Tag: Career

A recent failure of a 60$M telecom project invites the question of why?  The answer:  poor leadership.

But this answer is too general.  It doesn’t really help us understand what we can do as project leaders to increase the likelihood our projects are successful.

If we consider problems found to be common to projects we might find ways to proactively address those problems before trouble begins to surface: 

• The project objectives and scope are unclear
• Estimates for time and cost goals are unreliable or unrealistic
• Changing business needs or technology impact the project
• People working on the project are incompetent or unmotivated
• There are poor conflict-management procedures
• Communications are poor
• Suppliers are not delivering as promised
• The project sponsor or senior managers are not very supportive of the project
• The project manager is inexperienced in managing people, working in a particular organization, or understanding the application area of the project
• Key stakeholders, such as customers who would use the product of the project  and services the project is attempting to create, are not sufficiently involved in project decision-making

To address these it’s helpful to group them into actionable areas that apply to you and your project.

In doing this let’s keep in mind there is a high correlation between project success and project manager competency.  I know, it seems an obvious statement but it is important to distinguish between a project manager’s strengths and the challenges presented by the environment of the project he or she is managing. 

First, consider your project environment and identify what is in and what is out of your direct control as a project manager.  Just because something is out of your direct line of control doesn’t mean you are not responsible for it.  You’ll still be able to influence it.  You’ll need to be creative and draw on your support network to affect outcomes in these areas.

Second, your competencies as a project manager can be viewed in terms of technical abilities (e.g. scheduling, estimating, earned value analysis) and management strengths (e.g. visioning, facilitation, motivation).  Looking at how your hard and soft skills might contribute to these problems is a first step to identifying what you might do about it.

This analysis might help you hire a project coordinator with the right technical skills to complement your own.  If the organizational structure keeps you at arm’s length from vendors you might engage your procurement organization to establish specific supplier controls early on.  You can then influence vendor outcomes indirectly in an oversight capacity and by monitoring progress.

Of course good practice is to do a lessons learned on failed projects.  The problem with this is it’s too late.  The project has already failed.  There’s a need to be proactive and take action early, perhaps before the project starts, to mitigate the risks of project failure.

As a final note, it’s coming up to nearly two years now that I’ve been writing this Project Times blog.  This will be my last for now.  I continue to participate on the ISO committee to develop the new international Project Management standard, ISO 21500 and to teach project management on a part time basis at Humber College.  You can reach me at [email protected] and I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss any project issue you may have.

How much do project managers need to know about the procurement process in the organization? It depends upon whether they handle most of the procurement, some of the procurement, or none of the procurement related to projects. In some cases, the organization’s purchasing or contracting department deals with most of the procurement.

Regardless of the situation, when procurement results in hiring vendors who will complete all or some of the work on a project, project managers need to understand their role in the procurement process. This article summarizes ten important procurement concepts about which project managers must be knowledgeable.

