Voices on Project Management

by Dave Wakeman

As project managers we are charged with balancing the needs of the C-suite with the needs of the day-to-day project implementers.

The problem is that this central role often lacks any clear or formal power. So we must rely on strong and meaningful executive sponsor support.

But how can you cultivate that support? Here are three tips.

1) Talk to your executive about the project’s ROI.

Tell them why the project is important now, where it fits into the organization’s long-term goals and what it will mean to the executive and the organization if you succeed.

Then listen to your executive sponsor’s perception of the project and why they see it as important. This will ensure you are on the same page and will give you the ammunition you need to have productive conversations moving forward — especially handy if you end up needing additional resources during the project.

2) Set a schedule for project updates.

Don’t let the momentum built during your first conversation die. Keep the executive engaged in the project through regular communications. And let your team know you will be discussing the project with your executive sponsor on a regular basis — this will help you have more productive conversations on both sides. Regular conversations with your team and executives helps you avoid the messy and time-consuming challenge of bringing people up to speed when they have been out of the loop for long periods.

3) Come forward with solutions.

When your project hits a rough patch, you can ask for help, you can wait to be told what to do or you can come forth with solutions.

The choice is easy: Always lead with solutions based on your expertise as the project lead. You are likely to get more buy-in from your executive sponsor with this approach because you have made the decision easier for them and you are acting like a partner, and not just a subordinate.

And that’s it from me. What advice do you have for engaging executive sponsors throughout the project lifecycle?

(And, if you’re interested, PMI’s Executive Sponsor Engagement report has some additional info on this topic.) 

If you enjoyed this piece, you will really enjoy the weekly newsletter. It is my most personal and strategic content delivered each Sunday morning to your inbox. Make sure you never miss it! Sign up here or send me an email at [email protected]! 

By Marian Haus, PMP

Welcome to the age of digital transformation.

New technologies such as 3-D printing, augmented and virtual reality, and digital currencies are becoming commonplace. Connected and autonomous cars, and holographic displays are on the horizon. This is all on top of the various mobile devices—smartphones, tablets, laptops—that we can’t let go of.

All this has changed consumer expectations and behaviors for good. Services must be fast and easy-to-use (RIP user-manual/guide), fully transparent (in terms of product offering, quality, price), always available (24/7) and multi-device accessible (via desktop, mobile, wearables, etc.).

Fearful of being left behind, businesses look to understand and predict consumer needs through deep and semantic web search, machine learning and big data customer analytics.

The Upshot for Projects

But digital transformation is not only changing our lives and disrupting businesses. It’s also reshaping and speeding up project delivery models. The planning and execution of innovative projects in today’s digital era can no longer be done at the same pace, with the same methodologies and tools. To attain increased time-to-market results, speed and flexibility are key—so project managers must adapt their approaches.

So what’s a project manager to do? Here some thoughts.

1) Remain calm and confident! Remember when agile disrupted the well-established waterfall world? Project managers had to adapt their approach, toolsets and methodologies. We can adapt again.

2) Enable organizational and structural simplicity and dynamism. Foster flexible structures, smaller project teams and increasing collaboration within the project team. (Here are some tips on how to set up your team and organization.)

3) Improve execution speed by tailoring and simplifying your approach and methods. For instance, embark on some rapid prototyping as a proof of concept before implementing the final product. Or breakdown the project into several smaller projects that can move independently faster as together.

4) Foster new and innovative ideas. Encourage open-mindedness and increasing failure tolerance.

5) Focus on results, not process. Plans, Gantt-charts, budgets, forecasts, risk plans and stakeholder lists are important. But while prototyping or going through trial-and-error iterations during product development, don’t let methodology and specific techniques get in the way of the needed results.

6) Adapt your communication approach by providing stakeholders with rapid access to real-time project information. For example, establish an online project community that can easily be updated with the latest information. (Here are more ideas on how to improve communication.)

Finally, enjoy the exciting and intense times we leave in, driven by dynamism, innovation and more networking and collaboration than ever.

I’d like to hear from you on how you are managing projects and embracing change in the modern digital age.

By Lynda Bourne

PMI members and credential holders have an obligation to act sustainably. PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct asks us “to make decisions and take actions based on the best interests of society, public safety, and the environment.”  

The problem we all face is working out how to achieve this aspiration! 

The concept of sustainability (or the “triple bottom line”) is fairly well understood in business. It involves balancing economic interests with the needs of external stakeholders (society) and the environment:

The “economic” aspect of project management directly aligns with effective project management—delivering the project on time, on budget and with the required quality. This basic objective cannot be achieved without engaging effectively with at least part of your overall stakeholder community. So far, so good! 

The challenge project managers and their teams face is understanding how they can move beyond the traditional bottom line to take into consideration the needs of society and the environment. What do these terms mean and how can a project manager or team member make a difference?

Fortunately, there is a growing range of resources available to help us focus on the things that matter so we can make a difference.

Sustainable Goals

The starting point: the sustainable development goals that all members of the United Nations (U.N.) have signed up to achieve. On 25 September 2015, the U.N. General Assembly formally adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It comprises 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 169 associated targets.

