Project Management

No one is perfect. A project manager typically does the best job he can given the information that is available at the time. However, there are times when issues arise because of a mistake that the project manager makes. This could be a mistake in communication, a mistake in estimation, a mistake in understanding the project deliverables, etc. It would have to be a fairly large mistake to be classified as a formal issue, but large mistakes happen all the time.

Issues management is normally a cold and logical process involving problem identification and resolution techniques. However, these specific types of issues can be especially difficult to resolve since the project manager may feel some defensiveness (and perhaps embarrassment) for having caused the problem to begin with. Sometimes that fact that the problem was caused by the project manager makes it difficult to address the problem openly and in a timely manner. If this happens to you, use the following steps to deal with it effectively.

1. Own the problem. You must first recognize the problem and own-up to the fact that you caused it. If you cause the problem but try to blame it on others, you will probably find that resolving the problem is much more painful for you. If you caused the problem, or if you were partially at fault, be mature and honest enough to own it.

2. Communicate openly. You may be surprised how liberating it can be to just come right out and say that you blew it! If you own and communicate that you made a mistake, others will no longer feel the need to play the “blame game” – you have already admitted it! Your team can move quickly into resolving the problem instead.

3. Resolve the problem coolly and calmly. You have the personally-painful part out of the way. Now look for alternatives and resolve the problem using your normal issues management techniques. Don’t get caught up in the personal pain by acting defensive or by looking for ways that you can save face. Given the mistake made, look for the best resolution for your project.

4. Learn from the mistake. Generally each mistake you make can be turned into a learning experience. You can put better processes in place if that is appropriate. You can also take a personal key-learning and change your management processes (maybe even slightly) so that this type of problem does not occur again.

It is common for managers to state that the only positive to come out of a bad experience is that they learn not to do it again. It would be great if there were better places to learn than the “school of hard knocks.” However, as stated earlier, none of us are perfect either. When you make a major mistake, own up to it and communicate quickly. Then figure out how to overcome the problem and make personal adjustments so that the problem never occurs again.

If you will handle problems like this you will generally find that people give you the benefit of the doubt, and in fact many will even admire you for the way you address these personal challenges.

Provide Leadership to Implement Critical Change Requests

Change is not inherently bad or good. However, the team can react to changes in positive and negative ways, depending on the state of the project. A typical reaction from most project teams is to just go ahead and make the changes. However, there is another reaction that can be more problematic: the team may not want to make any more changes. This situation usually occurs on projects that have had problems and could be for a variety of reasons.

• This may be a long project, perhaps requiring overtime, and people just want the project to end.

• The proposed changes will require a lot of work, and the deadline date is being held firm. Again, overtime may be required from the team.

• Members of the project team and the client have not had a smooth relationship on the project. There may be project team members that do not want to help the client further.

• The changes require major upstream rework to the design, which will require changes to construction and re-testing of the entire solution.

All of these situations (and more) result in a scenario where the project team is not motivated to support scope changes. This puts the project manager in a tough position where he has to get the rest of the team on board for one last charge.

Frankly, it’s a tough sell. The team is tired and they are not motivated. In fact, morale may be poor. However, this is the time for the project manager to show leadership. Since the cause of the team problems is probably complex, the solution should be multi-faceted as well. Here are some things for the project manager to consider.

• Explain the facts first. Do not start with a rah-rah speech right away. First meet with the team and explain the background and circumstances. Then talk through the changes that are needed and why they are important from a business perspective.

• Acknowledge the pain. The project manager must acknowledge the problems. Let the team members know that you understand that they may not want to make the changes and that their morale is poor. Don’t dwell on it – but acknowledge it.

• Be motivational. Now is the time to motivate the team. Appeal to their sense of working together as a team to get through this adversity. Let them know the value they are providing to the company.

• Talk to everyone one-on-one. In addition to the team meeting, talk to the entire team one-on-one to understand where they are at mentally. Listen to their concerns and get their personal commitment to work hard and keep going.

• Get management and the sponsor involved. Now is also a good time to ask your manager and your sponsor to talk to the team, thank them for their work so far and ask for their continued help getting through the changes.

• Look for perks. Little perks can help a team get through motivational and morale trouble. These can be as simple as donuts in the morning and pizza for those that have to work late overtime.

• Make sure the clients are in there with you. Normally if the project team is working extra, the clients are sharing the pain as well. However, the project manager should make sure they are.