1. Procurement documents: Who develops the procurement documents? Procurement documents such as the requests for bids, requests for quotes, requests for proposals, etc., may be created by the purchasing or contracting department, by the project manager, or by a team that includes the project manager. In any case, it is the project manager’s role to ensure that the documents accurately describe the work to be completed by the vendor, the evaluation techniques to be used to select the vendor and the methods by which the contracted deliverables will evaluated.
2. Scope: What will the vendor provide for the project? The project manager must ensure that both the product scope and project scope are addressed in the vendor’s contract. In other words, the project manager should be involved in preparing the statement of work (SOW) and the portion of the contract that includes what goods or services the vendor will provide. And, if the vendor’s work must be completed in a specific way, the project manager must also be involved in describing how the vendor should complete the job. If the vendor develops its own statement of work, the project manager must ensure that the SOW includes all of the necessary scope and that additional work has not been included in the vendor’s SOW.
3. Staffing: Who determines what human resources the vendor will hire or use? As part of human resource planning, the project manager should develop the list of the roles and responsibilities for the members of the project team – both the internal team members and those provided by the vendors. This means that the project manager should also provide input for the staffing details of the vendor’s contract.
4. Schedule: When will the vendor’s work occur, and how will it fit into the overall project schedule? Are other components of the project dependent upon the vendor’s deliverables? The project requirements for which the vendor is responsible will interface with other project components, so it is important for the project manager to request a copy of the vendor’s schedule and include that in the overall project schedule. The project manager must also track the vendor’s progress against the original and/or revised schedule.
5. Costs: Who reviews the vendor’s proposed costs before the contract is signed, and who tracks the vendor’s costs to ensure that the vendor stays within the agreed-upon allowance? The project manager should be consulted before the contract is signed with the vendor, because he or she brings expertise in looking at the costs on prior projects, understanding the components of the WBS on which the costs have been estimated, and knowing the number and skill levels of human resources that will be needed for a project. When costs changes are proposed after the work has begun, the project manager and the project team may be able to provide cost-saving alternatives to the vendor’s proposed changes.
6. Performance reports: Is the vendor completing the work on time? It is the project manager’s role to understand and review the vendor’s reports on the project work, because the overall scope and schedule are affected just as much by the vendor’s work as by the work performed by the in-house project team. Although the vendor manages its own work and schedule, the project manager must carefully monitor work and performance reports to ensure that the vendor’s work is being completed as scheduled; initiate discussions with the vendor when schedules are not being met; and/or notify senior management about unresolved issues regarding the schedule.
7. Changes: Who receives, processes, and finalizes changes to the contract? When a purchasing or contracting department handles contract changes, it is essential that the project manager have ongoing communication with this department. As with any changes that affect the project, the project manager should be the first person consulted to determine the impact of the proposed changes to the project. Ideally, the project manager will be involved when the change request is submitted, so that the contracting or purchasing department can make final decisions about the change, based upon the input of the project manager. If these proposed changes involve additional costs, the project manager and the project team should be consulted, as well, because they may be able to generate less costly alternatives to be considered by the vendor.
8. Deliverables: Who verifies and accepts the deliverables produced by the vendor? When these deliverables constitute all or part of the project, the project manager should be involved in the ongoing process of verifying that the deliverables conform to the defined requirements and that they truly are fit for use. These deliverables, like those in a non-contract situation, must be evaluated against any quality standards or metrics detailed in the vendor’s contract.
9. Payments: Who established the payment schedule, and who approves the payments, by schedule or by deliverables? In most cases, it is the project manager who will verify and accept deliverables for a project. And, per most contracts, payments are made by the organization only after someone – typically the project manager- has accepted the deliverables and notified the appropriate department that payment should be made.
10. Procurement Audits (or lessons learned about contracts): Who documents the lessons learned from dealing with vendors? In many cases, the purchasing or contracting department maintains a file on the vendor, but who documents what has been learned from a project perspective? Such documentation becomes invaluable to project managers who will deal with vendors on future projects. Project managers and the project team who have worked closely with the vendors have the best perspective on documenting lessons learned about procurement.

Although project managers have much to learn and share about procurement, they should be a key member of the procurement team. Even when they handle most of the procurements for projects, they must often rely on others with legal and purchasing expertise to develop and manage projects in a contract situation. When a purchasing or contracting department handles most of the procurements for projects, they must understand the value the project manager can bring to the process. Procurement for projects is ultimately the organization’s responsibility, but knowledge about the process is the responsibility of a successful project manager.

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Gloria C. Brown, PMP, has more than forty years of professional experience and is a full-time instructor for Global Knowledge. Her passion for project management is expressed through her love of teaching, developing courses, writing white papers, and mentoring students. She is member of the Atlanta Chapter of PMI. Global Knowledge is the worldwide leader in IT and business training. Its more than 700 courses span foundational and specialized training and certifications. For more information, visit www.globalknowledge.com.

Brisbane, Australia –When David beat Goliath with a single stone from his sling, the odds were stacked pretty heavily against him. But even greater were the odds when 23 year-old Brisbane-based entrepreneur Leon Hill embarked on a journey to create an online business that would be fighting against multi-million-dollar social bookmarking giant Digg.com, as well as the multi-billion-dollar juggernaut that is Yahoo! Inc. And although he was flying solo with no outside help, he fought them both — and won.

uSocial.net (http://usocial.net/) is the brainchild of Hill and is an online traffic generation business that takes advantage of flaws in the systems of social bookmarking sites like Digg, Yahoo! Buzz, StumbleUpon and AOL’s Propeller.

“The best way to get a huge amount of traffic to your site is to have it listed on the coveted front page of one of the large social bookmarking sites,” says Leon. “The thing is, it can take hundreds of votes in a short period of time to get there which is extremely difficult to attain. But if it does happen, you can expect sometimes hundreds of thousands of people to your site in as little as one day. And for that to happen to a small-business owner, can mean serious cash.”

With only his computer, little capitol and a tiny amount of knowledge about how social bookmarking sites work, Leon set out to best several online empires at their own game, including Yahoo!, second only to Google in terms of online might.

After some trial-and-error, Hill figured out a way to seriously increase the amount of votes a page would receive — up to 1,000 in as little as 24 hours — which meant that a website would sometimes be placed in front of millions of online web-surfer’s eyes in a day or less. This meant immense traffic and for any business owner with a website, immense interest in their product or service.

