spreads across your own country.
A Possible Solution: Take the time for global project teams to become familiar with each others varied customs and cultures. It might be as simple as sharing a regional dish for lunch. In this regard, a little effort goes a long way.

Working in the cloud allows us to work globally, but it should also encourage us to think about how we use cloud-based tools strategically. Simply having the ability to collaborate on projects, tasks and issues with team members from around the world isn’t enough—we need to think about how to do it best. How do we use our cloud-based tools to maximize the contribution of everyone on the team—regardless of their location?

What do you think? Is project management in the cloud tactical or a strategic play?

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Good Decisions Demand Trustworthy Data

7 May 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Is your project data trustworthy? If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure”, you aren’t alone.

I’ve observed this to be a pretty universal conundrum. What’s more, it compels us to ask the question, “If some of the data associated with project-based work is questionable, is there a way to improve its overall trustworthiness for decision-making?”

I believe there is.

There’s been a lot of dialog recently about the impact of social media on the project management process. And, for the most part, we seem to fall into one of two camps. We’re either advocates of embracing social media or we are opposed to it. I fall into the former camp. I’m a big fan of embracing the social media metaphor.

The key to whether or not we have trustworthy information to make decisions depends upon how accurately we can capture project information at the source—individual contributors on a project team. Like most of you, I’ve spent my fair share of time going from cube to cube asking, begging, and cajoling for a status update. I’ve also watched team members fumble around looking at notes, whiteboards and scraps of paper to pull that information together. Each time I was frustrated at how inaccurate I knew my report was going to be before I even started.

Most team members don’t really get the project management process. They look at project managers as one more hindrance to actually getting things done. Of course, this isn’t correct, project managers are facilitators and help get the work done, right?

I’m convinced that engaging the team in the project management process is crucial to collecting accurate and timely project information that can be trusted to inform decisions. What’s more, I think the social media metaphor can help us do it.

Why is it that the same folks who chafe at updating their project status in PM tools will spend hours at home “updating status” on Facebook and other social media? I think the answer is pretty straightforward:

Social Media Provides Value to the User

If the only value updating status in your project management software provides is giving you (the project manager) accurate information to push up, it’s not enough value for most team members to contribute. In my opinion, social media provides value at a couple of different levels that we can and should be implementing into the project management process:

Social media is about collaboration: Post an update, get a response. Make another update, start a conversation. That isn’t happening in most project management software. Tasks get pushed down. There’s little if any dialog. There’s no request for comment. The obligation is on the team member to finish his or her task in the time allotted and that’s pretty much it. Not a very collaborative way to collaborate on projects, tasks and issues is it? Incorporating the social media metaphor into the PM process allows team members, project managers and others to collaborate about work in a way that feels natural to the Facebook generation. If the metaphor works and is accepted by the workforce as meaningful, does it really make sense to fight it? Embrace it. Leverage it.
Social media is about recognition: One of the things I’ve noticed over the last few years is the recognition component of social media. When people post an accomplishment, their friends and followers within their network seem to come out of the woodwork to congratulate and praise it. Applying the public nature of the social media metaphor to the PM process allows team members and other colleagues to make comment and acknowledge the accomplishments of their coworkers. Additionally, when everyone’s accomplishments (or lack thereof) are visible to managers and their peers, people tend to perform at a higher level. It’s more difficult to sit back and pretend to be busy working. Whether or not you are is visible to everyone on the team.
Social media isn’t very complicated: I must admit, I did have a younger colleague show me how to use Facebook initially. It took her about two minutes to completely explain how it worked. I didn’t need to attend a multi-day training program to figure it out. When was the last time you were able to start using a project management tool with that level of ramp up? I know, what project management tools do is a lot more complicated than Facebook. I get it. However, they don’t need to be that complex for the individual on a project team.

The real linchpin to whether or not we have trustworthy data to make decisions is the individual contributor on a project team. I think it’s past time we started looking at him or her, and how we can best engage them in the process, to make sure that the information we rely on to make smart decisions is timely and trustworthy. Let’s give them some value so they’ll become willing participants in the process.

What are you doing to engage the team? Does your software help you do it?

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Putting in the Hours? What Time are You Going Home Tonight?