Here are the goals:

Obviously, no project manager can tackle all 17 goals, let alone the 169 specific targets. But every project team can look through the goals and targets and find three or four that they can strive to achieve.

A couple of examples:

• Goal 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns. Target 5: substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse. Focus on this and you not only help the environment, you can also improve profitability!
• Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Target 8: Enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to empower women. Here’s a question: How can your team support working mothers, given that child care is still primarily undertaken by women?

Get ready: As governments and corporations move to achieve SDGs, trillions of dollars will be invested in projects to implement changes. 

Win-Win-Win Situations

The world’s governments and a growing number of corporations are increasingly focused on sustainability. Organizations are beginning to recognize they cannot survive if the society or environment they operate within fails.

Many aim to balance the three elements of sustainability to create win-win-win outcomes—meaning that positive social and environmental outcomes drive positive economic outcomes.

So what are the opportunities for project practitioners?

First, position yourself to take advantage of the demand for project managers that the pursuit of SDGs will create over the next few years. 

Second, practicing sustainable project management allows us to fulfill our ethical responsibilities to “make decisions and take actions based on the best interests of society, public safety, and the environment.”

How can your team help achieve the U.N. goals one project at a time? 

By Wanda Curlee

Blogger Stacey Higginbothan aptly notes that the Internet of Things (IoT) is now a part of our everyday lives and will eventually cause upheaval across the mobile industry.

As a portfolio manager, will you be at the forefront of the IoT revolution?

Over the past decade, IoT evolved from an area that only IT personnel really understood or dabbled in to something widely understood—and invested in—by organizations around the world.

Look around. Today, IoT is changing industries and the way our appliances and apps work with each other, and us.

Manufacturing plants can use a mobile app to change a light bulb’s color based on the situation. So, for example, software can monitor how many returns are received and change the light’s color once a certain number is reached. The app can also change the bulb’s color when items have to be packaged, when there’s a safety situation or when deliveries arrive.

The opportunities are only limited by the imagination—and by which information can be measured or reported by an app. Imagine: a fire alarm is pulled, and all the lights in the facility change color.

Forward-thinking companies are taking full advantage of IoT and making a business of it. You may have seen advertisements for the Amazon Echo, which has been “married” with other IoT technologies to create new applications.

What It Means for Portfolio Managers

Having read all this, can you think how a portfolio manager might benefit from the IoT explosion? If you understand the enterprise picture of your company and industry, you’re in a good position to think about IoT applications that your company can use, or an IoT need that your company might fulfill for customers.

The portfolio manager is in a great position to ask questions about how IoT can revolutionize various projects/programs within the enterprise. What about partnering with another firm that produces something entirely different? Is there an area where your industry needs to reduce cost, increase safety or be more effective?

Remember, you could ask the question that sparks the next big development in IoT.

Stay tuned for my next blog post, about how the IoT will impact the mobile industry.

By Dave Wakeman

A topic I’ve come back to again and again on this blog is the need to ensure that communications skills and practices give you the best opportunity to act as a project leader—not just a facilitator.

The key tool that we project managers have to manipulate the outcome of our projects is communication. As we spend more and more time figuring out how to become strategic partners of our sponsors, it’s imperative that we think of communication skills as a weapon we deploy to achieve business goals.

Here are three areas that I think project managers can focus on to transform communications skills into strategic assets.

Always talk in terms of outcomes and achievements. I have a client that says, “I’m a big picture guy.” To try to talk with him about tactical things would be doing us a disservice.

To use your communications skills as a strategic tool, you need to take this same approach to your own conversations. Focus on what you are trying to achieve and what the outcomes that deliver value will look like. When you talk like this, you become a stronger partner to your stakeholders and you are likely to inspire a stronger following from your team because you are focused on the outcomes—and not on micromanaging every task.

Have a framework for your communications. As a project manager, I’m sure you love having a framework for most of the activities that you undertake. Why should your communications be any different?

Such a framework doesn’t need to be complex. Try a simple one like this:

1) Motivate: Begin by pumping your team and your partners up so they are excited and energized by what you are working on. You can do this pretty simply by focusing on achievements thus far, outcomes, and progress.

2) Teach: Share what you need everyone to learn. Teach your audience to see the project in the way that you do.

3) Reinforce: Make sure you confirm that everyone is on the same page. This is vital.

Invest the necessary time and energy. To become more focused and strategic with your communication practices, you’re going to have to invest some time in your relationships. For several reasons, but most importantly, you are going to need to know the goals and objectives of your key stakeholders. And you are going to need to understand how they like to be communicated with.

Without these key concepts in your toolbox, your communications are likely to fall flat. There is no real shortcut here. You just have to really be willing to listen and talk honestly with your stakeholders and team members to develop a relationship that can withstand the challenges that every project faces.

 If you enjoyed this piece, you will really enjoy the weekly newsletter. It is my most personal and strategic content delivered each Sunday morning to your inbox. Make sure you never miss it! Sign up here or send me an email at [email protected]!