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Tag: Technical Project Management

5 Effective Project Management Methodologies and How to Apply Them

Written by David Baker on . Posted in Articles. 4 Comments on 5 Effective Project Management Methodologies and How to Apply Them

It’s no secret that in the project management industry, project failure is a recurrent problem.

Complex in origin, prevalent project failure can be attributed to many different sources, from companies enforcing overly optimistic project deadlines to inadequate project management.

As a project manager, there isn’t much you can do to change the outside factors affecting your project, but you can mitigate their effects on your project, and give your project the best chance of success through proper project management.

An effective method to streamline and structure your project management processes is by following a formal project management methodology. A Project Management methodology is essentially a model that Project Managers follow for the design, planning, and implementation of their projects. There isn’t one ‘best’ project management methodology to use as each of them comes with their advantages and disadvantages.

The worst thing any Project Manager can do is become too complacent in a single project management methodology and try to apply that same methodology to every project. Often project management methodologies are as idiosyncratic as each project and trying to force your favorite methodology onto every project, just because you’ve had a row of successes with it, can be as much of a recipe for disaster as not using a methodology at all.

It’s wise that in the planning stages of your project, to thoroughly assess the relative merits of each methodology against the requirements and objectives your project. Adaptability is a core competency for any project manager, even if a methodology doesn’t suit your project exactly, many are flexible enough to adapt to a specific project and project team.

Following is the list of the five most popular project management methodologies used today, and when they are most effective.

Waterfall Project Management

Waterfall project management is one of the more traditional project management methodologies. Utilizing a structure that fits its name, waterfall project management follows things through sequentially, beginning with the concept all the way from project inception to completion and conservation. As such, the project requirements defined at the outset often bear little or no alteration.

Waterfall methodology is most often applied to large software development projects as thorough planning and predictability are paramount to the project process and success.

Agile Project Management

Agile and Waterfall are at the opposite ends of the project management methodology spectrum. Whereas waterfall is sequential and predictable, agile project management works on the premise of adaptability and reacting to regular feedback whether from a client or team member.

Agile project management is best utilized when a project requires constant input from the client or management, as this often results in flexible requirements and role responsibilities. It’s most popular with smaller projects or projects with fast paced development schedules.

Critical Chain Project Management

In opposition to both Waterfall and Agile Project Management, Critical Chain Project Management focuses more on rectifying resource problems. As part of Critical Chain Project Management, each project is deconstructed into a core set of elements that create a project timeline. Within this timeline, it is made sure that enough resources are allocated to the critical chain, as well as simultaneously splitting the remaining resources to other tasks to ensure they can operate parallel, and ensuring that there are still enough resources left over in case reassignment is necessary.

Critical chain is useful for teams that either has plenty of resources or enough flexibility within their team’s skill sets to allow a resource driven project plan.

PRiSM

Project management is never one to shy away from a good acronym, and PRiSM is one of the most well-known. Meaning, when broken down, Projects integrating Sustainable Methods, PRiSM was developed by GPM Global to create a sustainably driven methodology that could adequately consider environmental factors, as well as act as an efficient, large-scale, project structure.

Unique, as it is one of the only project management methodologies that requires accreditations, PRiSM is largely used within real estate development or construction projects that may be problematic for the environment it is situated within.

PRINCE2

PRINCE2 is touted as a government endorsed project management methodology and is used as the industry standard across much of the private and public sector in the UK and beyond. PRINCE2, is one of the only other methodologies, alongside PriSM, which requires certification. However, PRINCE2 offers a multitude of courses that are scalable to both your experience and the level of organization the project requires.

Extremely process oriented, requiring each stage of the project to follow its plan and system of processes, PRINCE2 is one of the most complex, yet thorough, methodologies. Due to its vast approach, and its focus on building a range of strong project management skills and applications, PRINCE2 is workable in the majority of project situations.

3 Steps to Skyrocket Your Communication

Written by Houssem Ismail on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on 3 Steps to Skyrocket Your Communication

Unlike Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and Unicorns, effective communication is not a myth. In fact, perfect communication is easily achieved with the right skills and software.

Don’t believe me yet? Let me show you!

