Voices on Project Management

by Cyndee Miller

When I think bleeding-edge tech, water and sewage systems aren’t the first things that come to mind. But DC Water—the 2020 PMO of the Year Winner—snapped me out my narrow views. The utility is responsible for delivering clean water to residents and businesses in Washington, D.C., USA. And it saw an opportunity for technology to help it do that job more efficiently.

Led by its IT PMO, DC Water leaned into what is now a US$11.3 million project portfolio full of industry 4.0 tech—always intent on making sure the utility’s innovations deliver on its business purpose.

“We work at the luxury of the business itself. We’re not here to simply deliver technology. We’re here to deliver technology that solves a business problem,” says Tom Kuczynski, vice president of IT, DC Water.

So what does that look like in real life? Behold the first-of-its-kind tool called Pipe Sleuth, which analyzes video captured by autonomous robots to identify and classify anomalies, be they structural cracks or grease build-ups. The technology, which DC Water now sells to other utilities, eliminates the risk of human error—reducing the cost of scanning and coding flaws by roughly 75 percent.

The PMO has also changed the utility’s approach to cutting costs. In 2015, DC Water’s operational costs were increasing by 6 percent annually. When senior leaders asked how IT could help bring that number down, the PMO accelerated the utility’s digital transformation and moved its operations to the cloud, cutting operational costs by 6 percent, which translated to a savings of US$2 million per year.

It’s not all about slashing overhead. The PMO’s innovations also ensure a clean, safe water supply. For example, using internet of things tech, DC Water and industrial automation company GrayMatter developed a device that monitors the water quality in public drinking fountains—turning them off when readings hit a certain level. The utility deployed it in its hometown school system, but sells this tech to other utilities, too. With a grant from the Elon Musk Foundation, DC Water is working with its partners to install 115 fountains in Flint, Michigan, USA.

Positive social impact—with a positive bounce on the bottom line, giving DC Water another revenue stream.

That kind of innovation shows how PMOs fuel true business value. And while DC Water took the top spot among this year’s PMO of the Year finalists, it found itself in good company:

• Emaar Properties PJSC, Group Operations: Dubai is home to some of the most iconic buildings in the world: The Burj Khalifa, The Dubai Mall, The Dubai Fountain. It’s up to Emaar Properties to make sure visitors and residents get world-class service—and that includes increasing the eco-efficiency of its buildings. Decreasing water usage, energy consumption, carbon emissions and waste promised to increase customer satisfaction—and cut costs. So the PMO launched 26 projects in 2018 alone that contributed to a 11 percent drop in electricity use that year compared to 2016.
• Kern Health Systems: Kern Health Systems (KHS) provides access to medical coverage for 280,000 recipients of Medicaid, the U.S. government’s healthcare program for low-income individuals. To make the most of taxpayer dollars, the KHS enterprise PMO partners with the organization’s business intelligence team to prioritize projects that promise the most meaningful results. That focus on data transformed the organization. From 2017 to 2019, the portion of projects that delivered intended benefits jumped from 78 percent to 95 percent.

Dive into a more detailed recap of the three projects in the PM Network digital exclusive. Then head over to PMI’s YouTube channel to learn more about each finalist on the PMO playlist and explore full case studies in the January/February issue of PM Network.

by Emily Luijbregts

One of the greatest things you can bring to a project is your ability to manage and deal with the expectations of your team and stakeholders. How many times have you struggled with people making assumptions about how something should be done or when they should receive the final deliverable? All of this can be managed with effective expectation management.

When I’m coaching junior project managers, I encourage them to look at expectation management as setting the ground rules for a successful project and engagement. Having clear expectations ensures everyone is aware of what’s going to happen, what’s expected of them in the project and, more importantly, what they can expect from you as a leader.

In the project kickoff meeting, spend time working through this topic as a team so each person can spell out preferred working styles and communication methods as well as establish the factors for achieving success as a team.

As a project manager, you need to make sure that your role as leader is clear and everyone knows what they can expect from you. This doesn’t just include how you will manage them individually, but also what you can give them within the project. For me, I state they can expect that:

1. I will always have your back and support you.
2. I will not forego your professional development or demand more of you than is reasonable.
3. I will trust your expertise and skill as a subject matter expert to deliver what is needed.

I consider my role in projects as a servant leader. I’m there to support my team of experts and give them the environment they need to be able to excel—and deliver. Having clear guidance, expectations and rules helps and supports this endeavor.

