The Critical Path

Braden Kelley is an innovation and change specialist and an active contributor to the ProjectManagement.com community. He utilized our Contribute Content page and has since authored several articles here on our site.

He is the author of Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire, an InnovationExcellence.com co-Founder, and is the creator of the Change Planning Toolkit™ and a book on the best practices and next practices of organizational change coming in January 2016.

1. How did you get involved in project management?

I first got involved in project management when I volunteered to build Symantec’s first web-based technical support and customer service capabilities back when support was provided on AOL, Compuserve, and BBS. This required me to scope, schedule, and sequence the appropriate activities and execute a series of organized releases utilizing Lean Startup and Agile type approaches before someone had given names to these types of collaborative, iterative approaches to building things. My approach to project management has continued to be somewhat non-traditional on the dozens of business projects I’ve managed over the years.

2. Who or what inspires you to be the best project manager you can be?

My clients (internal, external) inspire me to be the best project manager I can be because I want to help them change the world. We all change the world every day whether we realize it or not, and so I firmly believe that every day we choose to change the world for better or worse. I try to remain laser focused on the desired outcomes and achieving them as efficiently as possible.

3. What is one thing you wished you'd known when you first started out in project management?

In my early days as a project manager, I wish I’d learned about the concept of ‘fit for purpose’ sooner. ‘Fit for purpose’, ‘minimum viable progress’ (helps maintain a focus on momentum), ‘value source identification’ and ‘minimum viable product’ now guide my approach in nearly everything I do. Too often we don’t spend enough time defining what success will look like and figuring out where the value truly comes from. As a result we spend a lot of time on things that don’t make a proportional contribution to success.

4. You come in Monday morning to find that your most productive project team member is no longer with the company. You have been working together on a project for six months. What are your next steps?

First I would cry, scream and maybe throw something (preferably at the person who let them go). Hey, good people are hard to find, and sometimes the first to be let go! Then I’d probably go for a walk and get a hot chocolate. As I sat and sipped my hot cocoa (no whip and no foam – I live in Seattle after all), I would think about who else I have on my team, who’s not on my team that I wish were a member of the team, the tasks this valuable team member was working on, and which tasks are likely to deliver the most value and contribute the most to successful outcomes. Then I would start making a plan to replace that team member, and in the interim to redistribute the most value adding responsibilities to other people on the team.

5. You get a call from your project’s sponsor. You've been working on the project for a year and the two of you have a good business relationship. You're 2 months away from the project deadline and she wants the deadline bumped up by 3 weeks and indicates that this is a critical need. What do you do?

The first thing I would do is take a deep breath. Then I’d explore with the sponsor what changed. Perhaps this is a critical need, perhaps it’s a knee jerk reaction instead that we can talk through (trying to crash a project this late in the game often introduces a huge amount of risk). The result will be either a realization that this change isn’t as critical as the sponsor suddenly thought it was, or if not, we will have to look at a number of different elements of the project. These of course include:

1. What the sponsor is willing to do to help make this happen
2. Risks of crashing
3. Critical path
4. Available resources
5. Whether or not additional resources can accelerate remaining tasks
6. Whether there is budget for additional resources
7. Whether the scope can change
8. Etc.

Put my dinner in the refrigerator, I think I’m going to be home late tonight.

Please introduce yourself to Braden below in the comments and add him to your network.

Is there a community member who you think deserves some recognition for their contributions to the community? Let us know! Email the member’s name and a brief explanation as to why you think he/she should be featured in our Member of the Month to [email protected]. 

When some people think of the word "innovation", they might associate it with the word "invention." In fact, these two words are not the same. Innovation often acts as the spark that ignites change within an organization or business to foster continued relevancy within the marketplace. And these changes come about through the help of projects and programs. 

As you may have noticed, this month's community theme is innovation! Braden Kelley shows us how making innovation happen has a lot to do with the roles we play versus individual personalities in his article "Innovation: A Team Sport."

