Tag: Facilitation

Is Project Management a skeleton from the Industrial Revolution?

Written by Fernando Santiago on November 10, 2014. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Is Project Management a skeleton from the Industrial Revolution?

santiago Nov11 It is the beginning of November now, and as Halloween just passed, we drive by graveyards, open tombs, and skeletons, some of them funny, some not so much. In some cultures, like in Mexico, “Dia de los Muertos” is the day to honour the dead. In North America we dress up our kids in costumes and walk the streets for candy, Mexicans take food and tequila to the cemeteries and party all night. Hey, we Latinos can make a party out of anything!

Skeletons are innocuous when they remain in their coffins. The problem is when they pretend to be alive and, even worst, when we listen to them, as if it were still their time, when it is not.

Project Management has been accused of being a thing of the past, a dinosaur, a cadaver that enjoys surprising health. In 2002 a group of developers got together at a ski resort in Utah and came up with the Agile Manifesto, which was an elegant way to tell project managers to get out of the way and let developers do what they do best: build software without the interference of project management and project life cycle processes and rules.

While this is not a call to go wild and back to “cowboy development”, it should be interpreted as a wake-up call. Software developers, computer engineers, etc; are usually the bright kids out of high school, the nerds with a cap and propeller. However, the question is: what do you call a nerd twenty years after graduating from high school? The answer is “boss”.

Project teams get these bright kids who, after college or university and years of experience, are even smarter. And what we do is treat them like complete idiots. We, project managers, need to tell them exactly what to do, otherwise they will not be able to figure it out on their own. After ten years of agile practices and even PMI jumping on the bandwagon to cash in with a certification (PMI: agile was never about project management to start with), it is now widely accepted that business analysts, developers, testers, are not idiots after all. All we need to do is tell them what the goal is, and when it needs to get done, and they will find the best way to do it. Like in my favourite line in Jurassic Park: “nature will find its way”.

However, many project managers, and even methodologies, still cling to the past. And this is not about agile VS waterfall; it is about management VS leadership, it is about telling people what to do VS facilitating the conditions for the team to excel; it is about taking the driver seat or the back seat, and let the team drive.

Going back to the theme of this article, it is interesting to draw a parallel with the industrial revolution, which was triggered by the great invention of the eighteen century, the Steam Engine by James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker who created an innovation that changed the world. For centuries, industrial facilities had depended on the flow of water from a river to draw power using a wheel connected to a number of axles through a complicated arrangement of pulleys and gears that were in movement all the time. Each workstation only had to hang a leather belt from the overhead axle and they were connected to the source of power. This model had many problems: first, it was all or nothing for the whole plant; second, and most important, it depended on the flow of water: no water, no power, and in North America and Europe, water during winter time tends to freeze, so mills had to stop until the spring, when the problem was to control the excess flow from the meltdown. With Watt’s invention, none of these problems existed. All they had to do was store sufficient water, and here is where the “mill pond” comes from, so water could be drawn and boiled into steam. Although not perfect, it was a better solution. Not the best job for those shoveling coal day in day out, and fires were frequent, but it worked. So mills all over the world installed steam engines, which powered the same mechanism of axels and pulleys they had before, and the industrial revolution came to be, kids were exploited, Dickens wrote his books, fortunes were made, and people got used to cheap goods they could take home. Life was “good”.

In the nineteenth century, another Brit, Michael Faraday, an Englishman this time, invented the electric motor. It was cleaner, safer, and more dependable than the steam engine. So factories all over the world quickly adopted the new technology, replacing the obsolete steam engine with a huge electric motor. Nothing changed, it was just cleaner and safer, but the way of doing things was still the same.

It took seventy years, or three generations, for industry to realize that the advantage of the innovation they had adopted was the ability to install small electric motors at each work station, so they could be turned on and off at will, and speed controlled to suit the task at hand. Seventy years to realize the potential of technology, of the innovation they had already adopted. Do you think it is silly? Keep reading.

The history of project management is surprisingly similar. As a discipline, project management emerged after the Second World War in the aerospace and defence and engineering and construction sectors. During the fifties, sixties and seventies, mainframes became affordable for both the private and public sector. Project management software came to be in early versions of products like Open Plan, Artemis and Primavera, which are still around in some form. There were no PC’s at the time, no networks, no tablets or cell phones; only a mainframe in a protected environment, with raised floor and a group of chosen ones who could tame the beast, taking punched cards in and coming out with white and green reports. That is the world I got to know when I started my career as a project manager in the oil industry and then in the engineering consulting sector, in the late eighties.

