Tag: Project Management

5 Steps to Replacing the Project Manager on a Failing Project

Written by Brad Egeland on March 5, 2018. Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on 5 Steps to Replacing the Project Manager on a Failing Project

The project is going down the tubes… what do you do?

There are definitely steps you can take to improve performance on an existing project – things you can do tomorrow that may help right the tipping ship. But if you have tried a few or have determined the problem is the leadership, then changing out the project manager – and possible one or two other key positions on the project team depending on how bad the performance really is – may be your only option.

Only take this approach if it is absolutely necessary but if the project client is asking for the change you really have no other choice. The PM has to go. Remember, changes at top of a project… the leadership of the project… can cause major disruptions and can significantly impact customer satisfaction and confidence. But, if you are at the point of considering or needing to replace the project manager or especially if the customer is requesting this change, then that ship has already sailed and now you’re just trying to salvage the project before it gets canceled and a lot of money gets left on the table, right? Not much to lose but possibly everything to gain if you do it right and do it efficiently.

I’ve taken over these types of projects before and I’ve witnessed them from other colleagues. Thankfully, I’ve never been the one out the door on a project, but it can easily happen to anyone. What I’ve found to be most effective in taking over a project like this or in replacing leadership on a project like this is to follow five key steps to some degree depending on the situation, the client and the type of project involved – so I’ll try to make the steps as broad and generic as possible to help them to best apply to different scenarios…

Evaluate the situation internally. Before going to the project client – especially if they are yet to ask for a replacement project manager – evaluate the situation internally. This means someone in senior leadership – the PMO Director if there is one and probably one or two others in senior leadership – needs to sit down with the project team and discuss the project and the leadership issues that have been going on. At this point, I am assuming that it’s obvious that the project manager needs to go so they aren’t likely part of this conversation… they will probably be part of a separate conversation that may include termination of their employment if the performance is that bad and the customer and project that valuable.

This meeting involves finding out the exact current status of the project, what issues are going on, what the team and other stakeholders think the customer concerns might be – especially with the project leadership – and what action or actions they would like to see taken.

Evaluate the situation with the project client.

Next, go to the client and discuss the plan or option to change leadership on the project. If the client has requested this change already, this step may need to happen before the internal meeting step because a rapid response to a project client concern is always extremely critical to the project. Finding out specifically what the issues are with leadership may be the best first step to finding the right fit to take over the project. You certainly don’t want to make the situation worse by finding the wrong replacement that is just going to frustrate the project client even more.

Make the go, no-go decision.

The go, no-go decision on replacing the project manager is – at this point – likely already a done deal. But an official decision on the project and even the employment status of the failing project manager should happen now and be acted on accordingly. It doesn’t need to be loud – in fact it should probably be kept as quiet as possible to maintain professionalism, but be firm in the action and stick to it.

Find the right fit to take on the failing project.

Next, the proper replacement resource needs to be found, quickly. No sense in delaying the enviable… and by this point the previous project manager has probably been relieved of his project duties and someone else – the business analyst or technical lead – is “managing” the project in the interim. I’m not talking about a long time here… this all needs to take place over the course of maybe 1-2 days because drawing it out any further can cause further client issues to arise and could possibly be causing the project to take on extra costs and miss an important deadline. Time is not on your side – act quickly to keep the project moving forward. Having a business analyst or technical lead or even an interim project manager who won’t be the final replacement is a very undesirable situation to have going on.

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Onboard the new leadership with the least amount of disruption.

Finally, bring the new resource on board quickly – preferably sitting in on a meeting or two before fully taking over the project. Before that happens, the important thing is to fully brief the new project manager on where the project stands and what the major issues are with the project. It is also very important to get the new resource as much documentation about the project as possible – the statement of work (SOW), the current project schedule, any issues lists and change order documentation as well as the financial / budget analysis and resource forecast. Much of this can probably be provided through giving the new PM the last few project status reports… unless project status reporting and documentation or budget or resource management is one of the key weaknesses of the outgoing project manager (which sadly is often the case). If that is the case, then the new resource will have to jump aboard and learn as much about the project as possible as they are actively taking over. Not the most desirable situation, but it happens.

