Project Management

Strategic Project Management

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As an "accidental" project manager, it's very satisfying to contribute to the project management community online with anecdotes and stories I've picked up from my own experience. I hope you enjoy our daily conversation.
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Project-Based Work in the Cloud: 4 Reasons to Consider SaaS PPM

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I believe that successful project management is more about people than technology, but I'm convinced that project software in general and on-demand project management software in particular, make it possible for skilled project managers to focus on facilitating communication and work effectively with project teams.  SaaS (Software as a Service) work management applications have been around for a while, and are giving legacy PPM applications a run for the money.

With that in mind, let me share a couple of opinions as to why I believe SaaS is an effective way to manage project-based work:
  1. It's relatively easy and inexpensive to enter: Last year in a conversation with the PMO of a large international organization who was in the middle of a SaaS project management software implementation.  He expressed frustration at the previous three-year-long unsuccessful installation of a legacy PPM software that claimed to offer business process expertise.  The inherent complexity of legacy PPM solutions make implementation and adoption lengthy and difficult.  His consternation is shared by many who don't have the time or resources to accommodate an expensive, multi-year implementation process.
  2. Pay-as-you-go vs. pay-through-the-nose:  Because SaaS software is typically subscription based, organizations can pay for the software when they use it, and access it via the Internet, rather than going through the expensive process of installing software on individual machines or purchasing expensive and costly-to-maintain servers to keep the software up and running.
  3. On-demand project management software makes real-time collaboration possible: Although all SaaS solutions are not created equal, taking project data from the desktop and making it available in a centralized location gives project managers and teams access to all the data relevant to their projects.  Although some SaaS vendors do this better than others, this is the first step to real-time collaboration.
  4. SaaS empowers small- and medium-sized businesses: There will always be mega-organizations who insist on spending millions of dollars on legacy PPM software, but SaaS allows SMBs with much smaller budgets to take advantage of the latest (and in my opinion, some of the best) project management tools available.  In fact, most SaaS solution providers are committed to a robust schedule of continual update and improvement.
My list is by no means all inclusive, but for organizations that want affordable access to the latest PPM technology, SaaS project and portfolio management is a great option.
Posted on: March 22, 2010 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Redefining Work Management Success

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Completing projects on time and on budget has proven to be a pretty valid measure of IT project success—but should it be the primary measure?  I believe that pushing a project to completion on time is not the only objective—ultimately the project also needs to deliver business value.  Along with the worthy objectives of finishing projects on time and within budget constraints, here are some other objectives that should be considered:
  1. It should be about doing the right projects, not just doing them right.  Delivering business value and satisfying customers is becoming more important than ever—and it starts with the evaluation of which potential projects will meet those needs and provide that value in the first place.  Hopefully this has always been important, but organizations are realizing that they have to do more than give lip service to meeting customer expectations while meeting organizational goals.  It must become a primary measurement of how we determine the success or failure of any IT project.
  2. Project teams need to completely understand and address the business needs of every project.  Although everyone would agree that "quality" is very subjective, if everyone on the team doesn't have a thorough understanding of the cost of defects and rework, it doesn't matter what work management tool you use, it won't help.  Edward Deming used to talk about how organizations must build quality into the product, it can't be inspected in.  Quality assurance needs to be a part of every process from start to finish.  Smart organizations are looking at defects and their root causes through the project life-cycle to develop methodologies that improve the quality of their final deliverables.
  3. The final product needs to be stable, compatible, and easily maintainable.  It's just too expensive for organizations to maintain software that's incompatible with current systems or unreliable.  Because staff and maintenance budgets are at a premium, software that isn't will be abandoned for something that is.
The way organizations measure the success of project based work is changing.  Managers who leverage project management tools to meet these new objectives are able to better address business needs and ultimately increase their value within their organizations.
Posted on: March 19, 2010 02:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Project-Based Work and the Holy Grail

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I recently finished reading The Once and Future King by T.H. White.  The novel is based upon the Arthur legend, and is titled after the supposed inscription of the marker over King Arthur's grave: HIC IACET ARTHURUS REX QUONDAM REXQUE FUTURUS—"Here lies Arthur, the once and future king."

Part of the Arthur legend includes the quest for the Holy Grail, which Lancelot and the other Knights of the Roundtable were not allowed to find.  Project managers may be more fortunate than Lance and his companions—if they are proven worthy.

What is the Holy Grail for project managers and where can they find it?  In work management terms, effective resource management and accurate capacity planning is the Holy Grail. 

