Skip to main content

Author: Andrew Miller

Project Management is not Rocket Science

Written by Andrew Miller on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Project Management is not Rocket Science

I am going to let you all in on a little secret

  1. Manage Project Cash Flows
    Identify and estimate when cash from the project will need to go out (paying suppliers, consultants, contractors, etc.) and when cash from the project will be coming in (government or organizational funding, savings, etc.). I am not advocating a complex financial analysis, but by having a monthly cash flow statement for the project, you will be able to better manage the ebbs and flows of the project budget.
  2. Collaborate with Suppliers
    Not enough projects or companies do this well. You have spent a great deal of time negotiating contracts with suppliers, so now you need to manage those contracts and suppliers. Hold them accountable for what was promised and look for other ways to collaborate with them to create mutually beneficial situations. This can be simply done through regular performance meetings with those suppliers providing goods or services to your project.
  3. Integrate Systems and Processes
    Different organizations use different systems and project management methodologies. Ensure that they are all integrated….your change control process should be integrated with the process to changing the contract; the tool you use to manage the project plan should be integrated with your budget. These are all logical links that need to be in place to reduce non-value added activities for you and your team.
  4. Develop and Retain Your Talent
    Sounds easy, but it is very difficult to do because it is thought to be a soft skill. Find opportunities for members of your project team to take on additional responsibilities and show what they can do. Who knows, maybe they can take some work off your plate. Keep them motivated and engaged and you will be surprised at what some people can do. Take time out to provide feedback on their performance, including what they do well and areas where they can develop. A big part of your job as project manager is communication.

Of course, there can be many other things to focus on, but these are four simple ones that can be addressed quickly and easily. If you are not doing all four of these, you should be. If you are already doing them, then kudos to you.

Budgeting: What Is It Good For?

Written by Andrew Miller on . Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Budgeting: What Is It Good For?

Absolutely nothing, say it again …(sung to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “War”). I am, of course, being somewhat facetious when I say that budgeting is not good for anything. It is good for a lot of things …giving a comfort level on potential costs, ensuring funds are allocated to pay for projects, etc. Those are all good things.

My biggest concern with budgeting is that, no matter how much time is spent on it, someone will always come along and change it. Have you ever been on a project where you and your team put a budget together estimating the costs of the project, only to have someone (usually an executive) come in and say “too expensive, make it cost less”? I am sure that most of us have.

So what do you do at that point? Do you stand firm on the estimates? Do you push back and say that it cannot be done for less? Do you lower the estimates to appease the executive? It is a tough position. If your estimates are good, you need to do a little of everything. If you are going to lower the estimates to hit a target number, then your identified project risk should go up correspondingly. If I lower my budget by 10%, my risk of not having enough funding goes up by at least that much.

The way I approach these situations is standing firm on the initial estimates, but also identifying areas where there may be an opportunity to reduce the actual costs, going forward. There may be opportunities to farm out all the IT work to one organization, thereby achieving economies of scale. There may be opportunities to bring in contractors for three months to do the work instead of hiring a full-time employee. There may be opportunities to reduce the annual operating costs. These are the types of opportunities that we, as project managers, need to identify.

I have seen many a project fail by arbitrarily lowering budgets to meet a targeted number. I have never seen a project where those arbitrarily lowered budgets were met. I would submit that the actual costs often end up being more than even the initial budget because of having to duplicate work or re-address issues that were not solved properly in the first place. There is a happy medium for budgeting, somewhere between too high and too low. As a PM, it is your job to ensure that happy medium is found.

 

Andrew Miller is President of ACM Consulting Inc. (www.acmconsulting.ca), a company that provides supply chain and project management solutions. Andrew is PMP certified and has led a variety of clients through complex systems implementations and organizational changes. He is an Instructor of the Procurement and Contracting course, part of the Masters Certificate in Project Management program through the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre (SEEC) in Toronto. Andrew has an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business with majors in Logistics and Marketing. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

Why Project Measurements are a Waste of Time

Written by Andrew Miller on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on Why Project Measurements are a Waste of Time

Everyone! Take 30 seconds and think about all the different measurements that one can use to evaluate a project’s success or failure. Here are a few to help you out: percentage complete; total budget savings; earned value; achievement of milestone dates; all requirements met; number of sites implemented; number of people trained; increased compliance, etc.

What do they all mean? Squat. Diddly. Zero. How can any of these measurements tell you whether or not the project is being run successfully? They cannot because you have nothing to compare against. It sounds like a great success story to say that 250 people were trained or that the program was rolled out to 50 sites, but what if there were actually 500 people that needed to be trained or the program needed to be rolled out to 100 sites. Makes a successful project look a lot worse doesn’t it?

This is the part where everyone is supposed to say that we need measurements in order to track progress and the success of the project. Why? Why do I need to track the hours it takes to perform every task? Should it matter that it was completed successfully or that it took 7.5 hours to complete? Why is that the measure of success? Ahhhh, right – BUDGETING. (I will save this topic for next month)

Now you say, well Andrew, if you are so smart and do not need these measurements, what do you use? I do use measurements, but in a typical PM scenario, you have no control over most of the decisions, so make sure the measurements do not reflect poorly on the project, when the project has no control over the decisions. Just because an organization decides to make a bad decision or a vendor decides to play hardball, why should the PM be penalized by missing deadlines? Then the project becomes “red” (oh no, not red!!!).