Summary / call for input

No one likes these situations. Sure, it can be an ego boost if you’re called in to save an ailing project. But half the time leadership looking more for an available warm body to take on the project rather than seeking out the absolute best fit and right person for the situation. It’s about availability unless the client is one they can’t afford to lose and you’re the top PM in the organization… then they may pull you from whatever project you’re on to take on the Titanic. The risk, of course, is to sink both projects. But the upside is that both projects may conclude successfully. Overall company leadership has to determine if that is a risk they want to take on.

Readers – what is your experience in this situation? Have you been involved – good or bad – with this type of project scenario? What steps did you take and how successful was it? Please share your experiences and discuss.

Building Your Product Development Toolbox

Written by Nathan Thomas on February 27, 2018. Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on Building Your Product Development Toolbox

When it comes to identifying product development problems early on, a first step can often be as simple as examining the tools with which you’re working.

As a Systems Engineer who recently underwent a home renovation, I was able to draw parallels between the product development work I do, and that arduous task.

In that spirit, to be successful with any project, you need to know what to do, how to do it and have the right tools for the job. Systems Engineering (SE) provides precisely those tools for product developments. SE is a collection of processes, activities, tools, and techniques that are complementary to traditional engineering and project management disciplines, and explicitly designed to make product developments successful.

Processes

The process provides a roadmap for success. When it came to my floors, the process was to pull up carpet, remove tacks, sand, fill cracks, and refinish. Adhering to this roadmap was critical to ensure my floors looked brand new. The process is even more essential for product developments where so much is on the line. Systems Engineering includes processes for every part of the development lifecycle – from defining the market need to verifying the product meets the requirement. However, while the process tells you what to do, it doesn’t tell you how to do it.

Activities & Techniques

Knowing that you should seal your bathroom isn’t the same as knowing how to do it the right way. Product developments are no different. Most organizations already have processes well defined, yet they still struggle. SE offers specific activities that can be completed to get the most out of your development processes. It also saves time and improves quality by defining the proper techniques for performing those SE activities, and for using SE tools (see below).

Tools

There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing what to do and how to do it, but not having the right tools for the job. Without the right tools, quality suffers, and the job takes longer to complete. In product developments, this translates into defects, cost/schedule overruns, and unhappy customers. Systems Engineering provides the tools needed to ensure high quality and efficient product development.

The SE Toolbox

For an example of what the “SE Tool Box” actually looks like, let’s look at two overly simplified, yet realistic, scenarios.

The Idea on a Napkin

You work for a product development firm, and a customer comes to you with an “idea on a napkin.” Before selecting a concept, you decide it’s prudent first to consider what problem the product must solve and to define the key capabilities and characteristics the solution must have. But how?

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Systems Engineering is your roadmap. That roadmap starts with understanding who will interact with the product and influence its design or use in some way. You reach into your SE Toolbox and decide that stakeholder analysis is the right activity for gaining this knowledge. SE offers some techniques to make this activity more successful. For example, a stakeholder can be classified as “active” (those directly interacting with the product – users, maintainers, the environment, attackers) or “passive” (the influencers – customers, regulatory bodies, etc.). This differentiation is important because active stakeholders tend to drive a product’s capabilities (e.g., features, inputs/outputs, functions), while passive stakeholder tends to drive its characteristics (e.g., safety, security, cost, reliability). This context is important for what’s next. The next step in the SE process is to learn more about these stakeholders’ wants, needs, preferences, pains, aversions, etc. You go back to your SE toolbox and decide that a Voice of the Customer (VoC) Interview is the right tool for getting feedback from customers and end users, while a survey is the right tool for learning more from maintainers. Like doing drywall, a VoC interview is more successful when the proper techniques are used. SE offers techniques for asking the right questions, knowing what to look for in the responses, what to ask next, and how to extract what’s needed from the transcripts.

This brief example shows how the Systems Engineering can help you move efficiently from an immature idea to a well-defined statement of the market need and core set of product capabilities and characteristics, which is the foundation of every successful product development. The team now has with it needs to move forward with concept selection.