Communication is important for project and risk management. Crucial, even. But it is not about following THE golden rules or going through pre-defined steps you found in some book that urged you to buy it because the title literally said: “BUY ME.” It’s actually simpler than that. The way to do it effectively is by understanding why it is important. Know how it works and what resources are out there to help you get a clear overview of your progress.

“The art of communication is the language of leadership.”
– James C. Humes

Be it an individual or an organization; everyone can benefit from improved communication, especially project managers. Working on a project with a tight deadline, solving customer problems, or dealing with risks are part of your everyday. Your interactions and ability to get results daily depend on the art of communicating clearly with others.

Effective communication relies mainly on psychology, the environment, and resources:

1. Psychology

“Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It’s about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high, and the consequences really matter.”
– Chris Hadfield

Project management depends on psychology in the sense of how well do you know the people you’re working with? What are their personality traits? What do they respond to and what do they not? How well they work under pressure? What kind of results do they give back in response to incentives?

  • As the project manager, it’s beneficial to know who can do what
  • Better allocate tasks thus optimizing risk management
  • Know what to do to whom in order to get better results
  • Make sure that everyone is relatively at ease and are not overly stressing about a task they could not handle properly

2. Environment

As a PM, it is very important to make sure that the environment your team is in suits the importance of the task at hand. Meaning that, are they under constant pressure or are they working at ease? Is the aura of the workplace charged with tension or is it rather light? Is the team motivated enough? Do they feel overworked compared to what they are getting in return?

All of these questions decide what kind of atmosphere is surrounding your team. The environment greatly affects the quality of the end result, risk management, and how the work is submitted. This brings me to my final point which is, by the way, the easiest one of them all yet is still so crucial: the resources.

3. Resources

“The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.”
– Sydney J. Harris

There are ample project management resources out there. PMs get overwhelmed and underestimate the importance of using the right tools to keep track of the tasks at hand while managing risks. It is true that being a project manager is not the easiest job in the world! But it could be easier if you know what kind of resources to use in order to do the most of the job with the least amount effort.

Keeping track of all the apps, emails, feedback, and everything in between can be so overwhelming at times, no matter how small the project is! But let me make your day -more than I already have – and tell you that there are solutions out there!
Communication is the root cause for a lot of delays happening today to software development. Communication is a large frustration between technical (IT) and non-technical (Business) people. It takes much more than a project management tool to optimize communication and present it communications at different levels of complexity. We need to focus on ensuring the tech talk is translated into the non-tech talk, hence giving the right information to the business people they need to make faster decisions and remove blockers from any software projects.

Editors Note: It’s a good practice for Project Managers to put together a communication plan that clearly defines the audiences that you will need to communicate to during your project. These audiences have communication preferences around the level of technical language in the communication. Each audience also has communication preferences such as email, meetings, or presentations. To effectively ensure you are communicating well for your project, create a communication plan that includes communication preferences, the frequency of communication, communication method and level of technical expertise for all your audience types (executive or C-level, development leadership, IT leadership, non-technical business teams, and others).

7 Key Things for Large Project Success

Written by Arina Katrycheva on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on 7 Key Things for Large Project Success

We all know that large IT projects are often bound to fail or end up consuming enormous resources.

Furthermore, the more ambitious the project, the higher risks. So, what can we do to avoid costly mistakes?

First, we must realize that this is a global challenge. Statistics published by the Standish Group in their annual report reveal the scale of the problem (see references below). Less than one-third of IT projects are successful. The definition of successful is that the project fully met deadlines, budget, and functional requirements.

Nearly a half of all projects (48%) are completed, but don’t meet the above requirements and end up being too expensive, drawn-out, or offer less functionality than originally planned. Moreover, a frightening 23% of projects are abandoned during their execution. These figures should be enough of a motivator for anyone to start looking for ways to mitigate risks and increase the chances for success.

A big project is very much like a long and often exhausting journey. Remember the race to the South Pole? Amundsen won because he planned carefully, brought the right team and equipment and was an outstanding leader himself. He had no time to wait for help, so he made the best use of his existing resources. Planning is a treasured skill to learn in business, too.

