Posts Tagged ‘Best’

Read it on the blog is a project and engineering management discussion blog. A kind of ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ view of the engineering blogging world, only without the shoe fetish!

The aim of this, my second blog, is to open a debate on what is the most appropriate organisational design for companies that are required to deliver high value operational work alongside high value investment programmes. The blog assumes a basic understanding of functional, projectized and matrix organisations. For readers who wish to understand more about these definitions an excellent overview can be found at wikipedia.

I welcome reader engagement and feedback of your views and personal experiences regarding how organisations structure themselves to deliver the different capabilities of ongoing operations and project delivery. If you wish to comment please click the title of this blog and enter your comments in the box at the foot of the page.

Some options that I have encountered include:

1. Create separate functions for operational work and programme/project delivery, alongside typical support functions such as Finance, HR, Legal, IT etc.

2. Create a single function that delivers both operational work and programme/project delivery, alongside typical support functions.

3. Establish separate business divisions for operational work and programme/project delivery, each division containing all the necessary resources required to deliver its objectives.

4. Establish a matrix organisation, containing functions that are tightly defined centres of excellence alongside a programme/project delivery function that is accountable for defining the ‘what’ (programme scope), ‘when’ (programme schedule) and ‘how much’ (financial plan) by jointly managing resources within the the other functions whose leaders are primarily accountable for the ‘how well’ (quality).

So now for the ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ bit

Option 1 may be ideal, providing the demand for operational work, is closely matched to the direct labour resource capacity such that the organisation can meet its required levels of service whilst achieving high levels of resource utilisation. In other words there are no stranded resources or ‘fire departments’. But how often does this situation apply in reality? Possibly in the case of organisations that manage continuous processes, but not so for utilities whose assets are exposed to the effects of weather and other external factors.

Option 2, in my experience, is adopted to address the issue raised in option 1 such that, by combining operations and investment delivery, an opportunity for utilising operational resources on project work during periods of low operational activity is provided. But what does this mean for project delivery ? What happens to projects when the organisation experiences high levels of operational activity? How can programme/project managers produce accurate programme schedules when they don’t know what resources they have at their disposal ? Does programme/project delivery become the poor relation to operational work?

Option 3, is ideal for organisations whose operational activities and investment delivery activities are dissimilar such as water and waste water utilities and where the demand for work is extremely large. Each division being essentially a standalone organisation.

Could option 4 be a solution to the issues experienced by option 2? Establishing a professional programme & project management department within the investment delivery function. A function whose accountability is to deliver the organisation’s investment programmes utilising a common programme management methodology based on best practice and the needs of the organisation. Could this be achieved whilst maintaining a close relationship with the other functions in the organisation through joint management of resources? Is it possible to be ‘best’ at operational work AND project delivery, or does one always succeed at the expense of the other?

I welcome all views, especially those relating to utility industries, please comment.

Project Management Blog – Connecting Developers, Building Worlds

I don’t think it matters what type of organization you work with, keeping your best people is important. I was looking back over some old resource material the other day and found (or re-found) an article from Entrepreneur.com that offers seven suggestions for how to keep good team members, as the economy improves. I think the suggestions apply very well to team members (I’m convinced that project success is really dependent on the individuals that make up the project team and the extra work many teams are doing now with minimal resources):

