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I was chatting with a new client the other day and they mentioned the emerging problem they are seeing as they take on new clients. It is the old story that every successful business has when trying to respond and manage their growth.

This client had become very successful working, in the main with one large client. However (and probably as a result of their success with this client), they are now developing a few very impressive clients. The problem they can see emerging is managing these multiple clients and effectively scaling up to ensure that each one gets the service they require.

 Not surprisingly my client has built a project management methodology from the PM framework used by their primary client who has supplied the project documentation including schedules and deliverables so, their own PM methodology has developed in response to the client’s framework so, they now have a methodology that works well with this client but is impossible to duplicate with new clients. Furthermore, these guys are very good at what they do but they lack an underpinning knowledge of PM. They have developed their project management skills intuitively and in response to their primary client, so they little or no real understanding of the PM life-cycle and how to make it work for them. Often they don’t really know why they do what they do but, they know it works.

I can’t emphasis enough the need to develop your own PM framework, systems and processes as the very first project commences and long before your business is suddenly juggling multiple projects simultaneously. This will give you clear visibility on the resources required for the project, the bottlenecks and the potential problems. More importantly, it will give you peace of mind and let you sleep at night knowing you have a system in place that will track and flag before you find you have a problem.

It is also important to make sure your team know what is expected of them as your projects and workload increases and they too need an understanding of the PM life-cycle. In fact, we could all probably benefit from the PM methodology of scope, plan, do and review after all isn’t that what all our business activity is about?

Cheers,

Helen Sabell

Andrew and I met for that second cup of coffee yesterday. You probably remember that he is Project Director for a major initiative with a ‘first-time’ Sponsor? The situation hadn’t improved. Requirements definition is being seriously hampered by an internal support group putting Andrew’s project low on their priorities. He’d sent meeting requests to his Sponsor, so far without success.

I suggested he do some groundwork! The critical step is some stakeholder analysis. This step in a project often doesn’t get as much airtime as the standard Gantt chart and similar ‘technical’ project management tools, yet it is probably more crucial in terms of project success. Talk to others around your Sponsor. How do they get to talk with her? Does she ‘do’ coffee? Is first thing in the morning a good time to meet for coffee? Is later in the day better? Does she like to get away from the desk for a quick lunch break?

And dig deeper. Is she a detailed person? Does she like heaps of facts? Does she prefer pictures? Does she read documents in depth or prefer explanations? All of this will help you plan for your first discussions.

And go to those meetings with an agenda in mind – what are the top three items you want to discuss – not too many points, and not too few!

There’s some ‘homework’, Andrew. Next cup of coffee we can talk through the points for the first meeting.

John

In my coaching session late last week Andrew, a quite senior project Director, confided to me, “ . . and this would have to be my most frustrating  Project  yet!”. When I dug deeper, it turned out the core issue was that it is his Project Sponsor’s first time in that role. A highly placed executive, she had joined the organisation, as a senior  exec, from a  company where she had had no exposure to projects. “And”, my colleague continued, “She doesn’t communicate!”

“H’mm”, I thought! “Do others who work with her complain about that too?”, I asked.

His “Not at all! To the contrary!” answer said it all. Like many other Sponsors, she probably didn’t know what the role is about; how to interpret the information she is getting from the project; what questions to ask her PM; how the relationship between Sponsor and PM should work, and how critical that is to project success. Organisations which rely on project success to get their new initiatives into the market ahead of their competitors often pay too little attention to supporting their Sponsors in this aspect. Add to that, Sponsors, lacking that insight, don’t realise they should be spending time gaining the skills!

“So”, I said to Andrew, “it’s going to be an extra task for you! And no doubt, your biggest obstacle is going to be convincing her she needs to talk with you on a really regular basis. Give that some thought and we’ll have coffee next Tuesday and discuss your strategy”.

Has anyone else experienced this? I’ll keep you posted on Andrew’s progress.

John Coulton

Helen asked me, a day or so back, whether I had read her comments about the importance of project benefits.

Well, yes! Sure I read them!

And, well YES! Surely it’s the business benefits, that are the reason we are doing the project?

Her question made me think: Is this actually clear to everyone in your organisation?

Is it clear, that it’s the business that is investing in the project? And, is it clear to everyone that there is a cost / benefit comparison underlying the very basis for writing the Project Charter? After all, the project has to be paid for, essentially from the organisation’s bottom line.

Of course, that’s far from the end of the story! Is the business certain that the project outcomes will lead to its strategic aims? Better services? More ‘clients’? Lower costs? Is that also clear to the business? Is also it transparent to everyone working on the project? And to the support groups?

I remain astounded, as I work with my classes and coaching groups, how often I find a disconnect in this critical area. Realistically, if you don’t have absolute transparency between business, Sponsor and project team, about the benefits and the responsibility for reaping them, then you might as well be tearing up $100 notes.

One of my students recently could identify with this so closely, she went back to work and challenged her Sponsor on it! The Sponsor took her off the project! Now, that’s tearing them up big time!

