When projects get serious: what changes after the “easy” phase
Categories:
Governance
Categories: Governance
| In my experience, many projects feel deceptively straightforward at the start! It’s all about the planning, the goal, the vision. Early progress is visible because you’ve got a business case approved and everyone is enthusiastic. Problems feel manageable, probably because you’ve got a big budget and lots of time, and lots of senior-level focus to help get things done. It’s easy to reverse decisions as you haven’t actually delivered anything yet, so you’re making quick progress. The risk exposure is low, if you need to make trade-offs they can feel a bit theoretical at this point as you haven’t actually ‘lost’ anything (yet). But then there is a transition point where delivery becomes more complex, political, and consequential… and that’s when things start to change.  What changes as projects progressWhen projects progress, decisions become harder to reverse. The cost for rework goes up because more work is complete. There are dependencies That can't change, and the tolerance for making changes drops. When you're making trade-offs they start reflect the overall cost the schedule and stakeholder confidence. In my experience, the pressure to actually get almost delivery increases even if your plan hasn't changed. People are more invested in the outcome because some work has already been completed. Leadership expectations shift from wanting to know that everything is going OK to reassurance that the project will hit the deadlines and spend within budget. You start being asked questions around confidence levels and scrutiny, instead of, “How can I help?” and, “Are we ready to go?” There's also a difference in expectation from the behaviour of you as the project manager. We are expected to use our professional judgement. At the beginning of a project it’s often about following the process to get things approved and to move through those early stages of project setup which can feel quite regimented in the approach as this is probably dictated by your PMO. Once we're in full delivery, there's a lot more scope for professional judgement and active decision making on everyday basis. How to manage this later stageSo how do we cope with this change in expectations? I think a lot of project management practice stays the same and what you're doing is probably fine. But I think that it's worth moving from being more of a coordinator to more of a facilitator of decisions. In my experience, it's also useful to be really clear about uncertainty and the consequences of those choices especially around risks and risk management. Communication is another area that you can lean into. We have to be even clearer about what we're doing, what progress we're making, and adjust the tone of the communication as you get closer to the end to improve the levels of confidence (assuming that you do want people to be confident about where you're going and that broadly things are on track). Finally it's worth thinking about escalations. You need to know where to escalate, what to escalate and how much drama you're going to create by doing an escalation even if it's the right thing to do. So there's an extra level of bravery and confidence in your own ability that comes with managing a later stage project. I suppose what I'm trying to say here is that setting up a project can feel like the easy part. Once you've aligned the stakeholders, got approval to proceed and put together a plan – that's when you are really going to have to lean into strong project management skills. So many project managers I've spoken to tell me that professional credibility is built or lost on their very last project and often their past experiences and many years of successful delivery are overshadowed by the fact that something went wrong on some project. And let's face it, there are going to be projects where things go wrong and it won't necessarily be the fault of the project manager. So I think we need to be aware that there is this change in project management approach needed between kicking off a project and seeing it through to the end. What do you think? Let me know in the comments below! |
Project initiation: Tips for starting off right
| Are you starting a new project? As we get closer to year end, we seem to be starting more projects that will (somehow) finish in-year! If you are kicking off a new piece of work, whether you’re delivering by year end or have a longer timeframe, here are some tips to consider to ensure you are starting off in the best possible way.
Get the right peopleFirst, you need to understand the capabilities required to deliver the project. Then you have to make sure you have people with those skills (or people with the aptitude and time to learn them). It’s not just about the do-ers. You’ll also need a project leadership team (a project manager, sponsor, maybe exec sponsor and programme manager) who have the skills to lead and are empowered to do so. Create your CharterWhether you call it a project initiation document, charter or kick off document, you’ll want something in writing to document what you are doing and how. But the real value of this is in the discussion that you have while pulling together the content. The right conversations are essential to make sure the right stakeholders are involved, everyone is aligned on the objectives and the scope is clear. Set the tone for the teamWe talk a lot about culture and I’ve written about psychological safety before. Start as you mean to go on, so set your ground rules, working practices, terms of engagement up front. Make sure that anything that affects the delivery team involves them (so no setting project delivery dates without the people doing the work in the room). Set up your document repositories and communication schedules so everyone knows what to expect and where to find the latest information. Consider riskAs part of your project initiation work, you should be creating an initial risk log. But considering the impact of uncertainty on your project goes beyond that. Make sure you’ve got enough contingency in the plan, especially in the early days until estimates can be firmed up with more data. Make sure stakeholders know about confidence levels and be transparent about what you think can be achieved, so their expectations are managed. Sort out your governanceExec confidence comes from knowing the project is in safe hands. Governance might feel burdensome at times, but it ensures the right work is being done by the right people at the right time. Make sure you know how the project will be held to account, and what the success criteria are. Set up your peer reviews and stage gates. Book steering group meetings and regular check ins. Dig out your reporting templates. These processes will ensure that there is trust in the process and that leaders feel confident that the project can (and will) deliver. Setting your project up for success is crucial because those early days set the tone for how the work will be done. Spend a bit of time – and I know, you’ll have to negotiate for that as I expect everyone wants the work to have started yesterday – and you’ll have a greater chance of delivering successfully. Good luck! |
