Tag: Project Management

You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything

Written by Brad Egeland on October 9, 2017. Posted in Articles. 6 Comments on You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything

Any project manager or PMO director will tell you that successfully managing a project takes a lot more than a little luck and common sense.

It does take a lot of common sense and logic. I believe that experience and logic are the two key principles behind the application of project management best practices. But it takes accountability, dedication, persistence, patience, and solid leadership qualities to experience project management success on a regular and ongoing basis…the kind of basis necessary to keep you in the PM profession for the long term. No one steps into the role of successfully managing projects again and again through shear luck…no it takes experience and the qualities and soft skills and characteristics to actually be able to repeatedly pull that off.

The title of this article comes from a song by Aaron Tippin. I heard it for the first time the other day and it made an impression on me. It contains lyrics like this …

“He’d say you’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything
You’ve got to be your own man not a puppet on a string
Never compromise what’s right and uphold your family name
You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything…”

My first thought was, “this is a good song and very applicable…now how do I apply this to the project manager profession?” I know it’s real and it is saying “be a leader and follow your gut” but how do I translate that to this type of article?

I think it goes like this… If you’re going to be a successful project manager or consultant or whatever, you have to have some goals, integrity and missions. Mine, personally, is to succeed for my customer. My motto is, “You’re only as successful as your last customer thinks you are..” If you don’t have a plan then many things on a project or through others actions or wishes can cause your potential success to fall apart. If you aren’t in control, then someone else will be and you will be subservient to whatever that is and whoever that pleases. So for me, it comes down to three key things…

Make solid decisions and stand behind them.

The project manager who can gather information, ask questions from available subject matter experts (SMEs), and make good project decisions and stand by them without being swayed by those with other agendas will have greater chance at ongoing project successes. Meeting challenges head-on and making the best informed decision possible – even if it’s made with less than optimal information – it’s the best decision that could be made in the moment. Stand by it unless adequate new information becomes available, then of course assess and change directions, if needed. Once you know differently, there is no real honor in standing behind the wrong decision if you know better.

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Lead the team and don’t waiver easily on the principles that make you a good project manager and leader.

This is another one about stubbornness. There are those – even senior leaders in the company – who will try to sway you away from actions you are carrying out on the part of the customer and the project. They may ask you to knowingly go down a path that may not be best for the project’s goals and mission in the name of more revenue or even just making the delivery organization “look good.” I had this happen to me a couple of times that I know of and realized… and possibly more times earlier in my career when I was not aware of the situation. Has anyone reading this had this one happen to you?

Boldly lead the customer and don’t back down when the turbulence hits.

When the turbulence hits. On a project. And it will hit. Every project has issues. The key for the project manager is to stay the course, with both eyes on the budget and resource forecast, of course because hitting a patch of issue laden work can mean the need to call out to some additional experts or maybe even switch out resources to get back on track. Both of these scenarios take valuable time and money which is why the budget and resource forecasts must both be watched and managed carefully.

Summary / call for input and feedback

Leaders are stubborn, unwavering, ruthless even. Don’t be ruthless, but do stand behind your principles, decisions, and actions. Stand for something so you aren’t swayed by anything. Others are going to offer their opinions. Others are going to want you to go down their path. Listen – because that’s half of the good communication equation. But if it’s not the right thing for the project, for the customer, for the team, and for you…then don’t be swayed. I realize that is much easier said than done. Most of us are affected by peer pressure. I know I am. And to leadership pressure. But I’ve had leadership steer me wrong twice and it caused two of my projects to fail – both million dollar+ projects. That was painful. So, I still stand by my motto that “You’re only as successful as your last customer thinks you are…” Keep that in mind and you’ll likely make consistent, forward thinking decisions and actions for your customer and project. Stay the course. Be stubborn… it’s ok. At the end of the day you’re the one who has to take whatever comes on the project, positive or negative. And you’re the one who has to look the customer in the eye and explain the good or the bad. You can give that task to someone else, but the best leaders don’t delegate this.

Readers – what is your take on this? What principles and goals have you built your project management reputation and practice upon? If pressed real hard to choose…do you go with the customer or the leadership when you know they are in direct conflict with each other? Touch questions… sometimes career defining situations and decisions.

