Tag: Project Management

3 Reasons Value Needs to be at the Center of Your Project Triangle

Written by Angela Wick on September 6, 2016. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on 3 Reasons Value Needs to be at the Center of Your Project Triangle

Over the years, I’ve helped many teams find success by identifying and removing roadblocks.

One roadblock that seems to be appearing with greater frequency is “project prominence”— an emphasis on the project over the product or solution being delivered. Teams spend so much time and energy debating, controlling, managing and measuring the project process, that they lose sight of the product and the value the project is looking to deliver. The needs of the end-users and the goals of the organization become secondary.

The difference between project and product might seem subtle at first, but it becomes quite obvious in practice. The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” The product is the unique output of a project—the project builds the product. Many teams do not think of their solutions as a product, but the definition of product is quite broad including tangible items that can be sold in stores, as well as new software, bug fixes, process enhancements and really anything made to be used or sold (Merriam-Webster).

In practice, teams that emphasize projects:

focus on team operations
measure project phases, % complete, documents, timelines, deadlines, budgets, bugs, resources, etc.
debate how to optimize project operations
make decisions based on the team’s needs

Whereas teams that emphasize products:

focus on value
measure value delivered, end user satisfaction, speed to value, and learning
debate how to make a solution more valuable to the end users and the organization
make decisions based on end user needs and/or strategic goals of the organization

One way to reduce the emphasis on projects is to help your team rethink the Iron Triangle (aka the triple constraints of project management). The standard iron triangle usually looks something like this:

This approach assumes quality is achieved by controlling/balancing schedule, cost, and scope. If any of the constraints spiral out of control, the quality of the solution will suffer. If scope gets too big, schedule and resources (cost) must increase or the project quality will suffer. If the schedule gets too tight, the scope needs to be reduced. If the project overruns its deadlines (schedule), the cost will go up. You can’t change one, without impacting the others.

But, what if we modify the Iron Triangle to this:

Is this really different? Is it just semantics? Aren’t quality and value really the same thing? They aren’t the same! Value adds a dimension to quality—emphasizing that the quality of the solution matters only to the extent the user and organization derive value from an increase or decrease in quality. Keeping value at the center shifts everyone’s thinking away from the traditional project management approach to a product approach. Cost, scope, and schedule are only as important as the impact they have on the value delivered. I’ve found that putting value at the center of discussions about schedule, cost, and scope helps teams in 3 ways:

Teams Stay Focused on the End User

When quality defines success, it becomes possible to deliver high-quality solutions (minimal defects, no missed deadlines, no cost overruns) that no one wants or needs. That’s why usability, usefulness and/or value need to be part of the discussion.

Product value provides a strong foundation for every project. Strong teams start each project by exploring context in terms of product value and keep questioning value throughout the project lifecycle.

Teams Make Better Decisions

The value perspective helps you make better decisions throughout the project lifecycle. Teams that make decisions based purely on cost, schedule, and scope, miss out on opportunities to maximize value. It might be ok if the project goes over schedule and over budget when the team discovers additional scope that dramatically boosts value. It might be ok to miss milestones or leave parts of the project incomplete if those components do not provide value, or provide minimum value compared to the required cost and resources.

Strong teams minimize project metrics focused on operations, and create useful data that gauges cost, schedule, and scope in terms of product value to the end user and the organization. When value is already embedded in the data, value becomes the driver of decision instead of process quality. Teams stop making decisions that benefit them and begin to develop empathy for the end-users.

Teams Become More Agile

Putting value at the center of all discussions and decisions is the easiest way to bring agility to your project. The focus on product over project helps teams adapt. They embrace changes with confidence because the “why” makes so much more sense when change is discussed in terms of the end goal (user satisfaction) rather than the process. It brings relevance and context to change.

High performing product teams have a shared understanding of value that makes the need to change obvious. Teams become more adaptable and efficient as they streamline processes to focus only on what needs to be done to deliver a high-value product.

