Mistake #1: Lack of the right resources and skills
Result: Proper project staffing is important. While you may be tempted to hire an entry or junior-level contractor to ease up on costs, the time spent in training and managing mistakes can eat your budget.
Solution: Hire well. You want a strong staff.

Mistake #2: Inexperienced project managers
Result: Projects can quickly grow out of control without a keen PM.
Solution: Hire certified PMs with both soft skills and technical expertise to handle IT and business staff.

Mistake #3: Constrained IT from too much process.
Result: FRUSTRATION.
Solution: Maintain flexibility

Mistake #4: No tracking of changes to the scope of work
Result: Unpleasant surprise in budget and timeline.
Solution: Use of a formal change request process keeps everyone and everything in line. Explain all specific changes and determine how it will impact the budget and timeline.

Mistake #5: Lack of live data about the status of projects
Result: We’re human and it’s very easy to lose track of things.
Solution: Reliable PM Software.

Mistake #6: Ignoring problems
Result: Problems are like weeds—they show up from nowhere, take root, and invade your harvest. The longer you ignore them, the longer it’ll take to uproot everything.
Solution: Fess up early, fix quickly.

Mistake #7: People forget that the world is NOT perfect
Result: Freezes with sudden challenges and issues.
Solution: Perform a risk assessment as part of the project planning. This not only prepares you for a “battle,” but also helps you identify the vulnerable areas of the project.

Mistake #8: Project schedules are incomplete
Result: Project team members forget the due dates of items, which may very well lead to a failure to meet the project deadline.
Solution: Document a detailed Scope of Work with a number of hours and due dates for each activity. PM software greatly assists in creating schedules and tracking work progress.

Mistake #9: IT goes along with unreasonable deadlines
Result: From the client’s perspective, IT under-delivers over-time.
Solution: IT management must explain clearly the need for the stated time to meet all objectives—and stick with it. If the client still demands an earlier date of completion, he will have to pay more for the additional resources needed to cover for time.

Mistake #10: Generic documentation of needs, assumptions, and deliverables
Result: Unsatisfied client upon delivery of finished project.
Solution: Start off on the right foot. You want to start strong with a shared roadmap to a solution. In PM, the first step is the paper agreement between you and the client. This contract states the client’s needs, and outlines what changes you’ll make to achieve a desirable solution. Be sure to document mutual understanding, mutual agreement, mutual assumptions, and mutual expectations.

The precessional effect says that the actions you take will affect other people. Common sense says that the more people you impact on, the more likely it is that your actions will affect people who have some power and influence over your actions. These people could be useful supporters of your projects – alternatively they may block your projects.

We call people who are impacted by our projects/business activities, stakeholders.

A key skill in project management is learning to win support from interested parties or stakeholders. Mastering this skill ensures that your projects are more likely to succeed.

Stakeholder Analysis is the methodology we use to identify who are the key people who have to be on our side and supporting us to ensure that our project succeeds.

The benefits of using a “stakeholder-based approach” are:

• Stakeholders tend to have opinions which may be sought earlier in the project cycle than later. Their knowledgeable input early in the project life, can improve the quality of the project, and give them a sense of ownership in ensuring the project actually happens successfully.

• In gaining support from the more powerful stakeholders we can gain access to more resources – financial, time based and people based.

• When we involve the stakeholders on a regular basis, even if is simply reporting on progress to them, we ensure that they understand what we are doing and are kept abreast of the project status and benefits. If and when we need their active support they are already “on side”.

• We can predict what stakeholders’ reactions to our project may be and ensure that we are actively marketing the project in a way that will win their support.

The first step is to identify who the key stakeholders for a particular project are.

Brainstorm in a group if possible, who will be impacted upon by the project.
Local government, regulators, unions, employees, customers, special interest groups, neighbouring sites, businesses, Trades people, contractors, investors, managers, suppliers, financiers/banks, the press, etc.
Stakeholders may be either an organisation e.g. a trade union, or an individual e.g. the trade union delegate.

The next step is to work out their power and influence over and interest in the project. This activity ensures that we know who we should focus and prioritise our attention, marketing and communications.