Project Insight: What It Is and How to Get It

Written by George Pitagorsky on October 2, 2017. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Project Insight: What It Is and How to Get It

Everyone with a stake in a project wants to know what’s going on.

Depending on who they are, they want to know the reason for the project, how it relates to other projects, what progress has been made, what issues or barriers have come up, estimates and the level of confidence to place in them, when the project will be done, how much it has and will cost, what the product will be like, and more.

Project managers need even more than knowledge. They need project insight.

Insight is seeing into or understanding the inner nature of something including the cause and effect relationships that drive it. Insight is associated with intuition and wisdom. Insight often appears in a flash, though it is the result of a synthesis of information and experience. With insight, there is a felt sense of physical sensations. There is an awareness that cannot be completely expressed intellectually.

For example, after reading a status report and finding that project tasks are running late a project manager goes home worried about the project’s success. He or she has dinner, watches some TV, talks to friends and/or spouse about politics, movies or personal finance, and goes to bed. The next morning, in the shower, there is an AHA moment that gives the manager the insight into the cause of the delays and the clear understanding of what to do about it. Worry disappears and is replaced by a sense of confidence. There is still a need to analyze the situation to make sure the insight is real and practical, but there has been a breakthrough.

How do we get the insight needed to manage and perform?

The process that leads to insight relies on structure and hard and soft data. The data is transformed into useful information which is interpreted through the filter of experience to gain insight or deep understanding. Insight can arise when hard and soft data are synthesized into a total picture of the project.

Soft Data

Along with the hard data of dates, deliverables, and dollars, the project manager uses input that comes from observing and listening to project stakeholders and their relationships and knowing his/her own biases and conditioned responses. This requires mindfulness, emotional and social intelligence. It is the ability of a PM to process this data that makes the difference between the adequate and the great performers.

However, subjective evaluations and impressions are not enough. Recognizing that intuition is not always right, we need the hard data that will “prove” its validity.

Hard Data

The plan provides the structure. The tasks, organized hierarchically in a work breakdown structure, are the framework that is fleshed out with duration, effort and cost estimates and associated with resources. The baseline is established. The hard data are the actual results – costs, effort expended, deliverables accomplished, dates, client and stakeholder satisfaction, etc. – that can be reflected against the baseline to get a sense of the way the project is meeting expectations.

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As work is performed, actuals are compared to estimates. The result – early, late, over or under budget – is assessed in the context of task dependencies and resource availability to determine its impact on the project itself and on other projects using common resources.

Trends are analyzed. Are delays, defects and overruns isolated or chronically continuing to increase? Do they indicate that estimates are seriously flawed and that the project baseline needs to be changed? Are delays caused by poor estimates or poor performance?

Understanding the need to measure earned value, the PM compares the value of interim accomplishments to scheduled completion and budgeted cost. This requires estimating and tracking effort and cost. Without such tracking, insight is limited, relying on inference and subjective opinion rather than hard data.

However, the experienced PM will be able to gain insight into project health based on the information at hand. He/she will know that things are going right or wrong based on whether there are concrete deliverables, the nature of relationships and communications and the general “vibe”, among other cues.

As a rule of thumb, if a task slips for two or more reporting periods, it is likely that there is something that requires reassessing the estimate and performance. Chronic, increasing variance between estimates and actual results is a bad sign.

Determine if delays are on the critical path and therefore likely to delay overall project completion or on other paths and therefore less impactful. How do delays on noncritical tasks effect resource allocations? What risks have been identified and how likely to impact your project, with what intensity? How many scope changes are coming up? Are defects being discovered late in the project? Will a non-critical path become critical?

To enhance control and predictability define relatively short tasks (a week or two in duration) identified with well-defined concrete, measurable deliverables. When tasks have long durations with poorly defined deliverables, opinion rather than fact is the basis for saying how much of the task has been accomplished ad when it will be finished.

Well defined deliverables include clear understandings of acceptance criteria. Don’t be misled by performance characterized by on time deliverables that satisfy schedule expectations but are of poor quality. For example, delivering product components that are full of defects so that testing and acceptance activities are long and overly costly.