On 21 July, Bruce Harpham will deliver a webinar to the community that shows us how some of the greatest innovations in the history of technology came about during the webinar titled "Lessons from the History of Innovation." If you haven't already registered, make sure you do! 

And you can always find templates and other resources to help you by visiting the Innovation practice area right here on ProjectManagement.com!

Join in the conversation! Please share with us in the comments below some ways innovation has helped you drive a project forward. We'd love to hear from you!

These Changes Mean Even Better Ways to Advance Your Career

In just six months the new CCR program will go live. As the global business environment and project management profession evolves, the program must adapt to provide development of new employer-desired skills, giving you a greater competitive advantage. So, how will you earn PDUs? How will you plan your career development? What do you need to do now?

Get the answers to these questions and more on our new CCR web page. It includes the most important topics leading up to the program launch like—the PMI Talent Triangle—so that you are prepared for the change. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Stay current on all of the changes - visit PMI's new CCR web page for the latest details on:

·        Why the program’s changing

·        How to earn PDUs

·        The PMI Talent Triangle and its skill areas

·        Important certification renewal dates

·        Training materials

Bookmark this page to keep up to date on important details, training and resources, so you are prepared for the change.

We are pleased to introduce you this month to Dave Maynard, MBA, PMP®. Dave is a native New Yorker who after graduation from engineering school from the State University of New York, traveled to Houston to work for NASA at the Johnson Spacecraft Center.

He gradually gained responsibilities and participated in the Shuttle avionics architecture design, the “glass cockpit” development and in crew training. Incrementally David’s level of responsibility increased, and he became a Senior Engineer, Project Engineer, a Project Manager and Program Manager. David then moved to the Space Operations and Planning Complex (SOPC) where he again participating in overall technical design efforts.

After leaving NASA, Dave was asked to become the General Manager of Systems Management Inc. (SMI) in Orlando whose mission was to turn-around troubled projects, programs or operations. 

Dave now teaches at Indiana University and Purdue University in Indiana, is active the PMI-Northeast Indiana Chapter, who recently announced the David Arthur Maynard Scholorship Program, and volunteers for PMI in various capacities.

How did you get involved in project management?

Like many others, I started as an “accidental” project manager.  I was an engineer working as part of a large team solving a complex math problem.  The resolution of that problem took several years with a very discipline-diverse group of people from across the globe participating.  As the team’s efforts were nearing a conclusion, my manager asked me to “oversee” a new project.  The project’s purpose was the design and installation of an integrated set of five large computers that would be used to simulate the Shuttle’s flight computers.  The purpose of this system was to help with further Shuttle system architecture development and crew training.  It was excitingly difficult; hardware, software, displays and controls, schedules, cost, risk and more.  From then on, I was a Project Manager.  While I’m still a nerd, I’ve never done engineering work again.

Who or what inspires you to be the best project manager you can be?

It’s clear that a group of humans trying to accomplish a specific objective represents the most complex system that can be created.  There are an infinite number of variables that affect a project team.  Personalities, skills, location, understandings and a great many more factors.  There’s also a tangible atmosphere when a team is working together well.  It’s often described as synergy; when the team’s combined effectiveness is greater than the sum of each member’s separate efforts.  It’s a measure that the “most-complex system” working.  You can actually feel it in the air!  It makes the hair on my arms stand up and sends chills up my spine.  It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of and is a source of inspiration for me to continually, learn, adapt, change, re-think, re-focus and study to possibly help to achieve a synergistic team.  

What is one thing you wished you'd known when you first started out in project management?

It’s critical for the Project Manager to establish the team’s vision of what the end-result will be.  People want to know they are working towards a valuable goal, and it’s the Project Manager’s duty to continually reference the project’s mission.   The PM must be clear about the answers to: “Why are we doing this?”  Or “Why is what we are doing valuable?”  The Project Manager must be the team champion of the project’s mission, continually referring to it, judging against it and never losing sight of it.