1. Revisit Old Promises: It’s important to address any benefit cuts or salary freezes which were agreed upon by team members due to economic conditions, but it’s also important to review any other promises made to the team that may have been forgotten. For example: the extra day off for working the weekend, the bonus that was promised but wasn’t realized, etc. The team will remember, so you had better remember too.
2. Take Action: If employees have concerns or complaints, don’t ignore them. If team members are asking for additional responsibilities, give them an opportunity to participate in an expanded role on the team. When team members feel that their voice matters, they are more inclined to feel satisfied at work.
3. Have Fun: A lot of teams plan activities outside of the office. If that works for your team, that’s great. However, it is possible to make the work environment a fun and enjoyable place to be. Focusing on "all work all the time" can make the job a drag. Sometimes all it takes is a 5-10 minute break during the day or bringing in a pizza once in a while to ease the tension and make the workplace fun. Be creative. One of the teams here spends time once in a while shooting hoops for a few minutes during the afternoon to keep everyone’s mind fresh.
4. Keep Talking: Keep the team up to date regarding the status of the company and its prospects. This can go a long way to ease fears about the future. Our company meets together every quarter to talk about our successes (and failures) during the quarter. We also get an update on our company’s health. I find this hour very valuable and appreciate that our CEO makes it happen every quarter. It may not be a company-wide meeting in your organization, but you can certainly keep your team up to date.
5. Be Transparent: Make sure to communicate both the company’s good and bad news without "sugar-coating" the bad news. It’s important to speak to every member of the team individually from time to time to let them know how they are doing and how they fit into the company’s (and the team’s) plans for growth.
6. Address Inequities: Rewarding employees based upon performance can be a good idea, but if there are significant pay inequities on the team, they aren’t a secret. Now is a good time to address pay inequities with raises where appropriate. As a project leader, you might not have the authority to implement a pay raise for a key employee, but you sure have some influence with who does.
7. Be Realistic: As the economy improves, you may very well loose some team members to the "bigger or better" opportunity. However, if you can show the team that they are important to the organization’s success, and are open and honest with them regarding what’s happening at your company and their future, they will more than likely stick with the team.

What do you do to keep your best employees?

Strategic Project Management

As many of you know from my last couple of posts, I’m spending the week in Japan meeting customers and preparing for a presentation at the PMI Japan conference to be held on Saturday. I’m having a great time (despite the record-breaking heat).

Over the last several months, I’ve had a couple of conversations about the effectiveness of email as a project-related communication medium. Today I had an interesting conversation with a very sharp Japanese project manager about her efforts to eliminate email and manage all their project communications through their project management software. Before I weigh in with my opinion, I’m interested to know if any of you have attempted or been successful at the same thing.

Tell us about your experiences and in the next day or two, I’ll share my opinion regarding email, collaboration and project communication. Is email an effective tool for sharing project information? Is there a better way? What are you doing to successfully promote communication and collaboration?

Strategic Project Management

The other day I came across an article written by Natalie Morera titled How to Make Employees Co-Owners of Engagement. "Having employees take charge of their own engagement may be the newest and wisest method companies can utilize," writes Morera.

Of course, I understand that what she’s writing about isn’t necessarily the same thing as getting the individual members of a project team to be co-owners of the project, but I think it’s relevant. In my experience, when team members feel a sense of ownership concerning what they’re doing along with a personal investment in the outcome, their willingness to contribute at a higher level is enhanced. What’s more, I found one of the ways that Morera suggests to help accomplish this sense of "co-ownership" was very consistent with my personal beliefs.

Citing a survey conducted in February 2011, she writes, "Modern Survey surveyed 1,000 working adults in February, releasing the results in a report titled ‘Employee Engagement in the U.S. Workforce.’ The survey found that people who responded yes to the question ‘Does your company have a clear set of values that people know about and understand?’ are 17 times more likely to be fully engaged than those who answered no."

Consider the power of a project team that is 17 times more personally engaged in what they’re doing. I don’t think there’s any question that workforce engagement in the project management process is a big challenge for most organizations. Morera describes what I consider to be the first step to accomplishing this and is very consistent with some of the things we talk about here. Do your people know and understand your company’s values?

It seems simple enough. Make sure everyone is aware of the organizational values that drive particular projects. Almost too simple, isn’t it. However, I believe it’s a key to employee engagement in the work they do every day.

It might be interesting to know if Modern Survey’s results are consistent with what we would find if we asked our project teams:

1. Does your company have a clear set of values that people know about and understand?
2. Do you understand the value to your organization of the project you’re currently working on?
3. How is this articulated to you?

Ask your project teams these three questions and share the results with us. It will be fascinating to see if our informal survey achieves the same results as that cited by Morera.
Strategic Project Management

Last month, Business Computing World, a blog focused on business technology, published a list of the 10 best project management blogs. The author of the post, Heather Buckley, is the director and co-founder of a British IT and business training provider, Silicon Beach Training. She picked bloggers who offer something unique and engaging on project management topics. It’s nice to see my Project Management 2.0 blog on the list! The abstract provided in the post is right to the point:

“As the name suggests, Andrew focuses on changes in contemporary project management thanks to collaborative and real-time digital technologies. For anyone interested in how to use the Social Internet or wanting to read up on the way project management is adapting, this is the place to head”.
It’s also great to see Project Management 2.0 listed among top 100 project management blogs at ConstructionManagementDegree.com. Thanks for the good words about my blog!
Project Management 2.0

How to select the best Project Management software?

