I recently took over several projects from a coworker who left unexpectedly for an extended time. While I may be the ongoing PM for some of the projects, I will most likely offload others to different leaders.
I have little information to go on and suspect much of the project information was stored on the PM’s local hard-drive. I am now in the process of researching and trying to build a summary for each project including the PM basics like what it is, who’s the sponsor, what’s the timeline, etc. There are a variety of types such as new business, product improvements, and ongoing maintenance. As I am collecting and organizing information it occurs to me that it might help to identify aspects of each project that would help identify the right PMs for reassignment.
Other than necessary skills and estimated time commitment, are there any other insights for what might be useful to summarize, knowing that the next step will likely be finding a new PM? Any other insights are of course welcome.
I think you are taking the right steps so the only suggestion I would make is to locate charters for each of the projects and personally meet with each sponsor to help identify the competencies & personality traits which might be needed by the "right" PM for each of these projects.
Thanks for the input! I was working along exactly those lines, however in many cases we don't have a formal charter. Instead I was trying to reconstruct that same type of information. When you mentioned the word charter, suddenly it struck me that is exactly what I needed but I wasn't calling it that.
I was struggling to invent a generic one-page project summary that contained both the charter information, and the status information. I suddenly realized then that a charter and plan don't normally go on the same page so creating a one page view combining both types of data was my biggest problem. I decided to instead split them out into a generic charter level page, and a generic project level summary.
With 2 simple generic templates it's suddenly a lot easier to see what I know vs. what I need to know, and it is no longer a master class in formatting.
Sometimes it takes someone pointing out the obvious, before the light comes on and you see what you're doing wrong. :-)
Thanks again! Keith
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1 reply by Kiron Bondale
Jan 05, 2019 9:43 AM
Kiron Bondale
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Thanks Keith!
As there will likely be some tough decision making about which projects merit the support of the best PMs, it might also be helpful for your leadership team if key metrics about each project were gathered and presented in a format such as a simple table. Alternately, if your company has an EPM/PPM solution and you trust the data for these projects, you could do a quick extract of KPIs to help in decision making.
Thanks for the input! I was working along exactly those lines, however in many cases we don't have a formal charter. Instead I was trying to reconstruct that same type of information. When you mentioned the word charter, suddenly it struck me that is exactly what I needed but I wasn't calling it that.
I was struggling to invent a generic one-page project summary that contained both the charter information, and the status information. I suddenly realized then that a charter and plan don't normally go on the same page so creating a one page view combining both types of data was my biggest problem. I decided to instead split them out into a generic charter level page, and a generic project level summary.
With 2 simple generic templates it's suddenly a lot easier to see what I know vs. what I need to know, and it is no longer a master class in formatting.
Sometimes it takes someone pointing out the obvious, before the light comes on and you see what you're doing wrong. :-)
Thanks again! Keith
Thanks Keith!
As there will likely be some tough decision making about which projects merit the support of the best PMs, it might also be helpful for your leadership team if key metrics about each project were gathered and presented in a format such as a simple table. Alternately, if your company has an EPM/PPM solution and you trust the data for these projects, you could do a quick extract of KPIs to help in decision making.
Kiron
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1 reply by Keith Novak
Jan 06, 2019 2:52 PM
Keith Novak
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Thanks Kiron! We are in fact doing exactly what you suggested regarding a table. For reassignment, the key items we are currently using for consideration are primarily related to workload within the PMO.:
:
- % of a PMs time required
- Lifecycle phase (more, same, or less time expected in the future?)
- Current level of urgency
- Specific technical knowledge areas necessary or helpful
It is turning into an interesting exercise, which is why I thought it might be good to share. It gives us an opportunity to look at our own internal PMO processes on both how we manage and share project info within the larger organization and also how we manage the workload of our PMs.
I would be revisiting sponsors and key stakeholders to make sure the requirements and deliverables are on point, especially in the absence of project charters. I assume there must be a project plan or requirements document somewhere. Saving Changes...
Sante- That is precisely what I'm doing at this point. One of the problems I've encountered is that since we have a vast array of tools and storage locations, finding that documentation is a major problem. Part of what I'm asking the stakeholders in addition to the objectives and expectations, is do they know where the documentation is located. Some are also in the infancy stage so there might be little documented, or it might be notional and not firm.
That's where I have settled on a generic template approach. Since what information I have varies by project, it essentially gives me a checklist and makes it easier to identify what important pieces of information I am missing. Saving Changes...
As there will likely be some tough decision making about which projects merit the support of the best PMs, it might also be helpful for your leadership team if key metrics about each project were gathered and presented in a format such as a simple table. Alternately, if your company has an EPM/PPM solution and you trust the data for these projects, you could do a quick extract of KPIs to help in decision making.
Kiron
Thanks Kiron! We are in fact doing exactly what you suggested regarding a table. For reassignment, the key items we are currently using for consideration are primarily related to workload within the PMO.:
:
- % of a PMs time required
- Lifecycle phase (more, same, or less time expected in the future?)
- Current level of urgency
- Specific technical knowledge areas necessary or helpful
It is turning into an interesting exercise, which is why I thought it might be good to share. It gives us an opportunity to look at our own internal PMO processes on both how we manage and share project info within the larger organization and also how we manage the workload of our PMs. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Also if you have a history of how this particular person was, in terms of managing those projects ,and if they were quite good at what and how they managed, that might be the sort of person you may look for in terms of desired skills.
Alternately , if you knew that they were struggling in one or more aspects, you may wan't to find a candidate who is particularly stronger in that aspect.
Also, if you can group the projects they managed, you may want to give two projects of the same flavor, to the one person for example. Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Also, I would try and find out the names of the key team members on each of the projects , apart from the senior stakeholders and pick their brains on what they thought the current status was and if they had meeting minutes or relevant documentation that would inform of the current status of each of the projects. Saving Changes...
There are usually five things I look for in discovery:
Business case/feasibility study/concept paper
A project charter or project concept document would be helpful to provide a high level to the new PM
Risk log
Issue log
Meeting Minutes
Finding a New PM:
There are several ways to address reassignment. Pairing a junior PM with a Senior PM, hiring a senior PM with both project and leadership experience, or reassign to a PM currently managing project for that project, client etc.
Another important factor in reassignment and getting the project relaunched is the all important sponsor meeting.
Good luck, sounds like you're on the right track. Saving Changes...
"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."