• Communicate proactively. Keep everyone informed as to the state of the project and the time and effort remaining. If the project manager starts getting closed and secretive with information, it causes many more problems to morale.

• Celebrate successes. The project manager does not need to wait until the project is over to declare success. Look for milestones, or mini-milestones, as opportunities to celebrate a victory and give praise to team members.

A project manager needs to have more management and leadership skills than simply telling people to “do their jobs.” This is a tough situation and requires good people management skills to get through successfully. Success is never guaranteed, but utilizing some of these tips can help you get through a tough situation.

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Let's have some fun! See if you can unravel this anagram. (Anagrams are a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.)

A record of jobs to do or to check that others have done, commitments from the author or others, important events, decisions and discussion, and kept by the project manager and any team members.

ALLOY DIG: _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _

Last Week's Anagram.

The likelihood of a mistake.

LIBRARY ROBOT RIPE: ERROR PROBABILITY

Wideman Glossary Term of the Week - Discounted Cash Flow

• A calculation of present value of a projected cash flow based on some assumed rate of inflation or interest.

• A method for comparing the relative merits of project investments taking into account the value of money, taxation, varying operating costs, earlier cash returns for reinvestment etc. Also known as Internal Rate of Return. Although theoretically not as sound as Net Present Value, it is easier to present and relate to interest rates on borrowed money. Neither DCF nor NPV takes into account project risks.

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Labels: Issues management

Projects are the way that most new work gets delivered. All projects have certain characteristics in common.

• They all have a beginning and an end.

• All projects are unique. They may be similar to prior projects but they are unique in terms of timeframes, resources, business environment, etc.

• Projects result in the creation of one or more deliverables.

• Projects also have assigned resources - either full-time, part-time or both.

There are other characteristics as well.

Projects can be managed using a common set of project management processes. In fact, a similar set of project management processes can be utilized regardless of the type of project. For instance, all projects should be defined and planned, and all projects should have processes to manage scope, risk, quality, status, etc.

Products on the other hand, are tangible items that are produced by a project, or perhaps purchased from a vendor. (The vendor would have created the initial product through a project.) Project management can be thought of as a process. A product is delivered by a project. “Product management” is an approach for centrally coordinating the activities surrounding the long-term support and enhancement of a product. The person that executes these responsibilities is called a Product Manager.

The product management process can start during the project that created the product. If you purchased the product, the product management process can begin when the product is purchased, or a little earlier in the product evaluation and selection process.

Product Management

The role of a project manager is to plan and manage a project. The role of a product manager is focused on the long-term support of the product within the organization. The product management role includes the following responsibilities.

• Product Planning

  • Coordinate product issues and all communication as the primary contact with the product vendor

  • Monitor product direction with the vendor and communicate this information to company stakeholders

  • Determine which components of the product should be used in the organization

  • Identify opportunities for use of the product

• Testing

  • Coordinate testing of new products and releases, including coordinating pilots with potential product users

  • Determine when a product is “production-ready” based on testing and pilot projects

  • Coordinate certification of new products and releases

• Financial Management

  • Coordinate negotiation of product contracts, purchase agreements, and maintenance agreements

  • Ensure that budget is available for product purchases and maintenance

  • Determine when to consider canceling or reducing maintenance payments based on product direction

• Product Implementation and Deployment

  • Coordinate development of a product deployment plan

  • Manage and monitor the deployment of the product or new releases

  • Deploy (distribute) the product

  • Track product inventory (where the product has been deployed)

  • Receive ongoing requests from the staff for individual product deployment

  • Integrate and add new products and releases into the architecture

• Product Release Management

  • Decide when to upgrade to a new release

  • Plan and manage new release implementation

  • Ensure new releases get added into the architecture if required

• Product Retirement

  • Determine when product needs to be retired

  • Plan and manage product retirement

  • Retire (uninstall) the product from the environment

  • Ensure product gets removed from the architecture

Weekly Anagram

Let's have some fun! See if you can unravel this anagram. (Anagrams are a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.)

The original plan (for a project, a work package, or an activity), plus or minus approved changes

LABS APE LINEN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _

Last Week's Anagram.

The total expenditure for acquiring an asset. The sum of all moneys spent on a project and transferred to the capital account of an organization, usually upon completion

COAL ACT TIPS CAPITAL COST

Wideman Glossary Term of the Week - Key Event Schedule

• A schedule comprised of key events or milestones. These events are generally critical accomplishments planned at time intervals throughout the project and used as a basis to monitor overall project performance. The format may be either network or bar chart and may contain minimal detail at a highly summarized level. This is often referred to as a milestone schedule.