Because of the central concept dictated by the mainframe, the model worked as follows:

A command and control approach to program and project management, with project managers cracking the whip every five minutes or so, pushing teams of hundreds of engineers and draftsmen creating blueprints and other documents. It was the industrial revolution all over again, just cleaner.
Engineering projects, as predictable as they are, can be defined in advance in an excruciating level of detail, so the mainframe was fed with schedules that had thousands of tasks. Updates were fed to the mainframe and we got back reports with the state of the project. Considering how primitive the technology was, we did pretty sophisticated project management. Today I have to smile when students and project managers tell me that Earned Value is complicated. We did it back then with punched cards, pencil and paper. We had no PC’s, no Excel, just paper and pencil, and a brain.
While this was happening in the aerospace and defence and engineering consulting, IT was just getting started with project management. As software companies and IT departments in banks and insurance companies (some were called IBM Department, believe it or not), the need for project management became obvious. As projects got bigger, more complex and difficult to manage, IT turned to the “pros”, the hard core engineering PM’s, to help with project management. Engineering Consulting firms saw the business opportunity and spun off firms to sell this know-how to industry. I happen to work in one of those firms, and project management was our product to sell.
In the eighties and nineties, many PMs decided to jump ship and got hired by IT departments and software companies. I was one of them, and we did what we knew best: we replicated the model that worked so well in engineering consulting, and it failed miserably. First of all, engineers are easy to manage: us engineers tend to be structured, predictable, we follow process and rules. A command and control model works well with engineers. On the exact opposite, software engineers, architects, developers, are a different breed: they are artists, they are creative, they are constantly coming up with new things. Some of them can be “prima donnas”. A command and control model doesn’t work well with these people, but we tried anyway, and we failed. In the early nineties, the Standish Group surprised the world with the “Chaos Report”, a research project based on thousands of IT projects all over the world, and it was not pretty: only one out of three projects in IT was completed within a reasonable time and cost variance and meeting scope. The vast majority of IT projects were outright failures, with average overruns of 200% and up, severely behind schedule and over budget.
Continuing down memory lane, in the eighties and early nineties we got a number of innovations that had great potential to improve project management in IT: the PC, the network and, you guessed it, Microsoft Project.
So what did we do with these new capabilities? We made exactly the same mistake that was made in the eighteen century with the electric motor: we replaced the mainframe with a PC on steroids, or so it seemed at the time, installed MS Project, and ran the show exactly the same way as before, only cheaper. We put schedules with thousands of lines through MS Project, and it choked and crashed (twenty years have passed and still does…). We printed the schedules, some even printed PERT diagrams and used them as fancy wall paper to impress the bosses with the sophistication of the project management profession. These schedules and PERT diagrams stayed on the walls for months and years, and who would even think about updating them; that would be too much work. We were material not for a Dilbert strip, but for a complete book.
As we geared towards Y2K (for the younger generation, we thought that computers would stop working when clocks would go from 99 to 00, Terminator would come and destroy the world as we know it; at the end, nothing happened, but there was plenty of work for all of us for a few years). Shops were busy again, the dot com era was booming and IT was the place to be. The problem, and there is always a problem, is that projects were less predictable every day, as we moved from mainframe to client-server to web, things were just impossible to predict in advance. This is when and why agile emerges, and it teaches project management a lesson or two.

For those who have braved the history lesson and made it to this point, the good news is that IT is finally starting to get its act together. Today the reports from the Standish Group show improvement, while there is still a lot to be done, results are not as bad as before. It took us twenty years, at least not seventy years like two centuries ago, to realize the potential of having a scheduling tool available throughout the organization, and information flowing across projects, programs and portfolios. PPM tools now provide the functionality to support smaller teams, even agile teams, each one accountable for a deliverable or work package, with its own schedule and, most important, self-managed, with a project manager that is no longer a dictator but a facilitator. This is not exclusive to agile, and it is applicable to even pure waterfall projects.

The key idea is to relinquish the need to have centralized command and control, and delegate to teams, empower the leaders and their teams, give them a date they have to make, explain to them how their piece fits in the overall project or program, and why the date is important, and they will deliver.

Remember: you have the brightest kids in your teams. Don’t treat them as idiots. If you can’t handle the change, you are still on time to pick up a skeleton costume for Halloween or, even better, “Dia de Muertos” in Mexico. And don’t forget the tequila: you are going to need it.

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Say What You Think to Promote Project Success

Written by George Pitagorsky on October 21, 2014. Posted in Articles. 7 Comments on Say What You Think to Promote Project Success

Not speaking up about controversial issues can cause project failure.

It takes courage to speak up in the face of a perceived flaw or error. This is particularly true when the idea being critiqued has been put forward by someone in a hierarchy above you. First, you might be wrong. Then again you might be right and subject to firing or other penalties. Courage is not enough, though. Timing and diplomacy are also required. It is all about saying the right things at the right time to the right people in the right way.

The Trip to Abilene

The Trip to Abilene is a story by Jerry B. Harvey about how four intelligent and well meaning people took an unpleasant trip to somewhere that none of them wanted to go. The Abilene paradox is a phenomena that takes its name from this anecdote.