13 April 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

I have to admit that I come from a generation that convinced ourselves that we could demonstrate our dedication and work ethic by spending more time at the office or in the field working hard—and our extra work would be recognized and rewarded. Unfortunately, all that extra effort just became something to be expected and taken for granted by many employers. If I had a nickle for every extra hour I put into my career, I’d be a pretty wealthy man by now—or at the very least could have taken my wife on a nice trip to Hawaii. I don’t think I’m alone.

I don’t think there’s any argument that too much overtime on a project is the sign of a project in trouble. What’s more, no matter how incredible your personal stamina might be (all nighters used to be a piece of cake for me, now I’m pretty worthless for two or three days after), if every project you lead takes heroic efforts to be successfully completed, you will ultimately crash and burn. You and your team.

Plus, too much caffeine, too much junk food and too little sleep aren’t good for your health either—which eventually makes it difficult to perform at a high level.

I’ve come to wonder if the problem of being available 24/7 is sometimes self inflicted. Have you ever had a new boss you were trying to impress so you made sure you were in the office before he or she arrived and made every effort to be the last one out of the office? Who’s fault is it if down the road he or she just assumes that you like working until the wee hours of the morning? Being eager to make a good first impression, you set the expectation that you are available 24/7. You might not have asked for it, but you did demonstrate a willingness to work-related communication all night and all weekend.

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, confessed earlier this month on Mashable that she goes home every night at 5:30 pm. “I walk out of this office every day at 5:30 so I’m home for dinner with my kids at 6:00, and interestingly, I’ve been doing that since I had kids,” says Sandberg. “I did that when I was at Google, I did that here, and I would say it’s not until the last year, two years that I’m brave enough to talk about it publicly. Now I certainly wouldn’t lie, but I wasn’t running around giving speeches on it.”

According to Mashable, “…although she used to worry about what others thought of her departure time (which is a completely reasonable hour to head home, by the way), she has finally reached a point where she can take off at 5:30 p.m. without the lingering concern of how others are perceiving her.”

She was sending emails late into the evening and getting up early in the morning to make up for “…ducking out at 5:30…” I once worked with a guy who was incredibly talented and made it a point to be out the door sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 every evening. He worked very hard and accomplished a lot during the day, but he was on the receiving end of some additional scrutiny for not making his career his life. When it was crunch time and there was work to be done he always stayed, but in his mind every day wasn’t crunch time. Although there were times when I looked down my nose at him, I now have come to a greater appreciation of his view. It should be what we accomplish during the day, not how much time we spend on the job.

I have to admit that there have been times in my life that I was an addict. I would role into the garage at 1:00 a.m. or so and crawl into bed for a less-than-friendly reception from my wife. Fortunately I don’t do that anymore.

Of course, there are times when extra effort is required to accomplish a critical project. Those times should be the exception rather than the rule. If your boss sees you working long hours all the time, he or she might just think that’s how you work. Or worse, that you don’t know how to effectively manage your time. Either way, it will be taken for granted that you are going to work that way all the time.

A consistent need for heroic efforts could indicate that your project is in trouble. A project running on schedule should really require little or no overtime. Working long hours is often just a quick fix. I’ve also noticed the ratio of mistakes to accurate work increases exponentially for every hour or two you’re in the office after nine or ten hours in a day.

Leverage project management tools to help you manage projects more efficiently and ease the burden on your schedule. Engage the team in helping establish legitimate timelines and milestones—giving them a greater sense of ownership and you an extra few minutes to tackle one of the dozen other things you need to accomplish right now. Don’t try to do it all yourself. I once worked with a fellow who felt he needed to do it all himself. It wasn’t long before he was burnt out and ineffective. Don’t let that happen to you.

Mashable has posted a brief video of Sheryl Sandberg talking about her work schedule. It might be interesting to hear her perspective from her own mouth.

When are you going home tonight?

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“This is a waste of time!”

6 April 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Over the years I can’t even count the number of times I’ve either said that, overheard that or had it said to me. Sometimes, what we were doing really was a waste of time. Other times, because of my lack of perspective, what I thought was a waste of time really had value. Most people, whether they are able to clearly articulate it or not, want to add maximum value to whatever they are doing. I think most of us would agree that those days when we go home and feel like we’ve accomplished something worthwhile are very satisfying. I like what I do, and those days when I really feel like I’m making a contribution to something worthwhile and not wasting my time are very rewarding.

