The Professional Project Manager

More and more research clearly indicates that organizations with a PMO deliver more successful projects than organizations without a PMO, yet that same research also tells us that a lot of organizations fail to see the benefits of a PMO, and some organizations are even getting rid of their PMO’s. They see them as an unnecessary expense rather than the investment that they actually are.

Keep in mind that PMO is not a single standardized thing - what it is will reflect the level of project management maturity, your industry and the size, complexity and duration of the projects you undertake. It may be anything from a single ring binder full of templates through to a specific part of the organization that controls all aspect of project management. The one thing that all forms of PMO have in common is that they are the center for project management excellence in the organization.

Now, we as professional project managers know that we can do our jobs much better when supported by a PMO. But how do we go about establishing one in the when top level management fails to see the benefits? How about a stealth PMO or perhaps a VPMO – the V can stand for volunteer or virtual?

Here are three simple achievable steps to creating your own stealth or virtual PMO:

1. Establish a project management users group in your organization. Invite all project managers to be part of it. Then schedule regular meetings – a good idea is 4pm on the 4^th Friday on each month, or a breakfast meeting - and supply some refreshments for people. Have a specific topic to talk about – it could be improving your change control, standardizing templates, lessons learned and updates to your project management methodology. Invite a speaker to attend to present on a particular topic. Have someone document the meeting and follow up on any agreed actions.

2. Get the project managers to take responsibility for documenting your project management methodology and then volunteering to carry out audits on each other’s projects.

3. And most importantly of all, when your do deliver successful projects attribute your success to the support you have received from the VPMO or users group or whatever it is you want to call it. Let the decision makers higher up see the value. Your goal is to get them to support not just a PMO but also professional project management within the organization so don’t be shy about blowing your own trumpet. Take care to first prove the worth of the PMO to practitioners and the organization before trying to get financial support for a more complex form of a PMO, or even a paid PMO manager position.

Remember that this stealth or virtual PMO will be your first PMO so it doesn’t have to be overly complex. The main goal is to prove its worth and get support for a more complex one.

Let me know how you go with this idea, and it you have any other suggestions for getting a PMO off the ground in your organization.

This blog is a reminder for those who know already, an introduction for those who are not yet aware of tailoring, and general call to action for all project managers to consider ways to work smarter and more effectively thorough proper and appropriate tailoring of project management methodologies.

A methodology is an appropriate, professional, repeatable, standardised and documented collection of processes, tools, technique and template for managing projects. The methodology is what you use to deliver your projects. It should reflect the size, complexity and industry of your projects.  It should be based on best practice such as a body of knowledge like the PMBOK® Guide. It should be easily located and understood by all project team members.  It should also be subject to the process of continuous improvement to make sure it is kept up to date with any changes.

A methodology is your organisations particular collection of processes, tools and techniques and templates that you choose to use. Tailoring is the processes of choosing which of these are appropriate to use on any given project. One size doesn’t fit all. You methodology doesn’t suit my projects, but your methodology also doesn’t suit all your projects. It should also be flexible and scalable enough to be able to be used on all your projects. This must be kept in mind when developing or changing your project management methodology.

Within your organisation it is the project management office (PMO) that is responsible for developing, monitoring and improving your project management methodology.

When it comes to the process of developing, or changing, your project management methodology you have two main options available to you. You can choose to develop your own methodology or to use an already developed one available as an off-the-shelf solution usually for a fee.

If you choose to develop your own one, the most important part for getting this right is to have people with the right level of experience, passion and commitment to make sure the development doesn’t stop half way through. Developing your own methodology is not a single event, it takes time and iterations to ensure it is correct. It also requires a champion who will commit to seeing the initial process to completion. Too many good initiatives have been left to flounder due to the absence of a champion. The benefits of developing your own methodology is that you can leverage off existing intellectual property, accommodate the organisational culture and get by in from the project management team by seeking their input on what constitutes an appropriately tailored methodology. A disadvantage to making your own methodology is the time and effort it takes to get it from initiation to working methodology with processes, tools and templates.