Beware of percentage completion reporting, particularly when the percentage completion is based on subjective opinion rather than comparing amount completed vs. total amount to be completed. It is common that the last ten percent can take longer to accomplish than the first ninety percent.

While you can’t rely on the numbers alone, without them you are navigating your project without a compass or access to the stars.

Insightfully Going Forward

Processing the hard data in any complex project requires project tools and the skill and discipline to effectively use them create and maintain the plan, capture actual performance data, summarize, assess trends and report. If the tool is part of a wider project portfolio management tool set, so much the better. Then there can be portfolio insight as well as project insight.

Processing the soft data means taking the time and effort to communicate with stakeholders at all levels to get multiple perspectives. Take the pulse of the project using your mindfulness fueled emotional and social intelligences.

Reconcile and merge your knowledge into a unified whole. Relax and let insight appear.

Tips to Manage a Complex Multi-Vendor Project Successfully

Written by Muralitharan Ramalingam on September 27, 2017. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Tips to Manage a Complex Multi-Vendor Project Successfully

It is quite common in projects that the selected vendors are unable to keep up with the expectations that were committed during the tendering process.

This can be partly due to unavoidable cultural, processes and language differences between the vendors. The vendors often have their own perception on what they signed up for during the negotiation process. Some of the vendors tend to deliver their portion of the project milestones or deliverables late and below the customers’ expectations. Furthermore, during the project tenure, there will be an increase in cost, delay in schedule, and poor quality of deliverables. The vendors failed to understand the actual requirements set by the customer and on top of that, the complexity of the project due to multi-vendor and dependency concept.

The impact of these differences in terms of understanding and perception of the project deliverables can be reduced to a minimal level if both the customer and vendors stays vigilant. This paper recommends some of the key practices that can be used effectively to establish and manage vendor relationship successfully from the beginning to the end of the project. Some of the key areas that a project management team needs to adhere to while working with multi-vendor projects are as below:

Communication
Roles and Responsibility Assignment Matrix
Performance Reports
Issue and Risk Management
Change Management

1. Communication

The main concern on any given project, be it a simple or a complex multi-vendor environment, communication is key and needs to be given the utmost priority. Most projects fail due to the lack of effective communication between customer and vendors. For example, a vendor sends an email stating issues to another vendor or customer and waits for a reply even though the person who can provide the solution may be sitting in a few cubicles away on the same floor of the same building. It’s always advisable and recommended to speak or confront the person directly to solve the issue first, followed by an email later to capture the issues discussed and the outcome of the discussion.

Another good practice would be for the project management team and the vendors to hold regular meetings on the project so that inputs can be obtained and every key team member is on the same page with regards to the project deliverables.

2. Roles and Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Roles and responsibility matrix needs to be available so that the customer and vendor are clear about their roles and responsibilities and hence to avoid any dispute during the project tenure. This can be done through the issuance of a “Responsibility Assignment Matrix” (RAM) prior to commencing work on the project. It should be noted that issuing a RAM without following it through during the project will cause a project to fail terribly. Hence, constant monitoring to ensure that the vendors “walk the talk” after the project is being awarded is required. Another main reason why the roles and responsibilities assignment matrix should be clearly defined in the early stages of the project is to avoid stakeholders from “jumping the gun” during decision making without understanding their level of authority.

3. Performance Reports

It’s advisable for all vendors to submit their performance reports to the project management team or customers on a regular basis. The report should contain information such as progress update, issues encountered together with proposed solutions, improvements, risks along with mitigation plans and other related matters that would need the attention of the customer. The report should be submitted on a weekly basis so that everyone is aware on the progress and also to be able to detect any issues earlier if there is one.

4. Issues and Risk Management

Issues and risks are the two most unwanted terms in any project management. However, this can never be avoided. In fact, it is best to spend more time in this area to ensure the project deliverables are met timely and with high quality. The repercussion of not managing these two are very heavy, this can even bring down a project to a disastrous level if not managed properly. We all know that in a multi-vendor environment project, there are very high probability of issues raised and if they are not managed well, it will cause the project to fail.

