What gets in the way?

I know it’s often difficult to find the lessons learned on any project, let alone a project that is comparable to the one you are about to start.Time,or lack of it, often gets in the way of thinking about any lessons you might want to implement in your new projects. And, organizational assumptions can seem like a barrier to making changes: “we’ve always done it this way and there’s really no way to make it better in this company”.

What I suggest is to take a small step. If you don’t have time to read up on previous projects before you start, build it into the kick off meeting. Ask the team what they think is the one consistent challenge on projects. Use that to try some new tools, tactics, or techniques.

If the team decides that requirement gathering is a consistent challenge, why not try a new approach – maybe moving from one on one meetings, to a series of large group sessions that get refined in one on one sessions. Or, maybe checking where you start requirements, if you attempt to get requirements all at one time, try iteration techniques.

If the team decides it’s communication with stakeholders, how about looking at how the communication normally flows, and bringing something new to the process.

You’ll have different issues depending on your organization. By trying one new thing, and including the team in developing the new method you can take small steps that improve the project performance in your organization.

Any other ideas on common lessons and new approaches?

Happy PMing

Perry

I would say, it can be both. An inexperienced PM can get lucky, and experience PM can be using their knowledge and wisdom to work the methodology without having to openly use all the tools. The challenge is, it’s not always about experience.

How do you know which one you are dealing with?

A lucky PM will eventually run out of luck. At best, when things go off track after the luck runs out, the lucky PM will be scrambling to figure out how to show what happened and figure out what the team will do. At worst, the lucky PM will struggle to figure out who to blame.

For sponsors and clients, you can ask a few questions along the way. A lucky PM will not be able to easily answer specific questions that start with what, when, and how. “How is it going?” is too easy to answer with “great!”, but “What are the current issues (there are always some issues)” is harder to answer if you don’t have a handle on the project.

A ‘good’ PM will have their finger on the project, they will produce the documentation you need but they will be able to answer the hard questions. Or, will be comfortable with saying they will need to check.

The challenges is it’s not about experience all the time. You can find highly experienced PMs who work by the methodology, they run successful projects, they can tell you exactly where in the Project Management Life Cycle the project is. You can also find inexperienced PMs who will successfully manage teams through challenging projects without referencing any methodology.

Why does this matter? PMs will bring to the project what they have: experience, people skills, communication skills, any combination of these. By understanding where your PM fits on the scale of lucky to good, you can understand how work with them.

For an internal PM, you know how to develop their skills. For a contractor or consulting PM, you can work with these concepts to hire the right type of PM for your project.

Have a great project week.

Perry

How Project Management Can Help You With Any Business

No matter what business you are in, you have goals and intentions.  From the largest corporation to the smallest home-based business, projects are being started every day.  Without proper management of these projects, all the effort, time, and money are wasted.

The Changing Work Place

It is widely known that change is the only constant in the world.  We see changes in innovation and technology development daily.  People and companies are trying to keep up with all these new products and ideas, with some handling it better than others.

As organizations pursue their goal to reduce the cost of running a business, they are also trying to deal with the changes occurring all around them.  In misguided attempts to stay competitive, many companies are “downsizing” their employees.

For a company to survive the challenges of change, it must change as well.  New ways of looking at employees, new thoughts on preserving its business, and a new dedication to keeping in the forefront of its industry.

To survive a changing environment is only possible if we keep pace with and accept change.

An increasing number of employees are working from home instead of the office.  The use of computers and Internet technologies are a must not only for those working at home, but for every business that is trying to become or remain successful.  Vital for every organization is the technology of computers and the Internet.

The greatest challenges posed by the changing workplace are collaboration and communication.

One requirement of the changing workplace is that we need to be updated and well informed all the time.  Access to updated data and information regarding any business activity is a must.  Sharing information in real-time can guarantee success for organization and individuals alike.

Guarantee the success of organizations and individuals, by sharing of expertise and information in a timely manner.