I prefer to look at what objectives the project is tracking against. What does success look like for the project sponsor? What will be the impact on the organization? These are questions that we as PMs should want to know, since we are responsible for the “successful” completion of the project.

Should the objective be to implement a new system at five sites in six months; or to provide access to technology for users at five sites that will reduce their administrative processing time by 25%, thus making them available for more value added activities?

You be the judge!

 

Andrew Miller is President of ACM Consulting Inc. (www.acmconsulting.ca), a company that provides supply chain and project management solutions. Andrew is PMP certified and has led a variety of clients through complex systems implementations and organizational changes. He is an Instructor of the Procurement and Contracting course, part of the Masters Certificate in Project Management program through the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre (SEEC) in Toronto. Andrew has an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business with majors in Logistics and Marketing. He can be reached at [email protected].

 

Managing Someone Else

Written by Andrew Miller on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on Managing Someone Else

How many of us have been brought on to manage a project where the contract for the product or service was signed just before we started? Many of us, I imagine. And how much fun is it to review the contract on your first day and realize what your client or organization has agreed to? Then it is even more fun once you realize that, as the PM, you will be responsible for managing that contract. Happy days are here to stay!!!

Well, not really. It puts the PM in quite the dilemma. Once you have reviewed the contract and other documents to “get you up to speed,” if you spot a shortcoming, what do you do? No one wants to be the person identifying problems in their first week on the project …but that is our obligation. If you realize that the scope of the contract is lacking in certain details, that issue must be raised. If you think that the timelines that were agreed to are not realistic based on the budget, then that issue must be addressed. Not having been involved in the initial negotiations and development of the statement (or scope) or work, you are left to clean up the mess. But we love to clean up the mess, don’t we? That’s why we became project managers, right? Sure, we love to assign and manage tasks and budgets; we love to see progress and work being done; we love giving status reports but, in the end, don’t we really just love to solve problems? I know I do. But I digress…back to the contract thing.

My advice is that if you are brought on to manage a project, one of the first things you should do is read the contract (if there is one). You need to understand what has been promised, what is expected to be delivered, any penalties or incentives that are included, any service levels, etc. You also need to ensure that any concerns are brought to your project sponsor as soon as possible. My motto is that I would rather take a few bullets up front to toughen me up: but give me a chance to heal before the next set of bullets gets fired. Taking too many at once is bad for your health.

The moral of the story is…clients and companies, please, please, please include the PM in the contract negotiations, even as an innocent bystander. At least then they will have insight as to the motivations for some of the deliverables and service levels.

Also, when firing, please use rubber bullets. They hurt less!

 

Andrew Miller is President of ACM Consulting Inc. (www.acmconsulting.ca), a company that provides supply chain and project management solutions. Andrew is PMP certified and has led a variety of clients through complex systems implementations and organizational changes. He is an Instructor of the Procurement and Contracting course, part of the Masters Certificate in Project Management program through the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre (SEEC) in Toronto. Andrew has an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business with majors in Logistics and Marketing. He can be reached at [email protected].

How to Describe a Great Steering Committee in One Word: Accountability

Written by Andrew Miller on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on How to Describe a Great Steering Committee in One Word: Accountability

Andrew Miller’s Monthly Blog

I am sure that we have all been on projects that have reported to Steering Committees, probably most of us on more than one project like that. So what makes a good steering committee? Firstly, we need to remember the purpose of a steering committee. It is not to provide operational support; it is not to provide daily advice. It is to provide strategic direction for the project and the organization, and to act as an escalation point for decision-making.

Of course, the make-up of the steering committee is important. You want a solid mix of Finance, HR and Operations, complementary personalities, and a strong chair. It is also important to ensure that there is an even make-up of representatives, if the project encompasses multiple organizations. It is even important that the steering committee meet regularly. However, it is most important that the steering committee has accountability for the success of the project. This does not mean that they are responsible for tracking the daily progress of the project, but it does mean that they will do whatever they can to support and ensure its success.

How can we ensure steering committee accountability? Firstly, we need to ensure that the steering committee has a direct line to the project team, so that information is passed accurately back and forth. I think it is imperative that your project manager be a member of the steering committee in order to hear the discussions and decision-making process, and to take that back to the daily management of the project. It will make it that much easier for the PM to make the steering committee’s vision come true. Secondly, steering committee members should have something for which they are responsible. That can be in the form of a particular area of the project (finance, operations, HR, etc.) or it can be a particular phase of the project. This responsibility ensures two things: that most of the major project ideas are reviewed by a steering committee member before being presented to the other members; and that the Steering Committee member update his or her peers, giving the ideas and the updates immediate credibility.

I realize that this adds workload onto people who are already busy enough, but it is a sure way to increase the likelihood of success on a project.

 

Andrew Miller is President of ACM Consulting Inc. (www.acmconsulting.ca), a company that provides supply chain and project management solutions. Andrew is PMP certified and has led a variety of clients through complex systems implementations and organizational changes. He is an Instructor of the Procurement and Contracting course, part of the Masters Certificate in Project Management program through the Schulich School of Business Executive Education Centre (SEEC) in Toronto. Andrew has an International MBA from the Schulich School of Business with majors in Logistics and Marketing. He can be reached at [email protected].