From Concept to Design

In this next example, let’s assume a concept has been selected and we need to transition into high-level design. Again, Systems Engineering provides the roadmap to get us there.

The first step in this SE process is to understand how the concept will be used. Creating use case scenarios is one activity that does just that. There are techniques that help keep use cases focused on what the interactions look like, independent of how they occur (thus preventing unnecessary design constraints). Every “active” stakeholder interacts with the system and therefore has at least one use case. A stick figure diagram is a tool we can use to tie stakeholders to use cases. This helps identify missing use cases, and to surface previously unknown active stakeholders. The next step in the SE process is to translate these interactions into design terms. A useful activity is to go through and represent each use case graphically. Sequence Diagrams and Activity Diagrams are two excellent tools (there are many others) because they represent each use case regarding inputs, outputs, functions, and decisions. Once we’ve diagramed all use cases, we can use another tool – the context diagram – to define our system boundary (our technical scope) and summarize all external I/O that cross that boundary.

This brief example shows how Systems Engineering can help us understand how our concept will be used, define our system boundary and technical scope, identify required inputs/output, and define functions needed to turn the inputs into outputs. This is how you move seamlessly from high-level concept into detailed design, with full traceability and focus on what’s important.

The above examples are only the tip of the iceberg.

Summary

Whether you are remodeling your home, introducing a disruptive product to market, or improving an existing design, it’s important that you understand what to do, how to do it, and have the right tools for the job. When it comes to product developments, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. You can leverage the scalable, adaptable, and available product development toolbox that’s made for the job- Systems Engineering.

As we’ll see in the next part in this series, companies that successfully integrate Systems Engineering into their product developments see a significant return on their investment. Interested?

Do You Have the Backbone to Negotiate Effectively?

Written by Neal Whitten,PMP on February 26, 2018. Posted in Articles. 8 Comments on Do You Have the Backbone to Negotiate Effectively?

Negotiating is a fundamental skill that you use virtually every day—far more than many people realize.

It plays a critical role both in the success of your career and your life outside of work. Every day you negotiate with your co-workers, with businesses, friends and family. For many, negotiating can seem confrontational, intimidating, and frankly a daunting task. My experience is that most people do not demonstrate the backbone to negotiate effectively—even though they would if they just knew what to do.

I’m going to show you what to do… by revealing 10 top practices of the most effective negotiators. Do you have the backbone to apply these practices? They are not in any priority order and are all important.

1. Be willing to walk away

When you begin the negotiation you should know the boundaries of an acceptable deal. If you are not sure of those limits then you are at risk of losing sight of the bigger picture of an acceptable outcome for you—what’s truly in your best interests. If it is clear that those limits will be breached, then be willing to walk away. When your counterpart realizes that you are determined to get a better deal, absent of which you have no hesitation to end the negotiation, the likelihood is high that your counterpart will work more creatively to satisfy at least your minimal acceptable requirements.

2. Make an aggressive first offer

According to authors Adam Grant and Adam Galinsky, in the book, Give and Take, research supports the strategy that people who make the first offer typically get a better deal closer to their target price. The first offer sets what’s called the “anchor price.” All succeeding offers use the anchor price as the point from which to negotiate.

Research also shows that the anchor price is often not aggressive enough. People are afraid to be too bold in the eyes of their counterpart and resist stronger first offers. Make your first position bold and aggressive. It’s possible you might even get it. Your counterpart can always counter offer and likely will negotiate the offer down. However, do your best to not set a ridiculous price. Doing so will cause the other party to doubt your seriousness. You want to be reasonable.

3. Use silence

Silence is a great negotiating tactic—a powerful weapon. Whether you are making an offer or receiving one, afterwards employ a pause—such as slowly counting to 10 but perhaps a much longer pause—to use silence to your advantage. This tactic not only can get the other party thinking more about your position but, for most people, silence during a negotiation feels awkward and they feel nervously compelled to say something. Before you know it, you likely have learned information that you otherwise would not have had—information helpful in your favor.