How a Project Management System Can Help

Challenges in the changing workplace might seem impossible to overcome, but they can become simplified when a proper Project Management Plan is used.

The project management system may be the single best solution for the collaboration needs of any organization.  A project management system is multi-functional software that performs tasks like resource allocation, communication, budget management, quality management, report generation, cost and quality control.

Also, communication, information sharing and administrating are simplified and made much easier through use of a project management system.

Scheduling is an element of a project management system. According to the time limit and given resources the project management system divides the projects into a series of tasks and makes the handling of even complex projects very easy. It enables you to make the best possible use of time and resources.

Another great benefit provided by the project management system is communication. The project management system has a central database, which the permitted users can use to track the work progress and get updated information and data easily. It predicts any kind of problem that can arise in the project and removes uncertainties and ambiguities related to projects. From report generation to risk analysis, project management is very useful. It clearly defines the path to follow and contribution required at every level and from every employee.

These are just a few functions of a project management system. With proper implementation and use, it can help overcome great challenges that otherwise seem impossible. Thus, by making the collaboration, communication and working possible across the organization, the project management system helps the company meets the challenges of an ever-changing workplace.

Jason Westland has 15 years experience in the project management industry. From his experience he has created software to help speed up the management process. If you would like to find out more information about Jason’s  online project management software.

I took a look and I’m impressed. This is a site where you can ask and answer questions about project management.  The questions are all over the board and the answers range from a quick sentence to a detailed instructional message.

This might end up being a common source for lessons learned, a place to hear about new tools and ideas, or a great place to find answers to your common frustrations.

Here are a few samples:

Does it help to use a software to create the WBS

Four PMs gave answers about software and how to do a WBS.

If you had to hire a project manager to work with you which would be your top 5 requirements

A couple of interesting answers there now, neither had certification on their list.

How do you prioritize your tasks

Great ideas posted in answer to this one.

It seems to me that it’s common to hear PMs ask for the best way to develop stronger skills and improve their delivery and approach project after project. Ask About Projects seems like a great place to start.

Leave a comment if you have any thoughts on this.

I think the most difficult thing for a project manager to do when it comes to innovation is let it happen; in a group, someone will always have an idea for improvement. Project managers want to be able to predict the progress of the project to the plan; how can you do that when someone says, “I think I can come up with a better way to do this if you give me some time to investigate.” What goes through your mind?  “Yikes, how much time? What is better, anyway? Who do you need how much is it going to cost?”

If you don’t keep that in your mind, you might find yourself killing a great idea with questions.

I managed a series of projects with my last client and by project number four we were pretty set in the routine of what needed to be done, how much it would cost, when we’d be finished. And we were great at delivery, the problem was with one deliverable. The process we used minimized the customer disruption, but still caused disruption, no one was really happy with the outcome. The deliverable required customers to change a code that couldn’t be translated automatically. One of the team members, new to the team for this project, said, “I think I can come up with a better way to do this if you give me some time to investigate.”

If he reads this blog, he’ll recognize the situation. What I’m hoping he won’t recognize is my internal reaction; “What the @@##!!, do you mean? We’re on track, we can’t divert for an idea. And other similar thoughts.”

What I said was something along the lines of, “tell me about it.”

We had a quick discussion and I asked for this information; how long do you need, who do you need, how comfortable are you that this could work.

The result was a solution that resulted in no customer complaints, little manual support, and overall savings of a week of post launch assistance, as well as a reusable solution for future projects. Man, am I glad I had my internal filter running.

So, the tips for this week are,

• Be willing to listen when someone has an idea, it can be someone new to the team, someone on a completely different work stream or any stakeholder who comes up with an idea.

• Try to find the resources to investigate the idea if it has some potential to improve your project.

• Don’t ever think that a solution is perfect; someone will always have an idea to improve it.

Some resources for innovation online,

The always informative and entertaining Tom Peters has a video

An article on developing innovation

Steven Shapiro’s 24/7 innovation site