Programme and Project Portfolio Management Blog (PPM)

1. Project Scope Is Not Defined On PowerPoint Slides

2. Project Schedules Do Not a Project Plan Make

3. Projects Are Not Managed From Behind a Spreadsheet

Some project managers secretly want to be statisticians. They love to calculate all of the various metrics pertaining to their project such as the percentages of deliverables completed, tasks currently on schedule, tasks that should have started, of variance from budget, etc. These are all good to know. The problem is that they spend so much time summarizing and restating data in their spreadsheets, they never talk to the team members about how the project is going and what problems they are having. Without that connection with the team, they are not managing so much as they are reporting.

4. No Task Longer Than 80 Hours and Not Shorter Than 40

5. No More Than One Person Responsible For a Task

6. Every Task Generates a Deliverable. No Work for Work’s Sake.

7. Large projects should be broken down into sub-projects (if they have long timeframes)

8. Plan for the Worst

The old saying is “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, and they do. Always think through your risk plans. Even if things are going well, a good PM has to ask “what if?” Remember that for each risk you can think of, come up with a way to reduce the likelihood of it happening (mitigation) and have a Plan B if it does (contingency).

9. Make it Fun

IT projects can be daunting events. Have you ever noticed that there are some project managers that people just don’t want to work for? The Project Tyrant that is always changing things, asking for things at the last minute and making demands of people is someone that is hard to support over the long haul of a project. There will be tense times on any project, but the lead comes from the top. When things are at their worst, if the PM can laugh at himself it will relieve the tension of the entire team.

10. In the End it is People

In the end, the key point to be mindful of is that all of the previous techniques exist for one purpose: to produce results with a team of people. All of the techniques in the world will not produce anything if they are not constantly tuned, adjusted and calibrated for the individuals on your team. People are different and they all respond differently in various situations. The most successful senior managers I have run across in my experience were the ones with a unique respect, passion, appreciation and understanding for people.

This month we continue our theam about executive sponsorship. I have found an excellent post from ProjectSteps about executive apathy

Ever had a project that begins with strong executive/senior management support and over time that support fades?

The symptoms are:

1) Executives/senior management remain silent during status meetings

2) Executives/senior management stop coming to status meetings and don’t ask for meeting minutes

3) Executives/senior management lack a sense of urgency regarding “your” project

4) Executives/senior management become more confused and less supportive over time regarding project goals and objectives

5) Executives/senior management begin to focus on what has been “installed” vs. what business results have been realized

6) The project sponsor(s) becomes detached and less available for project updates

7) Executives, sponsors, and stakeholders start to forget the culture and try to force solutions to meet deadlines

I know first hand that executives/senior management will tell you they support your project, and then turnaround and encourage resistance in their departments, and allow or ignore passive-aggressive behaviors of key staff members regarding the project’s goals and objectives. What can be done? Here are some ideas; however you must realize that your project is in serious trouble if you have observed the behaviors listed above.

1) Calculate the costs of the project so far. Consider scaling back the project or killing it all together. I know from experience that this is much easier said than done.

2) Identify key executives and stakeholders and meet with them personally and restate the projects benefits. If they still aren’t sold or supportive, move on to the next group. Ensure you create a Scope Change and de-scope portions of the project that aren’t getting support.

3) Reevaluate the project team. Do you need new people? Are they really focused on meeting the project’s objectives and scope? Are the project’s objectives and scope still realistic, attainable and relevant?

4) Reevaluate the organization’s culture and re-plan the project if needed. Reset expectations, and identify sources of resistance. If the culture can’t be changed quickly, perhaps the project’s objectives, goals, and/or scope need to be adjusted.

5) Remember, project failure rests on the project manager’s shoulders. Sometimes senior management is too busy to get or stay involved, however that doesn’t release them from their responsibility to support your project. Determine if they are too busy or just too lazy to support your project. Not easy to do, but absolutely necessary.

Who runs the business – executives or the project management stream?

The Project Centric approach certainly empowers the project manager but does it really empower the business. One of the biggest drawbacks of David Hofferberth’s Project Centric argument is the fact that project managers and executives do not always speak the same language nor do they have the same focus and view of the business.

Project management stream will typically communicate:

• Schedule/Time
• Project Cost
• Performance
• Stakeholder Satisfaction
• Scope/Change Control

Where the executive stream will typically communicate:

• Objectives
• Goals
• Strategies
• Project Selection & Mix
• Cash Flow

For too long the world of project management has been focused on the excellent of project delivery with little connection to ensuring they are delivering the right projects for the business.

Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is the bridge that brings the project delivery process and the business operations together. It is essentially the core of an integrated collection of processes that represent both operations and projects functions. It is also the engine that drives the production of project deliverables to enhance the total health of the enterprise. PPM ties these two key elements of the business into an efficient machine that increases value and purpose of projects. PPM is most certainly the “end goal” in that it ensures that projects are contributing to the overall health and success of the enterprise.

Hofferberth’s Project Centric approach assumes that project standardisation, structure and governance should come from a traditional bottom up approach. PPM directly challenges this and advocates project leadership and accountability from the top down. It is there to empower the business as a whole not just the project process – allowing stakeholders, business leaders and executives to see clearly and understand how effective their strategies are and which projects are delivering.

Understanding the strategy at all levels of the organisation is essential because even simple and seemingly non-strategic decisions are affected. Managers at all levels of the organisation need to use strategic objectives as a guide for ongoing operational decisions. A clear line of communication helps define the expected outcomes and answers. PPM is therefore a formalized method of implementing a governance and structured process by putting together a selection and prioritisation that ensures that all projects are delivering against the organisation’s strategic objectives. PPM hardwires a two-way contract between the business and the project management stream . In order for the project management process to deliver, it needs to be supplied with the relevant tools, capability, direction, objectives and strategies. These need to be agreed with and supplied by the business; without this agreement the project management process cannot justifiably undertake to guarantee timely and successful completion of the business’s project portfolio. When supplied and armed with the relevant tools to do the job, the project management process then needs to be held accountable for its delivery.

There are many benefits to implementing PPM for example

• Having a standard methodology for starting and managing projects and making them accountable to the business

• Empowering the business with control over project GO/KILL/HOLD/FIX decision making

• Delivering a repeatable process for prioritising, selecting and executing projects

• Getting early warning of any potential problems in meeting programme and project milestones

• Making it easy for different stakeholders to access project information relevant to their strategic interests

• Producing a better understanding of resource utilisation in order to ensure that the right staff are deployed on the right projects

• Calculating the financial impact of cancelling a poor-performing project

• Switching priorities based on organisational needs and redeploying staff quickly based on accurate real-time information

• Reducing project reporting timescales at executive and board level, allowing faster reactions to market and competitive changes and more accurate decision making