I am a mechanical engineer with around 10 years of experience in the manufacturing industry, first with experiences in quality, methods and problem solving/continuous improvement and since 2018 as a full time PM. I mainly worked in big companies (10k-100k employees) in the aerospace, automotive, nuclear and other industries.
I got PMP certified almost at the same time I got recruited as a PM in a MedTech startup (October 2022) that is developing AI analysis software for cancer screening (40 people working in dev(AI, data, prod/ops), clinical research and QARA). It is new for me because it is a MedTech and because it is an IT startup. Some projects should use a waterfall approach (FDA clearance), some are agile (dev with not external impact) and some hybrid.
Some of the issues they have not having a PM/PMO to help them:
- Some tasks they discuss during meetings are forgotten or written somewhere that is not visible to all, so it eventually gets forgotten;
- Tasks are pushed again and again (estimates are not accurate and they have no tool to manage their resources);
- They have too many projects they are trying to push, not considering the fact that they have many other projects that are already running.
I checked for a solution that could fit our needs and chose Wrike. I'm expecting to deploy that new tool in a 1-month timeframe, in January 2023.
They are asking me to set Project Management standards (they only use Google Chat/Slack and emails to communicate and Google Tasks/Google Sheets to set and track tasks) which I think I could do (with some help from the consultant at Wrike how will help me during four 1-hour sessions in January).
I want to present the tool to them and teach them some basics of project management like what to expect from a kickoff meeting (I was asked to organize one on a very short notice with no project charter and stakeholders were not all present), how to manage risks, time and stakeholders.
I have some questions, if some of you are working in a startup/MedTech company or have any ideas to succeed in this position?
- 1-month for deployment of the PM tool Wrike, too quick, too slow?
- What methods do you suggest to onboard my colleagues in understanding the advantages of having a PM tool (that is adding to the many they are already using (especially duplicates with Gitlab/Redmine)?
- How should we manage risks? Nominate risk manager in the team or do it myself?
- Time management (estimates). Stakeholder management (identify all stakeholders before starting).
- Any general advice for hybrid projects in that field?
Thank you very much all and have a nice day,
Ibrahim Saving Changes...
before introducing any tools, it would be helpful if you could convince your leadership to pull less work into the system. Until that is done, it will be hard to get any predictability.
Once that is done, I'd suggest working with a few team members to develop some simple PM standards (principle-based) and once there is some consistency across the projects, then look to introduce a tool.
Otherwise, you are just automating chaos.
Kiron Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
... and you (or senior management) wind up blaming the tool. The biggest part of setting up a PMO--as your post seems to suggest--is the change in culture that is required. Focus on changing the people and many of the listed woes will drop off. Bonne chance! Saving Changes...
Thank you very much for your feedbacks.
I could use the tool for myself to keep track on all tasks, telling everyone not to look at it and just updating it myself.
What would you suggest to do next? What would be the first principles you would teach this kind of team and what other principles would you avoid starting with? Saving Changes...
Hello Ibrahim Referring the questions 1 - 1month, 4 weeks, is reasonable for deployment Wrike 2 - PM tool, as the names implies is a tool for Project Management. Put yourself in each team member head, will the tool (wrike) permit me to perform my work? 3-Risks are managed by the PM (response plan can/should have one person accountable BUT even so, PM should be prepared for secondary risks) 4-PM responsibility 5-PM knowhow, experience.
Your contractor expect you to manage the project, do PM tasks, actions. I would do regular status meetings, collect the tasks, follow-up each. Team members can use the tools better suits their needs as long job is done,(Pure, risk, stakeholders management). romão Saving Changes...
1. I'm not sure they will allow some time for me to gather that data, but I can ask my manager.
2. That is why I'm using Wrike, so that we can all see what has to be done by whom.
3. It is multitasking. But it seems that they are used to working like that and there is some change management to work on.
