Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Ask Good Questions to Ensure Project Governance
Categories:
Stakeholder Management
Categories: Stakeholder Management
| Effective project management governance is becoming an important topic at all levels of many organizations. Project governance focuses on making sure the whole of an organization's project management system is effectively supporting its strategy. Good governance requires that the governing board sets the strategy and provides direction -- and not become involved in the day-to-day management of the organization. It's up to the organization's managers to implement the strategy and provide the board with the necessary assurances, information and advice needed to support the governance process. Good governance and optimum performance should be synonymous. And developing an efficient structure to ensure both is a subtle art. The directors need to ask their executive managers the right questions and the managers need to develop efficient systems that deliver the right answers. Paul A. Samuelson, an American economist said, "Good questions outrank easy answers." In other words, if you don't ask the right questions, you are unlikely to get the information you need to make good decisions. The governance processes need to focus on the aspects of project delivery that really matter. Some key questions to ask include: - Are we doing the right projects? - Do we have the optimum risk profile? - Do we have the resources and capability to accomplish the selected projects? - Are we properly supporting our project teams to encourage success? The challenge we face as project professionals is that most directors and senior executives have had limited exposure to effective project management systems. Concepts such as project portfolio management are relatively new and are still evolving. PMI is providing strong leadership in developing these concepts, but I find that execution of the work is largely occurring at operational management levels. The challenge we face as project management experts is educating our senior executives and directors to ask the right questions in order to help move the organization forward. We must encourage them to invest in developing the ability to effectively manage the organization's project management so the executives and directors can get meaningful answers. Effective project governance structure provides the optimum environment to allow project and program managers to deliver successful outcomes, so encouraging its development is in everyone's interest. How can you and your colleagues work to encourage the "right questions" in your organization? |
Rediscover Project Management Knowledge
Categories:
Reflections on the PM Life
Categories: Reflections on the PM Life
| Do you ever notice how after learning a concept many years ago, when you come across it again, you understand it either differently or better? As we experience "life" in project management -- managing various projects, working with new teams and wearing different hats on those teams -- we get to see various aspects of project management in action. We add to that knowledge from our own successes and failures. We usually refer to those experiences as growth and development. The experience alters how we see things and how we communicate with people: our teammates, suppliers, third party partners, customers and clients. It also alters how we perform work because we gain a new point of view or change in our current point of view. As such, it's valuable to review what you already know by reading through chapters of A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) to focus on the key areas that you work in, be it in risk management, scope management or resource scheduling. When you review the material after having had some experience, you not only remind yourself of what you learned initially, but you see it differently. You catch some elements that you didn't see how to implement before, or you recognize how to relate to something in a way that you didn't before. Having that "life" experience in project management alters how you see the material and how you apply it in everyday work. This happened to me when I reviewed the PMBOK® Guide recently. After reviewing the chapter on risk management, I realized that my company needed to include additional steps for how we handle a backup or restore operation. While many companies have testing strategies, ours only documented this step conceptually. I may not have noticed this if I hadn't reread the PMBOK® Guide. I challenge you to review the knowledge in the PMBOK® Guide and see how you can apply it to your active projects. Areas that you can improve on will turn up and will add value to your project management practice. How do you rediscover your project management knowledge? Have you rediscovered practices from the PMBOK® Guide recently? Editor's note: From 17 February - 20 March 2012, the exposure draft of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) -- Fifth Edition will be open for public review. Find out more and provide your recommendations and comments on the draft. Read more from Dmitri. |
Contagious Enthusiasm in Public Speaking
Categories:
Career Development
Categories: Career Development
