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What

Written by Ilya Bogorad on . Posted in Articles. 16 Comments on What

I find it amusing that the two words, “Project Manager”, mean such different things to different executives. After all, with the staggering success and proliferation of the PMI’s PMP designation and the highly projectized workplace of today, arguably, it should be as clear as a description of most organizational roles out there.

Not so! One day I will do a proper write-up on this, but here are the initial thoughts. It seems that there are roughly three categories of perceptions, ranked as per the amount of responsibilities implied:

The Facilitator Project Manager is there to keep the project plan updated, to schedule meetings and take minutes, and to remind people that their deliverables are due.

The Taskmaster Project Manager is there to run the project on a day-to-day basis, to be the person-in-the-know when it comes to anything to do with the project, to make decisions within the limits of the project scope, and to escalate upstairs when necessary.

The Mover and Shaker Project Manager is there to make things happen and the project succeed, with whatever “moving and shaking” is required.

Of the three perceptions, only one, in my mind is accurate, and that is the second. The first is ridiculous yet widespread. The third requires further discussion.

As a consultant, I never take on an assignment without a full understanding of my client’s perception of my role. And, in my view, neither should any project manager, whether in a consulting capacity or full time employee, if personal well-being and the success of the project means anything.

How would you like to be seen and why? I’ll tell you where I stand in the next entry.

 

Ilya Bogorad is the Principal of Bizvortex Consulting Group Inc., a management consulting company located in Mississauga , Canada . His 14-year professional career has been devoted to the field of Information Technology. Before starting Bizvortex, Ilya served as a Director of Application Development and Maintenance at Mytravel, Canada . Prior to that, he lead IT projects, designed business applications and managed complex system implementations in the travel, retail and transportation industries. Ilya can be reached at [email protected].

 

Not Managing Perceptions: The 10th Waste of Project Management

Written by Claude Emond on . Posted in Articles. 12 Comments on Not Managing Perceptions: The 10th Waste of Project Management

“Project Quality Management must address the management of the project and the product of the project”

(p.180, PMBOK, 3rd edition)

In an earlier blog entry, I presented the Nine Wastes of Mismanaged Projects, according to Lean Project Management gurus (Howell, Macomber, Koskela, Bobek). I said then that I saw a 10th waste adversely affecting project success: Not Managing Perceptions. Today, I will briefly explain why I believe that not managing perceptions is a major project waste, and why it has to be taken care of for our projects to be successful.

The sentence from the PMBOK quoted above is one of the most important messages on successful project management. It means that project quality, a strong indicator of project success, does not only depend on the physical characteristics of project deliverables, it also depends on HOW they were delivered. It means that a project is not only a destination, it is also a journey. It means that in matters of quality, BOTH the journey and the destination are important.

The success of a journey is really a matter of perceptions. Perception can be defined as “ an individual’s interpretation of the world and of one’s experiences, this interpretation being coloured by that person’s model of the world and past experiences.” Obviously, unless they are shared, discussed and somewhat managed, individual perceptions of what’s going on during a project will be very different. Perceptions of why we do the project, of what is important, of how well things are going, of project completeness and success, etc. will all differ. The project management community already wonders how to manage risks in the face of individual risk perceptions. But perceptions differ not only with respect to risk issues; they differ with respect to every single project issue. And all project communications can also be plagued by this important factor, or waste, since what is communicated is not the message transmitted but, rather, the message perceived.

If the perceptions of individual project stakeholders are not confronted with facts and, if these facts are not then discussed, shared and interpreted collectively, it is close to impossible to agree, among other things, on the same perception of the project journey or on the same perception of what project termination means. Hence, the stakeholders cannot agree on project quality and ultimately on project success.

In North America, according to the Standish Group1, only one out of three projects (29%) are considered to be successful by the stakeholders; individual perceptions of project success are just not aligned. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, Britain’s Constructing Excellence program2 concludes that, of the projects subjected to the project management approach proposed, 85% are successful; this approach focuses on ensuring better integration of all stakeholders by putting together extended project teams. Are these European projects more successful because they produce better deliverables (the product or the destination of a project)? I don’t believe so! I believe this is because the Constructing Excellence program ensures that project managers also take care of the quality of the management of their projects (the journey); they get all their stakeholders together, they share, they discuss and, ultimately…. they manage perceptions.

1www.projectsmart.co.uk/docs/chaos-report.pdf
2www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/

Full Executive Support for the Project Manager: Is it Close?

Written by Mike Morton on . Posted in Articles. 11 Comments on Full Executive Support for the Project Manager: Is it Close?

Are we any closer to full executive support for the role of the project manager?

The easy answer is yes. The tougher answer is… it depends. Typical.

I think that the position of the project manager within today’s organization has certainly improved. The project manager is an indispensable commodity within most systems departments out there today. No senior executive who is in touch with the IT division could ever suggest otherwise. Mess with this role and you will seriously jeopardize the success of your IT projects. I cannot imagine any executive today not getting this. So yes, this is big improvement from just three to five years ago.

Let’s put aside the non-IT sectors that have understood the importance of project management from the beginning of time: construction, engineering, aerospace to name a few.

For other areas of our business, the jury is still out! I believe the role of the project manager is crucial outside of IT, but this is where the value and applicability of the role of the PM is still being debated.

