Posts Tagged ‘Management’

The Keynote presentation I attended this morning at the Gartner PPM Summit with futurist Anne Skare Nielsen was very inspiring. Nielsen’s presentation,"The Era of Constructive Visions Has Begun—Are You Coming?" was spot on. Her message really resonated with me, she talked about how success in the future is not about "more" but is about "better." She describes a shift in paradigm from "human doings" to "human beings." I think this really applies to how we should be thinking as project leaders.

Not unlike some of the opinions we share in this forum she suggests that people aren’t motivated as much by money or other external rewards but are really motivated by challenging and interesting projects. I have found this to be true throughout my career. The members of our project teams really desire to contribute to something greater than themselves—our job is to facilitate the kind of environment where they can.

To do that, we need to worry less about doing more and more. We need to focus on doing better. On creating more value for our customers and more value for our organizations. The last few years have conditioned many business leaders to expect more and more out of their people. Unfortunately, this has created an environment that stifles creativity and makes it difficult for team members to creatively solve problems, and ultimately handicaps their ability to help organizations succeed.

As we lead project teams, we need to make a shift toward a more people-centric approach that shuns excessive process for the sake of process and a command-and-control management model that just doesn’t work. We must give team members the opportunity to contribute at a higher level and maximize their contribution to the organization.

Will making this change be easy? Probably not. But the alternative is irrelevance or worse. Nielsen’s background is biology and she asserts, "There are only two organisms that don’t evolve and change, bacteria and cancer cells."

What are you doing to avoid being either?
Strategic Project Management

Last week I wrote a post about providing recognition to individual contributors on a project team, Don’t Make Individual Team Members Blow Their Own Horn. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I am a firm believer in empowering the team to create and invent value for their organizations. We talk a lot about facilitating an environment where everyone on the team can contribute to something bigger than themselves, take ownership and dare I say it, act more strategically. Although I hadn’t put it in those words before, I received an interesting comment on Gantthead which I would like to share here (click here to read his comment).

Dr. Paul D. Giammalovo (www.build-project-management-competency.com) asks, "…how do you consider project management to be ‘strategic’?"

Dr. Giammalovo suggests that managing work isn’t strategic (in fairness, I am not in construction management, I work with knowledge workers, which might be a bit different), which if we look at the last 50 to 100 years of practice he is right. Project management has not been a very strategic discipline. He suggests that, "…project management/project managers are not high enough up in the decision making process to be ‘strategic’ decision makers … at best we are tactical, and although we clearly may be working on strategic projects within the organization, I can see no way to justify any claims that project managers are making strategic rather than tactical decisions, even though the projects we manage may be considered to be strategic in nature."

Although I respect Dr. Gimmalovo’s opinion, I think this is a great example of what’s wrong with the current project management paradigm. Although project managers in many organizations aren’t part of the strategic decisions made by executive leadership, does that imply that they should not approach a project plan strategically? Does that imply that their approach to any project should not be strategic? Does this mean that project leaders and project teams should be drones that simply shut up and do the work assigned to them without question and without thought?

Steve Denning, in a recent article for Forbes suggests, "In today’s marketplace, where continuous innovation is key to winning and retaining customers and the work is too complex to be accomplished by individuals, crushing the spirit and creativity of teams is a productivity disaster."

Unlike Dr. Giammalovo, I fell into the role of managing projects. I am not a big "P" process guy. I believe our goal as project leaders is to provide value to our organization, foster the most productive environment we can within the project teams we lead and successfully execute projects.

The PMI promotes the thought that project management deserves a seat in the C-suite. As long as we continue to act and respond to a call to think and be more strategic as contrary to our discipline, it will never happen. What’s more, we won’t deserve it. In my humble opinion, everyone on the project team should be aware of, and on-board with, the strategic vision of every project. That, my friends is the way to engage the workforce, improve efficiency and ultimately execute projects more successfully.

According to Vlatka Hlupic, in an article published in ComputerWeekly, he suggests that applying this type of management approach in a German IT consulting company "…resulted in an 1,700% increase in profit and a 23% increase in the number of employees in the first year, and a further 240% increase in profit and a 20% increase in the number of employees in the second year, despite an economy in a recession."

Do you want a seat in the C-suite? Those kinds of results will get you there (and yes, you will have to think more strategically to do it).

Strategic Project Management

Last week, Dave Garrett wrote an interesting post on social media and project management, Can Project Management Software be as Engaging as Facebook?. There were many great points brought up in the article and interview with Vantage Software’s founder Alex Leblanc.