The Abilene paradox is the cause of many a misstep by organizations. People do not speak their mind when what is in their mind is opposed to the perceived general opinion of the people around them. Note that the Abilene paradox is different from group think. With group think, people are convinced that the group’s idea is sound. In the paradox, people are consciously aware that they oppose the idea and are acting contrary to their own thoughts and insights.

People don’t speak up because they may think that what they have to say is unimportant, possibly stupid, and/or bound to upset someone. They may fear retribution and censure. Sometimes this fear is quite rational. There are many examples of whistle blowers being persecuted. Many examples of the negative effects of arguing against the favored idea, design, plan, etc. Further, it takes effort to come to the table with a compelling argument. Harvey, quoted Herbert porter a Nixon campaign aid as saying that he “was not one to stand up in a meeting and say that this should be stopped”, a decision he then attributed to “the fear of the group pressure that would ensue, of not being a team player.” Porter was referring to the Watergate scandal.

Few will risk saying that the emperor is not wearing any clothes. Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes is another way of bringing out the difficulty of saying what you think. In this story, a vain emperor is tricked into believing that he was getting a suit of clothes that could only be seen by the most intelligent people. No one but a child had the courage to appear unintelligent and tell the Emperor that he wasn’t wearing any clothes. The emperor himself was too vain to admit that even he couldn’t see the new suit.

Whatever the reason, not speaking up is a problem.

Example

For example, in one project to implement cultural and technological change in a large organization, the project sponsor had in mind aggressive objectives coupled with an aggressive time line and a limited budget. When he stated his desires to his direct reports some of them thought the objectives were great while others hated them. No one argued. Some thought “nothing I could say is going to change the situation so why bother.” Others thought “the change is going to fail, all I have to do is wait.” Still others thought “I don’t want to be seen as a naysayer.”

With tacit consensus on the idea, the next step was to define the approach. How would the project achieve the change within the time frame and budget? Here experts were called in to design and estimate the various parts of the project. Some came back to their managers with the bad news that it was impossible to hit their targets and therefor the overall target could not be met. Whether Driven by the desire to meet the target date or the fear to tell the sponsor that the target date was not viable, the middle managers pushed their experts to make it work.

It is easy to make a complex project work on paper. The realm of planning is conceptual. A complex environment is simulated and, for the most part, over simplified. Planners and estimators can adjust the plan to fit any target date and budget. This may be done intentionally to sell some services or meet an imposed demand from above. Alternatively, It may happen inadvertently because the planners are too optimistic and they don’t adequately manage risk.

Based on an overly aggressive, unrealistic plan the project was approved and kicked off. Expectations were set in the minds of the sponsors and other stakeholders. Off the organization went on a trip to Abilene.
Once the work started and people began to interact, the real world of complexity, ambiguity, resistance and poor communication came into view. To compound the problem, status and progress reports were influenced by fear and the Abilene paradox continued to manifest itself in the area of project reporting and control.

Open Discussion At the Right Time

If one of the many people who knew that there were good reasons to not go on the trip had spoken up and put forward his/her reasoning the others may have listened, thought about the ideas, had a discussion about differences of opinion, risks, rewards, etc. and then made up their minds. The outcome can be far better when there is open discussion.

Doing this at the right time in the life of a project is important. Open discussion requires that people speak their mind in a constructive attempt to reach mutual understanding and agreement. When initiating, and planning a project it is best practice to establish a formal process to cut through the causes of people holding back. Open discussion generally means not only being open to conflicting ideas but to actually promoting conflicts by requiring that alternative ideas are raised even when it seems as if everyone is behind the idea that is on the table. Risk assessment is an example of how a team can create the space and give people permission to “be negative”. It motivates people to bring up issues that in the absence of the risk assessment context would make them seem like they not are being team players. By making risk assessment part of planning as well as part of any major decision there is a greater likelihood that open discussion will take place at the right time.

Sometimes we find that people speak out after what they have to say can no longer be acted upon. Instead of arguing about the details of requirements when the product is delivered, discuss or even argue about them when the requirements are being defined. A statement like “I could have told you so” is a sign of dysfunction. If you think something is wrong, say so.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy is artfully dealing with people with sensitivity while being effective. It is knowing the right way to say the right thing in a situation. Diplomacy is necessary as a balance for the assertiveness that is required to be candid. It can be taken too far and then be used as a way to avoid saying anything that might be disturbing to anyone. But in the right measure it is an important skill. It enables a person to say something that is controversial in a way that is least likely to arouse hostility while promoting healthy conflict.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that unless people say what they think at the right time and in the right way about key issues, projects and processes in general are more likely to fail. Commit to being candid and to taking the risk to say something you think will make you unpopular. If you can, make it as easy as possible for others to say what they think.

