Do any of these describe you?

1. You have just been assigned a project off the side of your desk and have no idea how to start
2. You have been picked as the sponsor of a project (big or small) and you don’t know what to expect from a PM
3. Your projects (as a sponsor or assigned PM) are getting off track
4. As the sponsor you have no idea if your projects are on track or not
5. As a business leader/owner you have too many projects on the list and no way to prioritize

Whether you have to lead or sponsor the project, it’s important to know what to expect. How do you start a project so that it’s more likely to be a success?

1. scope statements will detail what you will or won’t deliver
2. success and closing criteria will help keep you on track
3. good governance documented in a charter will help keep the project moving

How do you manage communications? Who get what information?

1. status reporting will provide an overview for most audiences
2. a communication plan will help identify who your audiences are for each communication
3. a stakeholder management plan will help keep everyone up to date based on their needs.

Shameless plug

I have a course designed as a full day workshop designed for the business person that leads you through the process from initiation to project closure.

If you are interested check out my training courses or contact me directly perry@perryawilsonconsulting.com

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.

The dream of gathering absolutely complete requirements is just that, a dream.You will find no matter how detailed or complete, or ‘approved as final’ your requirements are, things will change. That isn’t a failure of the requirements, it’s a fact of project management.  If you try to perfect the beginning, you’ll never start your development or build phase.

If there is no element of uncertainty, I don’t think you have a project.

The PM’s job is to manage what happens: issues, changes, delays, opportunities. Doing a great job of gathering requirements only resolves the questions at the beginning of the project. The client or stakeholder, or sponsor will have new ideas as they get new information. The market demands change. The longer the time frame of the project the more likely you will have changes.

Doing a great job of gathering requirements is only one part of the project start. You need to develop your scope change management plan as well. That plan will include your process of assessing changes against the project drivers and making recommendations.

A good scope change plan will help the PM manage ‘pet’ ideas as well as fabulous ideas that everyone loves but will have a significant impact on the time, cost and quality of the original project.

Happy PMing

So, how do you know? As the PM how do you recognize the difference between firefighting and issue management?

What does issue management look like?

No matter how fast the issues come, the PM and the team can assess the issue against the goals of the project and prioritize the use of resources for resolution. The PM can make the distinction between real issues and things that will go away if you wait.

Issues are resolved based on the long view – the desired result, the alignment to strategy, the market place. Any number of criteria that drive the project. The PM knows what the project drivers are. What takes precedence, cost, time, or quality? Recommendations are aligned with that priority.

What does firefighting look like?

Issues come fast and frequently. The same issue keeps rising because it’s not resolved completely. Issues are resolved on the approach of “how do I get this out of my face’. There’s no consistent priority of resources to the issues. People are pulled from one to the other issue, working on the latest problem before resolving the current fire.

Projects overrun schedule and budget and don’t often meet the quality. Scope creeps, customers are unsatisfied.

So, Perry, don’t hold back say what you really mean.

I’ve been in both situations. In the firefighting project, the team was so stressed that I joked about having a counselling shingle hanging outside my door. No one ever knew they had done the right thing. The project was a success but at the cost of 12 – 14 hour days and quality all over the place. There was no clear understanding of what the criteria were for meeting a compliance standard. As a result, time, energy and money were spent meeting the highest overall standard when we only needed to meet the specific standards.

In a similar project that used an issue management approach we met the right standard, with fewer people and money over a shorter time period.

There were fewer real issues, and we knew how to deal with the issues that would go away with time.

In my experience, the keys to avoiding firefighting lie in the initiation and planning of a project. The PM and the sponsor need to clearly determine the priorities on the drivers to allow the project team to produce aligned recommendations when issues need to be resolved.

Clarity between the PM and the sponsor on decision making authority can alleviate the effort required to resolve issues as the project proceeds.

Close and frequent communication with the sponsor at the early stages of the project will build a level of trust between them. When there is trust between the PM and the sponsor, things go smoothly – well as smoothly as a project can go.

What is the one thing you would advise a PM to do if they want to get a better handle on issue management?

I think we’ve done well in understanding our niche; new authors, good books, all genre’s. And our competition; well, there are lots of flavours of what we’re doing but we look to the traditional p-publishers as the market to watch. Why? Well, they have the market defined and at some point will think of digital as the primary format and figure out how to deal in the digital world.

We agreed to take November off to write our next great novel. It’s been hard for me to stay away from marketing and reviewing other authors’ work. But two more days and we’re back on focus.

My priorities for the next phase – publish books – is to finalize the details of the initiation phase – and move through to execution (how many projects jump into execution with key initiation steps still open).  I hear the screams from the PMs out there – yes we’ve done our planning!!!  It overlapped the initiation phase like so many business projects do, figuring out what we need to do and at the same time figuring out how to do it.

We have some great authors lined up and our first titles should appear at your favourite e-bookstore within the month.

Keep your eye on PaperBox Books - great books on the download

The conference brings together new and experienced writers with agents, publishers, editors and our own rock stars – best selling authors.

The stakeholders were diverse, and the stakes were high. The team did a great job, there were no visible issues – though I’m sure they handled many hiccups and challenges over the conference.

Big congrats to all.