A centralized system to log in issues need to be in place such as an issue register, and a dedicated team needs to be assigned to monitor it on a daily basis if possible. The team will be responsible to manage and review the issues raised, be able to assess the severity of the issues and identify if the issues have an impact on other parts of the project deliverables. This is because even though an issue tracker is in place, in most cases, issues logged are left unattended since there are no dedicated team is appointed or responsible to manage and review the issues. Currently what happens is that, once vendors log in to register the issue list, no action will be taken till the owner of the problem queries the status. If the issues are not managed well and resolved we face the risk of the issue becoming critical and to make it worse it becomes a showstopper for the project.

Similar to issues, risk need to be managed properly as well. A risk is defined as an event that may or may not occur. It is advisable for the customer or the project management team to have a risk management team to review and manage the risk by conducting a fortnightly or monthly Risk Review meeting. This would be beneficial as it allows no gaps to be left out.

Project Managers should emphasize adopting the Risk Management Plan. The risk management plan is a set of five steps which are recommended by Prince2 to help manage the risks. They are Identify, Assess, Plan, Implement and Communicate. The first 4 steps are sequential, while Communicate will always be done from the beginning to let stakeholders know what is going on and to get continual feedback during this process. The key “to-do” for each step is stated below:

Identify the risks (threats & opportunities) that could affect the Project objectives
Assess the risks in terms of their probability and impact on the project objectives
Plan steps to help reduce or avoid the threat, or this could also be to plan to maximize the opportunity if the risk happens.
Implement the planned steps

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The following diagram illustrates the steps involved in the risk management plan:

The risk management plan will help project managers to understand the following:

Probability of risks and opportunities in terms of how likely they are to occur
Impact of each risk and opportunities in terms of project objectives
Proximity of each risk and opportunities with regard to when they might materialize
How the impact the risks and opportunities may change over the life of the project

Below are some of the issues/risks that typically may happen in a multi-vendor environment projects with the proposed mitigation plans:

Issues/Risk	Resolution/Mitigation
Vendors do not work as a team to complete the project successfully, this will lead more to a “blaming-game”	Roles and responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) of each key team member of different vendors are clearly defined. Hold regular “war room” session to trash out all issues and also to be on the same “boat” of the project progress
Teams of the vendor who are not transparent tends to create a wrong perception to the client This happens when the said vendor has the higher authority then the others. (ex : PMO reporting to customer or board of directors)	Need to make sure the status report from the team is not adjusted or changed by their respective PMO when reporting to customers as not all vendors will be present during a said meeting Each vendor should hold a regular review on the project with the presence of the PMO but chaired by the customer top management.
Handover process of a project or a particular deliverable are not clearly defined	Clearly defined the handover process such as : Have regular meeting with the new team Make sure the project information is up to date Involve the new team in all communication at early stage Prepare a project handover checklist

5. Change Management

Change Management is another critical part of a project. Customer or the project management team needs to check the proposed change and determine what effect the change will have on the project as a whole before allowing the change request to be implemented. Effective change management processes are needed to ensure all levels from the vendor or customer organization are updated on the changes so it doesn’t affect the project delivery. There are several changes that can happen during the execution of the project and should be dealt differently depending on the category such as:

Changes in Scope of Work
Management team should be able to differentiate between critical work packages that need to be tightly controlled, and non-critical work packages at a project level whereas at the multi-project level, top management has to differentiate between prioritized and non-prioritized projects, giving top priority to critical work packages belonging to prioritized projects. This will ensure that the projects with the highest priority will be delivered on time.
Changes in Project Schedule
A project schedule needs to be followed rigidly once it has been determined. Sadly, it never happens as there will be changes required, so the most important thing is to make sure the change are managed and tracked correctly. The big problem is uncontrolled change, where a change in any of the critical success factors affects the other factors, which will then affect project deliverables, thus affecting stakeholder satisfaction. Any time a change occurs, the project manager needs to recognize the change, evaluate the impact of the change, communicate the change to the members of the project team and the stakeholders and make the appropriate adjustments if the change is accepted and endorsed by the Change Control Board (CCB).
Changes in Project Cost
Changes in project cost is directly involved with change in project scope and schedule. Project managers should estimate the cost impact of the change request in terms of materials, equipment and supplies as well as changes to existing contracts and the cost of the people assigned to the task.