By the way, if the offer to you looks acceptable, there is still value in pausing before you accept it. Pausing helps your counterpart feel like they have squeezed out a good deal compared to you immediately accepting the offer.

4. Ask for more than what you want

Many people are embarrassed to ask for more than what they want. If you don’t ask, you will never get it. What could have been possible is only a thought rather than a reality. If you do ask, there is the possibility that you will get it. Top negotiators have no problem asking for the sky as long as the sky falls in the category of a possible and realistic outcome. They recognize that a huge mistake would be not asking. By not asking, you are passing up opportunities that will have affected your overall success.

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5. Show disappointment

When your counterpart makes an offer that you view not to be favorable, show your disappointment with a flinch or other small display of dissatisfaction. The objective is not only to present a reaction but to make your counterpart feel uncomfortable with their offer. This theatric can cause your counterpart to immediately make larger concessions in order to gain your visible approval.

On the flip side, if you like what you are hearing, you can reveal a small smile or configure your face to represent that you feel the negotiation is moving in an acceptable direction. Your counterpart will want to work hard to win your future show of approval.

6. Never feel rushed

Make time your friend. Patience is a virtue in the world of negotiating. You need time to convince others. If you have patience then exploit it. If you don’t, then acquire it. More often than not, your counterpart will reach a point when they are tiring and just want the negotiation to come to a speedy end. This is a point where your counterpart is willing to make concessions that otherwise appeared to be off the table. Your ability to outlast your counterpart can be a formidable advantage to reaching a more favorable outcome.

7. Invest in preparation

It has been said by many prominent negotiators that the most important element of a negotiation is preparation, preparation, preparation. When preparing for important negotiations, here are areas with which to focus: Brainstorm creative solutions that can satisfy both parties; Know what it is you want, what you are willing to concede and not willing to concede; Review past lessons learned from similar negotiations; Understand your counterpart and the issues that they are faced with; Consider engaging a negotiation coach; and Practice your performance, at the least, in your head but consider role playing with a trusted friend or colleague

Do not underestimate your counterpart—assume they have thoroughly prepared themselves for the negotiation.

8. Listen, ask questions and learn

Bobby Covic, author of Everything’s Negotiable!, said, “There’s a saying among negotiators that whoever talks the most during a negotiation loses.” Most people want to keep talking but good negotiators are more interested in asking questions and learning what their counterpart has to say. When you listen, your counterpart views you to be more sincere and approachable. Listening is an important step to building trust and respect.

Furthermore, negotiating should not be seen as a major conflict between two or more parties but instead as a process of discovery. You ask questions and listen. You probe and listen. You are gathering data that you can use to improve your position while learning about the other party’s strengths and weaknesses, their wants and needs. You listen to understand, not to focus on your next reply.

9. Keep your cool and maintain a positive mindset

The mindset that you initially bring to the negotiating table will be contagious to your counterpart. If you ask nicely and come across fair, most people will work harder at reaching a reasonable compromise. Negotiating is all about working with people. You want to establish a rapport, a bond of sorts. Begin the negotiation with a great attitude, confidence, enthusiasm and optimism. Turn potential opponents into allies.

Do not take things personally or make them personal while negotiating. Doing so can undermine trust, respect and interfere with maintaining a clear head. Resist yelling or verbally attacking your counterpart. Never knowingly say anything that is hurtful to your counterpart. You want to keep a pleasant and relaxed demeanor.

Remaining cool is not just about resisting a display of negative emotions about your counterpart, it’s also about not tipping your hand about your excitement regarding the item at the focus of the negotiation. Do not let your emotions betray your thoughts—maintain your best poker face. If your counterpart sees that you want the item being negotiated badly, then there can be little incentive for your counterpart to negotiate. Limit revealing your enthusiasm for the item; instead, unfavorably compare the item to other products or deals in an attempt to lower its value.