So, how do you bring value into discussions about timeline, budget, resources, documents and deadlines? Frame questions with value:

How do these metrics measure end user value?
Why is this deadline important to the end user?
How does this deadline maximize value?
Is this deadline early enough to leverage the value the solution provides to the end user?
How much are we willing to spend to provide this value?
What do we need to learn to increase the value we can deliver?
Are we spending more than the value the solution will apply?
Do these project tasks/documents provide value to the end user?
Do we have the right resources to deliver value to the end user?
What is the smallest scope needed to provide value?
Are there areas of scope that don’t provide value? Is this just enough to provide value and meet end user needs?

’m not saying that project operations, methodologies or frameworks are evil. Instead, I am encouraging you to take a look at your team and determine if you have a project prominence roadblock. Does your team emphasize project operations at the expense of product value? Your outcomes will improve dramatically if you let product value lead and smash through that project roadblock.

Project Management Related Tools and Services to Consider for 2016 and Beyond

Written by Brad Egeland on August 29, 2016. Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Project Management Related Tools and Services to Consider for 2016 and Beyond

In more than 20 years of project management experience, I have seen a lot of growth in the field of project management tools.

It was extremely slow at first, of course. I started out using ABT’s Project Workbench as a DOS application and then later as a WYSIWYG application. I then moved on to MS Project as a Windows app. Good times! Of course, Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel were often used project management tools – Excel still is, and I use it often…Lotus is gone and forgotten, may it rest in peace.

Slowly, more and more project management tools entered the marketplace, giving all project managers, PMO directors, and project team members some options we didn’t have before. Many of these newer tools were created by organizations for their own use to fill a void that was not being handled by the regular players in the marketplace. And, once they felt strong enough about them as a productive tool that could likely satisfy the same voids for other organizations, they began offering them for free, or as open-source solutions or for a very affordable price to other organizations looking for PM solutions.

Which leads us to today. There are now well over 100 potential project management tool offerings available. These include much more than just project Gantt chart applications. Some are task management focused. Some are strong in risk management. Others focus on document storage and sharing. Some excel as CRM packages. Others are mind-mapping tools. Several are excellent at tracking issues and bugs. Some try to offer at least a little of everything. Most offer a way for us to collaborate with our team and manage our projects better than we did yesterday.

While I haven’t necessarily used any of these software offerings myself, and I am not endorsing any one software application over another or over any that are not listed here, I am offering these to show you an array of what is available that you might not otherwise know about. Plus, I’ve had some interactions with many of the individuals behind these software tools and I can say that they are good people who are confident in their applications and want them to be something you can use and be confident in as well. Basically, they stand behind their products proudly.

InLoox is an enterprise-wide project management and work collaboration software fully integrated in Microsoft Outlook. What gives InLoox a unique standing among PM solutions it that you can either access it directly from Outlook or from the web, as InLoox comes as an Outlook client installation and browser version. The seamless Outlook integration makes InLoox extremely user-friendly and intuitive while simplifying workflows and project planning, monitoring, and tracking. Outlook emails, calendar events, notes or reminders can be directly converted into tasks, assigned to projects and people, or filed as documents. You can access your Outlook contacts and assign them tasks, invite them to your projects, or put together teams for resource and workload management.

Project planning can be done traditionally with an interactive Gantt chart or agile with Kanban boards. For creative teams, the mind map is the ideal starting point for project planning as it can be directly converted into tasks for the Kanban board or project phases for a Gantt chart. InLoox notifies project team members about any updates and the InLoox chat lets you communicate quickly with your co-workers. Time tracking and budgeting are also directly done in InLoox and its API lets you integrate your existing programs e.g. for procurement or invoicing. For tracking project and team performance, InLoox offers customizable dashboards and reports to monitor progress, costs or workload in one overview or individually down to a very granular level. This makes InLoox a one-platform solution that provides everyone, from the team members to project managers to the CEO with the ideal tool set to better execute, manage, and analyze projects, improve collaboration, optimize workflows, and make better business decisions.