| A few years ago, I was at a PMI chapter professional development day to give a presentation and attend some sessions. Between sessions, I saw a young man who worked for one of the conference sponsors reading something. I asked him what he was reading, and he said he was going over his notes for his upcoming presentation. "Excellent," I commented. "What will you be talking about?" Our product," he replied. Then he added, "I'm probably going to bore everyone." "Why would it bore everyone?" I asked. "Well," he said, "because it's a boring presentation." Now I was really intrigued. I asked again why it's boring and got a similar response: "It's just not very interesting." I kind of felt sorry for the guy, but thought maybe I could help him out. I continued, "Certainly, it's interesting to you. You must have some enthusiasm for the topic -- the product you are here to sell! How can you share that enthusiasm with the folks who will be listening?" "No," he replied, "I don't really find the topic interesting at all. I don't have any enthusiasm for it." You can't give what you haven't got -- and the most important thing you can have when speaking is your enthusiasm for your topic. But having enthusiasm isn't enough. You have to be enthusiastic, and you have to be able to share your enthusiasm with others. But the biggest inhibitor to sharing enthusiasm is self-consciousness. Therein, I believe, lays the great secret to effective public speaking. Public speaking is a giving act. You are giving of yourself - your insights, your experience, your enthusiasm, your knowledge, your stories, your being. The effective speaker is fully tuned in to the people he or she is speaking to - fully conscious of their presence, their reaction, their needs - fully other-conscious. This leaves no room for self. No room for self-consciousness. Next post, I'd like to explore this idea of being fully "other-conscious" a little more deeply. In the meantime, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts about how being "self-conscious" can inhibit a speaker's effectiveness. Get more career help. |
Make the Most of Your Agile Project Coach
| During your project management career, you may encounter an agile coach -- someone who helps you or your project team adopt and improve agile approaches. Let's look at four types of coaches and how to best utilize them: Fly in, fly out This is usually a consultant who comes for a one-time session. He can provide a fresh perspective from having worked with several organizations. Be sure the session is long enough for the coach to assess the state of your organization. Let his input be uninfluenced by your existing perceptions. Deploy the coach's suggestions in your own way or get him back for more extended consulting. If the coach's observations seem extreme, don't be surprised -- it may be necessary to get to the issues in a short amount of time. Continuous outsider This "contract coach" typically spends a few months advising a team or an individual. This arrangement offers more continuity, as the coach can observe the flow of the process through all stages and still maintain her independent view. To get the most of your contract coach, be sure to include her in most meetings of the teams being helped. Do not think of these coaches as separate from your team just because they are not regular employees. One insider Some agile coaches will work alone, as a full-time employee. This situation is advantageous because the coach can set clear direction for an agile team without a potential conflict of interest among his and the proper organizational strategy. While this arrangement assists in quicker implementation of decisions, it may not allow for as many fresh ideas. It can also be hard to scale the coaching effort to more agile teams as organizational needs grow. Team of insiders Some organizations employ an entire team of coaches, which is effective when working with difficult teams because the teams and coaches can support each other. For example, a team may have trouble adopting key practices, but pointers from another coach may help get the team unstuck. Multiple agile coaches can also balance the workload of coaching multiple teams so no one is overloaded. The hazard is that the coaches may splinter into competing ideas on how to execute agile. Establish a process for when the gurus do not agree on which agile practices should be emphasized. Strive for a balance of standards and the ability to evolve as new practices emerge from the profession or successful teams. In general, make sure there is synergy between your agile coaches, tools team, education people, and corporate governance or process definition body. How do you best work with an agile coach? See more posts on agile. See more posts on teams. |
Best Practices Improve Customer Experiences
Categories:
Best Practices
Categories: Best Practices
| In order to survive, project-driven organizations must compete on many levels. Delivering on time, to cost and with quality is always important -- but so is the interaction and customer experience they provide during the project. Project-driven organizations must consider customer satisfaction as a critical success factor. Organizations that deliver projects that disregard customer needs create negative experiences and ultimately cause huge problems for the organization. Typically, project teams that fail to capture what the customer actually needs or wants end up getting the product or service wrong. This can happen because:
In my experience, organizations with project management practices that deliver positive experiences are customer-focused and have proactive, sound processes in place. They also have dedicated, responsive teams who are flexible and able to satisfy customer needs. I believe the following practices can help deliver a positive customer experience:
See more posts from Saira Karim. See Taralyn R. Frasqueri-Molina's post on The Benefits of a Change Control Board. |