Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
Project Management: The Vessel for Innovation
Categories:
Innovation
Categories: Innovation
| Innovation seems to be the new mantra for companies -- even though it has affected and shaped all aspects of our lives. And innovation covers not only the creation of a product, but also includes the process to produce it, how it's delivered to customers and even how value is generated, both for the company and the customer. Some argue that processes and policies are barriers to innovation. These people confuse innovation with creativity and believe that trying to implement a well-thought-out, standardized process to manage innovation will constrain the results. But the opposite is true: A method for innovation sets the ground for achieving success in an efficient way. After all, creativity is only a part of a more complex innovation process, driven by project management -- and as such, you could say that project management is the vessel for innovation. That's because the best way to guarantee your organization's innovation efforts are well-managed, successful and deriving true value is through the use of program and project management tools. In addition, portfolio management can help define where to invest innovation dollars. The problem is that those in the innovation field do not necessarily see project management as a useful tool, and those in project management do not feel that what they do is so beneficial to the innovation process. But let me give you seven processes to break down those perceptions for the sake of fostering innovation:
For organizations that compete on a global scale -- that is, most companies -- innovation can be their most important competitive advantage and the factor that guarantees long-term success. Innovation might sound like the flavor of the month, but in the future, success will be on the side of organizations that know how to do it and excel at it. How does project management foster innovation at your organization? |
Building Maturity, Battling Complexity
Categories:
Complexity
Categories: Complexity
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Today's marketplace and customers make new demands that fuel complexities in our organizations through a number of external factors. These factors require an organization to become agile to meet the new demands. In many cases the external factors include:
But beyond external factors, the first and most important issue of complexity is determining the structure of our project management system. This includes the level of project supply and the rate at which they can be staffed by skilled project resources. PMI's 2012 Executive Guide to Project Management showed that over time, those who matured project management in their organization improved their outcomes as depicted in the graph below.
So while it's clear that mature project management practices are beneficial to success, how can an organization build this capacity and resources? Many are prone to take them from more mature industries. For example, as the supply of projects increase, organizations are trying to poach IT project managers or even an SME as the project lead. It is expected that the leaders roll out the new initiative while they may not have knowledge in structured delivery approaches. So what choices do we have in balancing the complex level of supply and the rate of demand for project managers?
My thoughts on what choices we have here are below. They include two traditional options on controlling the level of work and the rate of staffing skilled workers. I'm also offering a third and more innovative perspective, for those who want to increase their agility by changing their management culture.
Option 1 (traditional):
Description: Control the level of the supply and reduce the project intake to focus on fewer initiatives.
Considerations:
Option 2 (traditional):
Description: Increase the rate of new projects launched and hire more project managers.
Considerations:
Option 3 (innovative):
Description: Effect a change in corporate cultures by committing the organization to increase project management disciplines across all employees.
Considerations:
Which choice represents your organization's preference: to follow the traditional options, or is it time for a cultural change? Explore PMI's Change Management Resources.
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The Fairest Metric of All
Categories:
Metrics
Categories: Metrics
| We often rely on a number of different metrics to help create insights into our true project progress. These can range from discrete indicators, such as schedule performance index, to more subjective measures, such as forecasting completion dates based on prior experience on similar projects. I am asked on regular basis which project progress metrics is my favorite. In other words: If I were marooned on an island with a project status report with only one project metric, which one would I pick? After careful consideration (and I hope I have more supplies than just a status report when marooned on an island!), I would likely select the estimate to complete (ETC) metric. Here's why: 1. Task ETC tells me much more. Primarily, ETC serves as a simple measure of remaining effort for a task. However, ETC at the task level can shed light on other areas that provide visibility to project progress. To arrive at a task-level ETC, a project team member must take into consideration not only the remaining effort, but other factors such as resource capabilities, resource availability, dependencies and lead times for any task reviews. The rigor required to arrive at a task-level ETC compels team members to think through many variables that influence remaining effort. As you can see, this exercise tells us a lot more than just a number. 2. ETC reduction closely measures true progress. We like to see task-level ETC going down each week at roughly the same pace of the resource capacity we have working on the task. However, ETC figures might not always be reduced at this expected rate. This situation can arise from a number of factors, all which require further inquiry by the project manager. They can include resources assigned to the task being distracted by other projects, delays on deliverables caused by other teams or a potential increase in the remaining forecasted work. 3. ETC can help find major project issues. There are situations when a project team member cannot arrive at a revised ETC figure. When that occurs, it is a strong indicator that visibility to the necessary inputs required to complete the tasks is not present. This should compel you to escalate the lack of visibility as a project issue and pursue remedies. These could include actions such as seeking guidance from subject matter experts, reassigning the task to a more capable team member and increasing interactions with other project teams for their input. 4. Project ETC does what ETC does best. The movement of task-level ETCs can be aggregated to arrive at an overall project ETC. As with task-level ETCs often not being reduced at a desired rate, comparing prior and current ETCs at the project level can point to larger project issues. In addition, the project ETC actually helps you assess the team's ability to achieve the scheduled completion date. You can compare the project ETC against the future resource availability to see if there is sufficient capacity to achieve the desired completion date. While I like to have a healthy mix of metrics to help gauge project progress, quite often I fall back on ETC as an effective and efficient means of determining project progress as well as the factors that impact this progress. What is your favorite metric? What are other ways to employ ETC in a project? |