Of course, for the PM the discussion doesn’t end with clarity of the planned benefits. Is the project responsible for delivering these benefits? And is that clear to everyone? This is an area in which there can often be a lot of heated debate! After all, if delivery of benefits stretches over, say, a three year period after the project outcomes have been implemented, how do you properly define scope, time and cost if the project is responsible. On the other hand, how accountable do you make the PM for the benefits delivery, if it is not a formal part of the project? This is a big challenge for organisation without adequately defined project methodologies.

What is your experience?

Cheers,

John Coulton

How often do you find your project undervalued by management?

How often do you find yourself reflecting on the disappointing response of your project sponsor/s?

This could, of course be due to poor project management but, more often than not I am finding that this negative response all too often comes because the project manager has failed to adequately report on or highlight the benefits. This failure to show and highlight the project benefits in a simple, easy to read format is not only selling your project short but also selling your skills as a project manager short. So, why not take a few minutes to collect the data and present it for your stakeholders?

Preparing a good cost/benefit analysis will help you to calculate data that will illustrate the impact of your project which will, in turn inform your project stakeholders of the various success points in the project that might otherwise go unnoticed.

If you aren’t putting enough time into analysing your project benefits and promoting these back to your stakeholders then I would suggest this is something you need to focus on this year. Remember this reflects directly on your PM ability.

Cheers,

Helen Sabell

An important ingredient of any business case is the benefits statement. Likewise, in project planning, a list of the outcomes the project will produce, stated in measurable terms of value and directly linked to the stakeholders, business plan objectives and the business strategy objectives they support is a critical component of the project planning. Yet, all too often this process is overlooked or forgotten when planning and so it becomes impossible to subsequently measure and provide meaningful feedback on the project benefits.

In the 2010 workplace where the processes of project management are now embedded in organisations the focus for project sponsors and the PMO office will shift to the importance of project benefits as measurable, accountable objectives. The ability to develop and specify the benefits in terms specific to your stakeholder requirements i.e. how your (various) stakeholders want to see and hear them stated will become an essential skill set for all project managers and PMO teams.

Helen Sabell

2010 is an auspicious year, in fact, some would say the next 3 years to 2012 are brim full of potential! While I certainly like to believe in the positive energy abounding in the universe, I also like to ground my thinking and positivity in practicality. For example, we know that Australia has weathered the GFC so well that the economy continues to grow with house prices rising and unemployment at low levels. All the economic indicators for the Australian economy are currently positive and business confidence is increasing as is job security and choice. In fact in the week before Christmas I spoke to a number of people changing jobs over the break or in the New Year who were seeking to up-skill and/or update their qualifications accordingly.

In this more buoyant atmosphere it makes sense to review your career aspirations and to take actions towards achieving your career goals. If you are thinking of changing jobs or even careers, it can be valuable to add necessary or desired qualifications to your CV before you change jobs.

 If you are already experienced in the job you currently perform then one way to achieve a relevant qualification is to have the knowledge and skills you have gained in your job formally recognised.  This method of gaining a qualification through current job recognition is frequently overlooked and I often have individuals enquiring about a program of study to achieve a qualification for either a new job or another job as a result of retrenchment even when their last or previous job required use of the same knowledge and skills sets as the program of study they are now enquiring about! Unfortunately and all too often these people have left the job and so are no longer able to demonstrate the knowledge and skills required for the qualification.

Now, in early January is a good time to reflect and act on achieving qualifications. If you are currently working in a professional job role you should consider enrolling in a program and applying for recognition (Recognition of Prior Learning – RPL) and then just studying for the ‘gaps’ in your own learning rather than spending valuable time off the job studying for an entire qualification.   If you are thinking of changing jobs then you should act quickly to achieve recognition before you leave the job.

The College for Adult Learning offers recognition as RPL in a range of qualifications in business & management, HRM and project management.

I recently read a paper analysing Australia’s possible future workplaces and workforce development requirements where 3 potential future scenarios for Australia in 2025 were explored. The paper, builds on the Shell Global Scenarios and focuses on the Australian context and, it makes for very interesting reading. Of course it poses more questions than it answers however; one thing that really stood out for me was the importance and emphasis on trust. In all 3 scenarios put forward for 2025 there is an emphasis on relationships, social networking and a strong and definitive building of and focus on personal and business trust at all levels.

It seems that we are moving towards a ‘Trust Economy’ perhaps fuelled, in part by the blurring of boundaries between work and social networks where relationship are becoming the dominant currency and return of influence is becoming the new ROI. I know my own team constantly move back and forth between work related online networks and their own social networks where the line or boundary between either is definitely blurred or less real. Their communication channels are all open all the time. More and more often I receive work related communications from a team member sent from a club or a bar after midnight!

In preparing for a session on project management, I came across an article written by Michael Aucoin titled ‘How Trust Fuels Agility’ and in it he talks about the importance of trust in project teams and the need to foster an environment that promotes respect and trust. Stephen Covey says about trust: ‘Trust is the highest form of human motivation. It brings out the very best in people.’