I believe there is a lot we can learn from social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. The millennial generation has been collaborating on teams since elementary school and they have spent the lion’s share of their young adult lives collaborating with friends and family within social media. In my opinion, it just makes sense to leverage this knowledge into a project management solution that utilizies the familiar metaphor. What’s more, it’s not just the millennials that are jumping into social media with both feet. Many in my generation are turning to social media to reconnect with old friends, keep track of family or business colleagues spread around the world or follow their hobbies and other interests. Addressing the collaboration and business needs of the "Facebook Generation" with something that works and feels like Facebook just makes sense.

With that being said, in any discussion about the merits of social media within the project management context I think we need to identify and address the elephant in the room. No CEO is going to spend any money on a tool that simply incorporates a Twitter or Facebook feed into its project management solution. Business leaders don’t want to fund an employee’s ability to waste time talking about what they are going to eat for lunch or where they might be spending their weekend holiday. The conversations need to be about the work and projects that team members have in common, it’s the Facebook metaphor that’s important, not Facebook. Twitter-like but not Twitter.

Additionally, it’s not the tool or the methodology or whether or not it utilizes the strengths of social media that will ultimately make a difference. It will be our approach to how we manage "process" and lead "people" that will make the difference. Without a doubt, process is important. If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t be writing about it. However, if we continue to rely on tired and arcane notions of command-and-control to jam tasks and assignments down the throats of our project teams, we will fail regardless of the project management tools we use.

Top-down management methods fail. They produce information we can’t trust for making decisions, they create a work environment people dislike and ultimately cause projects and project teams to struggle and fail.

Steve Denning, in a recent article for Forbes wrote, "The mode of coordinating work must shift from bureaucratic control to dynamic linking." In other words, our job is to facilitate and help project teams collaborate with each other to develop and execute on solutions rather than build unwieldy project plans and make task assignments. "Communication must shift from top-down command to adult-to-adult conversation, thus avoiding the dispiriting effect of top-down commands."

When we achieve that attitude within our organizations, applying the social media metaphor to the work management process works. Until then, it will fail—much like our current approach to managing projects.

Strategic Project Management

Some time ago, I was talking to one of my friends trying to explain just what it was I did for a living, what project management was and why it’s important to organizations to wrap their head around all the work that’s done in their organization. I mentioned that I thought resource management was the Holy Grail of project management, to which he said, "Resource management? What’s resource management?"

When I explained that resources were people, he pointed out something that I have felt for a long time, but have ignored because we all know what "resources" are.

He said, "So you call people resources? People aren’t things."

He’s right.

Steven Covey would argue that people can’t be managed—only things can be managed. "The greatest tragedy of our time is that many so-called business leaders confuse management with leadership. Business schools have been excellent at equipping would-be business leaders to competently manage costs, cash flows, stocks, machinery, and so on. This is very correct. Things lend themselves to management because they can be controlled. ‘Things’ do not have choices. Extending the principles of managing costs, cash flows and stocks to people yields disastrous results. That’s why many so-called business leaders resort to ‘turning people into things’ so they can manage them."

In project environments (or any work environment for that matter) we rely on people to do the work and get things done. Empowering people to maximize their contribution for something worthwhile, to create and invent, should be our goal. I know it’s a subtlety, but shouldn’t we stop calling them resources? They’re people.

I have to admit, I don’t have a better term. But that doesn’t mean we can’t collectively come up with one. Does it mean we will have to constantly explain what we mean? Probably. Will it ultimately be worth the cost in time and exasperation? Most definitely.

Let’s put our collective heads together and come up with a new term for "resources" when we’re talking about people. Any ideas?

Strategic Project Management

In today’s complex company environment new projects are continuously being developed as organizations seek new ways to lessen expenses, enhance processes, increase productivity, and build their bottom line. Managing these diverse projects along with their individuals, resources, technology, and communication is really a challenging endeavor for which the risk of failure is frequently far too high. An powerful solution, created to establish a a lot more centralized management structure for large groups of projects, will be the Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO gives organizations with an infrastructure of folks, procedures, and tools to obtain powerful project management by leveraging project management standards, allocating resources, establishing consistent performance measures, and reducing duplication of efforts.

There are several benefits to establishing an effective PMO. 1st, the PMO supplies a framework for consistently managing projects through a regular methodology while ensuring the projects are aligned with corporate objectives and techniques. Project managers have clear lines of responsibility whilst coordinating folks, processes, and tools with one yet another and by doing so, steer clear of both gaps and overlaps between projects and decrease or eradicate duplication of effort. Standardization and repeatability afford an organization better communication, reduced project price, improved resource management, a lot more accountability, improved top quality, greater forecasting, and less overhead related to project managers.

