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Date
In the prior blog post, I asserted the need for project managers to at least consider the part of their project that continues after the toasts. I used an image of the officials from Flint celebrating their cut-over to the Flint River from the Detroit River as an example of a handover from the PM to “operations”.
I think that story has some lessons for project managers. Although the steady-state operation of the Flint water system was out of scope, the project’s interim deliverables should have included the necessary actions (in the first few pages of the standard EPA handbooks and memos on the topic) required when a water source is switched and the water chemistry is different. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-11/documents/occt_req_memo_signed_pg_2015-11-03-155158_508.pdf
There were procedures that could have been put in place - established by the project - that would have made the operation successful.
That is part of project planning. Part of Risk Identification. So although the EFFECT isn’t noted until people start drinking the water and getting sick, the CAUSE is inside the project and inside the project’s plan.
The article discusses the particular skills (hard and soft) that enable a project manager to focus on project success (as opposed to only project management success) and I found this part interesting as well.
The referenced article (see Part 1) has an excellent table which shows the pieces of competency which, if present, are factors which enhance the element of project success and could help prevent the mindset which allows a project manager to limit their thinking to the ‘present’ the ‘local’ and the ‘small’, which is what I assert is what happens when they think about project management success and not project success – which is ‘global’, ‘long-term’, and ‘large scale’.
Some highlights of these factors of competency:
- problem-solving
- ownership
- thinking from ideation to retirement of the project’s product
- extended time frame
- future-based metrics
- inclusion of a diverse set of stakeholders
These sound easy to achieve, but remember, we are dealing with a project – a time-limited endeavor with a definitive beginning and end, and using limited resources. Because of this, the article says, we have to deal with challenges such as:
- Some of the factors that contribute to project success are realized during the project itself, when the project is necessarily infatuated with meeting budget and schedule, as well as scope objectives.Note: one only has to watch the first 20 minutes of the new film Deepwater Horizon to see how this caused project decisions to be made without thinking of the outcome in the steady state.
- Project success factors (customer satisfaction, commercial success, or in the case of Flint, safety of the water) often occur well after the project ‘completion’, when the project manager is not in control, and this can cause a lack of concern or focus.
- The factors influencing project success measurements and perceptions can be in opposition to each other – for example, anyone who has written a book or created artwork knows that if you want the piece to be perfect, it will take forever, and will never be published or sold; so at some point, you just need to declare it DONE.
The article goes on to (properly, in my opinion) discuss ways to increase the awareness of project success for project managers, including investigation of changes even to the curricula of project management as taught at the University level. For that, I would refer you to the article.
The overall takeaway for you?
First of all, consider that difference between project success and project management success. If you ‘get’ that distinction, that’s at least half the battle. Next, use examples (I gave you four in Part 1 of this post) to illustrate the difference. At the moment, you can accomplish this simply by going to watch the film “Deepwater Horizon” in which the project team has made all sorts of decisions to focus on project management success (cost and schedule) in exchange for safety.
Next – you can assess your own organization’s maturity in this area with the instrument called “The Sustainability Wheel” in our book, or investigate the literature on sustainability in PM – it’s a growing field, supported by continued research like the referenced article.
Posted
by
Richard Maltzman
on: October 22, 2016 11:04 PM |
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