Skip to main content

Tag: BPM

Shaking Things Up is Easy

Shaking Things Up is Easy. Getting them to come down right is the challenge.

Recent events reminded me of the classic story, The Three Envelopes:

A large complex public facing program was not meeting expectations. The program was impacting client and senior executive lives because the organization was not meeting expected service levels, target dates, and budget. Issue were making it to the news. Public advocacy groups and internal and external auditors, each with its own agenda, were adding their input into the mix.
Executives at the most senior levels were compelled to do something. They fired the program manager.
The old program manager gave his successor, three sequentially numbered envelopes, saying, “When you need advice about how to handle a highly critical point in the program open the next envelope.”
The new program manager took command and immediately faced the question of what to do now. She opened the first envelope. The note inside said “Blame your predecessor.” “Wow!” she thought, “That will give me time to adjust things and get the program on track. It will also make me look smarter than him.”
Time passed. At first, things seemed like they were getting better. But, after awhile the same old issues began to reappear. Under pressure to do something, the new program manager thought this was the right time to open the second envelope. The second note said “Reorganize.”
“Great idea.” she thought. She went ahead and changed communication lines, roles and responsibilities. Again, things seemed to get better. There was lots more communication and activity in adjusting to new relationships. Tactical procedures were improved. Productivity went up.
A few months went by and, once again, the same old issues reappeared. With increasing anxiety, the PM reached for the third envelope. Its message was “Make three envelopes.”

The message here is that unless you do something to address the causes of problems the problems will not go away. Firing and reorganizing send up a smoke screen that obscures the real problems temporarily. The sacrificial lamb is given up, appeasing the gods or public. The reorganization addresses short term tactical issues.

This message applies to work efforts of all kinds, ranging from projects to programs to ongoing operational activities and organizations.

Something Has to Be Done

When things are not going as well as they should be going, when those in power perceive that there is dysfunction, the desire for change leads to action. “Something has to be done.” When the action is well thought out, particularly with regard to a systems perspective, cause removal and long term effects, we get improvement and approach optimal performance.

When the action is reactive and shortsighted the impulse to make things better often makes things worse. Replacing leadership and reorganizing can be effective means for making positive change. They shake things up. Or, they can be smoke screens to avoid having to look at serious systemic problems.

Sometimes the change makers are not aware of the systemic problems and sometimes, even though they are aware, they are unwilling to acknowledge and address them.

Systemic Problems – Organizations as Systems

Systemic problems are issues in the overall environment (the system) that effect performance. Organizations are complex systems made up of functional units that are woven together by communications and cross functional processes to achieve objectives that require the integration of the functions.

For example, performance relies on the work of procurement, human resource, IT and finance departments, executives and policy makers.

If the procurement process is dysfunctional, then vendor relations suffer. The symptoms of poor performance will appear as problems in programs, projects and operational activities.

If the hiring process is dysfunctional, the right resources will not be available at the right time, schedules and service levels will be disrupted, quality will suffer.

If policies and procedures create unnecessary bureaucracies the dysfunction will appear as performance shortfalls.


Advertisement
[widget id=”custom_html-68″]

Operational Activities and Enablers

Operational activities are where the rubber meets the road. They are the core business functions that meet the organization’s objectives by delivering products and services to clients. These are the functions that serve, manufacture and transport. Projects, programs and support activities are enablers. They enable the core activities to do their work optimally.

There is dysfunction when the enablers lose track of the fact that they are internal service providers whose clients are the core business functions and whose job is to make life as easy as possible for the people who are facing the organization’s public and providing the products and services that satisfy their needs. When there is little or no feedback regarding enabler performance and its impact on core functionality performance, the dysfunction persists and usually becomes worse.

Identifying, exploring and resolving systemic problems is threatening. It is complicated. it is costly. It is the way to make meaningful change.

One way to promote systemic change is to disrupt the current state – to shake things up.

Shaking Things Up the Right Way

Dysfunction calls out to be corrected, particularly when it is felt by clients and senior executives. Leadership changes and reorganizations shake things up. If they are part of a longer-term strategy to address the real issues they are powerful tactics. If, on the other hand, they are reactions and attempts at a quick fix – make three envelopes.

Shaking things up is often necessary in organizations or projects that have gotten bogged down into a habitual way of operating. By removing the structures and mindsets that have gotten in the way of progressive change, there can be an opening, an opportunity for thinking and acting out of the box, creatively. Where there is progressive change as part of normal operations, radical change will often be unnecessary.

The opening into an uncharted territory can be scary, particularly for those who do not do well with uncertainty and those who are invested in the old way. Those who hold on will be dragged down, those who direct and go with the flow will become more successful as things find a new stable and hopefully more effective state.