To create a power interest grid, on a page draw an X and Y axis.
Label the y axis, “power” and the x axis “interest”:

Where the axes meet, mark both “low” and at the extremity of each axis mark “high”

Now from our list of interested parties, we mark on the grid, where each person/organisations level of power vs. interest is.

Those who we identify as having high power and low interest will need nurturing and attention.

However those who we identify as high power and high interest will need to be marketed to early and regularly in a way which allows them to continue to see the advantages of the project to them. To do this, we ensure that we develop a good understanding of the most important stakeholders so that we can predict how they may respond. This allows us to work out how to win their support.

To get an easy to use visual report on stakeholders and their impact on the project, we can colour code the Power interest grid. Potential project blockers or critics can be coded in red; Project supporters can be coded green, those who are perceived to be neutral can be coded orange.

When unsure about the consequences then it may actually be useful to talk to the stakeholders and ask them! Most people are open with opinions and this is a first step in building a successful relationship with them.

Liz Cassidy, founder of Third Sigma International is an author, Speaker, Trainer and Executive Coach dedicated to facilitating results in the businesses, professional and personal lives of her clients. For more information http://www.thirdsigma.com.au

Improvement in the quality of products and services is the key to attain the above-mentioned objectives. Some of these quality improvement techniques used by companies include the Six Sigma methodology and Total Quality Control techniques.

Although most of these quality improvement strategies do have their share of advantages, one methodology that offers perhaps most of the benefits with a win-win situation is Six Sigma.

How Six Sigma Helps In Project Management

It is no wonder that Six Sigma has become the latest craze in most of the business organizations that want to eliminate the defects in their products and services and bring about an improvement in the quality of their processes. Actually, Six Sigma is a cyclic system, which helps in ensuring that the various processes of the company are defect-free.

However, Six Sigma should be implemented with caution during the implementation, ensuring that guidelines are adhered to. This simply means that although Six Sigma helps in improving the quality of the processes by eliminating the defects, the implementation of this strategy will be possible only if a certain process is followed religiously. That’s because if any aspect is overlooked during the Project Management stage, it would simply result in the overall failure of Six Sigma.

Therefore, in order to avoid any chance of failure, Six Sigma adopts the DMAIC process for Project Management. DMAIC stands for Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control and when combined with the Six Sigma strategy, redundancies and failures are automatically reduced in the Project Management phase.

The DMAIC and Project Management Relationship

The DMAIC method is nothing but a process that uses all the available statistics, techniques and other data available at its disposal, which thereby reduces any chances of human errors. One of the best things that businesses can do to ensure that the Project Management phase has been implemented with efficiency is to define the problems that may occur at a certain point of time.

After defining the problems that are currently affecting business processes, the next thing on the agenda is to measure the extent of damage that the problem can create. Then, during the analysis stage, the analysts come up with the solutions to tackle the problem encountered. Once thorough analysis of the problem is done, the improvement stage begins which aims at total quality improvement.

Finally, when quality improvement is introduced, the controlling phase is introduced in order to check the efficacy of the change and also ensuring that the problems encountered before are not repeated.

Thanks to the ever-increasing competition, Six Sigma is gaining worldwide popularity and is being used more than ever before. Fortunately, organizations are warming up to the idea of consolidating Six Sigma and Project Management to derive maximum results and thereby increasing profits and their value in the market.

In a project, there are so many factors to consider like cost, time, quality product, etc. But, the top three ever-present factors in a project that need to be considered are Cost, Scope and Time. These three are also the constraints in Project Management.

In cost, a team usually ponders about the likely expenses to be incurred while building a product. In scope, a team tries to determine what the project is trying to accomplish. And, in time, a team has to finish the product with what time allotment given to them. These discussions are about Project Management, but what about managing the actual building of the system? There’s a different kind of approach used in an analytical way to handle problem-solving and management issues, and that is Systems Management. Sounds new right? But actually, it’s been used since the 50’s.

Systems Management is divided into three parts: (1) systems philosophy – views things as systems, (2) systems analysis – problem solving approach, and (3) systems management – address business, organizational and technical issues.

There are two major phases in a project. These are project feasibility and project acquisition. The former determines the concept and the initial development plans of a project. While the latter executes and implements the plans a team has created while also considering potential risks.