Here are seven key Points for Project Planning based on my practical project management experience:

1. Place Greater Focus on Clear Business Requirements

High-quality Business Analysis lies at the core of project success. Poorly defined requirements lead to overlooked customer needs and missed deadlines, according to the Business Analysis Benchmark Report.

Experts advise treating business requirements as a process rather than filling out a template or creating a document. Ask for customer feedback constantly to check on the requirements to make sure they align with the business goals by performing requirements traceability. Trace requirements to scope, design, and testing to ensure requirements are not dropped or missed.

2. Set Realistic Deadlines

The ability to set realistic deadlines largely depends on the previous point of ensuring requirements are understood and traceable. Only when you have clearly defined requirements and scope of work, will your expectations of the business solution be realistic. Clear expectations and common understanding of the business solution ensure that resources can estimate the effort to build the business solution more accurately. What’s important is not to overpromise. Performing analysis on records of similar projects and employee timesheet data assist in creating realistic estimates and deadlines.

You may need to amend or revise the business solution design as the project moves forward. Additionally, the resources necessary to build and deploy the updated business solution may change. Estimate to complete tasks will drive new deadlines. Managing change on a project is critical to keeping the project moving forward quickly. Changes that are not addressed and managed could send the project out of control.

3. Build a Solid Team

People are everything. If you are heading out to the South Pole, you will need the best-experienced people next to you. The same applies to a large project. Pick competent staff and get them all involved in planning and executing. Keeping your team motivated is essential.

Don’t count too much on the individual skill as teamwork and collaboration are also important. Whatever it takes, you need to have experienced leaders to bring your team together.

4. Communicate Wisely

Efficient communication is critical on every level. First, make sure that your product owners and business analysts have good contact with the customer, understand the customer’s needs thoroughly and actively manage the customer’s expectations on the business solution.

Second, establish efficient communication inside your project team. Frequent status meetings are a must. Their goal is not only to learn about the project progress but also identify problems, deal with conflicts and coach your team. These practices will contribute to better collaboration.

Make sure you know where to stop so that meetings do not turn into an all day event. Status meetings that as a half an hour to one hour is typically sufficient with a well thought out agenda.

5. Executive and Sponsor Support

It all starts with the executives and sponsors. If the executives and sponsors are not engaged in a project and show no interest in it, it can be reasonably anticipated that your project will have difficulties. If it becomes increasingly clear that the plan lacks support, employee motivation drops dramatically as a result.

With strong executive and sponsor support to assist in identifying and mitigating risks, allocate or acquire resources and skill sets as required, and consistent oversight at every stage of the project will result in a greater success rate for large projects.

6. The Agile Methodology

Experience shows that smaller projects have better chances for success than large ones. Breaking down a large project into smaller manageable parts does the trick. Try aiming for smaller milestones and shorter development sprints. Potentially achieve both with an Agile methodology.

According to the statistics gathered by the Standish Group, Agile projects succeed three times more often than projects with a traditional methodology like Waterfall although these results are disputed due to the definition of project success used in the study it is widely defined. Agile can help manage customer expectations by continuously delivery of working product and validating the business solution with your customers.

7. Keep Your Finger on The Pulse

On every stage of the project, it is essential to track your progress and know how you are performing. You can choose out of plenty of tools that allow you to view spent and remaining resources, and report on them.

There’s no need to use broad and complex systems such as Microsoft Project that require much effort and time to configure. Opt for a simple but functional timesheet software, such as actiTIME. It can be a good choice to set up budgets, manage user rates, and track spent hours. This way you will always be alert and able to plan.

Summary

The success of a large-scale project is defined by multiple factors. To ensure that your project is delivered on time and budget, you would have to build the process carefully, starting from high-quality business analysis and accurate estimates.
Prepare well for your journey by picking a strong team and encourage them to communicate. Try to win the management’s support and follow the agile principles. Track your progress regarding work done and time spent with the help of a handy tool.