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Project Check-Ups Keep Your Projects Healthy

Written by Kathy Bellwoar on October 7, 2014. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Project Check-Ups Keep Your Projects Healthy

Good preventive care includes regular check-ups to make sure things are running well and small issues get resolved before major problems can surface. This applies to people, cars, and yes, projects too! Here are some tips for implementing a simple process to keep your fingers on the pulse of project health.

There are many important systems we count on to keep running efficiently every day. But anyone who has ever owned a car or a house has probably learned a lesson along the way about getting equipment serviced periodically to ensure that potential issues are corrected before major damage ensues. And we certainly know that a regular appointment for a physical at the doctor’s office is a great way to monitor health and identify disease in time to take action. The same lessons apply to the projects in our portfolios. These are typically significant investments, and we count on our project managers and teams to keep them moving forward. Most organizations face staffing challenges – few PMO’s have the bandwidth to conduct full and regular audits of all projects. Yet, this creates the risk that unresolved (or unseen) issues could eventually derail a project or cause substantial rework that could have been avoided if detected sooner.

Enter the “Project Check-up” – a simple approach to monitoring project health and compliance with the organization’s standards and desired behaviors. The idea here is to define a straightforward set of characteristics to check, allocate a small amount of time from your more experienced project managers, and perform quick “Check-Ups” throughout the year. It’s a good strategy for reinforcing key standards, developing staff and raising the overall level of project management. Implementations of this approach will vary from one organization to the next, but here are some tips:

What to check?

The first step is defining what should be evaluated as part of a Project Check-Up. The key is to focus on what truly drives success without getting overwhelmed by too much detail. The list will vary but should probably include items such as: Are roles and responsibilities clearly defined and understood by team members? Are risks and issues being surfaced and addressed? Is governance in place to set business direction, resolve issues, manage scope creep and approve key deliverables? Are regular status meetings being conducted? Are status reports issued? Are project milestones and spending being tracked against budget? Note that PMO’s tend to have standard tools and templates useful for all of these, but these questions are more about how well people understand and leverage them, rather than just simply whether or not a standard format is being used.

How to check?

Now it’s a matter of assigning some of the more experienced project managers to each perform a Project Check-Up for a project outside of their particular domain. This involves getting an orientation to the project and reviewing key deliverables from the project repository. Then project team members should be interviewed to help the evaluator get a sense for how well things are going in terms of the agreed Project Check-Up criteria. There is no substitute for one-on-one conversation, although typically these do not need to be long, 30-45 minutes is typically more than enough. Then the evaluator summarizes their findings based on the agreed Project Check-Up criteria and reviews them with the project leadership and sponsor (and PMO leader). The results will be one or more of the following:

An Action Plan for the project to address issues, investigate further or take other corrective steps
An Action Plan for the PMO leader and/or the project manager to better develop skills, clarify standards OR to share tips for success with other project managers
Recognition for the things that the project team is doing well

How to launch?

A Project Check-Up should take no more than a few days’ time for the project manager performing the evaluation. This may mean that each PM can only do one or two of these per year. It is a tremendous developmental experience for PM’s, allowing them to step outside of all the day-to-day issues of their particular responsibilities and really focus on what it takes to be successful – perspective that can translate back to their day-to-day load. It may not be possible to cover all projects, but ideally you will be able to touch enough projects so that most project participants experience at least one which provides a good developmental experience for them too.

How does this make a difference?

Over time this practice becomes self-reinforcing; as people become more and more familiar with the Project Check-Up criteria, they start to apply them without waiting for an official check-up. This applies both to Project Managers and project team members. The upshot is that all projects benefit even if it is not practical to check up on all of them. This positive behavior can be reinforced by making the Project Check-Up process and results transparent across the organization where practical. The Project Check-Up process should not be treated like an audit (where findings are bad!) but rather as an important continual improvement tool that raises the level of success for everyone contributing to projects and project teams.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

About the Writers

Kathy Bellwoar is the President and Founder of PPT Consulting and has over twenty-five years of experience within industry and as a partner of a major global consulting firm prior to founding PPT Consulting. She has managed numerous strategic technology projects from software selection to implementation, and from establishing IT strategy to optimizing business processes. Her key to project success has always been to ensure the key components of People, Process & Technology are addressed in the delivery of all solutions.

Elizabeth Martens is Director, Client Services with PPT Consulting and has over 20 year experience as a senior technology leader. She has extensive experience in managing technology investments and resources to align with business strategy and drive results. She has worked with clients to implement project and program management capabilities, build communications plans, launch and monitor major software implementations and develop more effective ties within and across organizations.

Does People Behavior Impact Projects? How? And what do we do about it?

Written by Ambadapudi Sridhara Murthy on August 7, 2014. Posted in Articles. 8 Comments on Does People Behavior Impact Projects? How? And what do we do about it?

