Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
WBS and Schedule Network Diagrams: Unsung Heroes of Project Management
Categories:
New Practitioners
Categories: New Practitioners
| If I asked you how to bake a cake, you'd probably tell me to mix the ingredients in a bowl, pour the batter into a tin and bake until golden brown. But that's a deceptively simple answer for what is actually a multi-tiered process. In project management, you must detail every step needed to get the project done and the precise order in which to complete them. New project managers may not be used to doing things this way. Work breakdown structures (WBS) and schedule network diagrams can help them in forming a project management plan. A WBS illustrates all of the work that needs to get done to accomplish the objectives of the project, in order of importance. To create a WBS, you subdivide project elements into manageable components and keep breaking them down until you reach the work package level. A schedule network diagram visually depicts of how all the tasks in your schedule string together. While the WBS shows you how many tasks you have to accomplish, the schedule network diagram shows the order those tasks need to happen. Most tasks people perform on a daily basis aren't explicitly dependent on the order in which they occur. And when order does matter, we usually engage in that activity naturally. Our natural ability to skip details and abridge processes can save us time in everyday life. But this "normal" behavior could lead to disaster on a project where some tasks must precede or succeed others. Project managers might lose an opportunity to shorten schedules or see which tasks can run in parallel, for example. Do you use a WBS or schedule network diagram in your projects? |
An Agile Team's Recipe for Success
| In my experience coaching teams, I've found that some stand out in terms of productivity. Cathy Baker, PMP, is the certified ScrumMaster for one of my favorite agile teams. She has managed projects for 11 years, currently in the healthcare industry. Her team is a good example of a group that has learned from practical experience. I interviewed Ms. Baker to get her take on how her team improved efficiency and quality. Your team seems to really 'get' agile. What do you feel are the key success factors for your team? Ms. Baker: Strict adherence was certainly one. Rather than trying to bend the rules we were learning, we followed the practices by the book at first. We are gatekeepers of the process with each other. It is not me, the ScrumMaster, doing it. The whole team monitors the process. They challenge each other with questions like, "Is that what we should be doing?" So you didn't stray from the agile books? Ms. Baker: After we became fluent in agile, we changed our stand-up meeting to go task by task instead of person by person. Good retrospectives were also a key factor. Creative ideas helped us take agile beyond where we started and made it a custom fit for our team. So your team didn't start out as agile experts? Ms. Baker: Oh, no. They weren't born that way. They were tried and true waterfall folks. They were used to heavy plans that left little flexibility for change. Most of them had 15-plus years experience each using waterfall methodologies. What prompted you to go agile? Ms. Baker: Management wanted development to go faster and to produce more in less time. Was there resistance to agile at first? Ms. Baker: Yes. We heard "This is not going to work," "We'll be back to waterfall in six months," "Why are they making us do this?" "This is just a fad that's going to pass." What benefits do you find using agile? Ms. Baker: Agile is definitely more fun because we are so self-organized. We are more efficient and have moderately increased our quality of projects. We have such high buy-in among the team now; people get more and more out of the process as time goes on. I notice you use a physical taskboard to track tasks? Ms. Baker: It works. It's clear. 'If it isn't broke, don't fix it.' Of course, the taskboard has been a handicap with the one team member who meets with us by phone, but she can see a related spreadsheet. I do feel like one of our reasons for success is because all but one of us are located in the same place. Most members have worked on the same team together and average eight years of experience. There is a lot of respect. Thanks, Cathy for sharing your recipes for success: adherence, retrospectives, taskboards and self-organization. |
Successful Project Review Meetings
| I recently attended one of the most focused and efficient project review meetings I've ever been to. It was conducted as a workshop to review the project recommendations proposed to the team. I wanted to share why I thought it worked so well. Picture this: There was a workshop organizer, who facilitated the meeting. We sat in a large room that could seat about 10-12 people. There were representatives from various suppliers. It was quiet and we were the only ones generating conversations in that space. No cell phones were allowed. The rules for the review, which were developed and distributed beforehand by the organizer, outlined how we would share our ideas, record decisions and deal with issues that arose outside of the agenda. All participants were reminded that on-the-spot decision-making was required. The purpose and the goal of the review were clarified. All participants had to either agree or disagree with each decision. If there was a disagreement, a discussion took place to clarify the requirements