Voices on Project Management

By Yasmina Khelifi, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA, PMP

A few years ago, my manager invited me to a meeting to discuss how to organize teams for a strategic topic. No one asked me to do it, but because I was delivering these projects for a while, I prepared some detailed slides to give a state-of-the-art look at the current organization. In the online meeting, I was the only one who was not a manager—and the only woman. These facts laid the groundwork for stress that was triggered within me.

I began to go through the slides. One of the managers began to bombard me with questions. I answered him, and I often had to repeat answers. I got nervous and annoyed. To me, he was questioning my competence. I felt threatened and got defensive. I asked another manager to reformulate an answer for me. That gave me time to take a breath.

My second-level manager—let's call him Dave—was also present. He tried to help and play facilitator. The other managers had other meetings and left.

This meeting lasted 30 minutes, but felt like an eternity to me. When I hung up, I was tired—and angry at myself for how I behaved in front of all the managers.

What would Dave think of me? It was the first time he saw me in action. Will my professional reputation be damaged? In the past, I was labeled a bad communicator, and I had worked hard to improve it.

After the meeting, I got three text messages—none from my manager. The texts all congratulated me on the presentation. I was ashamed to receive these messages, because I thought they signalled that people felt pity for me.

I talked to friends outside of the firm about what happened. They were not present at the meeting, so they listened to the perspective I gave them. They were compassionate and supported me, but I thought it was because they were my friends. I slept badly at night in the throes of shame and anger with myself.

Two weeks later, I had a follow-up conference call with my manager. I was wondering what reproaches I would get. “By the way,” he said, “Dave appreciated your professionalism and calm during the meeting."

I couldn’t believe it. I answered with almost tears in my voice. "Thank you,” I said. “I thought I was too aggressive."

Here are the lessons learned that I gleaned from this experience—they sound basic, but I did not follow them because I was overconfident and too hard on myself:

Before the meeting

• Enquire who is going to take part. Perhaps you can send some participants a presentation and ask them for feedback before the meeting. Or maybe a close co-worker will take part in the meeting and you can ask them for advice beforehand. You can also ask them to chime in during the meeting to help you refocus if they sense you are getting off track.
• Prepare yourself mentally. For some meetings, when I don’t know who will take part, I write reminders on a piece of paper: “Go in with an open mind and listen carefully.”
• Know your stress triggers/words that will strike a chord during meetings, and don’t let them distract you.

During the meeting

• Turn on the video if the meeting is online. This keeps you more honest by allowing others to see your facial expressions—and instils more humanity.
• Take a quiet deep breath before speaking if you feel stressed.
• Ask to stop and have a dedicated meeting with a challenging person if the conversation goes off topic.

After the meeting

• Check with your manager and other people at the meeting about how it went from their perspectives. For instance, you can reach out to each of them (ideally by phone or face to face) and say: "I am trying to improve myself every day and I would like to have your feedback on how I did during this meeting. What did I do well? What did I need to improve?"
• Write down all the feedback. This external view will help you to gain other perspectives.

In the instance above, I dared not ask my manager because I was afraid of getting negative feedback that would have reminded me of the “bad communicator” label I got in the past. But I should have—and I also learned through this experience that I should be more kind to myself and not assume the worst intentions in others.

If you are a leader in this kind of situation, reach out to the person and give your perspective and feedback—whether positive, negative or neutral (and do it promptly…don’t wait two weeks).

Have you ever experienced this kind of reality gap, where the way you perceived yourself acting in a situation was different from the way others did?

I don’t know about you, but in the last few years, I haven’t felt the same surge of energy that I used to have when January approached with everything that it potentially holds for us. I saw a post on social media that said: “We have 365 sunrises, 365 sunsets and 365 opportunities for magic to happen.” This really stirred within me and gave me some motivation to think about the year ahead, what I wanted to achieve and what was important for me.

3 Goals for 2023

What do I want to achieve? What is important to me? My career? Where did I want to go? You can easily have ambitious objectives, but how are you going to get there? What are the stepping stones?

I want to share my plans and how I aim to get there. Have you thought about this? Answer honestly. Have you really questioned what you wanted to achieve, rather than just coasting? Don’t get me wrong—you can make an active decision to coast, to remain doing what you’re doing (no decision is still a decision).