10. Go for a win-win

A win-win outcome is when both parties feel like they negotiated an acceptable deal, when their points of view have been satisfactorily considered and their respect for each other is likely on a high note. If these parties will ever negotiate again, both are likely to enter the negotiations with positive attitudes and a willingness to work well with each other. When you help your counterpart get what they want, you more likely will get what you want. You want to be fair and reasonable with your counterpart. For example, don’t expect them to give up something that does not give them an acceptable profit or allow them to save face.

– – – – –

When you become a better negotiator and see that nearly everything in life is negotiable, it opens your possibilities for a more fulfilling life.

$1 million wasted every 20 seconds by organizations around the world

Written by Vanessa Andres on February 20, 2018. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on $1 million wasted every 20 seconds by organizations around the world

New survey reveals nearly 8% of every dollar spent by Canadian businesses lost through ineffective implementation of business strategy; Points to critical factors to drive business success.

The 2018 Pulse of the Profession®, a global survey conducted by Project Management Institute (PMI), reveals around $1 million is wasted every 20 seconds collectively by organizations around the globe due to the ineffective implementation of business strategy through poor project management practices. This equates to roughly $2 trillion dollars wasted a year. While Canada has the second least financial wastage among the regions surveyed, it is still wasting 7.7% of every dollar* invested by businesses, pointing to a significant opportunity to drive financial performance.

The study shows that on average organizations globally waste 9.9 percent of every dollar* due to poor project performance, and that around one in three projects (31 percent globally; 28 percent in Canada) do not meet their goals, 43 percent globally (same percentage for Canada) are not completed within budget, and nearly half (48 percent- both globally and specifically in Canada) are not completed on time. Alarmingly, executive leaders may be out of touch with this reality, as 85 percent surveyed said they believe their organizations are effective in delivering projects to achieve strategic results. These factors are leading to colossal financial losses for businesses around the world, with a significant broader macro-economic impact.

“Project management is the driver of strategy, but organizations are failing to bridge the gap between strategy design and its delivery,” said Mark A. Langley, President and Chief Executive Officer, Project Management Institute. “Effective project management to implement an organization’s business strategy is

Of the geographic regions included in the survey, China reported the lowest average monetary waste on projects (7.6 percent or $76 million per $1 billion), followed by Canada (7.7 percent or $77 million per $1 billion), and India (8.1 percent or $81 million per $1 billion). Contrarily, Australia reported the highest average waste on project spending at 13.9 percent or $139 million per $1 billion.

*Figures are U.S. dollar amounts, but represent a percentage that applies to any currency.

“There is a powerful connection between effective project management and financial performance,” continued Langley. “Organizations that are ineffective with project management waste 21 times more money than those with the highest performing project management capabilities. But the good news is that by leveraging some proven practices, there is huge potential for organizations to course correct and enhance financial performance.”

In an era of increased financial scrutiny, shifting competitive pressures, and business disruption from evolving technology, the survey results point to five critical factors that can help organizations drive performance through more effective implementation of strategy.

1. Executive Sponsor Engagement is the Top Driver of Effective Strategy Delivery

The top driver of projects meeting their original business goals is an actively engaged executive champion or sponsor. But at the same time, organizations report an average of 38 percent of projects not having active executive sponsorship, which points to the need and opportunity for executive leaders to be more engaged in the delivery of strategy.

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2. Greater Connection Between Strategy Design and Delivery

Executives often fail to recognize that effective project and program management is what delivers on strategy. More than one in three organizations (35 percent) report not having strong alignment of initiatives and projects that directly deliver against strategy. This indicates the need for C-Suite executives to better recognize the full potential of project management to execute strategy, and to ensure they are leveraging the right programs to directly deliver against strategy.

3. Optimize Investment in Strategy Implementation

Organizations often prioritize investment in developing strategyover proper execution. There appears to be a big disconnect between executive leaders and project managers on strategy implementation funding. While 84 percent of executive leaders believe they are effectively prioritizing and funding the right initiatives and projects, only 55 percent of Project Management Office (PMO) leaders agree. This suggests that organizations might not be leveraging the optimum focus and investment to deliver against strategy.