References 
Mountain Group – Agile Succeeds Three Times More Often Than Waterfall – http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog/agile-succeeds-three-times-more-often-than-waterfall
IT Success and Failure — http://www.cafe-encounter.net/p1183/it-success-and-failure-the-chaos-report-factors
The Standish Group CHAOS Report Success Factors – Standish Group Chaos Reports Revisited – https://theagileexecutive.com/tag/the-standish-group/
Success to Standish is Failure in Agile – https://tobeagile.com/2017/02/15/success-to-standish-is-failure-in-agile/

Tips to manage personal life effectively while preparing for PMP

Written by Jyoti Gupta on . Posted in Articles. 2 Comments on Tips to manage personal life effectively while preparing for PMP

Are you a PMP aspirant struggling to manage time? Do you find yourself compromising necessary deliverables to extract time for PMP?

PMP preparation requires a dedicated time slot, if you are a busy person trying to fit in PMP in your existing schedule, you may end up messing up your personal or professional life.

Today, time management is the most complicated task; it requires really effective planning to divide your time and energy between work and the other important aspects of your life. Try one week following your plan religiously, with a week unplanned; you would found great difference regarding productive activities done or not done. Effective planning reduces the stress, and you can find sufficient time to prepare for your PMP Exam.

Plan and Re-Plan

Studying for the PMP certification requires a plan. The best way to prepare a plan for your studying is to know your strengths and weaknesses. Run through your study materials once or twice. Acquire a testing simulation application or find a simulation website in which to test your knowledge in a realistic way. Take the test and determine which questions you got wrong. For the questions you got wrong, determine the topic or knowledge area for the questions. Write those topics and knowledge areas on a list. These are your focus topics.

Rinse and repeat. Focus studying on the knowledge areas and topics where you were the weakest when taking the exam. When you think you have them fully understood, take the simulated exam again. Did you get questions related to those knowledge areas right? Then cross it off the list. Still didn’t answer those questions related to a knowledge area or topic correctly? Keep them on the list and determine why you are not able to answer the questions correctly.

Plan and re-plan your study topics and knowledge areas to focus on those areas where you don’t have a solid comprehension. Reading over topics and knowledge areas where you have a strong understanding is not a good use of your time. If you know it cold, you don’t need to keep reviewing it.

Most test simulation tools have a way only to take questions from a specific knowledge area. This can help you focus your studying. You can focus on each knowledge area one at a time and study until you are very comfortable with the test simulation questions and are getting them right.

Don’t shoot for 100% accuracy on test simulations. Get your score to around 80-90% correct for a knowledge area. Then move on to the next one.

Once you are getting 80 – 90 % accuracy on individual knowledge areas then run the ENTIRE test or take the test for ALL knowledge areas. At this point, keep track of the questions you answered incorrectly. Focus your studying and understanding why those questions were answered wrong. Keep a study list of topics.

Keep taking the entire full set of knowledge areas until you feel comfortable. You’re not going to get 100% of the questions right every time, but you should try to get to 90% correct as a goal.

Managing Daily Routine

Observe yourself for a week to determine the time you are spending for both personal and professional commitments.

  • Start by making the list of household activities
  • Prioritize the tasks in order of their importance
  • Identify tasks which are important and can be out-sourced, for example; you can send the clothes for ironing, pay your maid extra for additional work only for short duration till your exam
  • Remove three least important tasks, with a long-term backup plan

Find a Dedicated Study Space

It is equally important to identify a comfortable study area for yourself. You need a dedicated study space, with everything readily available. Try keeping your phone and internet out of reach during your PMP study.

Find the “happy place” where you can focus and concentrate on studying and learning. The kitchen table is a popular place to get things done, but you will most certainly be distracted by all your family members. If you don’t have a study space, then it is time to create one at home or at another location. Would the local library work? Are there study rooms at the local library that you could use? Can an area inside your home be set aside or blocked off for you to study? Could you use a conference room at work over lunch or after work?

You really need to work on your “happy place” area and try to figure out the distracting factors during your preparation. Eliminate the distractions as best you can.

Set Aside Dedicated Time

You may have to miss out some important family functions, some weekend parties, and few coffees with friends, but this is a small price for a larger goal. Keep people informed in advance about your commitment to minimize the diversions.