Samepage is an award-winning team messaging and collaboration solution that combines several tools into one powerful app. With Samepage you have chat, video chat, task management, and file sharing, all in one fully live and dynamic project management platform.

The core of Samepage is the Team – create a Team for any group of people to collaborate on projects. Bring together people inside and outside your organization, from distributed team members to contractors and consultants. Teams have privacy levels from open to private. Each Team has a dedicated workspace made up of team chat, and pages where you can organize everything you need to plan and execute your projects. Samepage also has a built-in messaging feature that lets you chat 1-to-1, with teams, via video with Google Hangouts, and page-level chat. This keeps your conversations alongside to your content, providing much needed context.

Pages are dynamic work environments where the entire team can work together and see changes happening in real time. Pages can include meeting notes, actionable tasks, and calendar events to help team members manage project work. With cloud storage app integrations like Dropbox, Google Drive, Box, and OneDrive it doesn’t matter where you keep your files, they’re all accessible on Samepage. With native file support, team members can edit files and save them back to Samepage, so your team always works from the most recent file version. Samepage’s simple interface makes it easy to get started; invite your team members and start collaborating in minutes. Workers can create teams, share files, and message their coworkers without IT support. Samepage is designed for teams as little as two people to organizations with hundreds of users.

Workspace.com is a desktop and mobile cloud-based enterprise project management solution for technology projects. From Requirements to Defects, their 8 apps enable teams to put an end to information silos and combine all project data in one, secure space. With project data unified, teams are better informed, and can make project decisions using the most current information.

Project teams are deriving a number of benefits from using Workspace.com. They are better managing schedules and budgets that are more compressed than ever. Teams are able to adjust quickly to project scope changes that seem to expand without limits. With Workspace’s traceability and collaboration features, teams are better able to connect and share what matters most, amidst an endless sea of information and communications. By bringing project teams together in a shared, on-line workspace, their customers are discovering a more connected experience of teamwork than they’ve ever had before.

PrimaveraReader is a cost effective viewer for Oracle Primavera P6 schedules, saved as .xer or .xls file types. With intuitive user interface, PrimaveraReader users are able to start analyzing the project’s current health and gain complete visibility into the project’s progress.

Companies implement PrimaveraReader with aim to achieve competitive advantage and save on Oracle Primavera P6 total ownership costs. From project contractors, to stakeholders and executives, PrimaveraReader ensures everyone involved is informed about the latest project developments.

Seavus Project Viewer is the leading viewer for Microsoft Project files, allowing team members and project executives to open, analyze & print project plans without Microsoft Project license. With support for 100% of the views available in Microsoft Project, Seavus Project Viewer promotes transparency throughout the project team, delivering accurate project information to everyone involved. Seavus Project Viewer comes with identical MS Project look and feel, eliminating learning curve and training costs.

Available to companies from all sizes, from small project teams to large corporations, Seavus Project Viewer has helped more than 3000 companies save on Microsoft Project licensing costs. It is a product of choice for more than 50% of Fortune 500 companies.

PREVU is a cloud-based platform uniquely designed to integrate with the software of small and medium sized companies. It is built on the practice of good portfolio management, focusing on the portfolio, rather than the project management execution piece. PREVU was developed by system development experts with knowledge of product management, as well as the ability to create software that solves a need agnostic to business type.

PREVU aligns strategic decisions with repeatable results and provides a holistic view of project information, all through a user-friendly interface. Users can evaluate an unlimited number of portfolio alternatives with a virtual whiteboard for advanced “What if” modeling. With PREVU, we are able to evaluate planning against resource capacity in real-time, ensuring that every potential step is thoroughly considered.

