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

This post is not about project management but about identifying an opportunity, business and self management. Something PMs need to understand no matter what industry the specialize in, they need to connect with the ‘business’ end of the work.

In the last year I’ve worked with a great business partner to bring an e-publishing company to life. PaperBoxBooks works with new authors to help them find their on-line reader. We created it to fill a gap we found between the way traditional publishers saw the market and the new fast growing e-publishing world.

Today – almost 12 months to the date we started talking about PaperBoxBooks – we officially launch Fiction Therapy. We found that new authors are hungry for feedback that helps them improve their writing and we weren’t able to devote the time to our PaperboxBooks authors that we wanted to. So, along came Fiction Therapy, a place for authors to hear the good, the bad, and the – well maybe not ugly but fixable?

From a PM perspective we did all the right things for initiation: strategies, smart goals, success measures.

From a business perspective, well that remains to be seen.

If you are a writer or know someone who is interested in getting feedback on their writing, check out Fiction Therapy.  If you want to follow us on Twitter we’re @fictiontherapy you can learn about special offers or giveaways.

As for self management, if I want to add anything else to my plate, I have to let something go. Not something my inner change junkie wants to hear.

Happy PMing

Perry

If you like fantasy romance and read ebooks, check out Off Track by Alice Griffiths (my romantic pen name).