I had an experience before where in my team didn’t fully discuss the concept of the project we are trying to build. We suffered a lot because in a way we realized, in the middle of the building process, that the IT product we are trying to build is not feasible at all considering what resources, time, etc. my team has. Probably, if we have done a thorough study of the system we are trying to build, we probably detected as early as Project Feasibility stage that the system is not feasible at all.

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is one very useful method or guide in systems management. Developers use it to help them as they go along in building a system/IT product. SDLC is a useful tool because it describes the phases involved in developing systems. The most popular phases (common in many Life Cycle models) are: planning, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance. Samples of SDLC models are: waterfall, spiral, incremental release, RAD, and prototyping. Using SDLC is important because there is a smooth transition from one phase to another, there is a smooth execution of plans, there is a detailed description and set of activities for every stage, and it serves as guide. Thus, eliminating “groping in the dark” and confusion about what to do next.

P. Lobrin

plobrin@gmail.com

1. Initiation Document
This is the most important tool and first step of project management—the paper agreement. Here you are defining the project, making sure that everyone is aligned in work and objectives. This document must address the What, Why, How, Who, and When of the project, including the following items:

* Project’s Objective
* Scope of Work
* Deliverables
* Timeline and Budget
* Assumptions

2. Project Plan
Depending on the scope of the project, this can be in the form of a simple text document, excel spread sheet, or Gantt chart. If it’s a large project, the plan should take different forms according to different phases. The text document is sufficient for showing main deliverables, dependencies, and a general timeline. The Gantt chart provides a more thorough representation of the project’s process. Other things to consider:

* Plan milestones
* Also break your milestones into items that can be delivered every 2-3 days
* Make clear assignments of tasks to each team member

3. Risk Management Plan
Risks are everywhere, so it is essential that you acknowledge its existence and possibility of occurrences when managing a project. As a team—

* Identify risks
* Rank them by likelihood and severity
* Brainstorm solutions

Also, don’t keep people in the dark. Along with the project plan, your risk management plan is something you should share with your client so that when issues do occur, they don’t see it as the first signs of project failure. In fact, they will see your risk management plan as a meticulous approach to the project.

4. Progress Updates
It is important to inform people of the project’s overall progress. Keep it succinct. The progress report should show the following points:

* Overall status
* Issues
* Delays
* On/Off Track
* Milestones/Achievements

Talk with the client to see which method of update they prefer—casual email, formal documentation, telephone—as well as the frequency.

5. Project Management Software
PM Software exists to help your team be on schedule, keep track of budget, and collaborate effectively. Do your research and find one that is easy to use and fits your needs.

Project management is simply managing

• what has to be done;

• when it needs to be done by;

• within certain cost constraints.

Did you know that a lot of what we do in our everyday lives is very similar to project management?

Can you answer YES to any of these questions:

• have you arranged a holiday?

• have you hosted a dinner party?

• have you built or purchased a house or done renovations to your home?

• have you organised a surprise party for someone?

• have you arranged a picnic with a group of friends

All of the tasks listed above require you to use project management skills. You need to work out what you want to achieve, put together a plan of how you’re going to achieve it, work out whose help you need to pull it off, and you set a budget.

For a holiday – you might delegate a lot of this work to your travel agent, and similarly to your Builder for building a house. But for things like organising a surprise party, you need to:

• work out who’s invited

• select a time and location

• send out the invitations

• organise catering (or bring a plate)

• arrange music

• organise where everyone will park to keep the party a surprise

• work out a cover story for the guest of honour

If you think that doesn’t take project management skills – think again!

And do you know what skill I think is the most critical? Common sense (or pragmatism).

If I had a dollar for every Project Manager who “talks the talk” at the start of a project, I’d be a very rich woman. And if I had a dollar for every Project Manager who successfully delivers what they set out to (who “walks the walk”), I’d be a very poor woman. And why is that? Because most people get lazy and take their eye off the ball.

It’s easy to start a project, create a nice looking Project Management Plan, and set up lots of important meetings. But when things start to go wrong, many people go to pieces, overreact, or focus on the really non important stuff (like whether their status report makes them look bad).