There are many off-the-shelf solutions for a project management methodology and of the ones I have seen, most claim they can be customised to suit. However, most people don’t see this and assume that simply by taking an off the shelf solution that it will solve all their problems. The benefits of getting an off-the-shelf solution is that it is available right away and it is a known methodology. The drawbacks are that people assume that because it works for someone else that it will work for them when this is not always the case. The instant methodology does not reflect the organisational culture or industry. Also, there is no control over intellectual property and there can be a lack of buy in and support from project team members.

Tailoring is “For any given project, the project manager, in collaboration with the project team, is always responsible for determining which processes are appropriate, and the appropriate degree of rigor for each process. Project managers and their teams should carefully address each process and its inputs and outputs. The PMBOK ® Guide should be used as a guide in managing a project while considering the overall approach and methodology to be followed for the project.” (The PMBOK® Guide 5th edition). The concept of tailoring has grown in importance over the years with different versions of the PMBOK® Guide giving it more emphasis. The phrase ‘tailor’ or ‘tailoring’ is used 0 times in the 2nd edition, 10 times in the 3rd edition, 13 times in the 4th edition, and 11 times in the exposure draft of the 5th edition

Tailoring your project management methodology is an important step in organisational project management maturity and also in getting people to use and improve your In the absence of an appropriately tailored project management methodology, people will tailor their own solutions. Here are some signs that your project management methodology is not tailored correctly.

1. Project team members are not using the methodology
2. Project team members are independently modifying the methodology
3. Your methodology features process for the sake of process
4. Your methodology is one-size-fits-all approach to projects of differing sizes and complexity

The benefits of a tailored approach to your project management methodology are:

1. Buy in from team members
2. Customer oriented focus
3. Focus on best-for-project approach
4. More efficient use of project resources

There are three stages to tailoring your project management methodology.

The first is the initial tailoring you do to select those elements that will form your project management methodology. Here, you select from a body of knowledge such as the PMBOK® Guide, all those processes, tool and techniques that are appropriate to the styles of projects you are doing based on their complexity and size. Factors which influence the choices you make in developing a project management methodology are project size, complexity, organisation and team culture, and internal and external constraints. Once this initial process is complete you will have a methodology that is able to be used for your projects. Obviously if your projects are all largely similar then the methodology will be a fairly standardized one used without much change between projects. If however, the size and complexity of your projects varies considerably, then this first stage in tailoring your methodology will result in a scalable and flexible methodology that can be adapted to be used on all your projects. Some specific examples of scalability and flexibility include the type and size of any project charter, the range of scope definition and extent of planning completed and, the effort put into risk management and communications management.

The second stage is the tailoring you do before starting a project to determine what elements of your project management methodology you are going to us for this particular project. This process should involve both the project manager and the PMO in deciding which elements of the organisations’ project management methodology are appropriate for this particular project. An easy way to do this is simply to divide projects into small, medium and large projects and have a different set of processes, tools and templates for each category. There are other, more complex ways of making these decisions as well.

The third stage of tailoring is completed during the execution of the project where you are checking that the particular combination of elements you have selected is still appropriate and you are not over cooking or undercooking a project. Tailoring is an iterative process done throughout the entire project lifecycle. The PMO should have an input into this review process, and oversee and approve any changes. Adding your lessons learned about the application of your selected methodology to your lesson learned process helps other project managers in the future.

There are many reasons that may drive you to want to improve as a project manager. You may be looking for that next promotion or more complex project assignments, or perhaps it to ensure greater client satisfaction, or to increase the chances of project success. Maybe it’s for your own increased job satisfaction or simply a desire for personal growth. Whatever the reason you need to realize that improvement takes time and there will be times that whatever improvement path you have taken goes ahead in leaps and bounds, and other time where any improvements seem to move ahead at a snail’s pace.

Here are six steps to help you improve as a project manager.

1. First comes commitment - The first step in improving yourself as a project manager is to first make the commitment. This means taking the required steps rather than just talking about doing them. All the good intentions in the world won’t help you improve if you don’t actually go ahead and do something tangible. This is what separates those who actually DO improve as project managers and those who SAY they are going to improve as project managers.