I don’t think I’m that unique. In fact, I believe that most of the time the members of project teams feel the same way. How often have you heard, “I hate wasting time on this,” or “This is a waste of time,” or “I don’t feel like I’ve contributed anything worthwhile today”?

Regardless of how you manage projects or the project management tools you use, if we can better align people to the right work at the right time, we can help people enjoy their jobs, gain satisfaction from whatever they’re doing and allow them to feel like they are really contributing to something bigger than themselves. What’s more, that kind of environment fosters a culture of productivity, innovation and profitability of our organizations.

I’m not a fan of wasting time and I don’t know too many people who are. The world talks a lot about conserving our natural resources, but we seldom talk about how organizations waste their most precious resource—their people. Here are six tips to help you avoid wasting team members:

Make sure everyone has a clear understanding of what they should be doing: I know this sounds simple, but sometimes it’s easier said than done. When people have to spend time figuring out what they should be doing, people are wasted.
Don’t make it difficult for people to find documents or other project resources: When people have to hunt for the document or other project asset they should be working on, people are wasted.
Don’t make it difficult for managers to see what their people are doing: When team leaders and managers have to spend time trying to figure out what their people are doing, people are wasted.
Don’t spend entire days in meetings simply talking about work: If all you do is talk about work and never get around to doing the work, people are wasted.
Keep people focused on those initiatives that provide the most business value: When people spend time working on initiatives that don’t provide the most value to the organization, people are wasted.
Streamline repetitive processes: When people spend time in repetitive process that could be streamlined or automated, people are wasted.

Project and work management practices or tools that don’t help avoid these wasteful behaviors make it difficult to maximize the value people. As project leaders, we should be looking at the processes and methods we use to manage work to see if we are contributing to frustration and waste or encouraging efficiency and empowering team members.

What are you doing to reduce waste?

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Checklists and Surgery

22 March 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Steve Bather commented on a post from the other day about simplification. He reminded me of a story I had heard a couple of years ago about Dr. Atul Gwande, a NY heart surgeon who has been successfully implementing a checklist into the operating room. The NPR story talked about some research he had done at the Harvard Medical School. I found the article very interesting, I think you will too.

“Our great struggle in medicine these days is not just with ignorance and uncertainty,” Gawande says. “It’s also with complexity: how much you have to make sure you have in your head and think about. There are a thousand ways things can go wrong.”

Because doctors are human (just like everyone else), they sometimes miss things. So Gawande looked at other fields that deal with complex circumstances and visited, among others, Boeing to see how they make things work. He cites the “pilot’s checklist” as a good example of how other complex tasks are completed outside of medicine.

Unlike a pilot, there is no checklist in surgery, just the surgeon’s experience and intuition that dictates how a procedure is performed. So as an experiment, he brought a two-minute checklist into the operating room of eight hospitals—after having worked with a team of folks that included Boeing to show them how to put the checklist together.

How did it work?

“We get better results,” said Gawande. “Massively better results.”

“We caught basic mistakes and some of the stupid stuff,” Gawande reports. “We also found that good teamwork required certain things that we missed very frequently.”

Something as simple as making sure that everyone in the operating room knew each other by name turned out to be incredibly valuable. Isn’t it interesting how similar some of these issues sound to the work management issues project teams face every day?

Not unlike some project managers I have met, many of the surgeons weren’t originally too keen on operating with a checklist. However, when all was said and done, 80% of the surgeons saw the value of the checklist. And, although 20% said they didn’t need the checklist, 94% said that if they were going to have surgery they would want their surgeon to be using a checklist.

I realize that heart surgery and project-based work don’t have a lot in common. That said, the surgeon could learn a few things from project managers about how to create a sound work management (surgery management) methodology. Project managers could also learn from this study. “We caught basic mistakes and some of the stupid stuff,” Gawande reports. “We also found that good teamwork required certain things that we missed very frequently.”

Despite all the evidence, Gawande wasn’t sure that using a checklist would help save the lives of his patients—after all, he was from Harvard. However he started using the checklist and says, “I was in that 20%. I haven’t gotten through a week of surgery where the checklist has not caught a problem.”

Like surgery, capturing best practices and formalizing processes are critical for success. Like the surgeon’s checklist, the right project management tools can help. Fortunately, there is a lot we can learn from Dr. Gawande’s study. As well as what a heart surgeon could learn from a project manager.

