I am JUST getting into project management in the technology field and do not yet have the formal title (I'm currently a Systems Analyst working for a community bank), but have been given the responsibility of "managing" all projects given to our department.
These projects range in scope/complexity from conducting a Corporate License Verification to Analyzing our bank's Core Processing System (currently outsourced) to determine whether our best course of action is to stay put, go with a different vendor for outsourcing, or bring in-house...either scenario will be a multi-million dollar decision.
We have exactly 5 people in our Technology Dept, including myself and the CIO, and our master project plan has grown to roughly 41 projects - - currently in progress!
As a "newbie" to the field, not only am I feeling overwhelmed, but I'm also feeling that even the most highly organized individual (and I AM highly organized) could have difficulty keeping up with this many initiatives, tasks, deadlines, etc.
Does anyone have a suggestion for someone that is in so deep? Tools (MS Project 2002 is currently being utilized)? Publications (I'm reading everything I can get my hands on in my "spare time")?
I need to keep my hands around everything. It's all due "tomorrow" and not nearly enough time is being spent planning. We're in a highly reactive mode which I fear is doomed for eventual failure. ANY advice for my situation would be so welcomed! Saving Changes...
Sounds like you have been given a lot of responsibility. Unfortunately, your position is not that uncommon - systems analysts are often "promoted" to project management positions without formal training and/or related experience. Companies fail to realize that this is an inherently risky practice.
I am going to make the assumption you have already communicated your concerns to your manager, and he or she has told you to ?make do? as best you can. Two important questions to ask are: Have the projects been scoped out ? do you have a solid feel for what each entails from a scope, schedule and resource perspective (has it been documented)? Second, have they been prioritized? You mentioned they are all ?due tomorrow,? but are they truly all of the highest priority? If your manager won?t back down on all of them getting done, you may be able to break them down by priority and buy yourself some breathing room.
In terms of building up your project management expertise, logging on to Gannthead is a great first step, as you will find a lot of useful information on the site. Another site you may want to become familiar with is pmi.org, the site for the Project Management Institute, an organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining a high level of industry standard knowledge and professionalism in project management. One more is allpm.com, which is yet another useful site.
How familiar are you with the basics of project management? If you are not well versed, taking an introductory project management class would allow you to become familiar with the basics. Likewise, if you are not familiar with MS Project, and that is the tool used at your company, it would benefit you to take a course to learn the basics. You could complete both of these courses in a couple of days, and you would at least gain fundamental understanding.
Hope this helps. Please feel free to contact me directly if I can provide additional assistance.
Best of luck!
Pat
Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Hi Pat,
Thank you so much for your feedback and your offer of direct contact (which I may take you up on!). I wanted to reply to some of your questions publicly, because I realize that I left a lot of holes in trying to keep it brief.
We are currently "buying time" to make the right presentation for departmental restructure. I do have confidence that my CIO will take care of things (eventually), as she hasn't let me down yet. It's just the interim situation that has me concerned. And of course, my lack of formal training/background.
I DID take a one day class at the local university that was Intro To Project Management. I wanted to take the subsequent Managing Multiple Projects class (which would probably have been a tremendous benefit!), but I had a schedule conflict. So I'm reading a book instead.
Most of the projects have been scoped only at a very high level. Most of my resource "pool" (since all projects are technology-related) consist of the 5 members of our department, so we're all spread very thin. It isn't just me. But the responsibility of the oversight does have me reeling. I have prioritized what I KNOW really does need to be done "tomorrow" and the rest are pretty much part of a very large task list. To be done as time allows. I'm not comfortable with that approach and scheduling/prioritization is the biggest challenge I'm facing, I believe.
I'm learning as much as I can about MS Project through the Help Files and FAQ's. No one else knows a thing about it, so we're all learning hands on. I have considered taking a class dedicated to that program, so I appreciate hearing that I'm probably going in the best direction.
I neglected to mention that I am a new member of PMI, but I do find the Gantthead site more user-friendly and tailored to the industry. These discussion boards are terrific.
Just wanted to expand on a couple of things and respond to your questions. Again, I appreciate your comments and willingness to help. Saving Changes...
I feel your pain - I've been in similar situations - starting as PM on a project (or 3) with management breathing down my neck to deliver. But I never was stuck with 41 projects to "manage" immediately upon taking on the role!
