Benefits Realization

Important note:  this work was completed in 2009.

I was assigned as program manager to implement a major telecommunications ebonding capability for mobility services to signature customers throughout the world. This was a program to make a repeatable process that would help define a customized catalog of services for each customer yet a common interface to performing suppliers that would actually fulfill the orders for example a customer may have mobility needs in multiple countries throughout the world one in South America one in Asia one in Germany warning the Netherlands one in United States one in Mexico etc. etc. and there was no common wireless carrier they could fulfill all these orders. Each country had its own set of rules and data sets that made a single interface impossible to implement. My role as program manager involves several different steps:

1. Determine the key stakeholders in the program. I was given the charge to implement program management but there wasn’t any formal documents that made such an announcement. So I created a program charter and had an executive sign it and email it to his peers to authorize resources to plan the program.
2. Assembled a small team from the product house, operations, and IT to create a joint definition of work effort.
3. Shared this document with multiple organizations to assemble a core team of stakeholders and a responsibility matrix.
4. Created a program plan which defined various work packages and the time box timeframe for certain deliverables. Among these deliverables were a business requirements document. Benefits realization plan, and a governance model.
5. Developed seven project charters to implement the work efforts. Three of the charters were specific to IT development one of the charters was to the marketing and technical implementation plan two of the charters were specific to process and lifecycle support, and final charter were specific to developing a repeatable process for catalog management.
6. Mapped the cost of the projects based on a high-level order magnitude to a benefits realization plan and established the expectations for the deliverables.

To summarize, my planning processes is first to make sure I have owners and executive sponsorship from the business, next it is to do a program charter the authorized organizations to commit resources to the planning, next is planning the roadmap and the business realization plans, next is to issue a program plan which outlined how work package are aligned which then will generate a charter for each project that will help meet those objectives. Once the charters are defined a project manager will be assigned there will be responsible for implementing the requirements of the work. Tools and techniques that I use in this planning process is constant communication and dialogue with key stakeholders and a small work team. Interacting with knowledge workers through facilitating meetings with different organization to define business rules, program requirements, baselining documents and using the concept of progressive elaboration to monitor control their evolution from a planning cycle until project implementation. Finally, the process involves interacting with the teams through a defined governance model so all organizations know the protocol for handling issues, communicating status, and reporting task completion.

Hand Sketch Graphics Have Better Retention

There is a growing trend of using hand sketched icons, symbols, and graphics in documentation and presentations to emphasize main topics, increase reader retention, and better communicate the message.  More publications and tools are embracing this trend and providing a much better overall user experience.

I recently had the pleasure of reading the book: The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value.By Lynda Carter.  Lynda is a Project Management Consultant and Custom Training Development Specialist.  She has done work for Baldwin Wallace University and owns Competetive Edge Consulting ( http://www.cectraining.com/ ).  She has developed an extremely easy to navigate reference guide on project management.  She developed this with project management classes in mind and has had great success in using it as a reference for her project management training classes.

From a content perspective the book I spot on.  It lays out a very logical flow, set of reusable/scalable tools, and the business logic behind project management.  It includes many real life examples including real-world needs such as using KPIs as a leverage point to stakeholder relationships.  Her approach has provided me a new tool in my tool box.

But where the book stands out is the layout, it is top notch.  The book encompasses a great use of white space and a FANTASTIC use of supporting graphics and sketches. The picture below demonstrated this use of icons in defining components of the project and they are reused throughout the book.  I can see a lexicon like this being used throughout a project and words such as “the piggy bank” being used as the metaphor for financing.

Ms. Carter is utilizing an effective means of communication and taps into a growing trend.  I recently talked (if I call exchanging email, attending webinars, and exchanging Facebook posts talking) to Michael Deutsch, the product manager of Mindjet, about hand-sketched graphics, and he told me that there is a study that shows how hand-drawn sketches on slides help increase retention by a factor of 20% or more.  He indicated that one of the significant features of the new release of Mindjet Mindmanager is the inclusion of a set of hand drawn icons in four different colors.  They provide an effective visual message and categorization of thoughts, without the invasiveness of manufactured clips. 

Although I don’t see dominate graphics going away and being completely replaced by hand drawn sketches, the two have a great opportunity to work together.  And a project manager can now use simple sketches to tell the story of the project and propagate the message through many different communications in the project lifecycle.

One of Ms. Carter’s most effective techniques is establishing repeatable icons for use throughout the book.  When she introduces roles she does so with a graphic, as demonstrated in the image below, and then uses the icon at different points to emphasize the role in that aspect of the project.  For example, the big fingered sponsor is used later when the responsibility of the sponsor is discussed.