With complexities in the project management process even the most qualified project manager needs the help of Project Management software or Time Management software. When purchasing the software it has to be kept in mind that it should complement the unique need of your project implementation. Therefore, when selecting the software the organization should ensure that certain key requirements are met.

The first factors to consider in Project Management software or Time Management software are their features. Listing the needs of your project and a list of the software features would definitely be helpful in selecting the best software for your purpose. It gives a clear picture of the project and its requirements. Once this analysis is done it becomes easy to select the software. It is better to compare more than one software package to find the right one for your business.

Another point to be taken into consideration while buying Project Management software is its capacity to evolve with time. A company evolves and grows with time and it is not possible to predict the direction and rate of its growth while purchasing specific Project Management software. The software itself has to possess certain flexibility to suit the future needs of the company. The software would be useful only if it could adapt itself to any kind of situations arising in the future projects. It should also be kept in mind while buying that the new software should complement legacy software and not render them as useless if they are being used to manage existing projects.

While selecting Time Management software it would be wise to see if your planner can automatically compute the start date and finish date of your project once you input data about your priorities, weekly schedules, etc. The question of flexibility would come in when you reschedule your weekly task or make important changes to your project. Your Time Management software should be able to compute your needs and set fresh start and finish dates.

At times it is better to go for Time Management software as Project Management software may be too complicated or expensive for your business needs. If your business does not handle big complicated projects, Project Management software may not be suitable for you.. Some Time Management software is easy to implement  but powerful enough to help you follow all your projects and their progress and focus on the more important tasks at hand. This will definitely lead to an increase in your productivity.

Finally, for both Time Management software and Project Management software it is important to have a supportive vendor  of the software. While buying the software the project manager should be able to assess how much support the vendor is ready to provide. This is required as many project related questions which are technical in nature can come up while handling a project. The software vendor should be able to explain exactly how to handle the situation with the help of the software. Therefore, it is necessary to see whether the software vendor is ready to provide the necessary support.

How to get the best from your Project Manager

Project management is a skill that must be learned and refined like any other. It takes time and experience to become a good project manager, longer to become a great project manager.

A failed project can lead to loss of revenue and opportunity; failure to achieve business goals; diversion of resources from other activities; sapping of staff morale and, perhaps, even business failure. So, as projects become more complex and critical to business performance, how do you improve your chances of success?

Manage by exception: clients should avoid getting too bogged down in the day-to-day running of projects and instead allow the project manager to concentrate on this area. Micro-management by a client is a hindrance, not a help. Clients should set clear boundaries for cost and time, with which the manager should work. If he/she cannot provide the agreed deliverables within these constraints, concerns must be escalated to the client for a decision.

Stages: break the project up into smaller chunks, or stages. Each stage marks a point at which the client will make key decisions. For example, is the project still worthwhile? Are the risks still acceptable? Dividing a project into stages, and only committing to one stage at a time, is a low risk approach that enables the clients to manage by exception.

Products: it is vital that clients and customers think carefully about the products, or deliverables, they require, before the project begins. The clearer they can be about their requirements, the more realistic and achievable the plans that can be produced. This makes it a lot easier for the project manager and less risky.

It’s a Learning Curve: don’t risk making the same mistakes on every project; consider why certain aspects went well or badly, then incorporate the lessons learned into your approach to your next project. Humans have an amazing capacity to learn, but when it comes to repeating errors made during previous projects, we all too often fail to learn the lessons.

The environment: whatever project management methodology or framework you favour, it must be tailored to suit the needs of your project. Rather than blindly following a methodology, the project manager must be able to adapt procedures to meet the demands of the work in hand. How you plan on a two-week project is likely to be very different from how you plan on a two-year project.

If you are looking for a project manager you really need to look for leadership skills! Today’s project managers must have leadership skills in order to effectively perform their roles in the organisation and stand out from the crowd. Something must make them distinct from the others.

Related “project Management” Articles

Choosing the Best Project Management Training

Choosing the Best Project Management Training

To be successful in today’s competitive world, managers must manage change effectively, and also deliver results on time and within budget. Project management gives you the structure and tools to do this

If you want to add project management skills to your skill set, or you want to move into project management, you will want to know which is the best training to get you started in project management?