My key goals for the new year are grace, focus and growth. Just three things. For each of these larger goals, I break them down into:

• What I want to achieve
• What success looks like (i.e. when will I know that I’m done?)
• What I need to get there (learning, development opportunities, practice, etc.)

For grace, it’s about showing grace to others, being graceful with myself and what I'm able to achieve within the time that I'm given, and prioritizing what is important. 

During 2021/22, I went through some changing personal circumstances. While I tried to "spin" every plate that I needed to, I simply couldn't do everything. Instead of realizing my limitations, I tried to push myself to do everything, be everything to everyone, and manage a very difficult, complex and wonderful job. I am a constant overachiever, but in this instance, it didn't make me a better project manager or friend—it turned me into someone that I didn’t recognize or want to be.

So, how can I achieve grace? It’s all about boundaries and having them clearly defined for my professional and personal life. What boundaries do you have? Well, those come from what you want to achieve. Is it to get ahead? To build your network? This will guide where your boundaries need to come in.

For each of these details, I go into quarterly goals where I can look at where I am, what I wanted to achieve, and if I need to adjust my targets (remember, be kind to yourself). I’m also aware of my professional and working responsibilities, and when the busiest times of my year are. I won’t book a lot for the last quarter if I know that it’s going to just be focusing on keeping my head above water and “getting stuff done.”

When I’ve done these goals in the past, I just stored them in my notepad (I’m a stationary nerd…who doesn’t have a new notepad to start the year?). But this year, based upon how I read and learn, I’ve put everything on a mood board/sticky notes in my office so that I can see each of my goals. That way, they are present in everything that I do. Since I’ve done this, I have been more focused on reading the items that I need to—and fleshing out more ideas for my goals in the next year.

I block out some time on my calendar every three months to spend some time analyzing where I’m at, what I’ve achieved/done, and what I need to do in the next few months. This check-in can be really useful to gauge your progress and see if you need any adjustments.

I’m really interested to hear how many of you have created your goals for 2023. What do they look like? What are you trying to do: more certifications, personal development, professional growth? Share in the comments below!

By Sree Rao, PMP, PgMP, PMI-ACP

From rookie mistakes to hard-won victories, my decade-plus journey as a program manager has been full of lessons. Here are the ones that stuck with me the most. As you ring in 2023, I hope these lessons will help you on your PM journey.

1. Don’t get too caught up in processes and labels. In my early career as a PM, I was stuck on implementing agile methodologies like scrum, Kanban etc. With experience, I have come to realize that it is important to figure out a process that works in the team-specific context rather than sticking to the labels of agile versus waterfall.

What is effective for one team might or might not work for another team. We get better engagement and buy-in if we involve the team in setting up processes and make the changes that the team recommends. It is important to rely on the collective wisdom of the team.

2. Don’t try to control the outcome of meetin­­gs. I place a high value on clear agendas and sticking to them in meetings. However, there have been occasions where my meetings did not go as planned. At first, this upset me, but I eventually came to understand that it is our responsibility to be prepared (and we cannot always control meeting outcomes). It is important to read the room and adapt meetings as needed.

3. Don’t overload yourself. During the early stages of my career, I was hesitant to decline additional work, even if my workload was already overwhelm­­ing. I was afraid of not meeting expectations.

However, it is important to be aware of your own limitations and feel empowered to say “no” when necessary. While we may not always have a choice, it is important to carefully consider how much work you can realistically handle. Is it better to do a good job with what you already have on your plate, or lower the quality of your work by taking on more?

Constantly being overburdened with work can prevent you from having the time and energy to identify opportunities for personal and team growth.

4. Don’t be a default meeting scheduler. There is a misconception that it is a PM’s job to schedule meetings, and as such I have often been asked to schedule meetings and take notes. However, this is not the primary focus of a PM role. To better manage my workload and prioritize, I have learned to say “no” to scheduling meetings unless I am driving the agenda or have a significant interest or stake in the meeting outcome.

While I may make exceptions in certain cases (such as when I need to expedite something), I have learned to be more selective about the meetings that I agree to schedule.

5. Identify single points of failure (SPOF) for projects and their mitigations. As a Technical Program Manager in the tech industry, I have often managed projects where only one engineer is assigned to a project. This is a big risk, as that engineer is now a SPOF for the project.