Common sense, especially when it comes to being able to prioritise effectively, and knowing when to compromise, is a key skill for a project manager. I’d take this over a university degree any day!

Give me someone who can sort the wheat from the chaff; who knows not to sweat the small stuff; who knows when they can afford to compromise and when not to, rather than standing their ground just for the sake of it.

For a copy of my free report – Troubleshooting the Most Common Challenges Facing Project Managers Today – just visit http://www.PMsRCool.com.

Prior to 1970, generally sizable business organizations were arranged in silos, which are logical divisions of workers in which a group of people reported to a line or functional manager. The attempt to create a successful restructuring of the organization in order to develop workable project management teams is known as a matrix organization.

There are a wide variety of matrix organizations that possible. The goal for each of them being that they struggle to balance the power between each manager’s functional needs. Primary types of matrix’s can vary from: The Weak Matrix, Strong Matrix, and Balanced Matrix which all possess an organizational structure. This article in cover the in-depth benefits and drawbacks of the Strong Matrix organizational structure in particular.

A Balanced Matrix Structure

According to the old adage, absolute power results in absolute corruption. Because in every type of matrix structure a power struggle occurs, a method of balancing each group is necessary to avoid this problem. If this is not controlled, one group of managers will control the other group. This will be unhealthy for both the project and the overall organization, even if individual aspects of an organization or isolated projects may continue to succeed for a time. For example, a singularly controlling project manager might dominate a functional manager and force them to always relinquish the most valuable team members with which to complete the projects.

One way to deal with this problem is to create limits in the organization which determines when a manager can control a worker. These strategies should be based on a specific set of circumstances. For example, keeping a rule where a worker will be managed exclusively by the functional manager if a project will last for less than a week’s time. In case, the project will take longer than a week, the control will pass on to the project manager. Otherwise, a rule can be made in such a way that a worker should not be employed by a project manager to work on two projects in a row.

A variety of possible rules and structures may be imposed to achieve the goal of balancing power between project and functional managers so that a win/lose condition is avoided. Obviously, the balanced matrix takes its name from the balance of power that results in this structural format.

PRINCE2, the abbreviation for Projects In Controlled Environment, is a process based method, derived from the initial PRINCE project management methodology. It is a recognised international standard, a registered trademark of OGC, deployed extensively by the UK government. PRINCE2 crucially assists with the optimal usage of resources and project risk management initiatives, thus securing for itself an eminent position in the overall relevance graph.

PRINCE2 is an enhanced version of the initial PRINCE methodology, which in turn was based on PROMPT, a project management method, introduced by the CCTA (Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency). PRINCE was developed in 1989, as a UK government standard for IT project management, and later published as PRINCE2 in 1996. While the initial model had a restricted adaptability, PRINCE2 is suitable for all types of management projects.

Methodological Overview

PRINCE2 as a method entails forty five sub processes, categorised into eight headings i.e. Starting Up a Project (SU), Planning (PL), Initiating a Project (IP), Directing a Project (DP), Controlling a Stage (CS), Managing Product Delivery (MP), Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) and Closing a Project (CP). As evident from the stated classification, PRINCE2 as a process driven methodology, focuses on a project’s organised start, continuation & completion. It renders the much desired standardised approach to the project, thus drafting a common platform for all concerned to proceed.

Moving over to the stage description, the SU stage undertakes the vital tasks relevant to appointing the project team, preparing the outline and thus defining the aim of the exercise. This also logically results in preparing a business justification case. The second stage i.e. PL begins with product identification & analysis. Successful completion of this task prepares grounds for a closer estimation of the overall effort required for goal achievement. The stage ends with finally deciding upon the relevant plan formats.

IP is the third stage of PRINCE2 methodology, which is an augmented level of the earlier SU level. This stage aims at preparing a substantial business case. Another key focus at this stage is planning the quality aspect and thus setting up the requisite project controls. Once this is accomplished, the stage also prepares the project files and assembles the initiation documents. The fourth stage, i.e. the DP level, dedicates attention towards the pertinent controlling aspect. This stage defines the authorisation process and more importantly provides scope for an additional plan, in case of a misfit. All relevant board guidance terms are covered at this level of PRINCE2.

