The Money Files

One of the major risks facing our projects today is data – and all the problems that can arise when the wrong data falls into the wrong hands. Even if nothing malicious happens with the data, the fact there was a breach can lead to reputational damage and fines. And no project manager wants their project to be the one where data leaked out. So we work on making sure data privacy best practices are built into the way projects are delivered.

Mostly, data privacy regulations are baked into internal processes and policies, but it never hurts to have a reminder. Here are some things you can do to foster a culture of data privacy awareness in the team, so they automatically (hopefully) consider data privacy when they are working out work packages and activities.

Start with culture

Build a culture of data privacy. Lead from the top and make it expected that privacy is just ‘how things work around here.’

Make data privacy a part of the team’s daily routine by integrating best practices into everyday project management tasks, such as reviewing documents, storing information, and sharing data. For example, think through who has access to what data, and who gets permission to delete it.

I had an interesting discussion with some German colleagues recently who shared that the data privacy laws there are so strict that you can’t ask employees for some information, which must make some aspects of performance reviews, feedback, celebrating birthdays and employee satisfaction surveys really difficult! (If you’re based in Germany, let us know your thoughts in the comments below, or if your country has similar restrictions, tell us about them!)

Offer formal training

If your company offers mandatory data privacy and security training programs for all team members (and they probably do) make sure everyone does the modules. It’s usually e-learning and not onerous, but that also means that people have a tendency to skip to the test or assessment part without actually paying that much attention to the training. However, it’s the minimum people need to do.

This training will most likely cover topics like identifying sensitive data, safe data handling practices, and understanding legal requirements – all things you need to have top of mind for projects.

Work through examples

Use your team meetings to work through practical scenarios. Use real-world examples or case studies, for example, internal projects or projects in the media in your industry, to illustrate the importance of data privacy and the consequences of non-compliance.

Ask the risk management team if they could write some scenarios for you to discuss and add them to your team meetings a way of upskilling.

Set clear data handling guidelines

Your company might already have overarching data handling guidelines, so you can lean into those, or set specific ones for your project if it’s data heavy. Guidelines should cover data collection, storage, sharing, and disposal. When you kick off a new project, ensure that every team member understands the policies and any other applicable laws.

Stay on top of changes

One thing I’ve noticed in the 20+ years I’ve been managing projects is how often things change. Privacy law and data laws are changing all the time as technical advancements introduce different types of data and ways that it needs to be managed (AI and deep fakes being cases in point at the moment).

Don’t assume nothing has changed since you last did a project with a big data element. Talk to your legal team and get the latest.

Talk about the implications of non-compliance

Make sure people are aware that it’s not a small problem if there is a data breach or non-compliant situation. Your company could risk:

• Legal risks: Fines, sanctions, or legal action for breaching data protection regulations.
• Reputational damage: Loss of client trust, which can affect relationships and future business opportunities.
• Operational risks: Inefficient processes or security breaches that may compromise the success of a project.

And sometimes the individual might be liable as well as the organisation… so know what you are getting yourself into!

While so many of us still use the humble spreadsheet for project management and tracking, there are lots of cool technologies out there that will (eventually) be game-changing for project managers. And I’m not talking about AI, although of course that is huge in our industry at the moment.

Project management tools are often seen as task-based, schedule-based, scenario-based products, but will that change when we bring more elements of gaming into the way that teams and results are managed?

Gamification

Gamified project management systems could incentivise teams to make progress. We could introduce a bit of healthy competition. I know not all teams are going to love the idea of gamified work, but in some teams it could provide a bit of engagement and interest. If your project management software has the option to award stars (for example) for contribution, then take a look at what features you could switch on.

I’m part of a community where likes on posts are rewarded – not for the person doing the liking but for the person being liked. The aim is to encourage thoughtful, helpful comments that the community finds valuable. I think it’s a balance between spending all your time crafting the perfect, likeable comment and doing your work, but I do think we’ll see more gamification coming into project management, and I’ve talked about that at conferences before.

Role-playing

I know, I cringe too when role-playing gets mentioned. However, when I’ve been on training courses and we’ve done some role-playing (for example, having a difficult conversation with a colleague) it has been very helpful in addressing the situation in real life.

If you think about it, you’ve probably used role-playing already in your projects. If you have ever demonstrated a solution to a group of customers, you’ve probably had someone playing the role of a customer placing an order or interacting with your product. Just do more of that! It really helps bring the product to life.