We all know that projects are considered successful only when they are completed within the boundaries of scope, time, cost and quality. Bad project management is detrimental and can be very difficult to deal with – for especially large projects that involve a lot of money. A small percentage of several projects undertaken across the globe are really successful. Projects do get completed and closed but not necessarily are considered successful due to cost or schedule overruns – cost overrun – being the most common cause for project failure. Therefore, it is imperative that organizations employ better ideas and novel methodologies and frameworks in managing projects.

People behavior is one of the KEY factors that drive successful project management. In today’s world – virtual project teams often not co-located – are commonplace. In this environment, it is essential that behavior, emotions and culture be well understood by project managers.

Traditional Project Management methodologies revolve around sound technical and procedural factors: Scoping, Scheduling, Budgeting, Quality Assurance & Control, Risk, Communications and Procurement; and they all have very well established frameworks. Even with all these well established methodologies and frameworks, we just don’t seem to get project management right.

If you just thought “there MUST be something that is NOT well-documented or frame-worked well enough yet”, you have just arrived at the right place! The core of project management is – PEOPLE – around which all other processes revolve and interact.

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PEOPLE CENTRIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT (PCPM)

People centric project management emphasizes that project management should be based on Experience, Dynamics, Human Psychology rather than solely on Processes. Wise project managers focus on learning and understanding how people function in an organization – both as individuals – and as a team. It is important to figure out during project initiation how people in the performing organization behave and adapt.

Human Psychology should also be considered as an integral part of Project Management. Technical knowledge and following standard processes is one aspect but that is only 30-40% of day-to-day activities. We need to better manage the remainder of the 60-70% – which is people centric.

The aspect of projects that gives project managers sleepless nights is people behavior – especially factors emerging from them – such as push-back, resistance to change, acceptance, trust etc. There are several real life scenarios project managers encounter – that emanate from these aspects. Project managers are encouraged to implement people centric management techniques that will eventually will help them implement processes as well as manage behavioral aspects of people successfully.

People centric project management differs from traditional project management in that it does not reject the basic principles of traditional project management but in addition, it emphasises that all traditional project management processes be followed as usual but be tailored according to the need in order to reap rich benefits coming from good people behaviour being exhibited as part of the project implementation.

INSTRUMENTAL ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF PEOPLE CENTRIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT (PCPM)

1. UNDERSTAND CULTURE – PEOPLE VS PROCESSES

The most important factor coming from humans including sensitive aspects is Culture. The term culture means different things to different people. From a project management perspective, culture simply means “how is stuff done here”. Culture is something that comes with people as a baggage along with them. It is imperative that a project manager understand and interpret what the culture of the performing organization is. This becomes increasingly challenging with virtual global teams. When a team member responds swiftly “It is impossible for us to carry out this work” without analyzing the work assigned – it is likely that employees are striving within an organizational culture that is not supportive of their efforts!

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Study: People will likely not understand this concept at the outset – since PCPM focuses on how people function and how they apply project management to be people centric. Managing triple constraints (Scope, Time and Cost) is the objective of healthy project management. However, it needs to be understood that this does not happen in isolation. This happens in a colloidal medium where people see each other, talk together and interact with others. It is crucial that project managers don’t curb or belittle Emotions, Politics, People Dynamics. Instead, they should be seen as the arteries and veins of human life and we should be able to better manage them.
Analyze: How you go about implementing PCPM varies from one organization to another. It needs to be a part of the organizational strategy. Organizations would be project based – where large parts of the workforce is involved in multiple projects. Analyzing how the organization is structured helps the project manager make some of the most important people related decisions in an effective manner.
Adjust or Adapt?: Most project managers tend to enforce processes without understanding the culture and capabilities of the project team and stakeholders. In PCPM – focus should be on adjusting processes to fit the culture and behavioral responses rather than trying to adapt human nature to follow processes. Adjust the role and processes for people – do not enforce processes on people.
Propose Changes: Create a governance committee or steering committee that is part of the leadership team. Ensure that the PMO, Senior Management are on board and devise a strategy on how you will move from rational to behavior centric project management. A roadmap needs to be laid to bring about either procedural or cultural changes. In 99% cases, people work in environments that Resist Change. So, what is new with PCPM? In PCPM, project managers must educate the senior management, team and stakeholders of considering people behavior while planning each project phase of the project.
Gain Buy-In: The challenge for most project managers is to work with senior management and the team in tandem, to gain buy-in and decide on adjusting or adapting. Adjusting or adapting does not happen overnight.
Implement (Kaizen): PCPM will not happen overnight but will require a cultural transformation. PMs should quickly identify strengths and weaknesses of team members and encourage people to identify their strengths and work with their strengths. Some people will have competitive strengths and it is important to leverage their competitive skills. Project managers tend to polish people and make sure people fit the role instead of adjusting the role for people.
Introspect: It is essential that project managers introspect how PCPM is being implemented. The introspection frequency will depend on several factors such as the team size, stakeholder size, location of teams and stakeholders, senior management demands etc. Introspection is the only way of answering the questions “How are we doing today? Will we be able to implement PCPM? What else needs to be done to strengthen the PCPM process? How long will it take for people to be on board? etc.”