Whenever possible, it is advisable to request that at least two engineers share the workload of any deadline-sensitive, critical projects to reduce the risk of unanticipated personal emergencies or other risks. Apart from reducing the risk, this also helps with improving team morale as the engineers have someone else to bounce ideas off—and share the workload.

6. Put things in writing. It is important to document commitments or decisions made during your hallway or informal conversations in writing for future reference. Putting things in writing often leads to more careful consideration and follow-through from your team members.

Personally, I have learned the hard way to always get things in writing to avoid any misunderstandings or miscommunications later.

7. Encourage proof-of-concept development. If your team is stuck in analysis paralysis, or if you are trying out a new technology, get management buy-in to spend time creating a proof of concept or a prototype. This can help to quickly demonstrate the potential of the technology or approach and facilitate faster decision making.

8. Include key stakeholders in reviewing status reports before they are published. Early in my PM career, I gave more importance to adhering to timelines than to aligning with key stakeholders. One time, I marked a project as red (behind plan) in a report without first discussing it with the manager of the team that was running behind. That manager was unavailable, and I did not want to delay publishing the status report.

I went ahead and published the report without reviewing it with him. This had unexpected negative consequences, including the manager having to explain the red status to multiple members of the leadership team.

Since then, I have been more careful about how I report project statuses. Before turning a project status red, it is important to consider possible mitigation plans and to review the status with all relevant cross-functional team members and their management. This may slow down the process, but it ensures that all key stakeholders are aware and aligned on the status.

9. Identify projects/programs to cancel. Deciding to cancel a project or program can be challenging, especially if a lot of time and resources have been invested. However, it is important to consider whether the project is still delivering the value that was expected.

Don't let the sunk-cost fallacy (the tendency to continue investing in something simply because of the resources that have already been spent) influence your decision making. It's better to cancel a project and move on to higher-value projects rather than continuing to invest in something that is no longer worthwhile.

10. Be cautious about reporting program status as green/on track. In my experience, it is rare for all the projects in a program to be on track. If you do encounter a situation where all the projects seem to be progressing as per the plan, it’s important to carefully assess the situation and verify that thorough risk analysis has been done.

While there are several other valuable lessons I've learned, I've distilled my most valuable lessons into these top 10 nuggets of wisdom. Project management veterans, what valuable insights have you gained throughout your career? Share your nuggets of wisdom in the comments section below!

By Lynda Bourne

It is important that both professionals, and the organizations that employ them, are socially and environmentally aware—and act responsibly to protect the rights of others. The financial consequences of failing to be socially aware started to be felt in the 1950s. Around this time, investors started excluding stocks, or entire industries, from their portfolios based on business activities such as tobacco production or involvement in the South African apartheid regime.

These considerations developed into the concept of environmental, social, and corporate governance. Today, ESG is an umbrella term that refers to specific data designed to be used by investors for evaluating the material risk that the organization is taking on based on the externalities it is generating.

The term ESG was popularly used first in a 2004 report titled Who Cares Wins[1], which was a joint initiative of financial institutions at the invitation of the United Nations. Then the UN’s 2006 report Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) required ESG to be incorporated into the financial evaluations of companies.

Under ESG reporting, organizations are required to present data from financial and non-financial sources that shows they are meeting the standards of agencies such as the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, the Global Reporting Initiative, and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. The data must be made available to rating agencies and shareholders.

Corporate social responsibility is the flip side of ESG. CSR is the belief that corporations have a responsibility toward the society they operate within. This is not a new idea; it is possible to trace the concerns of some businesses toward society back to the Industrial Revolution and the work of primarily Quaker business owners to provide accommodation and reasonable living standards for their workers.

However, it was not until the 1970s that concepts such as social responsibility of businesses being commensurate with their power, and business functions by public consent, started to become mainstream. Today, CSR is a core consideration for most ethical businesses.

These concepts were turned into a structured set of guidelines in 1981, when Freer Spreckley suggested in Social Audit - A Management Tool for Co-operative Working[2] that enterprises should measure and report on financial performance, social wealth creation, and environmental responsibility.

These ideas have become the triple bottom line (TBL), which is considered essential to effective organizational governance these days. Most of the major corporate governance frameworks require the TBL to be included in corporate reporting.

In his foreword to Corporate Governance: A Framework – Overview (prepared by the World Bank in 2000), Sir Adrian Cadbury summarized these objectives in his statement: "The aim is to align as nearly as possible the interests of individuals, corporations, and society."