Enlist Executive and Management Support
The first step in establishing a PMO is gaining executive and management support. This step relies heavily on organizational change management (OCM) as it demands a potentially considerable shift in organizational culture together with roles and responsibilities. Regardless of the difficulties and resistance to alter, this step is the foundation upon which a profitable PMO ought to be built. As with any shift in organizational structure, policy, or procedure, favor ought to be gained via justification for the modifications in terms of cost benefit and return on investment (ROI).

Decide the Structure and Develop the Team
The next step in constructing a PMO would be to decide the structure and develop the team. There’s no defined template for PMO structure as every single organization brings its own variables to consider. Some manage all aspects of the projects assigned under them like scheduling, budgets, resourcing, human capital, oversight, and communication. Other people might strictly coordinate these functions with most of the support coming from adjacent departments. The keys to determining the right structure and team members for the PMO are understanding one of the most powerful way they can co-exist within the organization and discovering the proper balance between the PMO, organizational culture, roles and responsibilities, and management style. Some issues to think about in establishing the structure and developing the PMO team include: availability of resources; existing project management standards and methodologies; existing roles and responsibilities; the politics of the organization; project size and volume; and present project management troubles.

Develop and Document Standards
When the structure and team members have been determined, it is time to develop and document the PMO standards, practices, and methodologies for project management. These standards will enable for consistency across the organization and its portfolio of projects. They’ll also comprise a huge portion of the training that projects managers and staff will obtain in the next step. Standardization is also an essential part of allowing an organization to compare a variety of projects and allocate resources where and when they’re essential.

Identify Abilities and Train the Staff
Once the development of project management standards and methodologies is complete, the PMO need to identify the proficiency levels and skill sets of it project managers and staff as a way to determine what training is essential. Some of this information will likely be evident as a result of reviewing the statuses of current projects. Significantly of the training content may also be based on the standards, practices, and methodologies that had been defined in step #3. The PMO really should also establish an ongoing training program. In a PMO it really is inevitable that staff members will come and go and organizational standards will alter and evolve. A training program will make certain that all new employees receive training on those standards and existing employees remain conscious of any modifications.

Measure Success and Continuously Improve
Now that the PMO structure is finalized, project management standards are established and communicated, and personnel are trained, the focus of the PMO need to shift to assessing and measuring success. This point in time marks the initiation of progress and performance reporting based on standardized tools, templates, and methodologies. Even so, it also marks the beginning of a continuous method improvement cycle along with a transition from PMO deployment to operational sustainment. As the PMO evolves, project team members should maintain an awareness of the metrics by which their projects are measured along with how method effectiveness is determined. There must be a concerted effort to identify processes which need improvement. When identified, improvement measures need to be developed and implemented.

The establishment of an powerful PMO is beneficial to any organization which manages a portfolio of projects. When planning and developing a PMO it’s imperative that it is accomplished in a manner which compliments the existing structure or the organization. This will enable the company to gain maximum benefit and to do otherwise could be counter-productive. Since every single organization is different, the optimal structure for the PMO need to be developed based on numerous considerations and variables. The capability of a PMO to manage projects by way of consistent and repeatable standards and methodologies brings numerous positive aspects. It supplies the organization with accountability, continuity, simplified oversight, along with the capacity to measure project success a lot more successfully. An efficient PMO can be a catalyst for higher efficiency as it makes it possible for an organization to do far more quality work with fewer resources and much less risk. The result of these positive aspects is an organization that may significantly boost its project success rate.

Original Site: http://www.mypmhome.com/how-to-build-a-project-management-office/

Project Management Blog – Connecting Developers, Building Worlds

As a kid I remember watching the Ed Sullivan show (and yes, I know that dates me). I remember watching the variety acts he used to have on the show and was particularly interested in the performers who would spin plates on the tops of large dowels. I think I was always hoping to see one of the plates fall and break into hundreds of pieces, but unfortunately I don’t think I ever did.

As I think about it, I have to admit that sometimes it feels like I’ve been trying to keep all the plates spinning throughout the day without breaking any. I don’t think I’m alone. A big part of the average workday for most of us typically includes a lot more than working on structured activities and formal projects. If your day is like mine, there are requests from colleagues, personal tasks and the stuff I do every day that isn’t related to any specific project that I do every day.

Because contributing to projects is only a part of what the average person does every day, giving them the tools to manage all of their work life and enabling them to collaborate with co-workers regarding the work that matters most is critical. Simply because it’s not all project related doesn’t mean that people don’t need to collaborate and share insights regarding all the work they do. What’s more, does your boss really have visibility into what your team is doing if the only work that is transparent is the project-related work?