A great way to commit, and to make sure you are accountable, is to keep a journal of your intentions, plans and goals as it relates to your own professional development. Another way to commit is to let your project team members, sponsor and clients know that you value and seek opportunities for your own improvement. They will all appreciate your openness and drive for improvement.

2. Define Improvement - As a great project manager you know that you have to have a defined scope of work for the project so you know exactly what it is that you are doing and it’s the same for any plan to improve yourself as a project manager. Start by taking the time to define the specific areas improve in. Do you need more technical skills, people management or greater leadership ability? Be as specific as possible as this will allow you to better plan how you will achieve your professional development.

Once you have defined exactly what improvement means to you, you can then document them and be able to develop a clear plan which includes goals, timeframes and metrics to know whether or not your improvement plan is working. Don’t fall for the trap that there is an end point in improvement. Once you have achieved one set of goals, you can define and set your next set of goals. Improvement is a continuous experience so don’t rush to file that plan away so quickly.

3. Make mistakes (and learn from them) - It may seem like a strange thing to say but let’s be honest, everyone makes mistakes so try and make a positive out of a negative situation and use these mistakes as opportunities to grow and improve. The smart people make mistakes and learn from them. The not-so-smart people make the same mistakes over and over again.

Often the best way to learn something and improve is to make a mistake and learn from it by asking yourself why, how, what, and when about the mistake. Try to use the 20:20 vision of hindsight to learn and improve yourself.

4. Seek feedback - Be brave enough to ask those people around you for feedback. Ask your team members, your boss and your customer about what they see as your strengths and weaknesses. You can do this formally and informally.

You can schedule a formal 360 degree review during your annual performance appraisal and career development planning session. Alternatively you can seek regular informal feedback from those who answer to you and those who you answer to. Learn to listen carefully to all the feedback both positive and negative. You can improve by both addressing the negative but also by doing more of the positive things you do.

5. Copy the greats - One of the easiest ways to improve as a project manager is simply to watch and observe those project managers with skills and experience that you admire and copy them. You can meet these great people face to face in your daily life, and you may also see them speak at meetings, workshops or conferences. It may be that you never get to meet them in real life but instead read about them in books, journals or articles. However you interact with them, take careful note of what it is about them that impresses you.

One of the best ways to use others in your search for improvement is to formalize this by asking someone to be your mentor. Don’t be afraid to ask that senior project manager that you admire to be your mentor, most people I know are flattered to be asked. Take the opportunity to meet regularly with your mentor and seek guidance on issues that you are having. I have found the mentors that I have had, have really helped me improve as a project manager.

Another thing to keep in mind is that by agreeing to become a mentor yourself to someone less experienced will also help you improvement goals as it forces you to think about what you can offer them.

6. Continuing education - There are many education pathways you can follow to assist you become a better project manager. There are many education courses from project management training providers up to world renowned tertiary institutes offering a full range of courses of every topic relevant to the profession of project management. You can seek to get a certificate of attendance, a diploma or degree, or an international credential as part of your commitment to continuing education.

As part of your own improvement plan you’ve probably identified those specific and general areas that you want to focus on. Look out for local face to face and online courses that will help you get this education. Choose the method that best suits your learning style, work commitments and financial resources.

These are just some of the ways you can follow if you are aiming to be the best you can be as a project manager. Congratulations on taking the first step simply by reading this. Let me know what works best for you.

Are you a little confused by all these project management documents and credentials you keep stumbling across in your quest to understand the profession and further develop yourself as a project manager? Well I’m going to try and explain the situation to you so you understand exactly what a standard, framework and methodology is and how they are different from each other. This will be a brief, yet concise, explanation and if you want more detail just do a search on the internet.

Let’s start the explanation with a diagram. The diagram shows standards, frameworks and methodologies in descending order of influence and importance.

At the top you have ISO21500 which is the newly introduced international standard for project management. It took 7 years to develop and involved all the project management organizations around the globe and as such represents a truly comprehensive, standardizing and unifying approach to project management. It is still early days for this standard as it was only released in 2012 and as such it is a guiding standard only and not a normative one. We expect it to become a normative standard sometime around 2017 and when it does you can start certifying your organisation as ISO21500 compliant. Until then it represents a fantastic guide for professional project management and you should probably make yourself very familiar with it as it will probably become a standard you need to comply with sooner or later.