4. Leverage Disruption – Don’t Just React to It – Get Agile

In a world with an accelerated pace of innovation, disruption is the new normal. So, it’s not surprising that 83 percent of project managers report digital transformation has either moderately or dramatically impacted their work over the past five years. What’s key to success in today’s business environment is leveraging an agile approach with project management and delivering against strategy through ongoing evaluation of shifting market dynamics, new technologies and innovation.

But while 71 percent of organizations report greater agility over the last five years, only 28 percent report having high organizational agility overall. Though agility is increasing, the pace of change is inconsistent. In fact, from a broader organizational perspective, only 40 percent of organizations report prioritizing the creation of a culture receptive to change.

Looking forward, organizations that can leverage disruption and remain agile can drive both financial gain and competitive advantage.

5. Define and Track Success Metrics

The survey showed that on average, around half (52 percent) of projects experience scope creep and roughly half (48 percent) are not delivered on time, leading to huge financial losses. Defining success measures upfront helps ensure projects stay on track, and meet budgets and goals.

The extent to which organizations within different regions are leveraging these project management best practices is reflected in the overall wastage, detailed below from the least to most wastage:
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*Figures are U.S. dollar amounts, but represent a percentage that applies to any currency.
The full Pulse of the Profession Survey® can be viewed at www.pmi.org/Pulse.

Less Than 2% at CMMI Level 3 Maturity – Why?

Written by Robert Wysocki on February 19, 2018. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Less Than 23 at CMMI Level 3 Maturity – Why?

SEI has been a long standing factor in developing and promoting the CMMI.

The five level maturity model has received a lot of attention and fan fare too. It has been heralded as the de facto standard of a successful project management culture beginning with CMM in 1987. Despite all of that attention published research found that less than 2% of the organizations surveyed have reached Maturity Level 3 or beyond. This could be a reason why project failure rates have remained at unacceptable levels but maybe there is more to the story.

There is and the answer can be found in what has been called Hybrid Project Management. At best it has been flying below the radar. I contend that there is an underlying process. In this article I will try to shed some light on this undiscovered practice.

HYBRID PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

The project landscape is shown in Figure 1. The complex project quadrants are the focus of this article. The work of Mark Mulally [Mulally, 2017] concluded that fewer than 2% of organizations practice project management at CMMI Maturity Level 3. Don’t you wonder what the other 98% are doing? I’m going to attempt to describe that at a robust level.

Figure 1: The Project Landscape

The Hybrid PMLC Model applies to the projects that fall in the complex project quadrants. Testimonial worldwide data suggests that over 80 % of all projects fall in the 3 quadrants that define the complex project landscape. Many of these projects do not fit existing PMLC Models. The project managers know this and attempt to adapt or design project management approaches that do fit the specific situations and conditions of the project. These customized approaches are the Hybrid PMLC Models. You won’t find them in the literature because they are part of organizational business processes. Few will be documented and if they are they will probably be proprietary.

DEFINITION: Hybrid Project Management

Hybrid Project Management is a customized project management approach based on:

the physical and behavioral characteristics of the project
the organizational culture and environment of the project
the dynamic conditions of the supply and demand markets

to custom design a project management approach using a vetted portfolio of tools, templates and processes.

This is intentionally phrased to be a robust statement of what constitutes Hybrid Project Management.

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A Robust Hybrid Project Management Life Cycle Model

Figure 2 is a robust depiction of the Hybrid Project Management Life Cycle (PMLC) Model. I’m assuming that to be valid every Hybrid Model must be defined by these phases.

Figure 2: A Conceptual Hybrid Project Management Model

Hybrid Project Management Models are more useful than Agile or Extreme Models in those situations where very little is known about the solution or the specifics of the goal. Keep in mind that solution discovery is still the focus of these Hybrid Models. Each iteration in a Hybrid Model must address not only task completion for newly defined functions and features, but also further solution definition through function and feature discovery.

Ideation Phase

The Ideation Phase of the Hybrid PMLC Model is a high-level activity because not much is known about the solution. For the Hybrid PMLC Model, the Ideation activities merely set the boundaries and the high-level parameters that will be the foundation on which you proceed to learn and discover. The Ideation Phase answers the following questions:

What business situation is being addressed by this project?
What does the business need to do?
What are you proposing to do?
How will you do it?
How will you know you did it?