You could also look to incorporate role-playing scenarios in training and change management activities. Work with stakeholders and users to give them first-hand experience of the change in a safe environment, helping them see it from different roles in the journey, for example, what it will be like to interact with the product as a customer.

Virtual reality

Personally, I can’t say I’ve used VR for project delivery (yet) but it is a feature of science-based learning at my children’s school. They use VR headsets for educational purposes to explore science topics. Which is cool.

We could see the same for project deliverables, perhaps a virtual simulation of a building that users could walk around to see what it’s like before the construction is complete, or something like that. Perhaps it will get used for virtual project kick off meetings or simulation-based training. This community has probably seen examples of that in use. If you have, can you drop me a comment below and let us all know how that worked out for you?

How do you feel project management is going to adopt new tech (that may or may not be aligned to AI)? If you’ve seen any of it in practice I’d love to hear how you are using it! Thanks!

I’ve been focusing all month on ways to improve and develop your career as a project manager, and today I wanted to talk about how to expand your knowledge base. Too often, I think project managers get stuck using the same sources time and time again. And we can learn a lot by accessing materials that are available for free, as long as we know where to look. So if you haven’t considered any of these knowledge-sources this year, put some time in your diary to check them out.

YouTube

Not just for funny cat videos! There are lots of quality project management vloggers out there, talking about everything from a day in the life to running projects transparently and reporting back on the results, to PMP® prep videos helping you understand the more complex concepts. 

Subscribe to a few channels and check them out. Look for content producers who have a lot of likes, and who post regularly on the platform, sharing new videos on a regular basis. You don’t have to leave a comment, but you’ll often find that creators will respond to new comments if you post them soon after the video has been shared. If you get alerts from the channel, you’ll get notified when a new video is available and the creator may respond to your comment.

LinkedIn Learning

Similar to YouTube, there are plenty of LinkedIn Learning trainers sharing amazing insights in well-produced training content. Search for the project management topic you are interested in and see what is out there. Your employer might have access to a corporate subscription that you can use. I have access via my university as an alumna.

There are a lot of courses to choose from, so look for topics that are relevant to your current work (or that you would like to learn more about) and providers who have good customer reviews. It feels to me that LinkedIn Learning courses are quality checked, so you should be in good hands whichever one you go for.

Webinars

There are lots of webinars here on projectmanagement.com, taught by experienced trainers and covering a range of cutting edge and established project management ideas. And there are plenty of webinars out there run by other organisations, including PMI Chapters and software companies. Do a search to find out what is coming up in the near future and then regularly make a point of signing up to one webinar a month to expand your horizons.

Podcasts

Podcasts are another way to get real-time, current knowledge and get exposure to people you would never normally get the chance to chat to in real life! Subscribe to a few that sound good and then switch them out if you want a change. There are literally hundreds of relevant podcasts and episodes on all kinds of topics.

Interview-style podcasts are good ones to focus on, and tune into any that promise case studies or sharing research results as these will help you broaden your knowledge and stay current in the market. 

Expanding your knowledge base is a really good way to stay up to date on new methodologies, trends, and technologies which in turn can help you stay competitive. But more than that, it’s a way of helping you stay connected to the profession and continuing to develop your skills so you can add more value to the teams you work with.

OK, this might not be relevant to everyone reading, but sometimes project managers are left with ‘spare’ budget in December. How are you going to make use of any available funds – assuming you are not under pressure to give them back – to maximise project value. Here are some ideas.

Conduct a year-end financial review

First, make sure your budget trackers and up to date, and that everything that should have been accounted for has been added on. That will give you a true picture of your actuals, so you can review the financial status of the project, including how much budget is left and what key areas need funding.

If you need to move money around, talk to the finance team so that the right amounts can be journalled to the right budget lines to tidy up your accounting.

Prioritise high-impact investments

Next, think about where you could use leftover budget in the remaining weeks of the year to make the most impact. That could be new tools (testing software licences are always a win), training for project team members, especially if that will help them develop skills they will need next year, or risk mitigation activities. Perhaps you can buy a few days of consultancy time that will speed up a particular task? Perhaps there are licences that need renewing, or equipment that you could invest in? Perhaps you could talk to suppliers about getting a discount if you place an order now instead of in January – many suppliers have targets to hit at year end and might be open to negotiation.