The next layer down is made up of framework documents and their associated credentials. Here you have project management body of knowledge’s’ which capture what is considered good professional project management practice across the entire project management profession. The largest example of this is the PMBOK^® Guide from the Project Management Institute (PMI) which is a global organization. Frameworks contain much more detailed information about project management processes, tools and techniques than standards such as ISO21500. The Association for Project Management (APM), which is largely based in Europe, also has its own Body of Knowledge as well. Despite this extra information they do not present specific ways of completing projects - that’s a job for methodologies which we cover soon. There are many similarities between the PMBOK^® Guide, APM BoK, and ISO21500, but also a few differences mainly around slight naming and content differences of some processes and process groups. We would expect these differences to be ironed out over the next few years. PMI offers the Project Management Professional (PMP^®) and Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM^®) credential, and APM offers its own 4 stage certification for project managers. All of these credentials are framework credentials and are at a much more senior and detailed level than methodology credentials which we cover next. I recommend all project managers plan on gaining a framework credential at some point in their career - the sooner the better.

At the bottom of the hierarchy are specific project management methodologies developed from frameworks which in turn align with standards. Each methodology can be traced back to a particular framework document, and its ancillary documents such as extensions to the PMI PMBOK^® Guide. Each methodology is particularly suitable for different projects based on industry, size, value, complexity and risk. For example Scrum is great for fast moving iterative IT projects, Prince2 for low complexity IT projects, and Method123 for defined complex projects from a range of industries. There are usually no, or very little, prerequisites needed to gain a methodology certification so they are generally not any guide to a project managers experience, ability or seniority. My opinion is that you should only look at becoming a certified in a particular project management methodology if your organization is actually going to use that methodology appropriately. Otherwise I strongly suggest getting a framework credential such as PMP^® and gain the skills needed to develop your own project management methodology.

Anyway, that’s the explanation over. I hope you found it useful and you now feel more informed about standards, frameworks and methodologies.

Have you ever played the game of dominos? I did many years ago and I was never very good at it. If you remember the game, it involves trying to place your dominoes in some sort of order to block and beat your opponent. The other great thing you can do with dominoes is balance them on their edge, line them up, push the first one over and watch the cascading effect as one falling domino causing the next to fall. If one domino fails to fall or is missing, then then no other dominoes will fall. There are some great world records set for this and if you have time take a look online.

Anyway, the point of that preamble is to rather clumsily introduce the idea of connected, interconnected and dependent events. It’s a particularly important concept when looking at achieving organizational strategy. Achieving strategic success is not simply a matter of defining the strategy and then sitting back and watching it happen.  A series of interconnected events needs to occur to ensure that strategic success occurs. In fact, there are many variables that contribute to strategic success but for the purpose of clarity and brevity I am going to focus on the link between strategic success and organizational project management capability.

Organizational project management capability refers to what practices and processes the organization has to assist with successful portfolio, program and project management. The individual components of organization project management capability are many and varied, and listing them all would take up the rest of this blog but it does include the following elements:

• Portfolio management techniques for selecting and prioritizing the right projects.
• Organization wide support for project management – a move to Total Project Management (TPM) which is like the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM).
• The right PMO for the organization right now
• A talent management strategy for assessing and improving individual practitioner capability
• An organizational project management methodology
• Individual tailored project management methodologies including tools techniques and templates

If you view achieving strategy as the final domino to fall you must ensure that all the parts of appropriate organizational project management are in place and playing their part. They must be in place and ‘fall’ first in order to achieve your strategic objectives.

What this means is that you need to begin to view organizational project management capability as a key management tool for achieving strategic initiatives. You need to see the interconnected relationship between strategy and project management. You need to foster and strengthen the links between C level executives setting the strategy and practitioners at all levels charged with delivering the projects which deliver that strategy.

So, take some time to make those clear links between individual elements of your organizational strategy and the specific parts of organizational project management capability that will contribute to delivering them. Focus on the weak areas of each and my final tip is to begin the process by only choosing those projects that align with and deliver organizational strategy.