Schedule study time. Block time on your calendar for a set period every day. If you are unable to block a specific period every day, then schedule regular study sessions when your schedule allows. Scheduling the time ensures you will have the time set aside for studying. Communicate to your family and others that this time is needed for studying. Let them know you might not respond to them during these times so you can focus on studying.

Measure Your Daily Outcomes and Small Wins

Keep track of your simulated test results. Are you getting better or worse? What knowledge areas trip you up? Keep a focus list or study list that outlines the topics you are not answering correctly. Focus your study on that list.

If your results on the simulated exam go down repeatedly, then think about taking a break from studying to re-group your thoughts. Getting time to unwind and remove stress is important to helping you study effectively.

Celebrate your small successes. Sounds silly but it’s a good way to motivate yourself. Celebrating a small success can be anything from giving yourself a small chocolate bar. Celebrate by just having a movie night with your family and telling them the good news. Pick a celebration the works for you and go for it.

Find Your Ideal Pace

Most PMP aspirants start the preparation with the mindset that they can still cover the entire content in 2 weeks time, as they could do it in their student life. It is important to understand that both energy and caliber is much less now. So first analyze your actual ability in few days of your preparation. Then make a realistic study plan for yourself.

The key to success is creating a goal based approach for you and follow it very religiously come what may. In the case of unforeseen deviation in your plan, try to get back on track as soon as possible to maintain your plan.

Make sure that you keep some relaxing time for yourself every day, and try to enjoy your preparation by relating the topics with real world examples. A high-quality environment at home will boost your morale and speed up your preparation.

Rescuing a Troubled or Failing Project

Written by Barry Currry on . Posted in Articles. 3 Comments on Rescuing a Troubled or Failing Project

Project Managers from time to time are called in to help rescue projects that are failing. Here are a few areas a Project Manager…

could focus on when determining the corrective action needed to bring a project back on track.

Background to the Problem

The first action is to understand why you have been called in to support or help rescue the project– what is the nature of the problem or problems? – Have the issues been defined? What was the trigger that caused the client to take action? How did the client recognize that there was a problem?

What is the project problem statement?

Understanding the background and current situation of the project allows the project manager to formulate a more effective corrective action plan to bring the project back on track. Some questions to ask are:

  • Has the issue been clearly understood?
  • What has lead the client to recognize that there are problems with the project?
  • How is it known that there are problems?
  • What evidence is available? Assume nothing here.

When did the issue first occur?

Understanding the timeline of when issues and problems occurred within the project can also assist in putting together a root cause of the issues and problems the project is facing.

When was the problem first recognized?

When did the project stake holders officially recognize that the project is failing and needed help? When posing this question, it is important to understand the difference between the symptom and the underlying cause. A symptom is the effect of the problem, and although related to the problem, the focus should remain on the reasons behind or the cause of the symptom.

The first symptom may have manifested itself sometime after the root cause event that triggered the symptom. Therefore – How did the problem first manifest itself? What evidence is available to substantiate the claims?

Looking at the key performance indicators of most projects – these include:

  • Schedule
  • Cost
  • Scope

Is the project late on a number of key milestones?

Is the project greatly over budget?

Has the scope of the project changed?

What controls are in place to monitor these KPIs? When were they first flagged and by whom and why?

Understand Key Process Indicators or Project Health Indicators that are used on the project. It is helpful to understand how these indicators are calculated, how frequently they are reported, and the history of indicator results over a period of time.

Previous Action Taken

Previous attempts at taking corrective action should also be fully understood. Ideally, you don’t want to try to take a corrective action that had previously failed. You can also learn as to why corrective actions failed so that that corrective actions that you put in place don’t fail. Some questions to consider:

  • What action has been taken so far?
  • What has been done by whom and when in the initial stage of the investigation into the failing project? This needs to be understood because early action without research or careful thought I have made the issue worse.
  • Has someone recorded what he or she have done and recorded the impact of what he or she have done?

Problem Impact

An another critical component of understanding the project’s current situation is to understand the extent of the project and how the project’s failure to meet expectations is impacting the business. Project failure has a cost to the business and understanding that cost can assist in creating a meaningful response to bring the project back on track. Some questions to consider:

  • What is the impact of the project problems to the business?
  • Where should the project be now in terms of progress?