• See Master Schedule.

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Labels: Projects vs. Products

The way that the project team is organized is directly related to the way the entire organization is structured. There are three major organization structures to manage work and people.

Functionally Based

In a functional organization, a project team is staffed with people from the same department. All the resources needed for the project team come from the functional organization. For instance, if the project is related to the finance function, the project resources come from the Finance Division. If you need IT, finance and legal resources, they would all be available from within the Finance Division.

A second way that a project is staffed in a functional organization is by executing portions of a project in one functional organization at a time. For example, lets say that a large project needed resources from the Finance, Purchasing, IT and Manufacturing departments. In a functional organization, the project would be broken down by organizational unit and each unit would do their own part relatively independently. The IT Department would work on their piece. The Finance Department would work on their piece. The Manufacturing and Purchasing Departments would work on their pieces. At the end, all of the independent solutions would be integrated into one final solution.

The biggest advantage of functionally-based projects is that there is usually clear authority, since the project managers tend to also be the functional managers. You also do not need to negotiate with other organizations for resources, since all of the staff needed for your project will come from the same functional organization. Other advantages of this organization are that the team members are usually familiar with each other, since they all work in the same area. The team members also tend to bring applicable business knowledge of the project.

A major disadvantage of the functional organization is that your functional area may not have all of the specialists needed to work on a project. A Finance Project with an IT component, for instance, may have difficulty acquiring specialty IT resources such as Database Administrators, since the only people available will work in their own functional department. Another disadvantage is that project team members may have other responsibilities in the functional organization since they may not be needed full-time on a project. They may be assigned to other projects, but it is more typical that they would have support responsibilities that could impact their ability to meet project deadlines.

Project Based

When projects are large enough, it's possible to form functional departments around the project team. This is especially practical when a large program has dozens or hundreds of people assigned over a long period of time. Advantages include clear authority, since the project manager is also the functional manager, and a clear focus, since everyone on the team has only the project for their primary responsibility.

One disadvantage is duplication of resources, since scarce resources must be duplicated on different projects. For instance, a large project may have its own Human Resources staff, which could duplicate a central Human Resources Department. There can also be concerns about how to reallocate people and resources when projects are completed. In a functional organization, the people still have jobs within the functional department. In a project-based organization it is not so clear where everyone is reassigned when the project is completed.

Matrix Based

Matrix organizations allow functional departments to focus on their specific business competencies and allow projects to be staffed with specialists from throughout the organization. For instance, Database Administrators may all report to one functional department, but would be allocated out to work on various projects in other departments. A Legal resource might report to the Legal Department, but be assigned to a project in another department that needs legal expertise. It is common for people to report to one person in the functional organization, while working for one or two project managers from other departments. The main advantage of the matrix organization is the efficient allocation of all resources, especially scarce specialty skills that cannot be fully utilized by only one project. For instance, data modeling specialists may not be utilized full-time on a project, but can be fully leveraged by working on multiple projects. The matrix-based organization is also the most flexible when dealing with changing business needs and priorities.

The main disadvantage is that the reporting relationships are complex. Some people might report to functional manager for whom little work is done, while actually working for one or more project managers. It becomes more important for staff members to develop strong time management skills to ensure that they fulfill the work expectations of multiple managers. This organization also requires communication and cooperation between multiple functional and project managers that all need time from the same resources.

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Weekly Anagram

Let's have some fun! See if you can unravel this anagram. (Anagrams are a word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase, such as satin to stain.)

A term that recognizes the fact that productivity of workers improves as they become familiar with the activities and techniques involved in their work.

CIGAR LEVER NUN: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ | _ _ _ _ _

Last Week's Anagram.

The way in which parts or constituents are related in an organized whole

CHEAT RECRUIT: ARCHITECTURE

Wideman Glossary Term of the Week - Directing

• The provision of instructions with a view to achieving a project goal or objective.

• The implementation and carrying out (through others) of those approved plans that are necessary to achieve or exceed project objectives. Generally of such broad and nonspecific nature that considerable judgment must be used in making decisions concerning the scope and frequency of demands. Directing encompasses: training; supervising; delegating; motivating; counseling; and coordinating.

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Labels: functional organization