The change agents who use shake-ups as a tactic in a strategic change program recognize that communication to calm the anxieties of those who will be affected by the change is a critical factor. It is not necessary to know and tell everyone what the outcome will look like. That would be great, if you knew the nature of the future state. It is necessary to tell everyone what is going on and what to expect, even if it means informing them that the future plan is evolving. Rumors fly, and the imagination creates scenarios that get in the way of current performance and progress.

If you shake things up,

  • Make sure the shakeup addresses systemic issues
  • Engage the right people and make use of multiple perspectives
  • Formulate and communicate a strategic goal.
  • Acknowledge that while change can be directed its outcome is not always predictable. Be ready, willing and able to adapt over time
  • Be sensitive to the needs of the people involved. Manage uncertainty, expectations and complexity
  • Do not jeopardize the performance of the organization’s critical activities while the change is underway.

3 Most Common Mistakes to Avoid in Managing Multiple Projects

Ever found yourself in a state where you are managing multiple projects? If you compare your situation today from about three to five years ago, the chances are that you will see more projects on your plate that need to get done.

A project can be anything, from designing a coffee machine for your client to remodeling their workspaces or even to studying ocean currents. The bottom line is that project management is an integral part of every business today. And, when you are handling multiple projects, it means more than just dealing with multiple project schedules. With multiple projects come in multiple teams, multiple stakeholders, multiple scopes, multiple change requests, multiple budgets, multiple issues, and risks, even possibly multiple clients. All of this becomes an entirely different ball game and managing it may seem a tough nut to crack, even for the most seasoned project and program managers. Even though you may already be using a project management software, you must always steer clear of these three common mistakes that could affect and potentially jeopardize your projects.

Not Setting Project Goals Upfront

Projects, by definition, are meant to achieve specific goals and objectives. By defining clear and precise goals and objectives for your projects, your teams can focus solely on those goals and outcomes. If the goals are unclear, it can quickly turn your formal project management process into an uncontrollable juggernaut of chaos coming in the form of scope creep, unrealistic expectations from stakeholders, dried up cash flows and all that jazz. Goal setting is a vital component for projects’ success. Yet, when multiple projects come in, managers often seem to take a shortcut and overlook this crucial process of goal setting that can potentially prevent and solve so many problems down the line. Setting project goals upfront help you in the following areas:

  • Understanding why you are doing this project and aligning it to business strategy and plan.
  • Understanding the deliverables that the management or client is expecting from the project.
  • Establishing clear criteria for success (or failure).
  • Identifying conflicting objectives, outcomes or expectations from multiple projects.
  • Identifying resources and capabilities at the beginning.

Asking the right questions at the onset of a project will help you identify meaningful project goals and objectives, which in turn help manage multiple projects successfully.


Advertisement
[widget id=”custom_html-68″]

Not Prioritizing Projects

Manage your priorities, not your time. This quote frequently appears in many productivity and time management blogs. One of the most commonly heard complaints from project managers is that they are struggling with deadlines. The reason being too many times we see teams working on a project that is a lower priority while a higher visibility project starts to slip. This happens when project priorities are not clearly communicated to all stakeholders. When you are managing multiple projects, you often have cross-functional teams working on several tasks across these projects at the same time. If you don’t know what your priorities are, you will end up spending their precious time on useless activities causing important milestones to be missed and deadlines not be met. According to the Pareto Principle, 20% of a project’s input is responsible for 80% of its results. Use this principle as a way to prioritize your efforts. The art of prioritization comes a long way in gaining clarity about which tasks should be assigned to whom thereby help save a lot of hassle and headache.

Forgetting that it’s all about People Management

We live in a world which is increasingly being driven by automation, tools, and data. With organizations investing in advanced project management tools and globalization driving a need for collaboration, the people side of project management does tend to get ignored more often than not. Often while managing multiple projects, project managers tend to get bogged down by the scope, costs, quality, and timelines, and forget about the people who are actually doing the work. This results in either failing to properly manage your team members, or worst, micromanaging them. While it may be tempting to control as many things as possible or trying to do everything yourself, it is actually bad for your team’s morale. Project management is all about people management first. It is the people who help deliver on your project objectives and outcomes. An efficient project manager is, therefore, an enabler. Communication becomes even more crucial while managing multiple projects. You need to make sure that you clearly communicate the roles and responsibilities, and everyone understands how and why their part is vital to the success of the projects and also schedule time for periodic check-ins.

Though managing multiple projects may scare you off at first, you can easily overcome it by avoiding these common mistakes and steering your projects to success.