Additionally, understanding the extent to which the project is off course. In order to make corrective actions, understanding of the projects current deviation from plan is important to understand. Some questions to consider:

  • Where is the project now in terms of percentage complete?
  • Is there are metric available on Earned Value against Planned Value? Are these figures reliable?

Review the Original Objectives and Scope

Before taking corrective actions on a troubled project, a project manager should understand the project’s scope and deliverables. The project charter outlines the scope and deliverables for the project as a starting point, but changes most often have occurred in the scope. Project scope and deliverables might no longer be valid because of changes in the business. Some questions to consider:

  • Are the original Objectives and Scope of the project still valid?
  • Have the objectives and goals of the project changed?
  • Has the scope changed enough to significantly derail the project?

Review the Project Performance to Date in Detail –

List all of the key deliverables, milestones and assess:

  • Where should they be in terms of completion / delivery?
  • Where are they (status)actually in terms of completion / delivery?

Assessment of the original plan against current status in detail is critical, and there is no shortcut to completing this assessment. The assessment will \will take time, and the devil is in the details. There can be a huge number of deliverables in a large project, so this process is not for the faint-hearted.

It is recommended to be as binary (yes or no and complete or not complete answers) as possible during this review so that the results are honest. It is important to note that you will not make any friends during this process so try to take the emotion out of discussions by focussing on the facts. Some clients may hire in external resources with no personal history on the site in order to get to the facts and remove the possibility of any personal influence.

If a task is late or has had to be repeated has this resulted in an increased cost? Is this substantial? How is this being measured on an hourly/daily basis?

The resulting report from this review process will arm you with the factual data from which you can get to the root cause of the problem(s) and re-plan the project to get back on track for a successful outcome.

Project Risks

Review the original project risks to assess if they are still valid. Have the project risks been updated? Are there any new risks that need to be assessed? How will they affect the project? Have any of the original or new risks been realized? Have they had any impact on the project delivery?

Analyze the Data

Are there any patterns emerging from the review data. Using these results – look for patterns such as consistent issues with departments, people, vendors – that are consistently late or repeating tasks not completed correctly.

If there is an obvious pattern with a delivery and this is identified back to a person or a department, look for further evidence. Is the person experienced enough? Are they the right person for the job? Is there role in the project clear to them and everyone else? Are they doing other work that is preventing them from focusing on project work? Are they capable of the work assigned to them? How was this person or department originally assessed for capability? How was individual performance being monitored?

Are there other factors influencing delivery -e.g. personal behaviors, interdependent service inefficiencies, process issues, system issues, late equipment/software material delivery, procurement issues?

Are operations based resources being allocated enough time to work on the project? Has the client prioritized the project to reflect the required delivery times?

The purpose of this analysis should not be a witch hunt but an honest review of the data recorded in order to get to the real issues.

Do not overlook here to review the controls processes if they fail to capture an issue early enough to control the issue.

Report

Produce a report of your work that should include but not be limited to:

  • Background to the Problem
  • Findings
  • Results
  • Conclusion
  • Recommendations

Utilizing the data that you have collected and the conclusions that you have drawn, based on evidence -communicate the results and recommendations to your main point of contact at the client site on a 1:1 basis.

Present the raw facts to them on confidence and seek their advice on:

  • What would they prefer to do next?
  • How should this information be released to the wider audience?

This will be a good measure of the politics on site and how it should be managed. Remember this is the client’s choice on how they wish to manage the situation.

Although it is rare -it is not unknown for clients not to do anything following such an investigation as corporately the “right thing to do” would step on too many toes and may not be the politically correct course of action.

Take Corrective Action

In order to get the project back on track you will need to do the following based on what you have learned:

  • Define the Scope
  • Perform a Project Risk Assessment
  • Re-plan the activities with new milestones
  • Re-work the budget to reflect the new plan
  • Select the project team (typically some original -some new members)
  • Create a proposal outlining the Project be delivered and what will be different his time in order to prevent a recurrence of issues.
  • Make this presentation to the key stakeholders and seek support and approval to move forward.
  • Kick off the project and implement the necessary controls.