2. ENGAGE TEAM MEMBERS

Engaging project team members is the foundation to project success. In PCPM, it is extremely important that the groundwork be laid to engage team members and stakeholders and finally sustain in the short and long term. Focus should be setting key performance/productivity indicators for the performing team as a whole. The level of engagement of team and stakeholders should be monitored and strategies be devised to maximize the engagement levels of both at the same time. Performance, Productivity, Efficiency and Efficacy must be maximized or at a minimum balanced.

Across the project lifecycle, engagement levels of individual team members and the team as a whole should be monitored. Emotional and personal expectations of the team members must be addressed to bring about the best in them. Questions such as “How is this individual doing on the current project?”, “How does this employee react to his work load?”, “Does the employee feel good at the end of every day’s work?”, “Does the team connect their personal objectives with project objectives and organizational objectives, in turn?”, “How is the project team doing as a whole?”, “How are we engaged as a group to meet our objectives?”, “What do stakeholders/customers think abour the project team?” etc. – must be asked and answered satisfactorily.

At the Senior Management Level or at a PMO level (if a PMO exists), it will be important to update or change the overall project management framework to integrate all the knowledge about human nature and the questions answered above. Tools must be developed or customized to measure the level of engagement of teams or stakeholders accurately. These new tools must be integrated into the new project management framework.

Finally, the new approach of People Centric Project Management (PCPM) should be reflected in the overall PMO’s strategic objectives and long term vision/mission.

3. IMPORTANCE OF EMOTIONS & MOTIVATION

Emotions have to do with hormones and neurotransmitters in the human body. Emotions drive employee motivation positively or negatively. Oh boy! Isn’t it difficult to psycho-physio-bio-logically scan a person’s mind and body to anticipate what the Expressions, Feelings, Body Language, and Actions he or she may exhibit e.g.– they are sometimes Happy, Sad, Angry, Excited, Tender, Scared etc. This has been a long standing challenge for most people managers, especially project managers!

Feelings, Moods and Actions affect the manner in which team members and stakeholders carry out their work on projects and so management of emotional aspects is supreme for successful project management. A good project manager should not just be a technical person but should be a rare breed of individual who should be able to manage both the technical and emotional factors. If both factors are not managed, projects will cost way higher than what they are originally planned for! e.g. a strong skilled, high performing employee with tremendous knowledge (not shared with anyone else on the team) exhibiting negative attitude and emotions may not only choose not to perform but also may become a project manager’s nightmare if he decides to not co-operate.

Little attention is devoted to emotional factors in traditional project management – project managers must realize that this is the key reason for project failure! E.g. when we conduct lessons learned for failed projects, we focus only on the project management methodologies followed or those that were not followed – but we hardly attempt to identify the lack of focus on the management of the emotional and motivational aspects of people.

To ensure project success – PCPM might be a critical factor that needs to be looked into and implemented so that project managers are allowed to exhibit strong people skills and vibrant emotional intelligence!

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There is advantage to project managers being assigned to a project during initiation and PCPM reinforces just that principle.

In ensuring that project teams will get better and provide maximum output, the following steps are recommended:

✓ Select & Recruit Team members keeping in mind the new PCPM framework, project and organizational objectives.
✓ Develop Team based on PCPM framework, keeping in mind the culture of the team on boad – here we again stress on adjusting processes vs adapting!
✓ Motivate Team keeping in mind Emotional factors. More about the impact of motivation below is discussed. Emotional stability would ensure project success.
✓ Periodically Introspect behavioral responses of the team members – understand that PCPM framework needs to be iteratively fine-tuned and optimized.

Project team members or stakeholders do NOT work in an environment where they feel threatened, insecure or disarmed. Productivity is at its lowest when there is no trust and people don’t feel comfortable. If people don’t have confidence and passion for the work that they do – it does not bring about the best in them.

How is this addressed? Here is a simple question that will help us understand better

Q: So, we all know from the laws of Physics that Force = [Mass] x [Action].Here, Mass refers to people and Action refers to project success. So what is the force then that needs to be applied to people to achieve project success?

A: Motivation!

Motivational factor in knowledge based industries (IT etc.) is important and is desperately needed in PCPM. Project managers need to look at alternative ways to look at projects as a social system rather than a technical system.

From an organization perspective, projects entirely involve around costs, risks, frameworks, internal/external market scenarios, decision making, harnessing talent, identifying critical resources etc. With virtual global knowledge teams working in different time-zones across different projects at the same time, it is very important to ensure that people stay motivated and magnetized to a specific project. PCPM becomes a guiding methodology in this dynamic environment and proper motivational drivers are a MUST. This helps get people focused on one project and give it the priority it deserves.