Problems, Conflicts and Decisions
Categories:
Stakeholder Management
Categories: Stakeholder Management
| While frequently treated as separate topics, conflict management, problem-solving and decision-making are interrelated and all are focused on achieving the best possible outcome. In an ideal world, there would always be sufficient information and rational maturity to allow you to treat everything as a problem and apply the following problem-solving steps to reach the optimum solution:
The trouble with this process is that problem-solving assumes there is a best answer -- that the information needed to determine the answer is available and that the people involved in the process are acting rationally. These circumstances are relatively rare! Many of the problems that require solving are rooted in emotions. At its center, every conflict has people acting (or reacting) emotionally, and conflict management is focused on reducing the effect of emotions to allow the people in conflict to start acting rationally. Any effective solution to a conflict involves defining the problem, defining a solution space (e.g., a formal mediation), understanding the options, choosing a solution and then implementing the solution. The only difference is how these steps are implemented or imposed. The standard solution options are:
Different conflict-management processes are appropriate at different times. The primary focus is on reducing or managing the level of conflict, but eventually someone has to decide on the solution to the underlying problems. Problem-solving and decision-making are also closely aligned. But the weakness of the problem-solving concept is the assumption that there is sufficient data to make the "right decision." Unfortunately, many decisions are not that simple! The types of decisions you will be required to make range from "simple problems" through to "wicked problems":
The challenge of decision-making is to understand and balance the following:
Ultimately, good decision-making is firstly getting most decisions reasonably correct (luck plays a part) and then continually reviewing the consequences of your decisions to adapt, adjust and correct the suboptimal ones as quickly as possible. Generally, any considered decision made in the appropriate time frame is better than no decision or an unnecessarily delayed one. How do you make your decisions when confronted with a problem? |
6 Obvious Budget Overruns to Avoid
Categories:
Project Planning
Categories: Project Planning
| Nowadays, we rarely hear about projects that finish below a given budget. On the contrary, we hear about projects that need more people, more material resources and more time, which ultimately translates into additional costs that strain the project budget. Although it is clear that project costs can be influenced by external factors beyond the project manager's control, there are at least as many factors that can be controlled from within the project, through appropriate project cost planning. Here are six simple reasons that projects incur cost overruns -- and how to prevent them: 1. Underfinancing. You've probably heard about projects that start with an undersized budget ("We could only allocate that much for this project..."). Such projects will have a high risk of overrunning the initial budget, as well as a high risk of failure. Mitigation: Clarify with the project sponsor from the very beginning how cost overruns, which are very likely to occur, will be handled -- for example, through scope reduction or additional funding. 2. Unrealistic costs estimates. Projects that have costs estimated based on gut feelings or inexperienced personnel are poised to face budget overruns. Biased and inaccurate cost estimates are likely to look unrealistic at a later stage in the project. Mitigation: Break down the work into smaller and more assessable packages. Get help from subject matter experts and experienced personnel when estimating costs. Make the cost estimations comprehensible, by applying different estimation techniques (e.g., three-point estimates, parametric estimating or bottom-up). 3. Underestimated complexity. Many projects nowadays, especially larger ones, have constantly growing complexity. The Berlin Brandenburg Airport and Terminal 1 of Munich Airport, for example, were quite similar in scope, but conducted at different times (25 years apart). Yet Berlin Airport, the more recent project, continues to have considerable budget overruns and delays. One of the reasons: the underestimated complexity concerning the financing of the project, the construction of futuristically designed facilities and newer regulations. Mitigation: Split the project in smaller work packages or phases. Avoid planning everything extensively from the very beginning (the planning alone of the Berlin airport project took 15 years). Plan iteratively -- per work package or phase -- and throughout the project. 4. Extended project schedule. Just because the project schedule is met doesn't necessarily mean the budget will be met as well. On the other hand, it is highly likely that if the project schedule is not met (for example, due to a project time extension), then the project budget will be blown thanks to additional costs that may pile up, since the project team and resources will be needed for longer. Mitigation: Manage the project time and schedule well. Focus especially on the tasks on the critical path, which can have the most impact on both project schedule and costs. If you get asked to extend the project time, explain to your stakeholders that this probably will cost more. Remember the scope-time-budget project triangle. Time is money! 5. Improper buffer planning. If you don't plan (or plan improperly) for a budget buffer, the smallest deviation in scope or schedule will cause an overrun. Mitigation: A budget comprises estimated cost and some contingency. Plan the contingency for unexpected scope changes, unusual weather changes or possible problems with suppliers. Consider a buffer for the costs that cannot be accurately or predictably estimated. Some of the cost estimates will be more accurate than others -- for example, commodity prices will be more predictable than labor costs for a specific service. 6. Improper resource planning. Labor resource costs could be one of the project's biggest expenses. If the project lacks labor resources, a later labor force acquisition will be an unexpected project cost. It can also mean a higher cost since the contracting conditions might not be the same as when initially planning the project. Similarly, resources allocated in excess will mean unnecessary allocated costs, plus unnecessary blocked resources that could have been useful on other projects. Mitigation: First plan the scope, then the required work to be done, and then the related assumptions, dependencies and risks. This will facilitate a better understanding of the work needed to be done and hence will help better assess the right equipment, amount of resources and required skill sets. How do you manage costs on your projects, and which measures do you apply to avoid cost overruns? |