Set-up Phase

At this point in the Hybrid PMLC Model planning is done in general for the entire project and in detail for the first or next iteration. That planning is based on:

any changes to the project or its performance
the current environment in which the project is being conducted
competitor changes, emerging technologies, new products/services, shifts in demand

High-level planning might be part of the Ideation Phase in response to Question #4. Based on the known functionality and features that will be built in the coming cycle, a detailed plan is developed. This plan utilizes all of the vetted tools, templates, and processes defined by the organization.

Execution Phase

The Execution Phase will often include a Launch Step to establish team operating rules, the decision-making process, conflict management, team meetings, and a problem-solving approach.

During project execution there will be some oversight monitoring and controlling functions pertaining to the current iteration. A cumulative history of project performance metrics should also be maintained. These metrics should inform the project team about the rate at which convergence to an acceptable solution is occurring. Frequency of changes, severity of change, and similar metrics can also help. As part of that control function, the team collects whatever learning and discovery took place during the Iteration and records it. All change requests are also retained for later processing.

At the close of the project lessons learned, validation of success criteria, installation of deliverables and a post-project audit will often be included.

AN EXAMPLE HYBRID PMLC MODEL

There is only one Hybrid Model in the public domain at this time [Wysocki, 2014]. It is the Effective Complex Project Management (ECPM) Framework. It is a 12 step model as shown in Figure 3. The ECPM Framework was built to be applicable to any type of project. For that reason, ECPM thrives on learning, discovery, and change. In time, and with enough cycles, the project manager expects that an acceptable solution will emerge.

Figure 3: The 12 steps of the ECPM Framework

The Set-Up Phase of the ECPM Framework is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for the Hybrid Model. It is the only commercial product that expects changes to the project management approach during project execution. The less that is known about the solution, the more risk, uncertainty, and complexity will be present and the more likely a Hybrid PMLC Model will be used. To remove the uncertainty associated with these projects, the solution has to be discovered. That will happen through a continuous change process from cycle to cycle. That change process is designed to create convergence to a complete solution.

Compared to the Agile PMLC Model, the Hybrid PMLC Model requires more involvement from the client. Once you have decided that an Hybrid PMLC Model is a best fit for your project, meaningful client involvement is necessary. Without their meaningful involvement, the Hybrid PMLC Model project has little chance of success. To be meaningful, the client must be fully involved in the decisions to go forward with the project and in what direction. I have had projects where the client was the primary decision maker, and I was there to keep the project pointed in the right direction. Some clients have the confidence and leadership skills to assume this role; others do not, and the more traditional role of the project manager is employed.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

The success of Hybrid PMLC Models is leveraged by expecting and accommodating frequent change. Change is the result of learning and discovery by the team and, most importantly, by the client. Because change will have a dramatic impact on the project, only a minimalist approach to planning is employed. Planning is actually done just in time and only for the next cycle. No effort is wasted on planning the future. The future is unknown, and any effort at planning that future will be viewed as non-value-added work. That is not consistent with the notion of “lean.”

Compared to the Agile PMLC Model, the Hybrid PMLC Model requires more involvement from the client. As you will learn in the discussion of specific Hybrid PMLC Models, clients will have more of a directive role in the project than they do in the Linear, Incremental, and even Agile PMLC Models. Once you have decided that an Hybrid PMLC Model is a best fit for your project, meaningful client involvement is necessary. Without their meaningful involvement, the Hybrid PMLC Model project has little chance of success. To be meaningful, the client must be fully involved in the decisions to go forward with the project and in what direction. I have had projects where the client was the primary decision maker, and I was there to keep the project pointed in the right direction. Some clients have the confidence and leadership skills to assume this role; others do not, and the more traditional role of the project manager is employed.

ENDNOTES
[Wysocki, 2014] Wysocki, Robert K. Effective Complex Project Management: An Adaptive Agile Framework for Delivering Business Value. J. Ross Publishing (2014).