There are several motivational theories that can be applied in the PCPM framework but it is important to consider Motivation as one of the key drivers.

4. IDENTFY BEHAVIORAL RISKS USING INTUITIVE MIND-READING

Behavior refers to the range of actions and mannerisms exhibited – in this case – by people. Certain desired behavior is assumed by project managers when they stitch and integrate several of the established project management processes. This assumption is based on factors such as Culture, Attitudes, Emotions, Perceptions, Values, Ethics, Authority, Rapport, Hypnosis, Mindset and Persuasion, among others.

On most occasions some of these assumptions don’t hold quite valid. When people don’t behave like the way we originally assumed them to, their behavior seems unpredictable to us. And, when people behavior becomes unpredictable – project outcome is inevitably affected – either positively (success) or negatively (failure). Even if project managers don’t forget to include people behavior, they may find out that the people in the system don’t behave as expected, with unanticipated project outcome.

Think of the human brain emitting encrypted signals. Most project managers intercept these signals but hardly a few actually decrypt and interpret them. This act is called Intuitive Mind-Reading!

The ultimate goal of project management is to ensure project success. As part of PCPM, project managers MUST sharpen their mind reading skills and identify potential Known Behavioral Risks that may emanate from ALL people involved (team members, stakeholders, bosses, senior management etc.) in the project and adapt to this behavior to ensure that things that can go wrong don’t go wrong. Successful project managers are gifted with Intuitive Mind-Reading. During project execution, project managers must reach out to all these people involved, observe what tends to go wrong – and ensure it doesn’t.

Is Intuitive Mind-Reading the only tool for identifying behavioral risks? Not necessarily but in most cases, Yes! E.g. it is best to begin with analyzing our own behavior and from there extrapolate and extend our understanding to all types of people behavior across the team.

However, in other cases where Unknown Behavioral Risks show up during project execution, it is the skill and brilliance of project managers that helps them better manage the situation and drive towards project success.

5. …AND LASTLY: COMMUNICATION, COMMUNICATION & COMMUNICATION!

The real problem of projects is NOT the planning or technical aspects but is the day to day contact with people – which is the major nightmare and poses the biggest challenges to project managers.

At any given point of time in the project lifecycle, there will likely be hundreds or thousands of communication channels across project team members and stakeholders. These channels provide the opportunity for people to exchange information among one another. Whether it is Email, IM, Meetings, 1:1(s), Reports etc. it is important to question – what percentage of these channels actually yield positive and fruitful interactions? This will be a key indicator for project success. Project managers need to create a conducive environment for nurturing positive people interactions.

As always, you need the right blend of people in your team to talk to the appropriate stakeholders, gain buy-in and work along project integration. Once you have the PCPM thinking in place, then the next step is to focus on the project team.

In PCPM, it must be the daily duty for project managers to maintain the line of communication very open so that they keep catering to the basic needs to employees.

What needs to get communicated across and top things project managers need to keep in mind while implementing PCPM?

Understand and believe that project managers have the most impact in opening up communication channels.
Communicate what is expected of each team member
Establish a clear sense of what each team member’s duty or role is.
Provide recognition – this is actually part of communication!
Empower team members’ with the right tools and techniques to do the job
Keep your ears open to suggestions
Have open conversations about every aspect that requires the PCPM framework to be adjusted.
Frequently talk to team members about their progress and provide feedback –
Learn from people on how they think they connect to the mission of the project team and compare that with how you think they connect.
Communicate between the current statefuture state the gap  and how is the team member is doing.
Make Action Plans for the longer term to ensure you are actively managing the emotional and motivational aspects of ALL the people
Gather feedback and inputs on how are people interact with each other on their communication channel.
Finally, it is the project managers duty to ensure that interactions on ALL communication channels yield positive results!

The key truly is communication, communication, communication and communication!

CONCLUSION

If organizations want project managers to deliver projects perfectly, that cannot be done solely by following a rule book, using project management software, firefighting problems, implementing the concepts from PMBOK etc. Project managers MUST also be able to manage the thousands of interactions people have within the project and outside of it (environmental factors). The emotional bonding between individuals must be well understood and recognized to get the best out of the people. This ultimately is crucial for achieving proper level of teamwork, communication and performance that is needed for successful project management.

In addition, because our society or organization is not good at working with the behavioral and emotional drivers, we cannot motivate people to complete the project on time, cost, scope and quality. Aspects of project management dealing with people, behavior, emotions are not much stressed upon. In most documented areas, either it is in a footnote or in an appendix.

To conclude, emphasis must be on the importance of people behavior and having a framework such as PCPM – in place to account for people behavior – as an effective solution guaranteeing higher project success rates!

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.