Redbooth is an all-in-one group collaboration and project management platform that helps teams get more done via a seamless integration of advanced project and task management capabilities (Gantt charts, Kanban boards, advanced analytics, etc.) with real-time messaging, voice and video communications, centralized into an intuitive virtual workspace. Founded in 2008, Redbooth is a pioneer of team collaboration and work management solutions. More than half a million teams in more than 100 countries rely on Redbooth to plan, manage and complete their work. On average, a new task is created in Redbooth every 3.4 seconds — and more than 18,000 tasks are completed daily.

Redbooth uniquely combines project and task management capabilities, with real-time communications, enabling teams to find easily and share content, collaboratively plan and manage work initiatives and seamlessly communicate, ultimately becoming more productive, efficient and accountable. Additionally, Redbooth solutions are pre-integrated with an extensive array of enterprise content and productivity solutions, including file share and sync (Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft SharePoint), email (Microsoft Outlook, Gmail), communications (Slack, Cisco Spark) and productivity (Zendesk, Evernote), enabling Redbooth to centralize teamwork and collaboration, regardless of the enterprise system of record where content and business logic may ultimately reside. This ecosystem of integrations is further extended via a robust developer API and SDK, which can be leveraged to integrate Redbooth with customer-specific applications. Additionally, Redbooth enables teams to standardize and streamline their mission-critical workflows, via a library of pre-defined workflow process templates that automatically replicate a consistent process across every project.

Redbooth’s solutions can be accessed via mobile smartphone & tablet applications (iOS & Android), industry-standard browsers and desktop clients running on Windows, Mac OS and Linux operating systems, as well as Apple Watch and Apple TV. The core Redbooth platform can be accessed as a Cloud service, or can be hosted on-premise in a customer’s data center (known as Redbooth Private Cloud).

Celoxis is a sophisticated project portfolio management and collaboration platform for medium to large businesses. It is a fully-featured software that lets you keep everything in one place. It is not only a very powerful tool for project managers but is also easy and intuitive for teams and executives. Celoxis has everything you need to plan and manage complex and diverse project portfolios. You can prepare task schedules with cross-project dependencies, juggle resource workloads and manage portfolio risks. Resource managers can track utilization across projects and also balance demand with available capacity. With Celoxis, you can also estimate and keep track of all project costs and forecast profitability. Teams can easily collaborate on work items, share progress, log time spent and also enter their expenses, all in one tool. Celoxis creates real-time visibility for executives and business owners through a range of reports, dashboards, and drill-down charts.

Celoxis is one of the very few online tools that offer a SaaS (Cloud-based) and On-Premise model. It is a comprehensive system that can easily integrate with your other enterprise tools and help manage, track and report on projects, processes, and resources. The team at Celoxis seems to understand very well that each business is different and maintains customization at the very core of its product.

Workamajig

Workamajig is the original web-based project management software for creative agencies and is used by more than 3,000 firms every day. Workamajig was created by agency consultants and was designed exclusively around the unique workflows and processes of creative companies.

Workamajig is pretty much a one-stop-shop for tracking and managing every single detail of an agency’s operations. Features include:

Resource Management
Project Management
Project Collaboration
File Sharing & Proofing
Client Billing
Revenue Projections
Agency Metrics
Media Integration & Management

Upland Software provides cloud solutions covering project & portfolio management and professional services automation that help organizations gain the highest returns from their projects. Through their platform, organizations are able to successfully manage projects and resources, project workforce, and IT costs all within one product family.

Upland provides award-winning products that align project selection with strategic business objectives, simplifies the management of project portfolios with constrained resources, improves service delivery, resource and project management, and demonstrates the value IT provides through complete visibility and service benchmarking.

Fusioo is a customizable CRM and project management tool that allows teams to work the way they want to. Unlike other project management tools, with Fusioo you can set up your custom workspace to track and manage the information you need.

Given its versatility, Fusioo can be used for a variety of use cases, such as issue tracking, applicant tracking, expense management, you name it. Together with your team, you can choose to either set up your team’s workspace from scratch or get started by using an App Bundle from the Fusioo App Marketplace.