Next is the CS step which defines the procedures to control individual stages. Work progress is assessed at this level to capture and examine the key project issues. Other tasks at this level include, reviewing stage status, reporting, planning corrective actions, escalating the experienced issues and receiving the completed work. CS is followed by the MP stage which accomplishes the acceptance, execution & delivery aspects of the work package.

The last two stages of PRINCE2 are the SB and CP. The former precisely defines the tasks which should be contained within various stages and includes defining the end of a stage, next stage planning, maintenance of log files and amendment tools. The CP stage is responsible for the final decommissioning of a project. The evaluation exercise and follow up action steps are included at this level.

Successful application of the PRINCE2 and thus the above elucidate stages, imparts a structured approach to an intricate project. Coordination becomes simpler and adjustment nuances are much better handled. With the PRINCE2 methodology appropriately executed, a project can be reasonably divided into various sub tasks and therefore successfully completed.

The following are some ideas to help you choose a project management solution that meets the needs of your team, client and project.

• Security

When you are sharing information online, you should always be confident in the security of the web platform. Choose a solution that allows users to have ready access to their projects while being assured that their content is secure and protected.

• Easy Set-Up and Administration

The workspace should be intuitive and easy to set-up and administer so that users can get to work without a steep learning curve. All of the resources should be clearly labeled and easy to find in the workspace.

• Ability to Manage Multiple Projects

Does the software allow users to manage more than one project simultaneously? How easy is it to switch back and forth between projects.

• Manage Access Control

Look for the flexibility to manage access to your collaborative workspace, and determine the levels of access that each team member should have.

• Custom Reporting

You’ll want to choose a web-based collaboration platform that allows you to create custom project reports quickly and easily without having to request IT support.

• Manage Project Milestones and Tasks

Project managers should be able to easily assign and track tasks and  milestones, set deadlines for deliverables and always be able to quickly see which tasks or milestones have been completed, who owns them and be alerted when there are overdue items.

• Project Calendar

Look for project calendars that can be used to track tasks, and milestones across projects and workgroups.

• Scalability

Choosing the right web-based project management solution can make a big difference in the success of your project. These tips can give you food for thought as you take a look at all of the options available.

 

You are planning to talk to your staff about the need to improve how they manage projects. There have been unnecessary delays in completing project tasks. You want employees to improve how they plan, coordinate, and perform project activities. You also want them to leave this meeting understanding WHY these improvements matter and feeling motivated to make changes. How might you approach this discussion? Try linking your employees’ improved performance to these four positive results:

1. Budget: Consider things like fewer cost overruns, decreased expenditures, or staying within budget allocations. Is there an impact on present or future funding? Or perhaps you and your employees have to spend unnecessary time justifying expenditures. How could improved approaches to project management lead to more positive budget experiences?

2. Complaints: Think about how affected parties react when project delays occur. Who do they complain to? And what happens when they complain? Do you or your employees have to spend extra time consoling and reassuring these stakeholders? Or maybe the entire project plan has to be revised to appease a particularly powerful stakeholder. How might this change, for the better, if your employees’ changed how they managed projects?

3. Accomplishments: Think about how a failure to effectively plan, coordinate, and perform project activities impacts other employees, groups, contractors, or departments. What’s the cost in time, tasks, money, and resources? How could improved performance make things better for others, and by association, make things better for your project managers?

4. Problem Solving: Consider how poor planning affects your employees’ ability to solve problems. What is the negative impact on project tasks? How might earlier contingency plans or advanced consideration of possible problems improve their ability to solve problems quickly and correctly?

Your Focus Determines Project Management Improvements

To encourage improved project management, you need employees to feel motivated to take personal responsibility for doing a better job. You can make that happen by focusing on common goals, common purposes, and common benefits. Project management, like other workload topics, offers many opportunities to focus on common areas. You just have to think about what you want to say during your discussion. 

If you explain WHY performance improvement matters, you will increase your chance of getting buy-in and cooperation. Try these four explanations the next time you have to talk to employees about improving project management. These explanations will not only help you keep focused, they will help you frame your discussion in a way that could lead to positive results.