The challenge, of course, is that it is impossible to truly manage 41 projects at once, assuming that they are more involved than "Purchase new computer". Some details on what you're being asked to do would help me form some opinions on how to help. The primary question in my mind is to understand whether you are responsible for executing the projects yourself (or the 5 person team you mentioned), or are there others working the projects, providing deliverables, etc., and you are performing a Project Management Office type function (i.e., collecting deliverables, tracking schedule, etc.) In addition, are you expected just to track the schedule, or are you taking on the other aspects of project management such as Risk Management, Communications, etc.
Some generic advice I could give is to stick to your strengths when trying to get your arms around the projects. If you're a detail oriented person, I'd suggest figuring out what specific information I needed for each project (for example, goals/objectives/ purpose, start date, end date, activities, risks, issues, communications needed), and get those details for each project, one by one. If others were running the projects, I'd tell each of them to provide what I needed. After I got all that, I'd start collecting dependencies between projects - for example, "We can't install our new asset management system until corporate has purchased and installed the company-wide servers."
If I were a big-picture kind of person, I'd learn how the different projects support the goals of the organization, who is responsible for what aspects of which projects, and start organizing my information at a high level around those elements. Eventually I'd end up with all the details, but I'd have built them from the top down rather than the bottom up.
I could probably go on for days on this subject, but I?m sure you?re tired of reading by now. Feel free to contact me directly. Some of the questions I asked before would drive a lot of the advice I might give you, and a back and forth discussion rather than my guessing at your situation would be more likely to provide something useful.
keep in mind using Microsoft Project isn't project management. It is more about managing tasks and schedule.
Project Management is very much about manging a number of other things on the way to delivery.
Think of it like this. If you are going on a long drive, you have a start point "A" and an end point "D". You decide on the way you want to go through towns "C" and "D".
These things you put into your schedule and put some dates around them.
On the way you have to manage things to make sure it all happens. As you look at different PM methodologies, you will see different explinations on this.
PMBOK refer to 9 core things.Integeration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Communiation, Procurement, Risk and HR.
How do you apply this to the above example? Without going into a full training session, consider these...
If you are taking the family you are going to need to make sure they are happy, so you might plan the odd stop on the way for coffee (HR Management)
You may be travelling a long distance with no fuel stations. Maybe pack some extra fuel or make sure the Mobile phone will work the path you take (Risk Management)
When you get to destination "D" you intend on visiting a few people, so you figure you will call them up in advance and let them know you are coming (Communiaction Management)
And so on..
A Major thing I would suggest you look at is your Risk and Issue management. These are the things that might(Risk) or are(Issue) impacting your delivery. Managing these is about how you respond to these. A key part of this is escalation. What do you do when it is bigger than you.
The first thing you do is prioritize all the projects, then review dependencies between these projects, perhaps bundle some projects together depending on size and complexity.
Next, EXECUTE the projects that offer the greatest BANG FOR THE BUCK.
Sounds to me like you need to sit down and write a strategic IT plan that supports your firm's business objectives, so that the projects you do execute are in complete alignment, provide VALUE and ROI to business stakeholders. Saving Changes...
As a new PM, I can fully relate to your circumstances. Here are my thoughts and experiences for what they are worth:
1) Process is everything. The only way to navigate through the chaos, sift and prioritize projects and then begin to tackle them is to review your project process and improve it. For instance, when I joined my department, projects were thrown at us from the four corners of our organization. I've since streamlined the process, replacing an Alaskan pipeline for a household funnel, and that's helped me and my team immensely. I also instituted the Franklin Covey approach to project management. Although the process is more like PM-Lite, it works for my organization (education) and my stakeholders buy into it. As I have time, I conduct 3/4 day training sessions on the approach with our employees and it's been very well received (and they use it!). The last thing I'm working on (keep your fingers crossed for me) is to get our upper-administration to prioritize our projects for us. IT is constantly caught in the political crosshairs because we choose which projects to work, rather than the organization's leaders selecting them based on our strategic goals. My recommendation to you is to consider instituting something similar. Although some projects demand immediate attention and naturally take precedence over others, unless you align what you work with your institution's strategic goals, you run the risk of working projects that aren't valued. By asking your institution's leadership to prioritize the project pipeline you also take IT off the hot seat.
2) Use a project management tool. We are hiring a group called Immedient, Inc. to help us set up and maximize MS Projects. I'll let you know the outcome if you are interested.
I hope this helps. Like I said, I'm far from having any expertise in the area of project management. But these lessons have helped me and I hope they help you.