If you were going into surgery, would you feel more comfortable if you knew the operating team was using a checklist to make sure nothing got missed? I think I would.

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Does Your Car Have Wheels?

6 March 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Of course it does. So does mine and so does your neighbor’s.

Whenever the conversation about project management tools come up, it’s really easy to get derailed by the features of individual solutions. Because we’ve become accustomed to comparing tools that way (not unlike “Does it have wheels? Check.”) most of the time we tend to move down a punch-list of features—which hasn’t helped us much over the last fifty years. In my opinion, any conversation about project management tools shouldn’t revolve around Gantt charts or how they address capacity planning—those are basic features that are included in any project management solution.

Don’t get me wrong. Any software that doesn’t offer the fundamental feature set required to actively manage a project portfolio shouldn’t even be considered. However, when we start talking about collaborative work management (which I believe is the next evolution in project management) determining whether or not your solution provides real business value boils down to a few very important considerations:

Does the solution help me capture, prioritize and execute on project requests that emanate from throughout the organization?
Does it help me ensure that every potential project is evaluated by the same criteria so only those that meet the criteria will be pushed forward?
Will I be able to drill down into real-time data to validate that the business initiatives worked on by teams are those that have been determined to provide the greatest value?
Does it make the process accessible to everyone on the project team? If it’s easy for teams to use, project leaders will have the timely and accurate information they need to inform decisions.
Does it facilitate collaboration among everyone on the team?
Will it successfully integrate with my other business-critical systems?

Add these criteria to your evaluation and you might be surprised at how you will look at things a little differently. Does it have wheels? Check. Will it get me where I need to go? Now that’s another question entirely.

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Vegas and Visibility

22 February 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

I’m spending the next few days in Las Vegas (or as my wife likes to call it, “Lost Wages”) for a conference this week. I’m speaking at Pink Elephant’s ITIL conference at the Bellagio—I digress. After arriving last night I went on a walk around town and wound up sitting at a blackjack table. I’m not a big gambler, but I was waiting to meet up with some colleagues and thought I’d sit in for a few hands.

Visibility into what the dealer’s holding would be a real benefit at the blackjack table.

I’m really not any good at counting cards, but I’ve been taught a pretty commonsense way to make a best guess about what the dealer’s holding. Last night it worked. I walked away with a few extra bucks in my pocket and don’t have to admit to my wife that I lost my wages in Lost Wages.

Business leaders make decisions everyday, sometimes on reliable information, sometimes on hunches and sometimes on a best guess based upon less than complete information. In organizations that rely on projects or project-like work, this can be very challenging. Particularly, when business leaders know that they can have more accurate information with the right tools and the right management approach.

There are as many different project management tools available as there are opinions about the best way to manage work. Some work very well, some do not. Over the years, I’ve noticed a number of things that some collaborative work management tools employ that seem to make a difference in how project teams work and collaborate that positively impacts the type of information business leaders have to make decisions:

They help people work they way they naturally work: This really makes sense to me, however most project management solutions are so hard for individual contributors to use—that they don’t. The reason this is a problem is because if they don’t use it, the information pulled out of it isn’t accurate and decision-makers can’t trust it. Making it simple may be a step in the right direction, but I don’t think that’s enough. I think we should take a cue from social media and incorporate those things that encourage the same people who won’t update their project status in the office to update their personal status on tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Make it look and feel like the same tools they use on their smartphones and personal computers.
Give people the tools that will help them do their jobs the best: If you’re like me, simple things like a wonky email client or an unreliable phone system can really get in the way of me doing my best. After interviewing, observing and listening to project teams over the last few years, most project team members look at the PM software they use as something that gets in the way, rather than helps them do their job. Whatever project management tools you use, if it’s easy to update status, enables easy collaboration and provides some value to the people on the front line using it, you’ll find more success.
Recognize accomplishment: This is one area where individuals on a project team can see value in their PM software. Most of us are generally proud of what we do and want to succeed and excel. When your project management solution and methodology allow for recognizing accomplishments or exceptional performance, your team will start to see value. That’s one of the reasons I think social media is such a powerful metaphor for collaboration. When you post an update in Facebook, for example, you’ll usually see a response. If the only time a project manager recognizes what’s happening with someone on the team is when they fall behind or something goes wrong, they’ve missed the boat.
Make sure everyone knows what’s expected of them: I look at this in two parts. One is unrelated to any software and simply requires that a project leader accurately articulate what is expected and what is considered a success. The other is related to tools and methodology. People should never have to guess about what they should be doing now and what they should be doing next. If people have to waste time trying to figure out what’s next on their plate, projects struggle.

