Project Management in Real Life

The Project Team Members is an important risk on a Risk Register, there are many other risks to add to the register, but my focus on this article is Team Members. 

Project Managers need to focus up front on the availability of team members for a project. The Risk Register should include team members working on different projects, especially concurrent projects. We often assign key staff to multiple projects which is fine if their key dates and implementation have breathing room for safe multitasking. 

The Risk Register will provide valuable insight into how your project team is spread out. The reprioritizing of project dates might be needed to address overallocated staff. It's good to know up front that you are working with overallocated staff so you know the potential risk that could be a showstopper.

Roll the dice or play it safe. Just make sure that management understands all the risks that are involved with overallocated staff. 

The view from Magic Island on the island of Oahu.

Project Managers need to get out of the office and find a place to refresh and have their zen moment to find the elusive pieces of the puzzle that their project is missing. The Pacific Ocean is my favorite place to have my zen moments when I need to find a solution for a project. 

Find your favorite zen moment place where you live. Just clear your mind and relax.

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on DrakeSettsu.BlogSpot.com in August 2018)

You have created a meticulous Work Breakdown Structure of all the tasks for your project. The next step is to transfer that WBS to your MS Project plan. You created a very impressive project plan with over 10,000 entries. All you have to do now is maintain the plan to keep it fresh.

Are you kidding? The project scope has changed. My project plan has over 10,000 entries with start dates and finish dates. My masterpiece is ruined! I spent one month creating that project plan after the official sign off on the project.

Take a deep breath. All you have to do now is create as many as needed MS Project plans to address the additional scope. For example, you can create five small MS Project plans to address the additional scope.

Great, I now have six plans to maintain for the same project. Yes, you have six projects, but you can turn those scope creepers into subprojects by creating five tasks in your master project at the appropriate areas in the project plan. MS Project can insert a project into a project, resulting in subprojects in the master project.

When you bring up your master project all the subprojects will be there creating an illusion of one MS Project plan. Well, there will be a MS Project icon next to the line number in the MS Project master plan indicating a linked project. The subproject line numbers will start with a 1 - 97 for example, they do not renumber the master project plan.

A suggestion for large projects. Create a master project and subprojects to help make the management of the plan a pleasant experience. As much as possible we diligently gather the project requirements to build a project plan that will have minimal additions, but we need to respond quickly to incorporate the additional requirements that get approved and needs to be incorporated into the master project plan.

There is a plus to the birth of subprojects. From a reporting standpoint, you can show how much additional effort was introduced into the original project. You can create reports from the subprojects and of course, you can create reports of the master project with all the subprojects that are linked to it giving you the big picture.

When you are disciplined to create a master MS Project plan that employs subprojects, you gain flexibility in the master plan. You now have an Agile project plan to address the things that go bump in the night from those sponsors and stakeholders.

Today's Project Manager is faced with many challenges to deliver projects on time within the budget. They need to work smart with so much responsibility on their shoulders. Do they have time to get involved in continuous improvement? Yes.

The open minded Project Manager can use Kaizen to bring additional value to Project Management. What is Kaizen? It is a Japanese word. KAI = CHANGE and ZEN = GOOD, so Kaizen =  continuous improvement. Never be satisfied with a process or procedure. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make improvements, whether it's a suggestions for the organization or the way you manage your projects. Make changes with an incremental approach to gradually yield results immediately rather than going for it all at one time. Just keep your goals on the radar and be patient while you work towards the goals. Quality outcomes is the reward.

Goals have been achieved, but we are never done with continuous improvement. There is always opportunities to make something better. Never be satisfied, always be hungry to make something better one day at a time. Project Managers get a good view of what is going on in the organization, so they need to speak up when they see something that could be improved and they also need to keep tuning their tools of the trade to operate efficiently.

You are the Project Manager for two important projects that need your attention on a Saturday night what do you do? Have the right people on the project. 

I had a Radiology/Pharmacy system relocation go-live that involved moving the system across town to a new Data Center. The second project required some critical tasks to be performed for another project that cannot move forward until two critical tasks are completed.

The players that supported me was a Business Analyst, Data Center Operations Supervisor, and HP Field Engineer to shut down and pack up the hardware at 23:00 to let the moving company deliver the system to the new Data Center.

The system arrived in the new Data Center in good condition. The Data Center was already prepared for power, network connectivity, and telephone lines. Everything went well except an issue with a legacy application that had issues with a modem. I had to leave the team and work on my second project that I was the only player that could do two critical tasks to keep the project on track.

I had to drive back to the old Data Center to perform the two critical tasks. It's 03:00 and I go to work and everything went according to my plan and I finish at 04:30. 

Time to drive back to the new Data Center to help the team get the legacy application working. We get the application to work at 11:00 Sunday morning. 

The key to a successful project go-live is teamwork, it's so important to support each other. Having a good Risk Assessment review meeting to make sure you cover everything in your go-live plan is so important to catch anything that you might have missed on the plan.

Tip for your project go-live plans. When you develop your plan break the timeline tasks down in half hour increments when possible. By breaking down your tasks in half hour increments you can measure your progress better. You will see what areas are taking more time or less time to complete. You can determine if you need to back out the implementation or continue to move forward. In some cases you can't go back so it will help you give a status report to management.

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on DrakeSettsu.BlogSpot.com in December 2013)