Romão -
1. My manager was asking for something quicker so at least now I have a fellow PM who supports my opinion.
2. I'm not sure it will really help them at the start of the project, but I hope that in few months from now they will realize the advantage of using such tool
3. Any suggestions on how to find/track/mitigate risks on this kind of industry?
4. Yes of course, but even asking SME, I'm being told that it is very difficult to give estimates.
5. Yes, and that's why I posted here, so maybe a fellow PM in the medical field could help.
The difficulty is now is proving (to elder senior management that they should believe me in managing that change). Wish me luck on that!
We are two Master students taking an advanced Project Management course and we have used your situation as a case study in our class. We would, therefore, like to (1) Ask you how you dealt with the mentioned issues, and what were the results / consequences of your actions. (2) Share with you our recommendations based on our knowledge and research .
We focused on the 3 main issues you mentioned. Lack of responsibilities assigned (“Some tasks they discuss during meetings are forgotten”) Poor planning (“Tasks are pushed again and again”) Lack of prioritisation (“They have too many projects they are trying to push”)
Our recommendations to some of your questions: - Implement LEAN PORTFOLIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT - a portfolio manager would help organising, prioritising and planning projects. Why lean? its shorter and decentralised planning cycles allow for more flexibility. To prioritise projects, both the alignment with the company strategy and financial measures like ROI, payback period or avaliability of resources should be considered. We believe it is also crucial to set and target the right KPIs. Other tools to be explored besides Wrike could be JIRA and Copilot. - Having a RISK MANAGER responsible for communicating regularly with all business units (by having cross functional teams or regular meetings). Its tasks would go around Identifying-Assessing-DevelopingResponsePlans-Monitoring-Communicating. Risk Control Self Assessment (RCSA) could be a starting tool. - Manage your STAKEHOLDERS - It is crucial to understand WHO are the stakeholders with higher power that may influence positively or negatively your business. You should then decide the ones relevant to invest. Are these threats or opportunities?
We are aware that these strategies cannot implement themselves from one day to the other so our final recommendation would be to resort to the lean startup approach. HOW? 1-Define your hypotheses (employees willing to change PM platform OR employees willing to collaborate with a risk manager). then 2- test these with a small group or department rather than launching it immediately to the whole business. 3- The idea would be to confirm the hypotheses and to get some feedback (is the new PM tool intuitive? Is training necessary? Does the new tool interfere with regular work? OR are the regular meetings effective? Do the cross functional teams work for risk management? Is everyone willing to put in the same effort level?). 4- after that you could decide whether you should continue pursuing your strategy or whether some changes are necessary.
Gabriela & Dounia
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1 reply by Ibrahim Chiahou
Apr 04, 2023 11:42 AM
Ibrahim Chiahou
...
Hello Gabriella,
Thanks for your message.
Regarding the 3 main issues:
Lack of responsibilities assigned: now with Wrike it's easier to remember who has to do what at weekly meetings, no more forgotten tasks!
Poor planning it's geeting better as we plan tasks in advance and we track them on a weekly basis.
Lack of prioritisation: this is the hard! Ther are used to pushing projects and it's more difficult to explain to them that having too many projects in the pipe makes it more difficult to track and thus implement correctly.
Regarding your recommendations, I'd like to know more about Lean Portfolio Project Management if you have any sources you could share.
I just realized I didn't click on "post reply". Hrmph.
Hello!
Back after few more months of experience in this startup.
Indeed! Introducing best practices is easy but adoption is hard.
I focused on implementing quick wins and how I can make their lives easier everyday. I'll continue to implement PM basics month after month and see how it can help.
Again, thank you very much for you help.
Ibrahim
Now we're better with the implementation of Wrike and adoption is great. It's just that PM basics adoption is not that easy to have. I'll keep on giving my best to show that Project Management will help the company perform very well! Saving Changes...
We are two Master students taking an advanced Project Management course and we have used your situation as a case study in our class. We would, therefore, like to (1) Ask you how you dealt with the mentioned issues, and what were the results / consequences of your actions. (2) Share with you our recommendations based on our knowledge and research .