“When using uSocial, the real winners are small business owners. I personally know people who were paying more than $2 for a single visitor through conventional means. With uSocial.net, we’ve had people spend as little as $200 and have more than 100,000 people to their site in less than 24 hours,” says Leon. “There is literally nothing that compares with what uSocial can do in terms of sending quality traffic to a business’ website.”

Digg has always claimed the systems they had in place were unbeatable, but now Hill has proved them wrong. “What uSocial is doing is not illegal; it’s just that the social bookmarking sites don’t like it. I’ve even tried to contact [Digg CEO] Jay Adelson for his thoughts, but I never got a reply,” says Hill. “These online giants said their systems couldn’t be beat, but I proved them wrong.”

So even in this crazy modern world, David really can beat Goliath. 2/09

There’s no question job seekers, including in the project management field, face a challenging employment environment and must work hard to find new opportunities. In the current economic environment, applicants must be resourceful. A successful job search often depends on who you know as much as what you know, which means candidates need to make sure their efforts are as far-reaching as possible.

The following list of essential tactics is designed to help job seekers gain an edge in a tougher employment market: 

1. Step outside your comfort zone. Avoid limiting your search to your current industry or field. Identify your transferable skills and experiences, and communicate them to prospective employers. 
2. Minimize work history gaps. If you are unable to find a position right away, consider temporary assignments, internships and part-time opportunities, all of which can potentially lead to a full-time role. 
3. Be flexible. Remain open to all possibilities, even if the job title, salary and benefits may not be exactly what you hoped for. Once you get your foot in the door, you will have a chance to prove yourself. 
4. Find jobs before they’re advertised. Read your local business journals and newspapers to identify companies that are hiring or expanding, and send them your resume. 
5. Cast a wide ‘net.’ General job-boards can be useful, but don’t forget industry and trade association websites, which may have more targeted career opportunities. 
6. Network – online and off. Tell everyone you know that you are looking for a job, whether in-person or using professional networking websites. 
7. Manage your digital footprint. Think your friends are the only people who viewed those less-than-professional vacation photos you posted online? Think again! With a few mouse clicks, potential employers can dig up information about you on blogs, personal websites and personal networking site profiles. Make sure you do a thorough self-search and take any necessary corrective action. 
8. Customize. Tailor your resume and cover letter for each opportunity. Employers want to see why you’re the right person for their job. 
9. Enhance your marketability. Find out what skills are most in-demand and take steps to give yourself an edge in these areas. Focus on sharpening both functional and interpersonal skills.
10. Meet with a recruiter. Staffing executives can be your eyes and ears in the job market. Recruiters also provide useful feedback on your resume and interview skills, and help you locate full-time and temporary jobs.

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Max Messmer is chairman and CEO of Robert Half International and author of Job Hunting For Dummies®, 2nd Edition (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). Robert Half International has more than 360 staffing locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.rhi.com. The company recently released its Search Smarts: Best Practices for Conducting an Online Job Search, a complimentary guide that is available at www.rhi.com/OnlineJobSearch.

“Project authority ….. You’ve got it only if you think you’ve got it.”

The conflict between responsibility and authority poses an inherent dilemma for the project manager. How can a project manager be responsible for the outcome of the project if he/she has no authority over resources and decisions in the organization? After all, there are very few people who report directly to the project manager. This is common occurrence with a matrix organization. To complicate matters further, none of the other players have a direct reporting relationship.

“They’ve given us all the responsibility for the project, but minimal authority over what we need for the project ….. Responsibility without associated authority!” is the common lament of project managers. Well, folks, I have news for you! You will never have the authority you wish you had, but you will always have the full responsibility for the project. In fact, the reason you have been asked to be the project manager is usually because of your skills and ability to manage this dilemma.

The perceived lack of authority seems like a valid argument to begin with. But let’s look deeper into reality. How often do you see a project where you have authority over all the factors associated with the project? Consider a simple example of remodeling your kitchen or renovating the basement.

You decide upon a budget, draw up a plan, select the cupboards, order the material, hire a contractor and sign the contract. Guess what happens next? The delivery of cupboards is delayed, you knock down the drywall and find a gaping hole, and you have to do electrical work that you didn’t expect. The project will now take three months instead of the one month that you had planned, you are living out of a make-shift kitchen in the basement, and everyone including the spouse and the kids are talking about this “project from hell”. You never know what’s behind the walls until you knock them down; and such is the case with projects!

The Project Manager’s Dilemma

Come to think of it, you have little direct authority over the things that are beyond your control. And that’s not just limited to kitchen renovations. It applies to every single project from launching a space rocket, marketing a new product, implementing a computer technology or rolling out a new service for your customers. The scale and complexities of the projects may differ, but the fact is that you have little authority over a vast range of activities that are essential to the success of your project.