and bridge the gap to reach a final decision. Having senior decision-makers present allowed us to get through all the points with velocity. We were able to not only review the proposed changes, but also make policy decisions on the spot and discuss relevant details without doubts or assumptions. We recorded anything that needed further work, like the identified gaps, as actions. Project teams spend many hours in project meetings, especially when teams are not well connected in purpose, goals and operating as a group. As a result, these teams end up having multiple meetings before generating decisions. When sub teams within a project have their own meetings to work out their portion of a solution in a vacuum, for example, it's easy to spend a portion of a project time unproductively, without reaching important decisions. In general, I find that many meetings are often not as productive as they could ultimately be. They take place more frequently than this type of a focused workshop. What can you take away from this? Before the meeting or workshop consider setting expectations, be clear on the rules and format, and have each participant agree on how the meeting or workshop is going to be structured and what is expected from each and every one of the participants. What do you think is essential for a successful project solution or review meeting? Editor's Note: Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy, Daniel Poneman, also discusses a successful approach to project review meetings in the final portion of his February 2011 podcast for PM Network® magazine. |
What Elevators Can Teach Us About Project Management
| People in elevators fall into two broad groups: One group walks into the car, pushes the button and waits for the control system to do its job. The second group has what I call Advanced Button Pushing Syndrome (ABPS). They believe that the more they push the buttons, the faster the elevator will move. Of course, second and subsequent button pushes add no value at all, but when an elevator arrives after someone pushed the button six times, they truly believe it made a difference. Some people need to feel in control, even if they aren't. ABPS can be found in the workplace, too. When a project is running behind schedule or over budget, it's the equivalent of a slow responding elevator. Project managers with ABPS may demand additional meetings or more frequent reports from the project team. Time and money could be better spent working on the project deliverables, but these resources are diverted to placate the manager's need for control --to the detriment of the project. Unfortunately, when the project is eventually delivered, the project manager believes all of the extra reports and meetings helped achieve the outcome. But correlation is not the same as causation. Unfortunately, there is no easy way of measuring how much sooner the project would have finished if the resources had not been diverted by the manager's ABPS. This isn't a clear-cut situation. It's easy to go from requesting useful information that will help inform decisions to a situation where the requested reports and meetings are actually counterproductive. The next time you are considering requesting more reports or extra meetings, think about ABPS. Will the diversion from the project's work be constructive or detrimental? Do you know of project managers who suffer from ABPS in the workplace? How did it affect the project outcome? |
Mobile Project Management
Categories:
Nontraditional Project Management
Categories: Nontraditional Project Management
| Emerging technologies are changing the dynamics of project team leadership and communication. And the way people have begun using mobile platforms is presenting some challenges. Prior to 2006, mobility had a very narrow landscape. Organizations that allowed their work force to have cell phones were usually restricted to one carrier, platform and equipment model. The majority of these phones were used for e-mail and conversations. Fast-forward to January 9, 2007 and the introduction of the iPhone, which introduced users to a world of new mobile capabilities. While users immediately wanted to start using the iPhone at work, IT, security and cost issues made it impossible for many to do so. And to compound the problem, additional devices continued to appear with exciting, productive new features. Over the last few years, many organizations have caught on and begun to take advantage of these mobile work force capabilities. Such resources have introduced many intriguing possibilities for project managers as well. But this also means that now project teams are working across multiple platforms with unique requirements and configurations, which can cause performance and compatibility issues. Some organizations are taking such steps as implementing mobile application program interface (API) layers in their infrastructure, referred to as "Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms" (MEAPs). They allow users to run software shells on their devices and overcome platform differences while providing access to disparate tools. Other organizations have simply decided to continue to limit their work force to one standard device, choosing to take advantage of some new device capabilities and sacrifice others. Because this challenge is in its infancy, we've yet to see a solution. Can all of your mobile project team members effectively interact with conflicting mobile platforms? If not, do you have a plan to mitigate this? How is this situation affecting your project team? |