Focus on Project Measures That Matter

 

Tips for Managing a Cross-Functional Team

LOOK FORWARD, NOT BACKWARD

My goal is to communicate the challenges, fun and “things that have worked” in managing projects team that has widely different backgrounds, experiences, education, and understandings.  Informational diversity is based on different functional, educational and industry backgrounds that constitute information and knowledge resources upon which the team draws. 

THE TIME V. INFORMATION DILEMMA

The project team members should be cognizant of other parts of the project – this is especially true for cross functional teams, or teams with high informational diversity.   Not only that, but the project manager should know exactly how the project is doing.  The Project Manager must understand the course the project is going in and attempt corrections if things are drifting too far off.

The problem with this simple concept is that there is simply too much information to absorb for multiple disciplines and multiple projects.  It’s in different technical languages, it changes daily, it requires an in-depth understanding of each discipline.  The team doesn’t have time to learn how or what the other disciplines are doing and complete their own efforts.  Even if that were all possible, not enough time exists to absorb the information and manage the projects

So, the question becomes, when managing a cross-functional team, what information, or indicators should be used to judge the health and direction of the project.  It must be a subset of all the information the project team possesses.  The key is to focus on “measures that matter.”  And, to do that, it’s important  to understand the differences between leading and lagging project information.

LEADING AND LAGGING INFORMATION

Lagging information is something that gives us a window into the past.  It’s something that HAS happened. It’s nearly impossible to drive a car down a road while looking only in the rear view mirror, but that’s exactly what most projects do.  They concentrate on LAGGING information. 

Some of the most popular Project Information to be collected and digested fall into the LAGGING category.  In other words, “How we did in the past, will tell us how we’re going to do in the future.”   Ask yourself, is that true?

Here are a list of popular project LAGGING indicators.

Lagging Indicators

• Backward Looking
• Tracking Progress
• Customer satisfaction
• Defect Rate
• Scope change requests
• Overdue tasks
• Earned Value

Wouldn’t it be better to find, discover and measure LEADING indicators?  Things that tell is where, to the best of our knowledge, the project is heading?    Certainly!  But like most good ideas in project management, it’s very difficult to identify and track leading indicators.   But we must make an attempt. 

It’s quite possible that a project’s best leading indicators are not a clear-cut single measurement.  It’s more likely that the course and direction of the project is best determined by a function arrived at by examining several indicators at one time.  Performance measurement “To-Complete-Performance-Index does this. But that method may not be a good fit for your project.  You’ll need to explore and discover your own.

Leading Indicators

• Forward looking
• Predictive
• Performance Goals
• None are intrinsically a leading indicator
• Leading Indicator = f (measure, time, interpretation)

WHY BOTHER?

If you have predictive or forward looking indicators for the health of your project, you’ll be able to look in the same direction you’re driving your car in.  That’s useful!  It’s also very difficult to arrive at meaningful leading indicators.  It will require a team effort, failures and patience.

Pay attention to the rail road crossing sign (leading information).  Don’t wait until disaster strikes to understand your status. 

TRY TO FIND AND USE LEADING INDICATORS FOR YOUR PROJECT

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The first five blogs:

1. Herding a group of cats, cows, sheep, goats, dogs and llamas….http://bit.ly/2cr0ddH
2. How hard is it to herd a group of cats, cows, sheep, goats, dogs and llamas?  http://bit.ly/2c6n3Gv
3. Cats, cows, sheep, goats, dogs and llamas *CAN* be herded.   -  http://bit.ly/2cLpS2w
4. Things that have worked leading Informationally Diverse Teams - http://bit.ly/2cfkKka
5. Things That Have Worked Leading Project Teams @ NASA http://bit.ly/2cDFaGl