I was speaking with a friend of mine the other day who complained that she struggles to get her project work done because of all the incidental tasks that get dropped on her desk (which are important, but don’t seem to be acknowledged at the end of the quarter when she has her performance review). Sound familiar? If your boss could actually see everything you were successfully accomplishing in addition to you project-related work, would he or she be surprised?

Before we can effectively increase project productivity and improve our ability to successfully manage projects, we need to better understand all the work done by project teams. In my mind, managing projects is important, but only a part of managing all the work. When we have a better handle on all the work that is accomplished each day by the workforce, then we’ll really be able to accurately plan and schedule, realistically manage capacity and our people, and actually get the right work done.

What are you doing to keep all the plates spinning … er … I mean manage all the work?

Strategic Project Management

Yesterday, a colleague and I were talking about the project management process, work management and the best way to facilitate an environment where people can actually get work done. He asked me if I thought that sometimes the process (or at least the way we execute it) ever gets in the way and makes it more difficult for teams to do their work? I had to admit that it sometimes feels that way.

I don’t think it’s the process at issue in those instances, but rather how we execute the process and the type of relationship we have with the members of the team.

By that I mean, the relationship between the project team, the project manager, the process and the project are sometimes challenging and need our attention. For example, in many organizations that don’t have a PMO or formally established project methodology, it’s not a project manager who leads the team, it’s a department head or other line of business leader. I think this is significant. In those cases it’s the team and not the process that is the focus of the project leader. His or her relationship with the team extends beyond the start or finish of any particular project.

I don’t think this implies that a project manager can’t build those types of enduring relationships, but in those instances where they don’t, "project management" can get in the way.

In many organizations, project managers are the process wonks that are brought in to make sure that all the T’s are crossed and all the I’s are dotted. Sometimes all it takes is to mention "project management" and eyes start to glaze over and people start checking their email or otherwise "check out" of the discussion.

For many organizations "project management" has become associated with a lot of governance, pushing edicts down the org chart and command-and-control. Of course, there are some projects where governance is a critical part of the project and how it’s executed, but that doesn’t mean a heavy hand is needed. With that in mind, here are three suggestions that will help project managers build a more natural and productive relationship with the teams:

1. Work Together: There is a difference between working "for" someone and working "with" someone. Henry Ford said, "If everyone is moving forward together, then success will take care of itself."
2. Get Out of the Way: Those closest to the work understand it the best. Theodore Roosevelt said, "The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
3. Share the Success: Worrying about who gets credit for project success will handicap any project from the start. Harry Truman said, "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." Empower people to do great things and make sure everyone gets credit for what they do.

Building productive relationships with project teams doesn’t just happen. It takes effort. Remember that it’s the team and not the process that should be the focus of our efforts.

What do you do to focus productive relationships with your project teams?

Strategic Project Management

Original Site: http://www.mypmhome.com/?p=141

Project management is an art, and project management is also a science. This is my understanding of project management.

It is a science, because it includes all aspects management knowledge. When it comes to project management, people naturally think of its eight major elements: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, risk, procurement, communication. A successful project is closely related to all these factors.

However, in the actual participation of project, we can find the factor which associated with most of the activities is the project stakeholders; project stakeholders generally include the customer or user, the project team, the project company’s managers and other major stakeholders. In the project management, time, cost, quality, human resources, risk, and procurement are related to communication. How to set up a successful project teams? How to play full potential of team in the project? How relationships with customers are maturing? How to do customer satisfaction? All these are communication management, and the project manager must master the skills.

To carry out all elements of communication, to manage all related people, project manager should stand on stakeholders’ perspective, from their needs and interests to achieve their maximum value through the project. If out of these, it is difficult to make project success.

In the development of software, the communication style of requirements management affect the accuracy of the requirement baseline, the same in the project design and development process, the communication result between project members and project manager directly affect the success of the project. The key goal of communication in project is to maintain the progress of the project, identify potential problems, requests for proposals to improve project performance. If the communication is carried out improperly, the project will failed unexpected.

Communication in project management has its inevitable and irreplaceable important role. In the 1995, Standish Group study found that IT project success is related to three main factors: user participation, management support, requirement clear. All of these factors are dependent on having good communication skills.

Early in the project, the project manager in addition to the preparation of a good communication plan, but also to understand how to manage team, and how to meet the needs of customer, standing on the roles of stakeholders, so as to achieve a successful project targets.

Speaking of project management is an art, not only refer to the communication skills with stockholders, most of project managers can blindly memorizing the eight elements of project management, but how to control them flexibility, making these elements more suitable to the actual operation of the project, it requires the project manager having art management techniques in the operation. Management rules are surely died, but people are living. In every field of project management, these communication skills are generic and hold the other project management with the requirements of the relevant elements of the.