Conclusions

Managing a multiple-vendor project can be very challenging and chaotic, given the complexity of the project and managing the vendors. Prior to starting a project, it’s always advisable to clearly define the process, procedures and roles of each key team members of the vendors in the early stages of the project to avoid any conflict of interest or miscommunications. A clearly defined vendor management process chaired by the project management team or the customer would be a great implementation. A good project management plan needs to be in place prior to starting the project and also good governance should be demonstrated by the project management team throughout the project to avoid any “unwanted” incidents to happen.

From the Sponsor’s Desk – 7 Actions to Wow the Client

Written by Drew Davison on September 26, 2017. Posted in Articles. 1 Comment on From the Sponsor’s Desk – 7 Actions to Wow the Client

Every assignment, every interaction, every engagement presents us with opportunities to build capability, develop lasting relationships and wow our clients.

To take advantage of those opportunities, we need to recognize those interactions as moments of truth, to be leveraged, managed and banked.

In this story, we’ll discover one leader’s approach to building her company and serving her clients’ needs. Through strategically planned and executed services, she is able to leverage and build her organization’s capability while maximizing the value delivered. The business delivers that value through a project mindset. And therein lies lessons for all project and change managers.

The Situation

Ekaterina Sytcheva Is the owner of Prospect Solutions, a Vancouver based marketing and lead generation organization serving the small and medium sized business community. The company’s strategy is to serve as their clients’ marketing solution, encompassing every facet from web sites, to social media presence, diverse lead generation schemes and all facets of customer relationship management.

One of the company’s recent clients is Vancouver’s Finest Coffee Service (VFCS), owned by local entrepreneur Kurtis Telford. The company was founded in 2011 to provide local businesses with a selection of quality coffees and equipment with convenient, hassle-free service. Since then, the company has expanded its offerings to include filtered water coolers and other beverage services.

Kurtis first contacted Prospect Solutions for help on the lead generation front. He was mainly interested in telemarketing solutions to grow their customer base. Learning about Prospect Solutions’ holistic perspective on modern marketing, Kurtis was intrigued. He decided instead to go with the integrated marketing solutions including redevelopment of VFCS’s web site, social media strategy, Linkedin prospecting and lead generation, email marketing, blog development and customer relationship management capability.

The Goal

Working with Kurtis, Ekaterina and her staff developed a program to increase VFCS market share and put them in a unique competitive position. The program would include development and operation of the firm’s web site, targeted lead generation initiatives, support for a VFCS blog and delivery and operation of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that would support all of VFCS’s dealings with their clients.

The Program

Prospect Solutions worked with Kurtis to establish the scope and priority of the components parts. The priorities established included an initial focus on lead generation, followed by redevelopment of the web site, social media, search engine optimization and CRM implementation.
In accordance with the established priorities, Prospect Solutions developed a Linkedin lead generation program to increase Kurtis’s personal connections, develop a targeted data base of prospects and generate high quality leads.

As soon as funds could be diverted from the Linkedin effort, Prospect Solutions proceeded to redevelop the VFCS web site with the active involvement of the owner. After the launch of the web site, an aggressive SEO initiative addressed blogging, social media and public relations aspects.

As the other elements of the program started to bear fruit, Kurtis realized the value CRM could bring to VFCS. He authorized the CRM initiative. Prospect Solutions worked with VFCS staff to implement and adapt Vtiger, an open source CRM solution that provided ample functionality at an affordable price to manage customer interactions. Modules included marketing, sales and service (inventory, ordering, invoicing).

Finally, Prospect Solutions identified potential subject matter for the company’s blog and worked with Kurtis to deliver the posts on the company’s web site.

Work is ongoing on a number of projects including SEO, blogging, Social Media, public relations and further CRM customization and user training. It is a most fruitful partnership.