We focused on the 3 main issues you mentioned. Lack of responsibilities assigned (“Some tasks they discuss during meetings are forgotten”) Poor planning (“Tasks are pushed again and again”) Lack of prioritisation (“They have too many projects they are trying to push”)
Our recommendations to some of your questions: - Implement LEAN PORTFOLIO PROJECT MANAGEMENT - a portfolio manager would help organising, prioritising and planning projects. Why lean? its shorter and decentralised planning cycles allow for more flexibility. To prioritise projects, both the alignment with the company strategy and financial measures like ROI, payback period or avaliability of resources should be considered. We believe it is also crucial to set and target the right KPIs. Other tools to be explored besides Wrike could be JIRA and Copilot. - Having a RISK MANAGER responsible for communicating regularly with all business units (by having cross functional teams or regular meetings). Its tasks would go around Identifying-Assessing-DevelopingResponsePlans-Monitoring-Communicating. Risk Control Self Assessment (RCSA) could be a starting tool. - Manage your STAKEHOLDERS - It is crucial to understand WHO are the stakeholders with higher power that may influence positively or negatively your business. You should then decide the ones relevant to invest. Are these threats or opportunities?
We are aware that these strategies cannot implement themselves from one day to the other so our final recommendation would be to resort to the lean startup approach. HOW? 1-Define your hypotheses (employees willing to change PM platform OR employees willing to collaborate with a risk manager). then 2- test these with a small group or department rather than launching it immediately to the whole business. 3- The idea would be to confirm the hypotheses and to get some feedback (is the new PM tool intuitive? Is training necessary? Does the new tool interfere with regular work? OR are the regular meetings effective? Do the cross functional teams work for risk management? Is everyone willing to put in the same effort level?). 4- after that you could decide whether you should continue pursuing your strategy or whether some changes are necessary.
Gabriela & Dounia
Hello Gabriella,
Thanks for your message.
Regarding the 3 main issues:
Lack of responsibilities assigned: now with Wrike it's easier to remember who has to do what at weekly meetings, no more forgotten tasks!
Poor planning it's geeting better as we plan tasks in advance and we track them on a weekly basis.
Lack of prioritisation: this is the hard! Ther are used to pushing projects and it's more difficult to explain to them that having too many projects in the pipe makes it more difficult to track and thus implement correctly.
Regarding your recommendations, I'd like to know more about Lean Portfolio Project Management if you have any sources you could share.
Thanks!
...
1 reply by Gabriela Afonso
Apr 08, 2023 1:42 PM
Gabriela Afonso
...
Hello Ibrahim,
Thank you for sharing some of your actions! We are glad to hear that it already brought success to the startup.
To what concerns the Lean Startup Approach, the best source to find information is the book written by Eric Reis (2011), the creator of this approach. Nonetheless, you can find the methodology and its steps more detailed on the website https://theleanstartup.com/principles We are very curious to know more details about how you proceeded, and to have a discussion with you about it. Therefore, feel free to reach us if there is a possibility that you would share this experience with our class whenever it is convenient for you. As future project managers, this would be an enriching opportunity to see how some PM tools are implemented in real life and what potential challenges may arise!
Regarding the 3 main issues:
Lack of responsibilities assigned: now with Wrike it's easier to remember who has to do what at weekly meetings, no more forgotten tasks!
Poor planning it's geeting better as we plan tasks in advance and we track them on a weekly basis.
Lack of prioritisation: this is the hard! Ther are used to pushing projects and it's more difficult to explain to them that having too many projects in the pipe makes it more difficult to track and thus implement correctly.
Regarding your recommendations, I'd like to know more about Lean Portfolio Project Management if you have any sources you could share.
Thanks!
Hello Ibrahim,
Thank you for sharing some of your actions! We are glad to hear that it already brought success to the startup.
To what concerns the Lean Startup Approach, the best source to find information is the book written by Eric Reis (2011), the creator of this approach. Nonetheless, you can find the methodology and its steps more detailed on the website https://theleanstartup.com/principles We are very curious to know more details about how you proceeded, and to have a discussion with you about it. Therefore, feel free to reach us if there is a possibility that you would share this experience with our class whenever it is convenient for you. As future project managers, this would be an enriching opportunity to see how some PM tools are implemented in real life and what potential challenges may arise!