It's Friday at 4 pm and your boss just told you that you've been assigned to work on a project - on a different continent! You leave 9 am tomorrow. What are the next five (5) things that you do?

• Understand who is assigned to the project and what their skills are

The project team is who will get this project accomplished.  There is nothing more important than understanding who they are and what they know.  Everything else pales in comparison to this simple action. 

• Examine information about the stakeholders, customers and their needs

Knowledge of who the end-users are and what they desire will be invaluable when I hit the ground tomorrow.  Creating a project result that misses the stakeholder’s desire is a recipe for encountering “interesting times.”

• Study everything available about the stated and implied requirements of the project -- including functional, performance, physical and design. 

This is so I could understand what in detail the product of the project is.  Note to self: many times the stated or documented requirements are incomplete, inconsistent or just plain wrong.   

• Study every scrap of project information (status)

Since this project is already on-going, there must be status reports that were created and perhaps presented.  I’d get a copy of all of them to read, digest and think about.

• Try to understand the method used to collect project data that was used to produce the status

This project is on a different continent!  There will be cultural differences, perhaps language barriers, certainly some fundamental things will be at odds with the way I’ve been working.  These differences will affect the way in which project data is collected and even represented in the status reports.  How? Why? 

You’ve come to the realization that an important project you are currently managing is going to be a massive failure. Somehow, every red flag has been missed or ignored and it’s far too late in the game to turn things around. Maybe you inherited the mess, maybe you’re the cause of the failure, or maybe it’s just the way things turned out and there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it. What 3 types of things will you do, mentally, physically, or even spiritually, to cope until the project is over?

Been there, done that!  I was part of a group whose job it was to turn around troubled projects, programs and operations.  If it’s “far too late” to turn things around, it’s indeed a very sad state.   Actually, if it’s truly too late to recover, the project should be terminated and closed.  Managing this project through termination will take a physical and mental toll on nearly everyone associated with it.  During the years I did turn-arounds, we invented key phrases that describe different situations including this one. 

We used to call this the “full wax job.”  You, the PM will need to be totally equipped.  You’ll want every advantage you can get in order to survive the upcoming ordeal.  You need to step up and get the “full wax job” for yourself. 

1) Body: Take care of yourself - stay healthy. For me this means taking time away from the project to exercise and eat well.  There are a great many ways to damage your heath while you’re in this troubled situation.  Stress is not the least of them!

2) Humor: Enjoy and point out to others the humor in every little thing that occurs.  Joke with the team, enjoy the stakeholders.  This is difficult to do under troubled circumstances, but is extremely important.  Humor helps get over the hurdles.  And the hurdles will be there anyway.

3) Dress up.  Yes, I know this sounds odd.  But start dressing more formally.  Suits, shoes, watch -- even a super nice pen in your pocket.  This is your business armor.  Without it, jabs and stabs will hurt.  It’s a great mental mechanism to get through tough meetings.  

Please introduce yourself to Dave below in the comments and add him to your network. To connect with him outside of the community, you can find him here on LinkedIn.

Is there a community member who you think deserves some recognition for their contributions to the community? Let us know! Email the member’s name and a brief explanation as to why you think he/she should be featured in our Member of the Month to [email protected]. 

Are you a PMO leader seeking to learn form subject matter experts that can provide guidance and best practices that can help you advance your PMO, then ProjectManagement.com's PMO Workshop is for you! In 2015, Mark Price Perry, Andy Jordan and Dave Prior are focusing on Building the Hybrid PMO that's Business Driven, Agile and Effective. Join us to learn, share and connect with other PMO leaders just like you.

Workshop dates and locations:

Seattle, WA - July 9-10

Boston, MA - July 23-24

Atlanta, GA - September 8-9

San Francisco, CA - September 24-25

Scottsdale, AZ - October 15-16

To learn more, click here.

jedi photo courtesy: nationstates.net