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The Results

With Kurtis’s active involvement and support, the web site was up and running in three months. Access to the redeveloped site grew steadily. Two months after launch, visits increase tenfold. By the fourth month, the volume had doubled again. VFCS’s Google position for “Office Coffee Service” grew 50 points in those four months.

The Linkedin prospecting project took 60 hours of Prospect Solutions staff time and resulted in 3340 new connections and 31 leads.

The Vtiger CRM implementation took only 10 hours of Prospect Solutions staff time to go live. It is being used by the VFCS internal telemarketers to book appointments and will be used by delivery drivers to manage customer inventory and supply. It also will provide core management information to help run the business.

However, the most important testament to the value provided by Prospect Solutions is this testimonial from the client, Kurtis Telford:

“Ekaterina and her crew at Prospect Solutions are great to work with. I like the fact that they are on top of things and since I have been working with them, things have been happening. I can count on them to get the job done. Thanks for all the good work!”

How a Great Leader Succeeds

Ekaterina is successful in her market and able to retain and grow her client base because of seven fundamental practices she and her team apply every day, with each client, on every project.

Stay true to your strategy – Prospect Solutions believes exceptional results can only be achieved through a comprehensive marketing program that addresses a client’s overall relationship with its customers. Success isn’t delivered by one or two lead generation campaigns. It’s realized by providing a better way to manage the customer relationships and interactions that drive success. Prospect Solutions does that.
Focus on client needs – Prospect Solutions’ approach demands active and ongoing involvement from their clients’ senior executives and staff. That was evident in the VFCS engagement. It ensured that the solutions delivered were Kurtis Telford’s solutions and VFCS solutions.
Think big, do small – Having that overall strategy and a well-articulated vision for each client means Prospect Solutions can deliver a piece at a time, reducing risk and incrementally delivering value.
Rapid delivery – You’ll notice that the timeframes for the projects Prospect Solutions delivered for VFCS were in terms of hours, weeks or a few months, not years. The approach provides quick feedback cycles and enables directional changes if results warrant.
Measure – The way to demonstrate the value you are delivering to your client is by actually measuring the results achieved. That’s one of the reasons benefit realization management is getting much greater attention these days. When the results don’t yield the expected return, having the numbers allows appropriate rethinking with your client and a suitable change in direction.
Stay Current – the technology world is in a constant state of flux. New solutions appear rapidly. Previously viable options can disappear overnight. Prospect Solutions maintains market awareness and currency to ensure they can offer the best options for their clients’ needs. Because of that awareness, they were able to identify and offer Vtiger as a suitable, cost-effective CRM solution for VFCS.
Leverage the virtual resource pool – Prospect Solutions has four to eight permanent staff to support their core operations. To respond to clients’ project needs, they maintain and leverage an extensive network of marketing and technical expertise. That provides great flexibility to respond cost-effectively to the varying demands of the marketplace while ensuring timely access to top notch talent. That’s a Win Win!

Aren’t these same practices vital for a successful project management career? You bet! So, be a Great Leader. Put these points on your checklist of things to consider so you too can build your capability, develop lasting relationships and wow your clients. Also remember, use Project Pre-Check’s three building blocks covering the key stakeholder group (including the key stakeholder roles), the decision management process and Decision Framework best practices right up front so you don’t overlook these key success factors.

Finally, thanks to everyone who has willingly shared their experiences for presentation in this blog. Everyone benefits. First time contributors get a copy of one of my books. Readers get insights they can apply to their own unique circumstances. So, if you have a project experience, good, bad and everything in between, send me the details and we’ll chat. I’ll write it up and, when you’re happy with the results, Project Times will post it so others can learn from your insights. Thanks

4 Critical Cyber Security Trends for Projects and Organizations in 2018

Written by Brad Egeland on September 25, 2017. Posted in Articles. 5 Comments on 4 Critical Cyber Security Trends for Projects and Organizations in 2018

Project management doesn’t really change that much.

New project management software comes out from new or existing providers and the Project Management Institute (PMI) revises the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) every so often.