There are many articles on trust and its importance in the workplace yet I wonder how we prepare ourselves and coach our people towards this values driven paradigm? How prepared are we to move to a trust based economy and economy built on relationships and integrity? Can we train people or is this part of society values & beliefs inculcated in our children from birth?

Cheers,

Helen Sabell

You can download the above mentioned report “Australia 2025: Three Global Scenarios” here.

“Project Management and Innovation are at the opposing ends of the spectrum, what on earth do they possibly have in common”?

Over the many years that I have been both teaching Project Management and working with companies to resolve Project Management issues, I have heard this statement a surprising number of times. In my view they are wrong but I do know what they mean. The term innovation, by its very nature defines the new, the leap-forward, creativity and excitement. The popular view of Project Management however is that it is about structure, about being methodical, meticulous and largely just plain boring! “It is purely an argument of left brain versus right brain”. While I do not agree that the two are mutually exclusive; I thought it might be an interesting topic to explore in this article.

The dictionary (Collins, 2003) defines innovation as the introduction of new ideas, methods or things. The PMBoK (PMI, 2004) defines a project as an ‘endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result’ and Project management as ‘the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques’ to a project to ensure that a project meets requirements. It would seem from those definitions that there is little conflict and perhaps some overlap1.

Innovation in a product or process context is effectively talking about the “what” we are trying to deliver. Project Management, however is primarily focussed on the “how” we are going to do it!

When we think of innovative organisations we often think of companies like Apple, 3M, or Intel. They are known for innovation and market leading products which breakthrough and consistently challenge their competitors. Although the perception of innovative companies is that they thrive specifically because of their lack of structure and therefore increased spontaneity; many of them maintain a relatively consistent approach to innovation and treat it as a process, although more loosely structured and much less rigid then our normal understanding of standard procedure.

Generally this process begins with the application of a divergent thinking phase to brainstorm all possible concepts to creating unique and novel products or solutions. The usual next phase of the development is to then to apply a Convergent thinking path i.e. application of logic and organisation to refine or group the various concepts into a viable product. A consistent innovation ‘process’ has thus been applied to begin from nothing, harness imagination and creativity but also, of critical importance; to produce something tangible at the other end.

Possessing all of the creativity in the world is of little use to an organisation unless it is able to be captured and translated into producing the exciting products and services that delight us as consumers. The Convergent thinking phase is designed to achieve this and is a key component of the ‘idea nurturing’ process.

However, the concept or product still needs to be delivered and it is here that the innovation process clearly overlaps with the early phases of the traditional project management lifecycle. It is at this point also where Project management has inherited its reputation for being boring, meticulous and soulless. All of that creative energy generated to conceive of these new directions, of happily living in the world of the possible; turned over to those ‘philistines’ in project management who need and insist on clear definitions and detail!

In defence of all of the Project Managers in the world however, at this stage of the lifecycle a possibly revolutionary idea can actually be turned into something of substance and value or conversely, lost forever. We all remember “The Dot Com Boom” where phrases like “Better to be first then right” were common parlance but where a myriad of great ideas and enormous amounts of creative energy were lost and shareholder value destroyed, as many of these companies crashed and burned.

Some of the key benefits achieved by applying a consistent Project Management methodology are:

• Providing a known organisational Project Delivery capacity.
• Providing continual monitoring points and therefore visibility of the project in order to make informed decisions as the project environment evolves.
• Provide a Quality Assurance process for delivering projects which can be      evaluated and improved upon in accordance with organisational experience.

Clearly, the above are invaluable attributes to an organization in successfully delivering an innovation to the market. The notion that Project Management stifles innovation in some part probably stems from a resentment of some of the discipline the Project Management necessarily brings.

However, in our experience it is also often due to the clumsy structures and processes that many organisations deploy as their Project Management methodology. In Project Management, one size definitely doesn’t fit all! Too many times we see organizations adopt complicated frameworks which might suit building a 40 storey building when their projects typically last 6-8 months and only have relatively small budgets. Project Management methodology should match the context of the organization’s projects and be integrated so as to enable good Project Management. As much as possible try and customise to the needs of the organisation and remember to start simple and build it up!

Hopefully I have begun to demonstrate that innovation and strong project management practice are not diametrically opposed and in fact work ‘hand in glove’. To this stage however, we have only spoken about innovation from the ‘What’ perspective. There is nothing to stop us from introducing innovation into the ‘How’ i.e. Project Management methodology but we will leave that discussion for another day.

Mark Guiney is a Director of Project Management Development International (PMDI) and holds a Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

References

A Guide to the Project Management Body Of Knowledge (third edition), 2004, Project Management Institute Inc, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square Pennsylvania, USA

Collins Cobuild Dictionary(second edition) 2003, Harper Collins Publishers, Westerhill Road, Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, Great Britain

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