Although these four suggestions aren’t going to give me any more visibility into what the dealer is holding at the blackjack table, they will help give executives more visibility into the work being done by project teams.

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Do You Have the Right Perspective?

14 February 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Most successful project managers I know are able to think in terms of the details. I believe the ability to identify and coordinate the dozens, if not hundreds, of individual details associated with tasks and issues is a strength most of us probably wish we had more of. That being said, I think it’s easy for those required to spend the lion’s share of their time in the minutia of things to sometimes loose sight of the big picture.

For example, a painter I know once told me that he routinely needs to step back and look at his paintings from a distance in order to keep the right perspective. He told me it’s easy for an artist to become so focused on the intricate details that they forget the rest of the painting. To avoid doing this, he makes himself step back, walk around the easel and look a the painting every few minutes.

In regards to projects, I think it’s important to step back everyone once in a while and look at the big picture. Here are a few suggestions that might help:

Keep the business goals and objectives of the project front and center: It’s sometimes easy to forget that projects are supposed to provide value. Keep them posted on the team white board, or someplace where the team will regularly see them. I know one project managerd that has created templates in their project management software with the goal of each individual project embedded into every task, issue and project page to remind the team why the project is important. This keeps everyone focused on the big picture, while working on the details.
As needed, meet with the project team to make sure everyone is still focused on the goal: We may not like it, but project teams are constantly bombarded with work that is unrelated to the project at hand. These distractions make it difficult for team members to stay focused on the project goal. Meeting with the team on a regular basis allows managers to help resolve impediments and keep the team focused. Often, the regular reminder of the project objective is all it takes to keep everyone on target.
Step back and look at the big picture: Software tools can help automate the management of many of the minutia associate with a project, so managers have time to step back and see the big picture. It’s important to look at project progress from a broader perspective. Make sure your project management tools help free you from working head down, buried in the weeds that keep you from seeing the forest from the trees.

What are you doing to keep everyone focused on the big picture?

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What’s Wrong with Being Predictable?

31 January 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Sitting down at my desk this morning, I actually laughed out loud.

Although there was nobody here to witness my outburst, I still looked around the office to make sure. There’s nothing quite as disturbing as a lone man in the semi-dark of the early morning office laughing out loud.

I have always thought of myself as a pretty spontaneous guy. In fact, I’ve always prided myself as being able to think well on my feet and deal with new situations as they arise. This morning I had to face my demons. I am really quite predictable.

With few exceptions, I drive into work, park in “my” spot, enter the office by the same door, climb the stairs and put my bag down on the same corner of my desk the same way every morning. I extract my computer from my bag, remove my notebook, hang up my jacket and pull yesterday’s calendar page of my desktop calendar. I had to laugh. What’s wrong with being predictable?

About this time last year I read a post by Richard Lawrence that has resonated with me. He’s a certified SCRUM coach who writes about software development and making software teams happier and more productive. Lawrence suggested that dev teams should focus more on being predictable than being productive. He argues that increased productivity will fall out of a predictable approach to software development. I have since thought that a more predictable environment would also benefit other teams.

Lawrence suggests that a focus on predictability helps a team:

Develop and complete smaller projects that can be completed in a day or two. I like the idea of breaking down the work into smaller chunks. Although there will always be larger projects with time-lines that stretch out to months or longer, breaking up those projects into shorter durations will complete-able deliverables allows teams to show value at more regular intervals. This is good for stakeholders, team morale and ultimately project success.
Work on a smaller number of project deliverables at once. I once worked with a fellow who was incredibly productive if he only had a couple of project deliverables on his plate at a time. Less than that and he would fuss over a project deliverable forever—more than that and he would be so overwhelmed that he would freeze up and accomplish very little. Admittedly, every team member is different, but keeping expectations reasonable (in my opinion) helps project teams be more productive.
Ensure that the definition of done that is identified before the project is started is the same definition of done when the project is completed. I’ve noticed that the longer the duration of a project, the more likely the definition of done will morph into something other than what was originally intended. Sometimes this might be the result of scope creep, but often it is the result of unforeseen impediments that over the course of a lengthy project make it difficult to completely accomplish the goals or the initiative.
Enable individual team members to cross disciplines to get things done, avoiding unpredictable wait times. Shorter duration projects often encourage team members to step outside of their “defined” roles to get things done. Which, after all, is what getting things done is all about, right?
Make achievable commitments based on past results. From a management perspective, it’s easier to predict the results of a series of shorter duration projects than it is to predict the results of a project that will drag on for months at a time. From a team member’s perspective, it allows them to feel a sense of accomplishment at regular intervals. Most people respond well to feeling a sense of accomplishment at a job well done. The more often they are able to do that, the more productive they will be.