Artificial intelligence in project management: silly or sensible?

Every company has projects that need managing and monitoring.

Every day, project managers are faced with difficult decisions, repetitive tasks, and complex analysis. Is artificial intelligence (AI) the assistant that project managers need?

AI is already entering our workplaces. It’s supporting support desks, chatting with customers, and taking on the boring tasks we don’t want to do. But as of yet, AI and project management have been slow to intermix. This could be set to change – and soon.

Here, Howard Williams, marketing director of automation expert Parker Software, explores the concerns, excitement, abilities and potential future of AI in product management.

AI project managers?

Before anything else, AI cannot fully replace human project managers. Project management demands a level of human relationships and flexibility that AI tools are unable to deliver.

For example, project managers need to be able to negotiate and compromise on resources and the ways they’re used. They need good communications skills, and the emotional understanding to not only inspire their teams but resolve conflicts and problems as they arise.

AI is not currently capable of any of these things. However, while AI is not suitable to work as a project manager itself, there are many skills and processes in project management that AI can assist with.

How can AI be applied to project management?

There are several areas of project management that AI can support and streamline.

  • Repetitive tasks

AI and automation shine at the boring administrative tasks that weigh project managers down — data entry and management, preparing project schedules, and so on. These tasks can be completed automatically. This takes some of the weight off project managers, who can focus attention on more challenging tasks.

  • Complex analysis

Artificial intelligence can also assist in complex analysis. It can draw on substantially more data than a human manager could reasonably do alone. For example, using AI can help to make performing value and risk analysis a less arduous and time-consuming task for human employees.

  • Difficult decisions

Advertisement
[widget id=”custom_html-68″]

With this ability to assist project managers with in-depth data analysis, AI can help project managers make difficult decisions. In some cases, it can even make the decision for the project manager to approve.

For example, using its knowledge and data about KPIs, AI can develop an understanding of project performance. Then it can use this insight to make recommendations and help project managers decide who to make the leader of a task.

Cause for concern?

So, AI can assist in project management, but does that mean it should? There are some cons to a hasty implementation of AI in project management.

  • Current AI tools rely on people to initially input data correctly.

Unfortunately, humans are prone to making the occasional error. When that error is included in the data that AI uses, it can cause a myriad of problems. When data is incorrectly entered or recorded, AI tools aren’t yet able to notice.

  • AI is prone to be misused.

It can be tempting to automate everything that can be automated — even when it’s better to leave some of those jobs to humans. AI can recognize a drop-in performance from Bill, for example, but the automated message it sends alerting him is unlikely to solve the underlying problem. The human touch is needed for that. It’s important to find the right balance between human and AI.

Cause for excitement?

Concerns around AI are avoidable, and there are benefits to be reaped by the careful use of AI to support project managers.

We will soon see AI emerging that can make good enough assumptions about missing data to fill in any blanks accurately, and create new layers of metadata to boot. This is particularly exciting as it will enable AI to overcome data input issues, allowing it to really understand the state of a project and provide meaningful advice.

AI can also encourage better practice among teams. Excitement surrounds the amount of time and resources claimed back by using AI tools. More time can be spent being creative and supporting clients and staff, rather than on administrative responsibilities. Project managers will benefit from the weight of repetitive tasks and intense analysis being lifted from their shoulders.

Future of AI in project management

Looking to the future, AI stands to evolve both technically and socially — meaning that it will be able to fit into supporting project managers even more.

Technical evolution will see AI tools move from their niche focuses on a project to cover much wider functionality. The next generation of AI will expand on its current understanding of projects and the team members working on it. As such, it’ll grow more capable of providing real, actionable indicators of a team and project performance. And it doesn’t stop there, the subsequent generation to that will bring about the use of metadata — a complex analysis of data — to deliver meaningful advice to improve project performance.

Social evolution, meanwhile, involves the way that the perception of AI will evolve. Currently, some people consider AI in project management to be the promise of the future, while others are skeptical of its impacts on the workplace. Ultimately, however, as we see more and more businesses take the plunge into AI and reap the benefits of artificial intelligence, AI is set to become commonplace in the coming years.

If the right tool is chosen and implemented correctly, capitalizing on AI or even business automation is inevitable, as time and resources can be reclaimed for other uses. Projects that take advantage of AI will see a team move at light speed compared with teams who haven’t adapted.

Conclusion

The face of project management is another job area that’s changing thanks to AI. The capabilities of AI have great potential to step project management up a gear.

AI assistants can assist project managers in a variety of tasks, from developing a list of project concerns to determining team training needs. They can aid faster, smarter business decisions and take away day-to-day administration — leaving human project managers free to be more agile, responsive and analytical.