TeamHeadquarters is a simple, effective project management system with an integrated service desk. IT projects generate issues and the project members are often required to deliver the support required and solve the issues. With TeamHeadquarters, you can easily manage your projects and support activities with a single system for your entire company.

This unique integration of project management and service desk is what makes TeamHeadquarters a suitable choice for IT teams of all sizes. Project Managers can easily see an entire picture of resource availability across all work (not just projects) taking away the guess work when assigning project tasks. IT leaders can get an accurate picture of where resources are spending their time and produce the evidence they need to explain reasons for project delays and resource capacity staffing requirements.

The package includes comprehensive resource management, task scheduling, portfolio dashboards, status reporting, integrated reporting, and a customer self-service portal. This results in predictable project schedules, productive IT teams, and IT leadership control.

Viewpath is an online application which manages project activities and resource allocation in one complete picture. Its scheduling engine delivers fast performance, enterprise-class scalability, and built-in integration with popular apps such as Salesforce or Google Drive. The app additionally provides security settings for free Guests and free Observers so project teams can collaborate with anyone, in any organization.

The unique flexibility of Viewpath lets teams easily plan and track project activities in either Waterfall or Agile views, while still providing unified status reporting and dashboards. It also has layered functionality which simplifies collaboration and workflow at all levels of the organization — whether it’s an individual contributor completing one assigned task or a seasoned team leader doing interactive scheduling across a portfolio of projects.

Priority Matrix is a lightweight project management solution designed to make teams highly effective. Priority Matrix serves as an ideal replacement to heavyweight tools like Microsoft Project while meeting the needs of teams who have outgrown simple task managers. Teams who use Priority Matrix see an increase in visibility across their organizations, more effective collaboration, and streamlined communication.

Priority Matrix stands out due to the fact that it serves as a true solution, rather than simply software. The app provides a variety of views, such as a Gantt chart, built-in calendar, and Priority Level, which allows each member of your team to work the way they want. Furthermore, Priority Matrix integrates with tools you already know and love, such as Evernote, Google Docs, Outlook, Gmail, and more. To top it off Priority Matrix provides Productivity Insight reports that allow you to measure the heartbeat across your organization, team, and projects. The app works natively on Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and web.

Summary / call for input

This is far from an end-all list. Literally, more than 100 other options are out there to try, but this list gives you a good start of some great solutions that are out there that some large organizations and heavy-duty users swear by and are currently using to effectively manage their teams and project needs.

What about our readers? What experiences do you have with any of these offerings? Are there others that you have found to be effective for your project needs? Please share and discuss.

Project Budgets and ROI

Written by Kenneth Ashe on August 17, 2016. Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on Project Budgets and ROI

Many project managers may not calculate budgets and return on investments for every project. In matrix organizations, where most project teams consist of functional employees, financial metrics aren’t often needed or required.

If that’s the case for you, this refresher should get you thinking about the financial side of projects again.

Budgeting

Project budgets and estimates should be presented in range. For example, project ABC will cost $900,000 to $1,250,000. The range will change over time as more information becomes clear and risk decreases.
At the beginning of a project, it’s best to use a rough order of magnitude when determining a project’s cost. When there is a lot of uncertainty and risk, and the project manager should not commit to a narrow estimate. The rough order of magnitude is general +75% to -25% of actual costs. So if an initial, rough projection of project costs is about $2M, the rough order estimate would be $3.5M (+75%) to $1.5M (-25%).
Once a project manager has a well-defined scope,schedule, and an understanding of project risk, a budget can be determined. The project budget is usually about +25% and -10%. Therefore if the best estimate is $2M, the project budget should be $2.5M to $1.8M.

As a project progresses, risk and uncertainty decrease. Therefore estimate ranges should decrease as well. A common range to use at this stage is +/- 10%. Using the same $2M from before, if your project is 25% done, an updated project estimate would be $2.2M to $1.8M.

Return on Investment

The return on investment is the percentage that an investment is expected to earn. The calculation is:

ROI = (Benefit – Cost) / Cost

ROIs are great ways to determine if a project should be initiated. An organization can also compare the ROIs of two different projects to decide which one to pursue.