The book is available online at http://www.amazon.com/Practitioners-Guide-Project-Management-Techniques-ebook/dp/B00MH69UEW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413760743&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Practitioner%E2%80%99s+Guide+to+Project+Management+%E2%80%93+Simple+Effective+Techniques+that+Deliver+Business+Value in both hard copy and electronic (Kindle) versions.

The net-net of this post is 2 fold.  First, using hand-sketched graphics in your communication facilitates retention and allows for visual reference through the project lifecycle.  Second, I highly recommend The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value. As a reference for project managers at all levels, but especially entry level or “accidental” project managers.   

·         The graphics in the book were composed by David Balan, Illustration & Sequential Art www.davidbalan.com

** Full disclosure, I have previously worked with Lynda Carter and know her outside of this blog.

This is a small video regarding how many organizations fund their programs for a year.  I am working on a new software package to start sharing knowledge via "whiteboard" snippets.

http://youtu.be/HiqO0EiivpI

We're All in This Together !!!

Dave

Hand Sketch Graphics Have Better Retention

There is a growing trend of using hand sketched icons, symbols, and graphics in documentation and presentations to emphasize main topics, increase reader retention, and better communicate the message.  More publications and tools are embracing this trend and providing a much better overall user experience.

I recently had the pleasure of reading the book: The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value.By Lynda Carter.  Lynda is a Project Management Consultant and Custom Training Development Specialist.  She has done work for Baldwin Wallace University and owns Competetive Edge Consulting ( http://www.cectraining.com/ ).  She has developed an extremely easy to navigate reference guide on project management.  She developed this with project management classes in mind and has had great success in using it as a reference for her project management training classes.

From a content perspective the book I spot on.  It lays out a very logical flow, set of reusable/scalable tools, and the business logic behind project management.  It includes many real life examples including real-world needs such as using KPIs as a leverage point to stakeholder relationships.  Her approach has provided me a new tool in my tool box.

But where the book stands out is the layout, it is top notch.  The book encompasses a great use of white space and a FANTASTIC use of supporting graphics and sketches. The picture below demonstrated this use of icons in defining components of the project and they are reused throughout the book.  I can see a lexicon like this being used throughout a project and words such as “the piggy bank” being used as the metaphor for financing.

Ms. Carter is utilizing an effective means of communication and taps into a growing trend.  I recently talked (if I call exchanging email, attending webinars, and exchanging Facebook posts talking) to Michael Deutsch, the product manager of Mindjet, about hand-sketched graphics, and he told me that there is a study that shows how hand-drawn sketches on slides help increase retention by a factor of 20% or more.  He indicated that one of the significant features of the new release of Mindjet Mindmanager is the inclusion of a set of hand drawn icons in four different colors.  They provide an effective visual message and categorization of thoughts, without the invasiveness of manufactured clips. 

Although I don’t see dominate graphics going away and being completely replaced by hand drawn sketches, the two have a great opportunity to work together.  And a project manager can now use simple sketches to tell the story of the project and propagate the message through many different communications in the project lifecycle.

One of Ms. Carter’s most effective techniques is establishing repeatable icons for use throughout the book.  When she introduces roles she does so with a graphic, as demonstrated in the image below, and then uses the icon at different points to emphasize the role in that aspect of the project.  For example, the big fingered sponsor is used later when the responsibility of the sponsor is discussed.

The book is available online at http://www.amazon.com/Practitioners-Guide-Project-Management-Techniques-ebook/dp/B00MH69UEW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413760743&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Practitioner%E2%80%99s+Guide+to+Project+Management+%E2%80%93+Simple+Effective+Techniques+that+Deliver+Business+Value in both hard copy and electronic (Kindle) versions.

The net-net of this post is 2 fold.  First, using hand-sketched graphics in your communication facilitates retention and allows for visual reference through the project lifecycle.  Second, I highly recommend The Practitioner’s Guide to Project Management – Simple Effective Techniques that Deliver Business Value. As a reference for project managers at all levels, but especially entry level or “accidental” project managers.   

·         The graphics in the book were composed by David Balan, Illustration & Sequential Art www.davidbalan.com

** Full disclosure, I have previously worked with Lynda Carter and know her outside of this blog. We actually collaborated on a Leadership research project that was delivered as a PMI webinar.  If you are a PMI member, you can view it online at:    http://www.pmi.org/Knowledge-Center/On-Demand_Webinars.aspx.