How to use the art of project management flexibility in practical work, ensure that the project greatly meet customer’s needs, guide the project towards the goal of success, this is the key thing every project manager should consider and carefully implement.

Original Site: http://www.mypmhome.com/?p=141

Project Management Blog – Connecting Developers, Building Worlds

It’s hard not to get excited about NCAA basketball and March Madness this year. Of course it doesn’t hurt that Brigham Young’s Cougars are ranked #3 at the beginning of March (despite some of the off-court drama). This may very well be the best Cougar team since their appearance in 1981 against Notre Dame.

That’s probably the reason I’ve turned to a sports metaphor today. As a young athlete, there were many lessons I learned from my coach while swimming laps in the pool that continue to serve me today (despite the fact that there’s no way I could ever fit into my old Speedo). In fact there are a few things that I think apply very well to the way we manage work:

1. Good coaches have a game plan: I’m sure there are a number of teams going into the tournament this year who believe they have a chance at making the final four or even winning. A project without an objective, or an un-articulated objective, probably doesn’t have any better chance of success than a basketball team without a game plan.
2. Great coaches align individual goals with the game plan: Articulating the objective is just the first step. The real key to project success is getting everyone on the team motivated to achieve individual goals that contribute to team success.
3. Drills are important: Sometimes we assume that everyone on the team knows what they’re doing. This isn’t always the case. A good coach knows the strengths and weaknesses of the team and creates drills or exercises to strengthen the team’s weaknesses. It’s important to give team members opportunities to learn and improve their skills.
4. Great teams need the right people in the right roles: It’s really easy to fall into the trap of filling a job role instead of filling a talent void. Everyday organizations turn away excellent talent because they rigidly adhere to arcane notions that titles or education are the ultimate measure of someones ability to effectively contribute. Avoiding that trap might make it a little more challenging to find the right person to fill your talent void, but it’s well worth the extra effort.
5. Use the appropriate communication style for the audience: The best coaches know the best way to talk to individual athletes to motivate and inspire them. I think we’ve all probably been in situations where it’s not what you say, but how you say it.
6. Don’t forget to celebrate the victories: In the grind of day-to-day work, sometimes achievements go unrecognized because of the pressure of the next objective. A good coach knows that it’s important to take the time to celebrate a win. It helps the team (and the workforce) feel like they’ve accomplished something. Otherwise, the job becomes a never-ending death march (which nobody appreciates).

Take a lesson from the coaches as you watch your favorite team during March Madness. You might pick up a few things that will help you be a better project leader.
Strategic Project Management

Late last year I finished reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Reading Pirsig’s narrative about quality, I couldn’t help but relate it to how we approach work. "The place to improve the world is first in ones own heart and head and hands," he writes, "and then work outward from there."

It’s easy to put too much reliance into the system, the technology or the process—but ultimately, it’s the individual and how that work produces what Pirsig describes as quality. "Real Quality isn’t something you lay on top of subjects and objects like tinsel on a Christmas tree," argues Pirsig. "Real Quality must be the source of the subjects and objects, the cone from which the tree must start."

As project leaders, creating an atmosphere where the workforce feels more like they are part of the work (the Taoist calls it wei wu wei, or doing not doing) is critical for any real improvements in how we get work done. "Doing not doing" is like a ballerina that is no longer doing the dance—but becomes the dance.

In the early days of Tiger Wood’s career, he was a great example of this. He practiced and practiced to the point that whenever he hit the golf ball, he didn’t need to think about it anymore—he just stepped up and hit the ball. Perfectly, as if the golf ball hit itself. Sometimes athletes and other skilled professionals reach this same level of awareness in their individual disciplines. They don’t think about what they are doing, the just do it—or it becomes so second nature that they don’t need to do it anymore, it just happens.

Is the ability to do this an aptitude? Is it something that can be learned—or even selected? I think it is all three. Creating an atmosphere where this can take place allows those project team members who might come by this awareness naturally to thrive, but there may be others on the team who just won’t get it. There will be some of them that will be teachable and others that won’t. The challenge for a project leader is weeding out those who don’t or won’t get it, and replacing them with those who can, or do. This is particularly important in organizations that empower their workforce with more autonomy and ownership. There may be some team members who just can’t or won’t respond, and will be slackers no matter what you do. They will need to be replaced with a workforce that understands and thrives in an environment like this.

"Is it hard?" asks Pirsig. "Not if you have the right attitudes. It’s having the right attitudes that’s hard."

Strategic Project Management