Voices on Project Management

Isabel Aguilera kicks off PMI^® Global Congress 2016—EMEA in Barcelona, Spain on Monday.

By Cyndee Miller

I’ve seen my fair share of temples and churches. And truth be told, I thought I was pretty cathedraled-out — until I saw Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia as part of my pre-congress adventures. I’m not even going to try to capture its spectacular glory in words. (I’m just not that good.) But as I went wandering the streets after my visit, I kept thinking about it in terms of the project management involved—the budget, the schedule, the risk management.

And then, what should appear on the first morning of PMI^® Global Congress—EMEA but a PMI Barcelona Chapter video highlighting the Sagrada Familia, along with five other iconic efforts in the “city of projects.” (And that doesn’t even count the magnificent Camp Nou.)

Of course, times are changing for project managers in Spain and around the world. And with business in so much flux, there’s huge opportunity for innovation—powered by what keynoter Isabel Aguilera dubbed “disruptive creativity.”

Darwin’s Law—adapt to change—is so 2015. The winners don’t just follow change, they make it, said the former Google and GE exec.

So what’s the upshot?

First, project managers should view themselves as “transformers”—the people on the frontlines of rapid change creating not just new products and services but new platforms. “You, the project managers, are the transformers are our economies, of our business models” she said.

Second, don’t be afraid to get obsessed with the Next Big Thing. The companies that win the future will think like a startup, even if they’re already global giants. “A startup mindset is like a headache—it’s a way of thinking, you can’t let go of a idea,” Ms. Aguilera said. “Think like a gladiator.”

And think like the customer. Don’t let your organization assume it understands the customers it wants to win. Watch closely to learn what they need, and what they may not realize they need.

“We all need to talk with our customers to discover their needs,” she said. “Sometimes it’s also good to see, to watch, how customers are doing their daily tasks.” 

In the end, though, Ms. Aguilera said project managers have a simple, but noble quest: “The goal is always to make life better for human beings.”

By Cyndee Miller

My modus operandi is straight-up realist. But deep down inside, I admit there are times when I think I’m special — that I will somehow emerge as the grand exception to the rule.

We all do.

“People are wildly optimistic about everything,” said author, academic and psychologist Daniel Gilbert, a keynoter at PMO Symposium™. His dispiriting findings show people are terrible at estimating odds because they “confuse the ease of imagining something with the odds of it happening.”

And project, program and portfolio managers have no special powers against optimism bias, either.

One prime example: the infamous Big Dig. The tunnel construction megaproject was originally slated to be finished in 1998. The team’s worst-case scenario? 2000. Its best-case estimate? 1998 — the same as the official completion estimate. Actual completion date? 2006. 

Gilbert pushed symposium attendees to move past wishful thinking and ask themselves: “Have I used my imagination or have I just let it use me?”

For better or worse, my imagination tends to go into overdrive when I see any list of business trends. It’s like catnip for my brain.

As Ford Motor Co.’s resident futurist, closing-day keynoter Sheryl Connelly tries to move the team beyond visions of the future that merely extrapolate from the past.

“My role is to slow down the conversation long enough to say, ‘What are the underlying assumptions upon which you base your plan?’”

In those kinds of discussions, project professionals can’t be afraid to challenge status quo thinking.

“Not for the sake of being the contrarian in the room, but to expand your organization’s eyes to the possibilities, the range of things that can really happen,” she said.

Threats aren’t just coming from the usual competitors anymore. They’re bubbling up from entirely different categories, like how hotel companies didn’t see Airbnb coming, she said.

Echoing Gilbert’s call for realism, Connelly recommended scenario planning across the whole range of possible futures: world peace and vanishing poverty on one end, and cataclysmic suffering and economic depression on the other.

“When you explore these two extreme possibilities, the goal is to try and come up with business plans,” she said. “Solutions can work at either end of the spectrum. If you can do that, then you don’t need to know the future. You just know that you have a really robust plan that can weather just about anything you can imagine.”

Futurist title or not, that’s just solid risk management.

Connelly also offered up four big trends to look for: aging populations, urbanization, talent shortages and girl power. And indeed, we’re already seeing plenty of project management action on those fronts.

As of now, there’s one prediction I’m pretty sure I can make: I’ll be heading to San Diego, California, USA for next year’s symposium on 6-9 November. 

Navy Federal Credit Union's PMO leaders accept the award.

By Cyndee Miller

There’s a big old gap between Project Land and the C-suite. Yet projects, programs and portfolios are how execs get the work done.  And it often falls to the project management offices (PMO) to make that case — because no PMO is going to get very far without backing from the corner office.

So no surprise that while accepting this year’s PMO of the Year Award at PMO Symposium™, one of the first things Kristin Earley of Navy Federal Credit Union singled out was executive support.

“Our CIO and deputy CIO have been the champions in so many forms and have supported all of our initiatives year after year,” said Earley.