The bottom line is: be excited about AI in project management, be open to it, and do not fear it.

Is your business analyst failing your project?

Analysts are ambidextrous while dealing with business and IT for a successful project delivery.

This ability makes analyst a catalyst for achieving business process efficiency. What’s the secret ingredient for an analyst to be the most important piece of this puzzle?

With an ever changing IT landscape, business leverages IT to manage and optimize operations, thereby reducing the cost. IT provides a comprehensive solution to an identified business problem which helps streamline business processes and achieve desired cost reductions. With a right team, tools, techniques, resources and solution, IT can deliver marvelous results. Business analyst ensures the right alignment of business with IT to assure an intended delivery.

Oftentimes, the solution achieved is not the intended one. As a result, the solution has to be re-designed to fit the original or an existing business problem which incurs supplementary cost. Ultimately, the business won’t achieve the proposed cost reduction. This failure of not being able to deliver the envisioned solution starts a blame game between business and IT.

More often than not, the root cause of this problem is simple. Either the information was not processed right or the right information wasn’t processed. Who takes the ownership of processing information? Is this a responsibility of project manager or a business sponsor? The answer lies in the very basic principle of software development life cycle methodology. Most information processing happens during the requirements phase and the role responsible for it is a business analyst.

A business analyst is the person who not only understands the proposed solution to a business problem, but also identifies the scope and purpose of it. This enables a business analyst to identify and define the right requirements of the solution being implemented and then translates those requirements in an executable technical language. This is where the glitch happens.

In most cases, analyst translates a request/need into a functional requirement which tends to deviate from the solution holistically. Their inability to see a situation from an enterprise perspective wanes out their effort. In turn, they fail to gather the right information and process it right, which leads to undesired end state. This isn’t just a problem of requirement gathering and processing it, but also about sharing it. Not all information is being shared correctly with the right person at the right time. As a result, interpretation of the requirement changes from person to person, situation to situation and time to time.


Advertisement
[widget id=”custom_html-68″]

Business analysts can make or break a project with their ability to understand the request. If they make sure that the information they receive and share is correct, sufficient and relevant, projects can adhere to the intended delivery path, schedule and budget.
Business analyst being the bridge between business and IT, the most critical building component of the bridge is an ability to process the right information right. This skill set can be achieved with a combination of subject knowledge, domain experience and the right communication technique.

There are four major ways in which a business analyst can ensure that the right information is being processed in the right way.

1. Understand solution holistically

Analysts need to identify a business problem and understand the solution and its alternatives. They should examine the solution fit, perform impact analysis and ask relevant questions to the stakeholders and capture the information.

2. Requirements walk-through is a blessing

Once the analyst is confident of having gathered all the information required, it then needs to be mapped to the solution requirements. Once the requirements are authored, analysts need to set up a walk-through session with both business and IT to get their sign-offs on the expected delivery requirements which ensures that the requirements adhere to the project scope and the proposed solution.

3. Hand over the changes in a timely manner

Business is ever-changing and so is the business problem. As a result, project scope needs adjustment every now and then. Therefore, the solution has to adopt new changes coming in. These changes are disrupting agent for a successful and timely project delivery. Business analysts should always retrofit such unaccounted changes in the requirements. Pass on these changes as per the priority, either in the form of an emergency change request or as a post-delivery clean up item.

4. Use the kill switch when required

Not all requests or changes can be entertained. Some of them are just the noise. Business analysts should have an eye to identify the noise and be a gatekeeper. Use the kill switch when required. Don’t let the requirements fall prey to such noise. In worst cases, escalation is the right approach.

These steps won’t just let you be good at business analysis but will also ensure value addition to the overall project. I personally consider that a business analyst is not only a binding agent, but also a catalyst for the project. If you believe that my observation and experience needs maturity and learning, I’m glad to hear your observation, findings and stories.

With a strong belief that open minded people embrace being wrong, are free of illusions, don’t mind what people think of them, and question everything even themselves, I urge you to share your expertise.

OUTSIDE THE BOX Forum: Mastering the 10 Challenges to Agile Portfolio Management

Agile projects are those whose goal and or solution are not clearly defined. These projects dominate the project landscape.

Usually some agile or extreme model is used to manage them. They are high risk, high change and their outcomes are not at all certain. Managing portfolios of these projects is very complex and will challenge even the most experienced among us. In priority order the major challenges are:

  1. Organizational support
  2. Project governance
  3. Measuring performance
  4. Meaningfully involving clients
  5. Structuring the project team
  6. Estimating business value
  7. Eliciting requirements
  8. Scheduling constrained resources
  9. Improving process design
  10. Improving product design

This article describes each challenge and offers strategies for dealing with each one.

ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

Organizational support extends from the very highest management levels in the organization all the way down to the project sponsor and the management team to whom the project manager reports. A Project Support Office (PSO) should be in place to offer not only the vetted processes and practices that are needed in an agile environment but also the training and consulting support that a complex project manager and team might require in the discharge of their responsibilities.

PROJECT GOVERNANCE

Complex projects are high risk projects. To mitigate some of that risk decisions should be made as close as possible to the expertise for making those decisions. That responsibility should be assigned to the team. But not just any team. The only decisions that should be made above the team level would be those decisions to adjust priorities, postpone the project or terminate the project.

MEASURING PERFORMANCE

The one common thread that links all projects is the business value that each expects to bring to the client and the organization. Business value would have been the deliverable that was used to approve the complex project and its plan. That might seem like the problem has been solved. Don’t be too quick to judge however. There is much yet to be done. Project performance is the variable that we will use to compare each project, program and portfolio in the enterprise portfolio. That comparison will be used to decide project status for the coming iteration. So we have to include not only past performance but also the prospect for future performance.

MEANINGFULLY INVOLVING CLIENTS

In the traditional project world clients were involved at the requirements elicitation phase and after that only for status reporting and deliverables approval. In the complex project world that is no longer effective. In its place the client must be meaningfully involved even to the extent that they will have management and decision making authority as members of the project team. They are the product experts and will have responsibility for managing the deliverables. The process expert on the team is the traditional project manager. They and the product manager have co-equal management responsibilities for the project.


Advertisement
[widget id=”custom_html-68″]

STRUCTURING THE PROJECT TEAM

To be most effective a complex project team should count among its members those who possess all of the skills and competencies needed to succeed. That includes the decision making needs of the project. The project team template is shown in Figure 1.

wysocki 111317b

Figure 1 ECPM Project Team Template

For a detailed discussion on the Co-Manager Model see Strengthening Client Involvement in the PRINCE2 Process Using the ECPM Co-Manager Model, (PM Times Oct 24, 2015 and PM Times October 28, 2015).

ESTIMATING BUSINESS VALUE

Every project is approved based on the business value it is expected to deliver. In the complex project world the solution is usually not completely known at the outset and must be discovered through iteration. That makes the expected business value that will be delivered very difficult to estimate. As iterations proceed the estimated business value may be different than the expected business value of an acceptable solution. The estimated business value that a project will deliver is often the primary factor underlying approval of the project business case. In a complex project that is seldom more than a best guess. As the project work commences and the solution begins to take shape that estimate is revised. It can change and so can the priority of the project.

ELICITING REQUIREMENTS

In the complex project world it may not be possible to elicit complete and clearly defined requirements. This step is designed into the ECPM Framework. The design is a two-step process that totally eliminates the current problem of incomplete requirements. The first step is a high-level identification of the set of necessary and sufficient requirements for achieving the expected business value delivered by an acceptable solution. How these requirements will be met is left to the second step. The second step is relegated to the iterations and stages of the framework. For details see A Fresh Look at Requirements and Requirements Elicitation in Complex Projects (PM Times, July 28, 2014)

SCHEDULING RESOURCES

If all active complex projects are identified within a portfolio the problems associated with resource scheduling are somewhat reduced. Unfortunately that situation rarely exists. Instead a number of projects that are defined and staffed within a single business unit are not part of any portfolio. While that may be true of a project it isn’t necessarily true of the resources that staff these “below the radar” projects.

IMPROVING PROCESS DESIGN

Complex projects don’t seem to follow any predictable process. Each project presents the team with a unique set of circumstances and challenges them to respond accordingly. That is why the ECPM Framework includes a continuous process and product improvement program. Figure 2 is the continuous process improvement program that has been integrated into the ECPM Framework.

wysocki 111317a

Figure 2: The ECPM Framework continuous process improvement process

In time the organization will build a comprehensive collection of responses.

IMPROVING PRODUCT DESIGN

Figure 1 has also been integrated into the ECPM Framework but adapted to product improvement rather than process improvement. The Probative and Integrative Swim Lane process is the heart of that product improvement effort. It is unique to the ECPM Framework and will not be found in any other project management process.

IN SUMMARY

The ECPM Framework was designed with these challenges in mind. Most of the challenges are mitigated through ECPM Framework design features (Project governance, Measuring performance, Meaningfully involving clients, Structuring the project team, Eliciting requirements,

Scheduling constrained resources, Improving process design, Improving product design). Others are mitigated through the execution of the complex project.

How all of this happens requires a book length discussion and is out of scope for this article.