Calculating the ROI for a project can be difficult when working with ranges. As an example, project XYZ will generate $4-6M of income over the next ten years and will cost $3.5-1.5M to complete in just 1 year.

In this example, not only is there a cost range, but there is a benefit range as well. For simplicity sake, we’ll ignore time value of money for now.

In order to calculate the ROI range for this project, you should take the worst case and best scenarios. In the worst case, the project will cost $3.5M and earn $4M. In the best case, the project will cost $1.5M and earn $6M.

Worst Case:

ROI = (4 – 3.5) / 3.5 = 14%

Best Case:

ROI = (6 – 1.5) / 1.5 = 300%

So the total ROI for this project ranges from 14% to 300%.

Time Value of Money

The above example ignores time value of money (TVM).

TVM is a way to discount money earned in the future back to the value of money today. An easy way to think about this is with a savings account. If $100 was put into a savings account with a 6% interest rate, in one year the savings account would have about $106 in it. The extra $6 is the interest earned on the account over the year. Now if you reverse this, $106 earned a year from now is only worth $100 today. That’s the principle behind TVM.

In our previous example, the project would earn either $4M or $6M over a ten year period. The money earned in the future that is not worth as much as money earned today. Without getting too technical, a project manager needs to discount these earnings in order to calculate the amount that they are worth in today’s dollars (the net present value).

Let’s see we did that calculation and the net present value of the $4M was $3M, and the $6M was $5M. This changes the ROI range quite a bit.

Now our worst case is -14% and our best case is about 230%. While this project can still provide a great return, there is also a possibility that it will lose money making a risky endeavor.

It’s important to note that this concept should also be applied to projects that take multiple years to complete. If costs are spread over more than a year, the project manager should calculate the net present value of costs as well when determining ROI.

Project financials

Not all projects require financial projections, but a large number do. Therefore project managers should be familiar with these concepts. Projects with a lower ROI will naturally hold more risk and be subject to a more stringent budget.

Agile or Traditional Project Management – Which is better?

Written by Lisa Anderson on August 16, 2016. Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on Agile or Traditional Project Management – Which is better?

In project management circles, we hear a lot about agile. Agile is an iterative, incremental method of managing the design and build activities of engineering, systems, etc.

Recently, I ran across a firm that didn’t use an agile approach to ERP implementation – is this good or bad? Who is to say?

Related Article: Agile Project Manager – Traditional PM Triangle be Damned! Keep Quality First!

There are some specific agile methods, and there are agile components to managing a project. From that point-of-view, although agile can gain results, I don’t see that the purist approach is necessarily better. On the other hand, I have seen many project successes without the use of agile. In my experience, using the common sense aspects of agile makes good sense. Beyond that, it can lose its value.

When it comes to ERP implementations, I have a strong bias to using the common sense aspects of agile, mainly because my focus is on results. Here are some of the main features that have proven effective:

1. Additive approach to the design: What could be more geared towards common sense? This frequently occurs with ERP projects. Getting the optimal design is one of the most important key components to success. Even with the most experienced process design and applications resources working together, I’ve yet to run across a project that could design everything in upfront. Similar to research and development, there could be 10 solutions to one problem. They will have different advantages and disadvantages. The only way to test these out with the users to figure out what will work most effectively in supporting the business is to use an iterative design.

For example, a building products client is in an ERP implementation process. In this industry, the use of configuration is common. Although using a configurator makes the process easy for the order fulfillment process (which is why it can provide a competitive advantage), it is far from simple behind the scenes. There are many scenarios and variables to think through. Starting with the base design and testing it through provides a meaningful, reasonable chunk that folks can wrap their mind around. Then with a common sense agile method, additional complexity and layers can be added down-the-line. On the other hand, every potential impact would have to be thought through upfront without this iterative approach. There is quite a lot of pressure on this approach – with a much lower success rate.