I would strongly recommend you avoid forcing, accusing or belittling any of the team whilst making these rules clear—it will only lead to resentment and conflict. Bring each of these rules to the team constructively and openly and explain why it’s important for you. For example, if one of the ground rules is no trash talking, you should provide a rationale, such as: Negativity and conflict can happen so easily in projects, but speaking poorly of your colleagues won’t help. If you have an issue, bring it to your project manager or discuss with the person themselves.

By raising these issues early, you’re being proactive in identifying the issue at hand and working toward a solution. I have yet to see an organization that does not react positively when presented with these questions in an open and constructive way.

What are some of the ways you effectively manage expectations?

by Cyndee Miller

I know it’s only November, but I’m done with 2020. Alas, I have not yet mastered time travel. So I headed to the latest PMI Virtual Experience Series: “A Deep Dive in Business Analysis: Drawing a Map to the Future.” Yup, sign me up. I am so ready to draw that map for me and my team. Now, admittedly I am not particularly sports-obsessed, but American football coach Katie Sowers and tennis analyst Craig O’Shannessy offered up some great stuff on resilience. Hint: It starts with purpose.

“No matter what it is that we do, if we don’t have a why, we’re not going to be the best version of ourselves,” said Sowers, the first woman and the first openly LGBT coach in the National Football League.

The trailblazing leader also recognized that although COVID has spurred insecurity, it’s also provided an unexpected push that may guide us along the right path. “As hard as these times have been, it’s led to more communication, better preparation, and an environment where we have to find that internal motivation, which is really more permanent than external motivation,” Sowers said.

For O’Shannessy, it’s about understanding yourself—and your opponents: “You’ve gotta conquer yourself. You’ve gotta conquer your demons and really bring it together.”

And O’Shannessy knows of what he speaks, having coached some of the best tennis players in the world, including Novak Djokovic and rising star Matteo Berrettini. Project leaders looking to keeping their own teams motivated should focus on positive reinforcement—backed by data. “I go to the analytics and look for red flags and green flags,” he said. “I always make short highlight videos of the player excelling in a specific area. I’m constantly delivering these videos showing them excelling. When they see themselves out there doing well, it really works.”

Pre-pandemic, resilience was all about looking at risk versus preparedness, but now it’s data  driving the action, said FTI Consulting’s Caroline Das-Monfrais. “You cannot have a resilient organization without data.”

Yet processes and data can only take you so far, she said. “At the end of the day you need people. People are the critical enabler of resilience.”

And those people need to be more fearless about getting their POV across, said PMI’s Sunil Prashara. “Get it on the table and talk openly and equally.” Today’s ultra-VUCA world demands true changemakers, and it’s no longer enough for organizations and their project leaders to be agile—they have to be gymnastic.

Building resilience means people growing comfortable with uncertainty and focusing on “the little things they actually can control,” said journalist-turned-poker champ Maria Konnikova. Naturally, this is terrifying for most of us. Who wants to lose control? But when you trust the process, you can push forward and accomplish more. “You need to act, you need to actually take the plunge, knowing that you will never have perfect information,” she said.

Project leaders should “be curious about what you’re doing,” she said. You can’t manage a project well if it bores you or you’re checked out. “Find something in it that will actually engage you.”

Want more? Get ready for the next Experience PMI event, “Going the Distance: Forging Our Path Forward,” slated for 9 December: http://ow.ly/VCES50ChQg5.

How are you keeping your team motivated?

by Kevin Korterud 

It used to be that projects that were typically small in size, localized to a single team, and compartmentalized to the point where they didn’t collide when it came to schedules and resources. Over time, projects began to be packaged into programs that involved larger teams as well as a greatly expanded technology footprint. To manage these complexities of modern-day project delivery, organizations are increasingly turning to enterprise program management offices (EPMOs) or enterprise delivery management offices (EDMOs) that span waterfall and agile initiatives.

The need—and demand—for enterprise PMOs and DMOs is only growing with the pandemic. Here’s why:

1. Technology is in everything.

The business process landscape has become more imbued with technology— to the point where there’s no such thing as a business or technology project anymore … just delivery. And while the meteoric growth of tech has fueled success, it also creates challenges. It’s now common to have multiple delivery initiatives underway across a technically integrated landscape that can include everything from centralized enterprise resource planning systems down to personal mobility apps. In addition, project/program delivery and agile product delivery are taking place at multiple speeds and frequencies. Design, deliverables and testing all become much more demanding. All of this leads to the strong probability for delay on one initiative to cause schedule and resource conflicts.

EPMOs and EDMOs can provide technology enablement and assurance functions needed to keep delivery on track. For example, enterprise-enabled testing and scheduling tools whereby delivery teams can form, execute and implement requirements and user stories—without having to spend effort to acquire tools and train team members—saves precious time.