I think that spending money on training and certification is a good choice. It helps team morale as individuals see that their future is being invested in, and you get skilled team members who have the skills required to continue to support the project, or future projects. So my recommendation would be to look at investing here, in team development, if you aren’t sure what use you can make of additional funding.

If you need to buy anything, make sure to get approval and move quickly before the year end deadlines.

Don’t spend for the sake of it

We want to avoid wasteful spending. Be aware of what is going on in the rest of the organisation. For example, other projects might be struggling, and the most prudent thing is to always offer the money back to the ‘pot’ as a first point of call.

In my experience, budget that is not spent is not carried over to the new year unless it can be accrued against a committed spend. In other words, if you have got £20k sitting waiting to be spent, there is a high chance that you will lose it unless it is spent on something. Talk to your Finance team to find out whether that is likely to apply to your budget, and what they recommend you do at this time of year.

Work with Finance to reallocate funds

Talking of working with Finance – they are the guardians of spending rules and regulations, and they will help you maintain compliance and an audit trail for spend.

They will know if it is possible to carry budget over – and it might be, if your financial year does not end in December.

As much as we’d love to have everything working to plan, sometimes we can take some aspects of project management for granted. I wonder how many of these project challenges you have but you haven’t openly recognised within the team?

I don’t want you to have your head in the sand, so below I share 10 things that you might be missing on your project.

(I didn’t want to bury my actual head in the sand, so you got a photo of my feet buried instead! Not quite the same, I know.)

1. Stakeholders are reading your communications

We might believe that stakeholders are reading our project comms, but are they really?

It’s hard to tell, but if you aren’t seeing any action, or people are asking questions you have already answered in your comms, then they probably aren’t.

2. The training you’ve scheduled is enough

I expect it isn’t, even if it feels like it should be. People won’t turn up or won’t use the online training to teach themselves. Plan to have post-launch training support because your users will need it.

3. Your change management plans are adequate

Hopefully they are, but as above, there will always be someone who says they didn’t get the memo, or couldn’t access the materials. Make sure you’ve got post-launch training in the diary as well, and do more change management activity and engagement than you think you should have to.

4. The UAT plans are long enough

UAT is the one thing that gets squeezed in my experience. Add in an extra cycle if you can. It’s easy to take it out – not so easy to squash it back in if you do need more testing time.

This obviously depends on your project – if you are doing something you’ve done a lot before you should have a high degree of confidence in your deliverables, but you might need more if you are working on something new.

5. Risk identification has spotted everything

It hasn’t!

Make sure risks are constantly mentioned in all meetings, and that you are always listening out for what might be a new risk.

6. Team morale is OK

Team morale is something to keep an eye on. The team can get demoralised for the smallest of reasons, from a change not being approved to a reschedule for whatever reason. That negativity can spiral.

Even if things are going well on your project, events outside the project can influence morale, such as a change in leadership, redundancies, an increase in BAU work or pretty much anything else.

7. Benefits are understood

We’d like to think the financial and tangible benefits are understood, but how well have those assumptions been documented? I’ve worked on a couple of projects where we think we understand what we are tracking, only to find that we can’t replicate the exact formula the finance person (who has now left) used, or some other difficulty.

You should be able to answer straightforward benefits-related questions like ‘is this incremental revenue or total revenue’? So make sure you can.

8. There is no conflict in the team

There probably is, but people are too polite to mention it. You should dig for it! Some conflict is healthy so don’t worry about bringing it up.

9. Quality is being managed OK

Are you finding bugs in your deliverables? And more importantly, are you squashing bugs? What are your criteria for exiting testing and how does quality play into that? Ideally, you should have great quality measures, and be performing in line with those, but sometimes project teams get swept up in the desire to deliver and that means some lower-risk bugs are left in for now.

10. There is no technical debt

Are your project deliverables introducing technical debt? Are you breaking things elsewhere or for other teams, or introducing workarounds or degrading the solution for someone else? Sometimes your part of the world might be fine, but a process you’ve implemented ends up in many additional steps or a new report being needed for someone else.

Check that you aren’t creating technical debt by accident – if you know about it, document it and have created it ‘on purpose’ as part of a stepping stone to a different solution, then that’s probably fine.

Which of these might your project be at risk from? Let me know in the comments!