Managing Project Dependencies
| Projects don't run in silos or in a vacuum. They run in organized, chaotic environments where everyone is working toward the end result. There's nothing wrong with that--it's how organizations achieve multiple results in a short period of time. The key, of course, is to manage all these changes and interdependent projects. But what if you are part of a project that's not a part of any program or portfolio with an assigned program or portfolio manager or director? How do you manage those interdependencies that are not part of your scope? In my view, it's a matter of paying attention and linking yourself to three key areas: • Organization: Culture, processes, standards, rules, events, special blackout periods, etc. • Operations: Operational teams responsible for change management, incident management, delivery and quality management/control • Project Delivery: Such as a project management office or a business committee or unit that's responsible for project delivery No matter what dependencies may exist, they will be manifested through these three main channels. |
Integrity in Project Management
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| Acting with integrity with other project team members implies being honest with them--and clear about your expectations, intentions and opinions of the work they do. As a project manager, one has to have integrity in order to sell to the project team the need to succeed and deliver the project on time, on budget and within the scope of the project. Not only will the team members buy into the plan of action and your project management methodology, they will also become a solid extension of you and remain committed to going out there and getting the job done. Here are three tips for acting with integrity: Be Impartial: Be fair and objective. Listen to both sides of the story, various opinions, without attaching oneself to any specific one due to prejudice or favoritism. Objective decision-making fleshes out the problems and allows teams to get to the bottom of them rather than patching them. Be Thorough: Finish tasks completely, in a comprehensive manner. I find that being thorough in project planning activities means evaluating project requirements and any gaps in details. It also means validating steps against the chosen project management methodology. This ensures a much more comprehensive project management plan and that supporting documentation is produced. Be Focused on the End Business Result: No matter when team members are introduced, they should verify--within the scope of their project role--initial business requirements and the work that is being requested of them. This allows them to provide their own input based on their subject matter expertise and strengthens the chances for project success. |
The Right Information For the Right People
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| My last post highlighted the challenges of designing a project communication system that works. Now I will try to suggest a few solutions. To quote Peter Taylor's book, The Lazy Project Manager, "Reporting is not communicating." Executives don't have time to read fantastically accurate and detailed reports--people are simply too busy to take that kind of deep dive. But at least some of that detail is important. My suggestions to resolve this conundrum are: • Separate push and pull communications. Make the detail available in a repository such as a project portal) where people who need the detail can easily retrieve it (pull). Anything you send out (push) should focus on the highlights and information that requires action. • Separate history from future. Reporting what happened last week is of no value to the project unless it contains information that will influence future decisions. Historical data is needed by accountants and business administrators. project leaders and team members need information that is forward-looking, focusing on what might happen in the future and what needs to be done to improve the situation. • Focus on the needs of the receivers. Make sure you give your audience the information they need to help make the project successful. Team members need to know what work to do in the next week or two. Managers need to know what they have to decide. Achieving this type of communication requires planning and information design. Each element of the overall controls system needs to be elegantly designed to support both management decision-making and the work of the project. More importantly, the communication effort needs to focus on the important stakeholders who influence success: both internally to leaders within the team and externally to decision makers and influencers. (More on this later.) And remember Cohn's Law: The more time you spend in reporting on what you are doing, the less time you have to do anything. Stability is achieved when you spend all your time reporting on the nothing you are doing. |
Show Your Appreciation
| Acknowledging people for the contribution they make to a project team or to their organization is such a simple matter. It's something I say repeatedly wherever I can get on my "soapbox": We can acknowledge people at any time, at no cost, without having to buy anything, install software or study an instruction manual. Last night my soapbox was a live webinar attended primarily by project managers from all over the world, including Hong Kong, China, India, Brazil and the United States. During the seminar I asked participants, "How do you feel when you complete a project that you put your whole heart, soul, body, mind and spirit into for the past several months, the users love the end result and your manager gives you nothing more than a quick 'thank you?" This was the response via text chat: Thomas: discouraged Tanya: feel used Srikrithiga: not interested to work James: discouraged Suganthi: Discouraged James: feel indifferent Sanjib: feeling of being empty--what was I doing all the time? Ravindra: No motivation Tanya: I won't give my best effort Linda: lack of loyalty Linda: feeling insecure, not as interested in working so hard Fabricio: lack of motivation Jade: feel not being valued, lack of respect Then I asked, "How do you feel if your manager tells you what a difference your work made to the project team, how your contribution made the project a success, how much the users loved it, that she was getting wonderful feedback on it, and that the next time you would get more resources so you didn't have to work so many nights and weekends?" And they answered: James: I would feel appreciated; that motivates me Shelley: Motivated...willing to give an even greater effort Linda: enthusiastic Ravindra: I would make extra efforts Mariano: I would feel like a giant Jade: more loyalty Linda Benedict: my confidence would be boosted by the acknowledgement Srikrithiga: I would give 200% for work Performance, loyalty, engagement, confidence, motivation, self-worth are all functions of acknowledgment rather than compensation. Especially during these challenging economic times--when everyone is working harder and having to do more--let's do our best to create a culture of appreciation in which people know their value and their worth. There could be nothing simpler and more satisfying and with greater results. |
Project Controls & Communication
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| Describing scheduling, earned value management (EVM) and financial management as "project controls" is, I would suggest, dangerous! The steering mechanism on a car is a control system. You move the steering wheel, and the front wheels turn and if the car is in motion, its direction of travel is altered. Control systems cause a change. Altering the duration of a task in a schedule, or calculating the current cost performance index and estimate at completion for an EVM report changes nothing. All you have is new data. If the data is going to cause a change, it needs to be communicated to the right people. They need to receive, understand and believe the data--this changes the data into information. Then they need to use this new information to change their future behaviors. This is a communication process. The challenge facing schedulers and other controls staff is recognizing their primary role is communication not controls. Certainly they need to be able to gather and process information effectively but this is wasted effort without equally effective communication. Other challenges include: • Identifying the right people to communicate with--the project manger is the only one • Formatting the data in a way that can be easily understood by the receiver. Without understanding, there will be no action. • Focusing the information on what matters in the future No one can change the past and it's always too late to change the present. The only value a project control tool can offer is to influence future actions and decisions. This requires making schedules, cost plans and the like as simple as possible to improve communication and facilitate understanding by the project team. Only after the project team fully understands the information can you expect them to use the information to make wise decisions about future actions. |