2. Root cause analysis: As designs are tested with a common sense agile approach, the idea is that there is just enough design completed to see whether the process is working; however, there isn’t “too much” complete so that you can’t figure out the root causes of issues that arise. If there is one thing that is a certainty, it’s that issues will arise – there will be speed bumps along the way. Undoubtedly, you’ll be able to figure out the root cause if you work on it long enough; however, it is a much simpler process if you limit the variables up front. Start with just those variables that are most essential to your project. Then, as bottlenecks arise, you’ll be more successful in determining and resolving the root cause.

3. Flexibility: Last but not least, in today’s Amazon-impacted world, customer expectations frequently change, company priorities are diverted, and global conditions evolve. Thus, flexibility is paramount to success. In our experience over the last several years, over 80% of projects have changed along the way. If the project team wasn’t flexible, they struggled, and results were slow. On the other hand, we have been able to speed up customer lead times, product development cycles and month-end closing routines by maintaining our flexibility. Certainly, there is no downside to maintaining flexibility.

For example, on a significant project to improve service levels, we planned for forecasted sales levels. We were successful in winning a big customer contract. Instead of going deeper into past due, we were able to support this customer contract since we had built flexibility into the system. We were able to move cross-trained resources to where they were needed the most. We were able to bring on a team of temporary employees for those areas that required less skill. We were able to ramp up with suppliers because we had provided them with advance notice of the potential and partnered with them to increase output.

Although traditional project management gains results, using a bit of agile common sense can provide two critical factors in the current business climate – speed and flexibility. There is no downside in pursuing it so long as you use common sense and adjust accordingly!

Out of the Box Forum: Designing Project Management Methodologies is a Waste of Time

Written by Robert Wysocki on August 8, 2016. Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Out of the Box Forum: Designing Project Management Methodologies is a Waste of Time

The project landscape is becoming more complex and uncertain.

The frequency of unknown unknowns is increasing. Risks are high in such a landscape.

These are undeniable facts. The likelihood that a predefined methodology will be robust enough to successfully manage these projects is rare. Flexibility and creativity must characterize every methodology to have any chance of it being useful. The same must be true of those who would manage such projects. If all you can do is use a recipe created by someone else to manage your projects, you will certainly fail.

This is a problem, and fortunately, it has a solution. My approach is founded upon the fact that complex and uncertain projects are unique, and the best way to manage them will also be unique.

Let me pose a management approach. My approach is based on first assessing and describing these three factors:

the characteristics of the project
the organizational environment in which the project will be executed
the stability of the market into which the project deliverables will be deployed

With this assessment in hand, the second step is to define the management approach that will accommodate this project situation. That assumes a vetted portfolio of tools, templates, and processes from which a “recipe” can be created to manage such a project situation. If all you have is Scrum in your vetted portfolio, you are in harm’s way and will almost surely fail. Scrum is excellent, but it cannot work for every project that might arise. If you add DSDM and FTP to your portfolio, you will have a better chance of success, and if you allow the project team to modify either Scrum or DSDM of FTP for this project, you will have an even better chance of success. You see where this is going?

The richer the vetted portfolio from which the recipe can be created, the better will be your chance of succeeding. The vetted portfolio that I use to help my clients design their own portfolios includes:

bodies of knowledge (PMBOK, IIBA, IPMA, etc.)
a specific set of methodologies (Scrum, FTP, etc.)
customized reports
business process models
Earned Value Analysis
process improvement programs
professional development program
problem-solving models
decision-making models
conflict resolution models
prioritization models
RASCI Matrix
Risk Management Matrix
other proprietary tools, templates, and processes

The project team uses the project assessment and this vetted portfolio and designs the best fit approach for managing their project. Every project will have its own approach, and every organization will have its own vetted portfolio.

This is only the start. We are talking about a very different type of project manager here. So a position family is needed and the support processes for it. An organizational infrastructure is required that includes a new type of PMO. The business model must also be aligned. But these are topics for future postings.