You may also want to achieve a recognized project management qualification at the same time

Listed here are introductory courses for project management which are suitable if you are:

? New to project management

? Have some experience and want to understand the principles

? Are looking to move into project management

? Have worked on projects but haven’t received any formal training

On all courses, no previous knowledge of project management is required

1-day and 2-day Introduction Courses

These courses typically introduce the concepts and approaches of project management, and touch on the main project techniques such as planning, risk and quality management

APM Introductory Certificate (2 days)

This training course was developed by the Association of Project Management, the largest independent professional body for project management in Europe.

The course is designed for anyone looking to start a career in project management or wanting to understand the principles of project management, and covers topics such as planning, communications, quality management, resources and risk management

No previous knowledge in project management is needed, and courses include a 1-hour multiple-choice examination

PRINCE2 Foundation Certificate (3 days)

PRINCE2 is the most widely used project management methodology worldwide. PRINCE2 provides a structured method which can be applied to any type of project in any business sector. PRINCE2 can be used on a huge range of project sizes, from small projects such as office relocation up large projects such as major construction or infrastructure projects.

PRINCE2 provides improved delivery of objectives and greater project control through a common project structure and terminology.

The PRINCE2 Foundation course teaches the principles and terminology of PRINCE2 and also provides a recognised qualification. It will enable you to take part in a project team using the PRINCE2 method

There are no formal pre-requisites; however some exposure to project management would be helpful

Good luck in starting on your project management career!

How To Select Best Project Management Software?

Project management software is focused around a work breakdown structure. It means that each project has a particular set of tasks that need to be completed for the project. There is also a diversity of other components to a project which the project management software helps to manage. These entail issues, budgets, documents, notes and resource availability. The overall goal of the project manager is to plan, execute, track and accomplish projects. Project management software assists the project manager to do this job. It allows you and your most pivotal asset, your employees, to get up-to-date, stay up-to-date and organize the data on all of your projects. A project can not be executed properly if even one person is working with the wrong plans. No matter what your business is project management software will assist you keep track of the assignments, tasks, files etc.

The best project manager is sustained by a software tool for project management that meets specification of a single project. While selecting it you need to perform some important tasks. The main points of selecting the software is as follows:-

Project Planning – As you see firstly you need to plan the software acquisition project to secure you have overall agreement on the objectives, scope, time, approach etc. for selecting the software. You should also establish the work plan that you will execute the project. This planning step is just for any project that you manage.
Project Management Priorities – In determining whether a project management software company, it is appropriate to understand the day to day management activities of the project and its needs. Software project management capabilities priority is time well devoted in the process of project management software selection. Breakdown by software needs, a manager actualizes a clear picture of how a greater fit between the business and project management software to actualize.
Evaluation Of Future Project Requirements – As you can see that it may be difficult for managers to anticipate exactly how the software requirements management project may adjust over time, it is possible to the affability of the software that offers understanding. Malleable project management software empowers the company to grow and change over time. Project management software is easy to use, whether or not the accommodation to the changing needs of society as the volume increases or decreases.
Project Management Software Vendor / Client Relationship – The substitution of project management and client relationship should be one of the mutual supports. While selecting the software to execute business and information, project manager must aspect that how grateful and responsive the project management vendors.
Reviewing The Software – It entails that you should avoid spending too much time looking at the reports that the software vendors presents you. It is more pivotal to ensure that the software has the data possibilities for information that you wish to record. When you are reviewing the software, you do not focus on examining to find something that will duplicate.

Although, it is difficult to cover the cost of moving to a new data management software. Project without knowing in advance what is new software project. In case of the selection process to criticize software projects to determine how such diversity in the systems will be discussed, such measures should be taken in the future.

Related project management video:

Project Management Methodology integrated inside Microsoft Project Desktop or Server. This WBS Dictionary product is based on PMI’s PMBOK Guide 4th edition. Contains processes covering all the 5 Process Groups and 9 Knowledge Areas.

Project Management Success With the Top 7 Best Practices

Managing a project can be daunting. Whether planning your wedding, developing a new website or building your dream house by the sea, you need to employ project management techniques to help you succeed. I’ll summarise the top 7 best practices at the heart of good project management which can help you to achieve project success.