With a seat at the executive table, they advocated for growing the PMO to ensure the organization’s IT portfolio remained aligned to strategy — even as it expanded by more than 50 percent. That effort paid off:  The percentage of projects closing according to plan jumped from 55 percent to 83 percent year-over-year.

“We’ve reached the point of becoming the backbone of project delivery,” said Earley.

And in a lovely twist of fate, the award was presented on the U.S.’s Veterans Day holiday, a fitting tribute to the PMO’s work. “Our mission is easy to get behind,” she said. “We serve the military and their families.”

Earley also graciously recognized the other two finalists for the award: Ticketmaster International and Symcor. Look for in-depth case studies of Navy Federal and the two finalists in upcoming issues of PM Network. And check out videos of each on PMI’s YouTube channel.

Anthony Gaytor of HP on stage at PMI's PMO Symposium™ on Tuesday.

By Cyndee Miller 

Have you ever stood in the grocery store, staring at 18 different varieties of Greek yogurt, paralyzed by choice? I have. We live in a world of ever-growing choice and complexity — and it’s making me crave simplicity.

Now we’re talking about my measly US$1.50 purchase. So what does that mean for organizations dealing with a whole portfolio of projects?

Well, it seems they face a similar dilemma based on the lively conversations at PMO Symposium™. Much of that discussion centered on the 2015 PMI^® Thought Leadership Series: The Power of Project Portfolio Management, produced in partnership with Deloitte, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and The Economist Intelligence Unit.

“We need to keep things simple,” said Chris Garibaldi of Deloitte. “It’s not about implementing all the capabilities of project portfolio management. You can have too many tools, too many processes.”

Even in these metrics-obsessed, data-drenched times, Garibaldi said a handful of KPIs and just one dashboard view of the project portfolio’s health can provide enough clarity for portfolio managers and the C-suite they support.

Process and technology are critical components of portfolio management, but, he said, “people first—always.”

And those people must go in armed with the courage to kill a project out of whack with strategy.

“We have to create a culture that makes it okay to stop projects and reinvest those resources somewhere else,” said Jennifer Bratton of BCG, who spoke at the symposium’s opening plenary session.

With the business environment changing so fast, organizations can’t afford to waste money and time on the wrong projects.

“You’ve got to invest in individuals that will call out failures because it’s right for the business,” Bratton said.

Anthony Gaytor has been living that at HP Enterprise, as the global organization worked to get its arms around a sprawling portfolio of internal IT projects.

“If you don’t have the strategy at the core of everything you’re doing, you may not be working on the right things,” Gaytor said in his keynote address. Without effective portfolio management, “you’re dead before you start.”

And to keep things moving, you’re going to need exec support — so learn to speak fluently in the language of the C-suite.  “If you talk IT speak or project language, they’re never going to listen to you.”

The strategic approached is clearly working for HP’s internal IT portfolio, which the company has sliced from 1,240 to 500 projects in just a few years. On-time delivery has increased by 20 percent and the portion of innovation (rather than support) projects has jumped from 30 percent to 80 percent.

Gaytor attributed those results in part to KISS: the old adage, “keep it simple, stupid.” Every project is now judged on just six KPIs.

Portfolio management is about always keeping an eye out for ways to trim the fat — so all that’s left is “doing the right thing at the right time with the right outcomes,” he said.

Sounds so very simple — and sensible. So why do so few organizations do it?

SAP CEO Bill McDermott at the 2015 PMO Symposium™.

By Cyndee Miller

Long hours at the office, getting pulled in a million directions, on the cusp of burning out. And the worst part is that you can’t remember what the point of it all is. It’s not pretty­.

“It’s exhausting when you’re working on the wrong strategy,” said Bill McDermott, CEO of enterprise application software giant SAP, as he kicked off PMO Symposium™ in Phoenix Arizona, USA.

From where he sits leading a US$18 billion company with 74,500 employees, leadership boils down to having the right vision.

“People make mistakes,” McDermott said. But “the one thing a leader will not be forgiven for is a bad vision or a bad strategy.”

And project portfolio leaders must never relinquish their own power to weigh in on flaws they see in the strategy, he said.

“Don’t be afraid to elevate the debate. Maybe it’s the wrong project or it’s ill-conceived and we need to rethink it.”

Killing off a project that no longer makes sense, or never did in the first place, comes with its rewards: “Just doing that might make you feel like you had a week’s worth of sleep.”

Easy for some uber successful CEO to say, right? But McDermott contends everyone can learn to develop their strategic powers.

“You can learn this,” he explained. “It’s a skill and it can be developed.”

True leaders, he noted, don’t dwell on the past or present. They understand the core of their organization and imagine a better future aligned with customers’ precise needs.

They also know how to inspire others to act. “Vision is not only what you see,” said. McDermott. “It’s what you feel and it’s what you make other people feel.”

That, of course, requires that leaders know what matters to their team members (yes, beyond the project) and be willing to invest in their project talent. Companies shouldn't sacrifice a commitment to education for quarterly results, McDermott said.

Not every CEO would be willing to make that kind of statement. It takes vision.