A big project problem: 5 ways to see the big picture
From the The Money Files Blog
by Elizabeth Harrin
A blog that looks at all aspects of project and program finances from budgets, estimating and accounting to getting a pay rise and managing contracts.
Written by Elizabeth Harrin from RebelsGuideToPM.com.
Recent Posts
How to learn AI the sensible way
Making sense of project cost reports
How real PM mentoring actually works
The Accidental Product Manager: What project managers need to know
How healthy are your project finances?
Categories
accounting,
agile,
ai,
appraisals,
Artificial Intelligence,
audit,
Backlog,
Benchmarking,
benefits,
Benefits Management,
Benefits Realization,
Bias,
books,
budget,
Business Case,
business case,
business case,
Career Development,
Career Development,
carnival,
case study,
Change Management,
checklist,
collaboration tools,
communication,
Communications Management,
competition,
complex projects,
Conferences,
config management,
consultancy,
contingency,
contracts,
corporate finance,
corporate finance,
cost,
Cost Management,
cost management,
credit crunch,
CRM,
data,
data security,
debate,
Decision Making,
delegating,
digite,
earned value,
Education,
Energy and Utilities,
Estimating,
events,
FAQ,
financial management,
financial management,
forecasting,
future,
GDPR,
general,
Goals,
Governance,
green,
Information Technology,
Innovation,
insurance,
interviews,
it,
Knowledge Management,
Leadership,
Lessons Learned,
measuring performance,
Mentoring,
merger,
methods,
metrics,
multiple projects,
negotiating,
Networking,
news,
Olympics,
organization,
Organizational Culture,
outsourcing,
personal finance,
Planning,
pmi,
PMO,
PMO,
Portfolio Management,
portfolio management,
presentations,
privacy policy,
process,
procurement,
product management,
productivity,
Program Management,
project closure,
project data,
project delivery,
Project Success,
project testing,
prototyping,
qualifications,
Quality,
quality,
Quarterly Review,
records,
recruitment,
reports,
requirements,
research,
resilience,
Resource Management,
resources,
risk,
Risk Management,
ROI,
salaries,
Schedule Management,
Scheduling,
scope,
Scope Management,
security,
small projects,
Social Impact,
social impact,
social media,
software,
software,
software,
Stakeholder Management,
stakeholders,
Strategy,
success factors,
supplier management,
team,
Teams,
testing,
testing,
timesheets,
tips,
training,
transparency,
trends,
value management,
vendors,
video,
virtual teams,
workflow
Date
As a project manager, there’s one big problem on projects – you are right in the middle of it. You have tight deadlines, unforgiving stakeholders and detailed plans. It is very hard to lift yourself up out of this and see the bigger corporate picture – many project managers can’t do this at all.
You should try.
Being able to see the bigger picture puts your project in context. It helps you operate more effectively. It helps you see what is important to your project and business customers. It makes you a better member of the company, as well as a better project manager.
Here are 5 ways to ensure that you can see the big picture.
Go to internal networking events.
Every company has them. And if, for some reason, yours doesn’t, start one. Got to lunch and learn events. Go to afternoon briefings, or drinks after work, or corporate team building days. Don’t opt out of anything. You never know who you might meet, but more importantly, what you might learn about the company’s focus. You can use this to sharpen your project’s focus to deliver what is really important to the business.
Read the annual report.
Yes, it’s boring. But it is also a great source of information about how the company operates. How does your company make money? If you sell shoes, it’s pretty obvious, but many firms have more complex ways of bringing in the cash. How will your project contribute to this? Is there a strategic thread where your project fits (or is it clear that your project is now irrelevant to the new corporate strategy?).
Read the business pages.
Follow your industry. Not project management, but the industry your company operates in – IT, construction, engineering, retail etc. What’s happening there? What are your competitors up to? Set up a Google alert for the name of your company and your CEO. How does your project fit with what your CEO talks about in the media?
Join an industry body.
In the UK, BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, represents the interests of the IT arena. It’s not the only IT industry body, but it actually doesn’t matter which one you join. The point is to have another way to find out what’s happening in the big wide world. Read their magazines. Go to their events. Join their LinkedIn discussion groups.
Ask questions.
If you don’t know what terms like ROI, IRR, BCR and payback period, ask (or watch my videos). Talk to your managers, customers and suppliers. What is important to them? How is your project helping?
Being able to see the bigger picture lifts you out of the detail and helps you operate in a project leadership role. How do you make sure that you know what’s going on outside of your project?
Posted on: July 22, 2012 06:36 AM |
Permalink
Comments (5)
Please login or join to subscribe to this item
Derek Huether
Principal Solutions Engineer| Atlassian
New Market, Md, United States
I believe the bigger the organization, portfolio or program, the more disconnected team members can feel. With one of my larger customers, the individual project team members struggled by not knowing where they fit into the big picture. To help the entire organization, from the Program Director down to the testers, we constructed a Program Alignment Wall. An entire year of potential, current, and past projects were visualized on a wall, with each project or initiative being depicted by way of an index card. Each project index card contained an avatar of its respective team(s), committed to deliver the business value. We then added avatars of the dependent team(s), to help identify and eliminate cross-team dependencies.
An alignment wall allows everyone to see where they've been, where they are, and where they are going. More importantly, it allows teams to see who they were dependent on and when.
Derek, that's a great idea. Sounds like a lot of work though, and something that would have to be kept up to date. Did you have someone responsible for putting this together and administering it?
Derek Huether
Principal Solutions Engineer| Atlassian
New Market, Md, United States
Actually, the initial construction of the wall takes all of about 1-2 hrs. You just need the right people in the room to kickstart it. After that, EVERYONE is responsible for keeping items on the wall (pertaining to them) up to date. There is a standing meeting at the wall at least once a week, though that is not when the wall is commonly updated. If you left the job of updating the wall to one person, it just can''t scale and there would be a delay in getting data communicated properly to the wall. One of the things I like about the distribution of ownership is the social pressure to keep it up to date. If everyone participates, updates are made as they happen. The wall becomes a living record of events. You can satisfy "documentation" requirements by taking a photo of it daily and uploading to Evernote.
I have mentioned this before in another blog, but I usually add an extra column into the wbs called "Why" .
At the higher levels (program, projects and sub-projects) it gives a rationale for the need of the project, etc.. At the lower levels down to the smallest task it shows how each step supports the above objectives
This makes it easy for people to trace up how their work fits into the overall picture. It makes reworking the plan if requirements change easier, justifies work during project audit time, and at lesson learned time helps with the retrospective.
Derek Huether
Principal Solutions Engineer| Atlassian
New Market, Md, United States
If you are going to do a WBS, Alexander, I really like your mapping idea. I think all value-added, non-value-added, and non-value-added-but-necessary activities need to map back to the higher level goals. If you can not, it is just waste. Though we may accept this waste, at least there is nowhere for it to hide.
Please Login/Register to leave a comment.
|
"The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them."
- Mark Twain
|