Define the scope and objectives

Firstly, understand the project objectives. Suppose your boss asks you to organise a blood donor campaign, is the objective to get as much blood donated as possible? Or, is it to raise the local company profile? Deciding the real objectives will help you plan the project.

Scope defines the boundary of the project. Is the organisation of transport to take staff to the blood bank within scope? Or, should staff make their own way there? Deciding what’s in or out of scope will determine the amount of work which needs performing.

Understand who the stakeholders are, what they expect to be delivered and enlist their support. Once you’ve defined the scope and objectives, get the stakeholders to review and agree to them.

Define the deliverables

You must define what will be delivered by the project. If your project is an advertising campaign for a new chocolate bar, then one deliverable might be the artwork for an advertisement. So, decide what tangible things will be delivered and document them in enough detail to enable someone else to produce them correctly and effectively.

Key stakeholders must review the definition of deliverables and must agree they accurately reflect what must be delivered.

Project planning

Planning requires that the project manager decides which people, resources and budget are required to complete the project.

You must define what activities are required to produce the deliverables using techniques such as Work Breakdown Structures. You must estimate the time and effort required for each activity, dependencies between activities and decide a realistic schedule to complete them. Involve the project team in estimating how long activities will take. Set milestones which indicate critical dates during the project. Write this into the project plan. Get the key stakeholders to review and agree to the plan.

Communication

Project plans are useless unless they’ve been communicated effectively to the project team. Every team member needs to know their responsibilities. I once worked on a project where the project manager sat in his office surrounded by huge paper schedules. The problem was, nobody on his team knew what the tasks and milestones were because he hadn’t shared the plan with them. The project hit all kinds of problems with people doing activities which they deemed important rather than doing the activities assigned by the project manager.

Tracking and reporting project progress

Once your project is underway you must monitor and compare the actual progress with the planned progress. You will need progress reports from project team members. You should record variations between the actual and planned cost, schedule and scope. You should report variations to your manager and key stakeholders and take corrective actions if variations get too large.

You can adjust the plan in many ways to get the project back on track but you will always end up juggling cost, scope and schedule. If the project manager changes one of these, then one or both of the other elements will inevitably need changing. It is juggling these three elements – known as the project triangle – that typically causes a project manager the most headaches!

Change management

Stakeholders often change their mind about what must be delivered. Sometimes the business environment changes after the project starts, so assumptions made at the beginning of the project may no longer be valid. This often means the scope or deliverables of the project need changing. If a project manager accepted all changes into the project, the project would inevitably go over budget, be late and might never be completed.

By managing changes, the project manager can make decisions about whether or not to incorporate the changes immediately or in the future, or to reject them. This increases the chances of project success because the project manager controls how the changes are incorporated, can allocate resources accordingly and can plan when and how the changes are made. Not managing changes effectively is often a reason why projects fail.

Risk management

Risks are events which can adversely affect the successful outcome of the project. I’ve worked on projects where risks have included: staff lacking the technical skills to perform the work, hardware not being delivered on time, the control room at risk of flooding and many others. Risks will vary for each project but the main risks to a project must be identified as soon as possible. Plans must be made to avoid the risk, or, if the risk cannot be avoided, to mitigate the risk to lessen its impact if it occurs. This is known as risk management.

You don’t manage all risks because there could be too many and not all risks have the same impact. So, identify all risks, estimate the likelihood of each risk occurring (1 = not likely, 2 = maybe likely, 3 = very likely). Estimate its impact on the project (1 – low, 2 – medium, 3 – high), then multiply the two numbers together to give the risk factor. High risk factors indicate the severest risks. Manage the ten with the highest risk factors. Constantly review risks and lookout for new ones since they have a habit of occurring at any moment.

Not managing risks effectively is a common reason why projects fail.

Summary

Following these best practices cannot guarantee a successful project but they will provide a better chance of success. Disregarding these best practices will almost certainly lead to project failure.

Related project management video:

Drive accelerated e-Learning execution! If you develop e-Learning, or are considering it, you need this proven e-Learning Development Project Management Outline! Many organizations rely on Facilitador’s™ superior learning development expertise and flexible a-la-carte options for e-Learning design and development support, including: Ø Content Analysis Ø Content Development Ø Storyboarding Ø Asset Creation (HTML & FLASH animations, Characters) Ø Voiceovers Ø Production/Programming Ø LMS Integration or Hosting Find out more at www.facilitador.com