On the other hand, Lawrence suggests (and I agree) that a dogged focus on productivity usually leads to:

Individuals optimizing for their own productivity (i.e. lots of tasks getting done—a focus on activity rather than results)
Over-committing
Starting projects without necessarily believing they’ll get done in the time-line required
Sacrificing quality for speed (i.e. “Just get it done; we’ll clean it up later”)
Communicating and collaborating less (“All that conversation slows me down. I need to focus on my work”)

Lawrence argues that a strict focus on productivity might increase a project teams ability to get more accomplished in the short term, but focusing on predictability is a better long-term solution for helping teams increase productivity.

I have to agree. What’s more, making it happen might even be easier than you think. Although projects aren’t usually considered repeatable work, there are many aspects of a project that can be templated to be made more “predictable.” Applying templates to parts of the process that make sense makes project planning easier, encourages the capture and implementation of best practice and helps ensure a successful project outcome.

Is predictability part of your methodology? How do you utilize your project management tools to increase predictability and ultimately productivity?

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10 Tips to Effectively Communicate With Stakeholders

26 January 2012 - POSTED by Ty Kiisel

Keeping an open and effective line of communication with stakeholders is important. A couple of years ago I stumbled on this list of tips for presenting to stakeholders, which is worth rehashing. Sometimes it seems like a thirty-minute meeting can be over in sixty seconds. Stakeholders sometimes have short attention spans, so if you don’t capture their attention in the first minute or two, they’ll start checking their email and watching the clock or worse—bail on your meeting.

Anyone involved in project-based work has to deal with sponsors and stakeholders. With that in mind, here are ten tips that might help your presentations:

Pique their interest: An agenda is always a good idea, but a brief summary of what will be discussed is even better. Plus, it gives stakeholders a take-away and allows them to come prepared with questions.
Don’t assume they know their job as stakeholder: They might understand the high-level view, but you will probably need to fill in the details.
Keep it simple: Give them the situation in straightforward terms. Don’t overwhelm them with information. Cut to the chase. (However, be prepared for a deeper dive if they start asking questions.)
Use numbers and pictures: PowerPoint is a great tool for presenting graphics and numbers to stakeholders. It’s how they present information to each other. You should too.
Sometimes you have to use logic: Accept the fact that there might not always be data to support a particular situation. Not having numbers to back up your position could make a successful argument problematic, so you may have to turn to “if … then …” logic to shed light on a situation. However, don’t expect the same results or response from stakeholders—numbers rule with them.
Waiting is never a good option: Don’t wait until a problem is obvious—it’s often more difficult to solve the issue at that point.
Always offer a solution: If you are going to bring up a problem without offering a potential solution, you might as well tell the stakeholders, “Fire me now.” Finding solutions is part of your job as project manager.
Specify the actions required of them: If stakeholders need to take action, don’t assume it will be obvious to them. Restate—in list form—what actions need to be taken and when.
Always say “yes,” but make sure they understand how much “yes” costs: Sponsors and stakeholders don’t like to be told “no,” so don’t do it. Just make sure they understand the cost of their request, so they can judge for themselves whether or not “yes” is worth it.
Don’t stop reporting status because stakeholders stop requiring it: Perception is reality. If stakeholders perceive that you aren’t doing anything—your not. Don’t let your head be the next one on the chopping block.

Regardless of your company’s work management methodology, there are a lot of project management tools available to help manage tasks and time-lines—some will help you more effectively communicate with the stakeholders in your organization. Whether or not your chosen project management tool facilitates that kind of communication, ignoring that important part of your role as project manager is dangerous. What do you do in your organization to encourage a positive relationship with stakeholders?

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