Similar concepts to the TBL also form a core component of most codes of ethics and professional conduct. For example, the current version of PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct incudes:

• 2.2 Responsibility: Aspirational Standards: As practitioners in the global project management community:
  2.2.1 We make decisions and take actions based on the best interests of society, public safety, and the environment.
• 4.3 Fairness: Mandatory Standards: As practitioners in the global project management community, we require the following of ourselves and our fellow practitioners:
  4.3.4 We do not discriminate against others based on, but not limited to, gender, race, age, religion, disability, nationality, or sexual orientation.

So far, so good. There has been a simple set of unambiguous requirements in place for 30-plus years that are straightforward and easy to understand. These simple (if difficult to achieve) concepts have been refined to make consideration of environmental (sustainability), social and financial outcomes important in every decision-making process, including those affecting the organization’s projects.

However, having become a hot topic for boards, investors and managers alike in the last couple of years, these ideas seem to be disappearing into a blizzard of acronyms that appear to be more about differentiating a consultant’s services than adding value. Some of the newer acronyms include:

• 3Ps: People, Plant, Profit
• DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (alternatively EDI)
• DIB: Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging
• D&I: Diversity & inclusion
• JEDI: Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
• RAP: Reconciliation Action Plan
• SDGs: Sustainable Development Goals (published by the UN)

My concern is that while the concepts defined by each of the acronyms above are of themselves valuable (once you work out what they mean), and a few—such as the UN’s sustainable development goals—add substantially to the TBL framework, most are either sub-sets of the overarching objectives defined in PMI’s Code of Ethics and Cadbury’s simple statement, or essentially cover the same concepts.  

Do all of these extra acronyms add to the core objective of improving outcomes for people and the environment or not? What do you think?

[1]     Download the 2004 repot from: https://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/events/2004/stocks/who_cares_wins_global_compact_2004.pdf

[2] Spreckley, Freer (1981). Social Audit: A Management Tool for Co-operative Working. Beechwood College.

By Mario Trentim

Before any organization undertakes a new project or initiative, it is essential to first assess the feasibility of that venture. This is done through feasibility studies and business cases:

• A feasibility study looks at the technical feasibility, financial feasibility and operational viability of a proposed project.
• A business case looks at the financials of a new venture to determine if it is financially viable.

Both are essential for any organization looking to undertake new projects or initiatives. Let’s look at these more in-depth:

Technical Feasibility Studies
The most common type of feasibility study is the technical feasibly study. Technical feasibility looks at whether a proposed project is achievable from a technical standpoint. This includes assessing the skills and knowledge required to execute the project, as well as the availability of resources. Once all this data has been collected, it is analyzed to determine if the project is technically feasible. If it is, then the next step is to develop a detailed plan and budget for how it will be executed.

Financial Feasibility Studies
Financial feasibility studies assess whether a proposed project is financially viable. To create a solid business case, organizations need to identify the problem or opportunity that the project will address and gather data to understand potential impact. This data can come from surveys, focus groups, interviews and other research methods. Once all the data has been collected, it is analyzed to determine if the project is worth pursuing from a financial standpoint. If it is, then the next step is to develop a detailed plan and budget for how it will be executed.

Operational Viability Studies
Operational viability studies assess whether a proposed project is operationally viable. This includes assessing the skills and knowledge required to execute the project, as well as the availability of resources. Once all this data has been collected, it is analyzed to determine if the project is operationally viable. If it is, then the next step is to develop a detailed plan and budget for how it will be executed.

Business Case
The business case is a document that allows decision makers to determine whether the project is worth the investment. It is essential to project selection, prioritization and authorization as part of a portfolio. The business case usually presents a current business problem and suggests alternatives to solve it. The basic purpose of this document is to justify the initiation of a project. 

In summary, here are the key differences:

• Feasibility Study
  • Is it viable to intake this project?
  • Analyzes whether a project is executable or not.
  • Prevents undertaking projects that are unfeasible or extremely risky.
• Business Case
  • Why is the project worth the investment?
  • Describes costs and benefits
  • Identifies the current situation (justification)
  • Defines the desired future state (solution)

Conclusion
Feasibility studies and business cases are important tools that organizations use to assess the viability of new projects or initiatives. Conducting these studies helps organizations make informed decisions about whether or not to pursue new ventures and allows them to plan accordingly so that they can set themselves up for success.