About the Authors

Shreenath Sreenivas, B.Sc.(Hons.), M.Sc, PMP has in-depth knowledge and experience in software project planning, integration management, requirement gathering, risk management, scheduling, vendor management, contract management, execution, monitoring, controlling, quality assurance and on-time delivery. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential holder and has delivered projects successfully across a wide range of domains, such as Pharmaceuticals, Bio-IT (LIMS), Tax and Accounting, Mobile Web Apps; in addition to the field of software product development and consulting. He earned his Bachelor’s B.Sc. (Hons) & Master’s M.Sc. degrees in Industrial Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.), Kharagpur, India.

Ambadapudi Sridhara Murthy, M.Tech, PMI-SP, PMP has extensive experience in the fields of software project planning, scheduling, risk management, budget management, vendor management, contract management, execution, tracking, monitoring, controlling, quality assurance, and on-time delivery. He is a Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential holder, PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)® credential holder, and has delivered projects over a wide range of domains, such as Leak Detection Software, Semiconductor software, implementing desktop/mobile websites, and Bio-Information Management Systems, in addition to the field of software services. He earned his bachelor’s degree (B.Tech) in chemical engineering from Pune University, India and earned his master’s degree (M.Tech) in computer-aided process and equipment design from REC/NIT in Warangal, India.

Overcoming Project Bottlenecks

Written by Lisa Anderson on May 20, 2014. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Overcoming Project Bottlenecks

Have you ever seen a project without obstacles? In my hundreds of projects over the last 20+ years, I never have! Yet every one of my clients over the years has multiple projects running as they are cornerstone to success. Project results are considered essential – improve service, increase margins, accelerate cash flow, implement or upgrade an ERP system without a hiccup, etc. Thus, it is wise to consider how to overcome obstacles upfront. Prepare for success!

How do we effectively do that and deal with obstacles? 1) First, prepare to avoid them. 2) Remain calm. 3) Think about options. 4) Evaluate

First, prepare to avoid them! – Well, of course, it is easier to overcome an obstacle if there is no obstacle. I’m sure many of you are thinking, “Easier said than done”. No doubt, as I’ve said that too; however, I have found that with a little thought, you can avoid several obstacles.
My best practice for accomplishing this goal is to stick with what’s simple. First, don’t worry about every obstacle. If it doesn’t matter to the project if you overcome an obstacle, don’t waste your time.

Focus only on those that will make a difference – certainly those affecting the critical path! Then, take 5 minutes to think. What is likely to go wrong? Can I live with that potential result? If not, is there something I could do to prevent it? Follow this process for your top 3 potential obstacles for all critical priorities. Soon, you’ll have far fewer obstacles to overcome – and you’ll likely become more effective by default since you can focus on fewer issues at a time!
Remain calm – Again, much easier said than done. Yet I’ve found this can be the most essential ingredient to success. Although it’s a natural tendency to stress or feel bad about the situation, refrain as much as possible. We think more clearly when not stressed. Instead of thinking of all the ways we screwed up to make this occur or worrying about what the worst-case impacts might be, take a deep breath. Most likely, it is not a life or death obstacle. Although it might require damage control, it is likely that it will not end your career. So, why waste energy? Instead, let’s put whatever energy we have to good use by figuring out a solution.
Think about options – In my experience in working with all types and sizes of organizations across multiple industries and globally, the best way to overcome an obstacle is the same across the board – think about options. Don’t waste time determining what caused the obstacle at this point (unless it will help in the resolution); instead, focus attention on options to overcome the obstacle. There are always numerous ways to overcome an obstacle. Don’t worry about the merits of each of the options until you’ve brainstormed a list of options. Ask your team members for ideas. Talk with colleagues. Even ask unlikely sources. I’m constantly surprised by what I learn from unlikely places. Project management is a team sport.
Evaluate – Once you have several potential ideas to overcome the obstacle, evaluate the top few. How likely are they to be successful? What downsides do they have? Which have other negative impacts? Typically it’s best to take resources out of the equation upfront so that you find the optimal solution as folks often get tied up in thinking of what they think is achievable vs. the ideal solution. Why would you want to miss out on a perfect solution because you aren’t sure how to staff it?

Now, it’s finally time to add resources into the mix. Don’t fall into analysis paralysis. Keep it simple: Determine a ballpark amount of time and resources the option will require. Determine to what degree it will resolve the issue or improve the situation. Is there anything else that would have to happen to ensure success? Will it likely be approved?

Then, when you’re 80% ready, GO! In today’s new normal business environment, speed matters. Thus, a 2% improved solution is not worth sacrificing a week of time (or even a day in most cases).

I run into countless obstacles. Whether I’m successful or not has little to do with whether I run into an obstacle; instead, it has to do with how I address the obstacle. Become quicker and more effective, and you’ll surpass your competition.

Don’t forget to leave your comments below.