Time will tell but for the moment these PMOs and individual project managers are still working under a threat of death. Many out there feel some of these other projects do not need a full time professional PM and thus the level of executive support we are talking about is questionable.

But as with IT, this too will change. As project managers get involved in larger, more mission critical projects outside of IT, their value to the organization will grow. And remember, the new CEO, CIO and other C-levels typically GET project management. Look closely and you will notice that some of them even have a PMP beside their names. This will help!

 

David Barrett is publisher of Project Times, Conference Director, ProjectWorld and BusinessAnalystWorld, and Program Director of The Masters Certificate in Project Management, Schulich Executive Education Centre.

Looking for Inspiration in 2008

Written by Cynthia Low on . Posted in Articles. 11 Comments on Looking for Inspiration in 2008

Editor’s Comments

Isn’t it the way of the world that we’re always looking for inspiration, that unexpected thought that seems to come like a bolt from the blue. In 10 Ways to Inspire Your Team, Michelle LaBrosse says that Inspiration comes, not from vision and mission statements, but from example and gives some practical primers on how you can inspire your team.

At some time, you’ve probably asked yourself or been asked by others, “what is a project management office? And, depending on the organization, it could mean many different things. Ian Gittens knows that the PMO can have many different titles, with many different functions. In Creating a Successful Project Management Office, he examines the different roles and expectations that term project management office conjures up.

We have a new blogger this month, Ilya Bogorad, who joins David Barrett and Claude Emond with their views on many of the changing issues in our business. We hope you find their comments interesting and food for thought. Also, take a look at our Forums and add your comments to those we’ve received already.

Finally, it remains to wish everybody a successful, prosperous and happy 2008 and to say we hope that this issue of Project Times will inspire you to keep coming back.

Creating a Successful Project Management Office

Written by Cynthia Low on . Posted in Articles. 7 Comments on Creating a Successful Project Management Office

What is a Project Management Office?

The Project Management Institute (PMI) states that a Project Office may operate on a continuum from providing support functions to project managers in the form of training, software, templates, etc., to actually being responsible for the results of projects. Project Management Office (PMO) is one name used for this business function. Other names include:

  • Project Office (PO), 
  • Project Control Office (PCO), 
  • Central Project Office (CPO), and 
  • Project Support Office (PSO).

Depending on the organization, the role of the PMO might be to provide an infrastructure for centralized status and budget reporting, providing training and mentoring in project management best practices, creation of methodology templates for use by project managers, and / or completion of projects from inception to benefits realization.

Creating a Successful PMO

ust like building a house, to create a successful PMO, a solid foundation is required. One of the key building blocks for establishing and maintaining a viable PMO is continued executive support. All the templates and methodology in the world will not help you if you can’t get the main sponsors to realize the benefits of a PMO. With this support in place, the PMO can begin to initiate change in the organization.

The next big hurdle is to communicate the PMO mandate beyond the executives. The ability to provide business value and having a clear mandate are two ways to ensure the organization at large understands the importance of the PMO objective. Once this is demonstrated business departments should understand and appreciate what the PMO brings to the table.

Another hurdle to overcome, is removing the control stigma from the PMO. People often associate a PMO with the gathering of status data and providing methodology templates. In some organizations the PMO fulfills an internal audit role for status and budget tracking, this is not an appropriate use of PMO resources. In order to provide the most benefits to the organization, the PMO should be providing the methodology used to measure project manager performance. The actual measurement should be conducted by the organization’s internal audit department, and should not be part of the PMO mandate.

To ensure your PMO is providing value to the organization and the business departments it services, it’s also important to complete projects from inception to benefits realization. Too many PMO departments are guilty of providing only administrative and support functions for project managers. When the budget belt needs to be tightened, if the PMO has demonstrated its value to the organization by completing strategic high- risk projects, it should withstand any organizational restructuring.

One of the PMO responsibilities is to develop the organization’s project methodology, including the project templates. The true measure of a good PMO is whether it can “eat its own cooking”, actually using the templates it creates in PMO managed projects. This way the PMO can get a first hand account of how useful its tools and methodologies are to the organization, and how they can be improved.

The measurement of the benefits realized per project, and how those benefits align to the organization’s strategic objectives, is an important contribution the PMO can make. The focus here is on portfolio management. Do the completed projects contribute to the bottom line? Project benefits should be aligned to the organization’s strategic goals. PMO portfolio management provides the mechanism for evaluation of the overall portfolio health. This will be a key input to executive project prioritization decision- making.

With this foundation in place, a successful PMO can be established and can play a key role in building a successful organization.

Ian Gittens, PMP, is a senior consultant with SPM Group Ltd. specializing in project fulfillment, methodology development, project portfolio management, business process reengineering, change enablement, and the development and implementation of project management infrastructure. Ian has 20 years’ experience in project management, business analysis, and application development, supporting multiple customers such as financial institutions, third party logistics providers, distribution organizations, high-tech manufacturers and retail organizations from APAC, EMEA and the Americas. His past responsibilities have included program management of regulatory and compliance initiatives and enterprise resource planning technology implementations for various business verticals. Ian can be reached at [email protected], or 416-485-1584 X 243