And new PM consulting services and resources and training organizations are formed. But for the most part, project management as a profession stays rather static. PM best practices are logical best steps to reporting on, effectively and successfully leading and efficiently deploying projects and end solutions. They may differ a bit from project manager to project manager and from organization to organization, but they are what they are…logical best steps to PM success.

However, there are some new developments in IT of course and in project management related to project security and we need to be paying attention. Hacking and cyber crime is on the rise. It’s changing technology, it’s changing the landscape of the data and sensitive information on the projects we are leading and it should definitely be changing the way we plan for and approach these projects we are managing. Getting hacked isn’t just something that happens to someone else anymore. It’s happened to more than 40% of my project and consulting clients to some degree over the past 2-3 years and that number will only go up.

Here are four areas where I see cyber risks affecting our organizations, project management infrastructures and the actual projects we are managing starting right now and heading into 2018 and beyond…be ready, and proactive or be sorry.

Fingerprint security and hacking.

Not a lot has been said about what happens if a large or national or critical database full of fingerprints gets hacked. Our identity being in danger as customers of a big retail store that gets hacked is one thing. It’s inconvenient, we get a new credit card, maybe wait for FDIC insured dollars to be restored to us or our credit reports to get fixed. But our fingerprints? We can’t get new ones of those. I predict a huge fingerprint database hack in the next 12-24 months. It could affect office places and computer equipment that use fingerprints as security access, and it could also affect court cases and forensic evidence. Next those hacked fingerprints will be used on special gloves by the bad guys to frame innocent people when they break into stores, homes and workplaces or even commit murders. That’s scary stuff!

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C-level cyber security.

I realize this is already happening. We have C-level security officers known, of course, as CSOs or Chief Security Officers. But is it truly cyber crime and cyber security they are tagged with? Or is it more disaster recovery and overall security. Cyber crime is on the rise every day and hackers are always one step ahead of the rest of the population, no matter what you are doing to combat them. They just may be refining their attack so you haven’t heard from them yet. Comforting, right? We need the right leadership at the top of our organizations to help plan for avoiding and combating it.

Project security ongoing presence in all large projects and organizations.

Project security will become a full-fledged presence in all high visibility large scale projects and any projects with any degree of data sensitivity…which will include most tech projects judging from the experiences I’ve had in my work history. If we don’t plan to avoid or react we will be sorry. Cyber crime is real and your project doesn’t even need to be handling sensitive data to be at risk. It could be customer contact information that gets stolen. Anything – any security breach on the project – could stand in the way of customer confidence and customer satisfaction. Planning is our best tool – we must be doing it.

Customer insistence on cyber security proof of concept.

That security or disaster recovery proof of concept is common on government projects. Especially when data sensitivity is high and downtime would be critical to the success of the project. You may need to show you can be up and running in 24 hours somewhere else or somewhere secure if a flood or massive data base breech were to occur. But private sector projects of usually been immune to this type of proof of service. Not anymore. Expect the typical tech project of any reasonable size, complexity or data sensitivity to require this as part of the project requirements going forward in 2018 and beyond. We live in a different world. More than 20 years ago I ran government projects worth millions of dollars handling millions of sensitive financial records and no one cared about security – only recovery and project continuity in the face of a disaster. Today, with cloud based storage and processing and the persistence and skills of hacking the relative frequency and damage of a hacker strike, expect it to be the norm going forward.

Summary / call for input

I do believe that hacking and concerns for cyber security, data integrity and identity theft are here to stay. Plus, I believe that they will only get worse over time. The need for us to pay more attention to this concern during project planning and during risk planning and management is increasing and only getting more critical. We must be working to proactively and reactively plan ways of handling cyber crime and cyber security not only on data sensitive projects but on every single project. It needs to at least be a touchpoint and consideration on every project even if all we do is consider it and decide there isn’t enough of a risk on a particular engagement. It needs to be a permanent checklist item.

Readers – what are your thoughts on cyber crime and cyber security as part of risk management? Perhaps you’re in an industry where you’ve identified it as critical to be included already – please share your thoughts and what actions you are taking. How confident are your customers in your ability to avert hacking and cyber crime’s affects? If you aren’t already practicing risk management for cyber security measures, are you planning to start? Please share and discuss