2. The cost of delay is growing.   

Early in my career, a senior project manager told me the best way to reduce costs on projects is to finish them on time. That advice remains relevant. As companies rely on technology as well as project, programs and transformations to create a competitive market edge, any sort of schedule delay reduces value. Delaying a market launch of a new mobile product entails parking resources, additional communication efforts, etc. Plus, given today’s landscape, a delay in one initiative can cause a chain reaction that affects other dependent initiatives, thus exacerbating the overall negative impact to business value.

Through integrated schedule, resource and dependency planning across delivery initiatives, EPMOs and EDMOs trigger early warning mechanisms and help marshal senior leadership decision-making to help mitigate delays.

3. Harmonization equals velocity.     

Today’s delivery landscape is dramatically different from the past. Along with the size, scale and varying modes of project, program, transformation and product delivery, multiple third-party labor and hardware/software suppliers are more deeply involved. It’s also more common for delivery initiatives to have a global footprint, adding another layer of complexity. And COVID-19 further exacerbates these challenges by inhibiting communication, collaboration and impacting hardware/software supply chains. 

Let’s use the analogy of a busy airport, where there’s a need for a centralized function to help harmonize the way different people, processes and technology components work together. In that case, distinct sector, tower and ground controllers organize the flow of traffic, minimize delays and in some cases avert potential disastrous conflicts.

The same rationale holds true for EPMOs and EDMOs, which are uniquely positioned to provide essential services such as: common delivery methods, third-party supplier and supply chain management, enterprise-level risk management, integrated scheduling management, resource management and dependency management.

I sometimes long for the simplicity of small, compartmentalized projects that could move at their own pace to completion. However, we all have to face today’s delivery reality. Some ways of working we were all used to may come back with the pandemic under control, but in the meantime we still have delivery responsibilities—and EPMOs and EDMOs can be a big help in making sure we meet those responsibilities.   

To what degree are you seeing the need for enterprise EPMOs and EDMOs?

By Cyndee Miller

A wee bit desperate for some positive news? Well, I’ve got just the thing: Most Influential Projects is back!

No big shocker here that MIP 2020 is stacked with COVID-fueled innovations. With the coronavirus racing across the U.K., a team from the National Health Service transformed a London exhibit hall into a massive emergency medical facility—in just nine days. UNICEF, Microsoft, the University of Cambridge and Dubai Cares teamed up to transform a pilot project originally aimed at refugee children into a virtual learning platform for underprivileged students from Ukraine to Zimbabwe who’d been shut out of classrooms. Virgin Orbit shifted course to design and deliver emergency ventilators, while the organizers of Shanghai Fashion Week teamed up with Alibaba to produce history’s first purely digital fashion week.

Then there’s the project that tops the list, epitomizing a major theme of 2020: progress over perfection. The COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator aims to identify, accelerate and scale seven of the most promising vaccine candidates by coordinating R&D efforts. Microsoft’s Bill Gates—a major financial backer of the initiative—acknowledged that the “few billion” U.S. dollars the project will waste will be more than worthwhile, considering the human lives it will save and the catastrophic effect the coronavirus has already had on the global economy.

The latest slate of Most Influential Projects goes way beyond COVID control, however. The Kangaroo Island Recovery project helped save one of Australia’s most iconic ecosystems from raging wildfires. Toyota is giving us its take on a fully autonomous world with Woven City, and Enel Green Power is helping Chile turn away from fossil fuels and bolster its unofficial role as Latin America’s clean energy leader with the Campos del Sol mega solar farm project.

And the excitement doesn’t stop there. This year’s adventures include 30 (!!) Top 10 lists broken out by sectors and geographic regions. (You can geek out over the data science list, gawk over the newly created wonders on the architecture list and smirk over Tiger King making the entertainment list.)

For me, one of the most interesting choices was Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For the record, I’ve never even played the game. What struck me was the backstory. Katsuya Eguchi has said his work on the original Animal Crossing was inspired by the heartache he felt after leaving family and friends to move from Chiba to Nintendo’s home city of Kyoto, Japan. Fast forward a couple decades and much of the world was experiencing that very same sense of isolation and loneliness. Then along came New Horizons, offering community and companionship—even during The Great Lockdown. The really weird part? The release date may have seemed like impeccable timing, but it was actually due in part to project delays. New Horizons was originally slated for a 2019 release, but when Nintendo execs realized hitting that target would require a grueling schedule for the team, they pushed the date back to March 2020. In a deliciously ironic plot twist, a decision to help employees maintain a healthy work-life balance ended up producing windfall profits.

Your turn: Take a deep dive and let me know your MIP vote in the comments.