Whenever I speak with customers and the topic of resource management comes up, there are a couple of recurring themes:
  1. I'm told, "Capacity planning and resource management is a critical part of our work management process and makes us more efficient and competitive."
  2. Or, "We see the value of better capacity planning and are working toward a more formalized method for actually measuring capacity and effectively utilizing our resources."
This is where business project management software can really add value.  The right software will allow project managers to move initiatives around a time-line and see the impact of a new project on their current portfolio of projects—enabling managers and business leaders to make informed decisions about the timing for executing a new project.  It's difficult for managers not to make unrealistic demands on capacity if they have no real idea what their actual capacity is.

Lancelot may have only been allowed to glimpse the Grail, but project managers who "choose wisely" can have it for their own.  Does your organization have a formalized process for managing capacity?  Please share your successes.
Posted on: March 18, 2010 09:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"Drive-By" Projects and Prioritization

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Most organizations don't have any trouble keeping people busy—however keeping people busy and focused on the right things can sometimes be a challenge.  Businesses that rely on project based work to push initiatives forward need to prioritize potential work to ensure that project teams are working on the right projects.

It's not always about separating the good projects from the bad projects, it's often an issue of choosing the best projects, the projects that will provide the most business value, from a list of good potential projects.  In a perfect world, there are many worthy initiatives that could, and maybe even should, be worked on.  Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world.

I believe that's why the "get'er done" or "drive-by" project is such a problem.  Those projects may be worthy, but if they don't measure up to the "does this provide the most value" test, they ultimately limit an organization's capacity to work on the things that do.  And that negatively impacts productivity—and ultimately profitability.

In theory, everyone agrees with this concept.  However, practice is something different.  In the heat of the moment, it's difficult for decision-makers to step back and ask the question, "Will this 'drive-by' project provide enough value that someone should drop what he or she is doing to work on it?"  Sometimes the answer is definitely yes, but there are times when the answer really should be NO.

Project and portfolio management best practices revolve around the concept of identifying those projects that meet certain criteria, creating a plan, and then executing on the plan.  Project management software does a pretty good job of helping do that.  However, sometimes we need to ask ourselves, "How does my work management methodology and project software address the 'drive-by' tasks and projects that come up every day?"  You know the tasks I'm talking about—those that never get plugged into a project plan or added to the Gantt chart.

It doesn't have to be a catastrophic failure that causes an organization to falter.  Sometimes its the accumulated weight of a thousand insignificant inefficiencies that cause the most damage.  How does your work management methodology address the "drive-by" project?  Feel free to share what you do to solve this problem in your organization.

Posted on: March 17, 2010 11:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reporting Status on Project-Based Work:

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Long before the prime-time police drama Law and Order, there was Dragnet.  As a kid, I used to watch Dragnet's Joe Friday interview people, investigate crime scenes, and catch the bad guy every week.  Every episode started with, "The story you are about to see is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent." 

When interviewing witnesses, Friday was famous for his deadpan, "Just the facts, ma'am."  He didn't have the time to waste with superfluous information, if he had the "facts" he could solve the crime.

In reality, reporting the status of all project-based work to stakeholders isn't much different.  Here are five suggestions that will make your project-status reporting run smoother:
  1. When you do your reporting is often as important as what you report.  Make sure the timing of your report will provide the most benefit to the stakeholders involved.  For example, reporting on a problem when there is still time to do something about it is valuable—waiting until it's too late, isn't.
  2. Make sure the information you are reporting is accurate and trustworthy before your presentation.  Out-of-date or inaccurate information is of no value for making decisions.  Validating that status information is timely and up to date is critical for making well-informed decisions.
  3. Present information that is relevant to your audience.  Different information is important to different individuals and job roles.  For example, information that would be important to share with the project team would probably not be relevant to the CEO.
  4. Ensure that the information presented is in the medium best suited for the audience.  A PowerPoint presentation might not be necessary for a team meeting, but could be important when presenting to the executive team.
  5. Make sure you have all the details of what you're presenting.  There's nothing worse than sitting in front of a room full of stakeholders not knowing the answer to your CEO's questions.  If you don't have the full details of what you're presenting, make sure you have someone there who does to help with the presentation.
Leveraging your project and portfolio management software to capture status information as tasks are completed is valuable, particularly if your project software provides the reports and dashboards stakeholders need to review information and make decisions.  However, taking a little time to consider each of these elements before your next status meeting will help make your presentations more effective.
Posted on: March 16, 2010 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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