In light of these circumstances, what should a project manager do? The first step is to recognize and acknowledge this reality in the world of project management. You will never have the authority you need or deserve, but you will always be accountable and responsible for the project. As a project manager, you are expected to work under these constraints, deal with issues and circumstances that are outside your control, and succeed. Who said project management was easy?

Project management is the art and science of getting work done with the active cooperation of everyone you need to make your project a success. Knowing the art and science well, and practicing it diligently will make you an outstanding project manager. As a project manager, you have all the authority you need, to do the right thing for the project and your client. The project manager’s authority is implicit, it goes with the job, and it is expected that you exercise it to get the job done. A big part of this is managing customer expectations.

How do you get the work done?

When I was a novice project manager, I often wished that I could carry a baseball bat to the office, swing it and let people know about its existence just in case they didn’t deliver on their commitments. Or, perhaps, settle such issues with a one-on-one confrontation in the parking lot. However, this is not the ideal way to gain people’s commitments or to drive projects.

The only thing you have at your disposal is the ability to effectively communicate with everyone including your clients, stakeholders, team members, executives, engineers, and sub-contractors. Communication involves knowing when and how to use the different tools for communication including written, verbal and presentation skills.

In fact, the trick to getting work done is to know first and foremost how to excel in communication skills. Outstanding project managers spend 70%-80% of their project time and effort on activities that are generally related to communication. They serve as nerve centres for projects by keeping communication channels open for collecting, analyzing, processing and disseminating needed information and decisions. They know how to delegate and provide the discipline, environment and motivation so that the work assigned to others is completed as expected.

Projects also involve implementing a change somewhere in the organization. Every time a change is introduced, it is bound to affect people, processes and associated technologies in the environment. The change may be as simple as introducing a new form or as complex as merging two companies and changing the culture of the organization. The fact is that human beings resist the very idea of change, regardless of its nature and impact. As such, the project manager is responsible for identifying, explaining and selling “the change” successfully so that it is embraced enthusiastically by those affected by it.

The Language of Project Management

Effective communication requires using the right language, and terminology that is clearly and easily understood by your team. That includes the language of project management, the language of your business or organization, and the language of the science, discipline or technology related to the project. Figure 2 above illustrates the changing role of the project manager and expectations arising from the new role.

An engineer who is focused only on technology, to the exclusion of business perspective and project management, will not be able to do a good job as a project manager. A business or functional manager with no understanding of technology and project management discipline will not shine as a project manager. A project manager, with no understanding of business strategies, their alignment with the project, and high level solutions or technologies will certainly drive the project into a rat hole.

The professional project manager “walks the talk” of project management principles, “knows the talk” of systems and technologies associated with the project, and “understands the talk” of business and users who will be impacted by the project.

Summary

Project management is about accepting responsibility and exercising authority to get the project done. The role of the project manager transcends the traditional distinctions regarding job levels, seniority and organizational hierarchy. It is a leadership role that expects the project manager to acquire, direct and motivate the organizational resources to cooperate and perform in the context of the project.

In this respect, the project manager has various roles as an implementer, facilitator, negotiator and a change agent. The fundamental set of skills to accomplish this is through communication, which is the ability to effectively exercise the necessary skills and drive the project towards its intended outcome. A summary of learning lessons to avoid the proverbial rat hole and catch the pot of gold follows:

Avoid the Rat Hole – Warning Signs

1. The project manager has no understanding of the business
2. The project manager lacks “people management” and “relationship building” skills
3. The project manager thinks that he/she has no authority for the project, or does not know how to delegate work assignments
4. There is a perception that the project manager is not “in charge” of the project
5. The project manager role is confused with job levels and organizational hierarchy

Catch the “Pot of Gold” – Best Practices

1. Recognize that you have 100% responsibility and minimal authority
2. Exercise the implicit authority to do the right thing for the project
3. Consult and communicate with all interested parties, and get formal approvals as required
4. Understand and speak the languages of business, technology and project management
5. Develop the recommended skills and competencies for project management

The foregoing article is based on an excerpt from “Rainbows & Ratholes: Best Practices for Managing Successful Projects” by Dhanu Kothari

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Dhanu Kothari is President of D2i Consulting. a firm specializing in Project Management consulting, delivery and training. He holds a B.Sc. in Mech. Eng., and a Post-Graduate in Production Eng. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Dhanu is a past President of the Project Management Institute (PMI), Southern Ontario. His second book titled, “From Ratholes to Rainbows: Managing Project Recovery” was published recently. Dhanu can be reached at [email protected]