PMBOK7 New Perspectives: Caring Steward

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In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll look at the project management standard of being a caring steward, one of the new elements of project delivery discussed in the Project Management Institute’s latest version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7.) In PMBoK7, Knowledge Areas are replaced with Performance Domains, which recommend additional activities in several areas, including adding project value. Let’s look at ways in which you can be a caring steward while managing your projects. 

Acting with care. A caring steward behaves as if they own the business and all the outcomes the business produces. In a project management context, a caring steward goes beyond managing the schedule and ensuring success criteria are met. It means treating project stakeholders with respect, managing all impacts on the physical environment (such as deploying conservation measures), and ensuring proper disposal of used assets like old computers. A big part of acting with care is engaging in organizational change management to ensure people understand what their role is as project deliverables are released. That way, they are put at ease as the processes they use in their work are enhanced.

Financial control. Financial stewardship is a fundamental responsibility for a project manager. This stewardship goes beyond ensuring project costs are within plan. It includes analyzing how to best use finances to support business goals. For example, it may mean spending more in the short run to save money in the longer term. An example of this is when a vendor announces special pricing for a volume purchase. While purchasing in volume might not have been in the project plan, a good financial steward will examine the advantages and disadvantages of making this volume purchase. Good stewardship also means assessing upcoming planned spending to make sure it’s still reasonable and in the best interest of the business, and constantly reviewing risk mitigation and contingency dollars to determine whether they should be adjusted up or down.

Appropriately exercising authority. Project charters identify the level of authority given to project managers. Caring stewardship involves applying that authority appropriately, such as not using coercion to get things done, not overstating one’s authority, or not exaggerating the project impact to influence others to perform work. The caring steward leads the project with compassion for the business, considers the project’s goals in relation to other initiatives, and acts with compassion while working with stakeholders.

Maintaining compliance. Business rules, project management methodologies and legal considerations should always be front of mind while project managers perform their duties. The caring steward understands the purpose and steps involved to be compliant and adheres to the compliance guidelines when making decisions – when it makes sense. However, caring stewardship doesn’t mean blindly executing processes. It is understanding the intent of those processes and proposing alternative actions when the processes won’t yield the intended results. For example, a standard deliverable in a project management methodology might not make sense for a given project. Rather than waste time producing a stripped-down version of that deliverable, the caring steward will work with management to forgo that deliverable for the project and seek to improve the project methodology to consider alternatives when the deliverable doesn’t make sense.

Have you come across other examples of being a caring steward? If so, join the conversation in the comments section.

For more about project management, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

Coming Up

I’m working industriously on updating the course Microsoft Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training. With this update, I include additional homework for most movies so you can practice after following along during the video.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Contribute Insights

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In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll explore the benefits of your project team contributing insights to your project, one of the new elements of project delivery in the Project Management Institute’s seventh version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7.) Here are a few substantial ways to maximize project delivery by leveraging stakeholder insights.

  • Leverage team member experience. Even the most experienced project managers can learn more to help their projects succeed. Project leadership requires a lot of listening and learning. Team members have experience that helps them build a solid work breakdown structure, identify risks and determine risk responses, manage issues, and test products. Technical team members can also help avoid over-complicating project solutions. Tapping team experience helps maximize success and increase team buy-in!
  • Team up with key business stakeholders. Business team members provide insights to improve outcomes and enhance project delivery. They can also help avoid pitfalls and identify change management approaches to smooth transitions during project deliverable deployment. Engaged business representatives identify hot buttons that may negatively affect the opinions of influential stakeholders, so you can address those issues and protect the success of your project delivery. These critical insights surface you create a team atmosphere, where business and technical experience are valued. The best decisions are based on a broad set of shared experiences.
  • Capitalize on change agents. Change agents can improve your chances for success. Great project managers seek out change agents and involve them in project planning and delivery. The trick is finding the best change agent candidates, because they aren’t always the managers or team leaders that appear on the organization chart. How do you identify these change agents? Listen and watch carefully when requirements are collected. Who speaks up? Who do others look to for agreement? Identify the authors of substantial documents that have been provided. Find these promising change agents and invite them to coffee to do some change agent recruiting!
  • Collect project experiences. People who have participated in past projects can provide a wealth of valuable insights. They can provide the actual level of risk the organization accepts, which key stakeholders are short-term money focused, who will insist on including certain tasks or verification in your project planning, and who is likely to come up with new requirements after the project begins. These bits of critical information save time and frustration! Take time to pick project veterans’ brains. You’ll be happy you did!

Have success stories and anecdotes related to obtaining insights from team members? Share them in the comment section!

For more about working with your project team, check out Daniel Station’s Project Management Foundations: Teams course.

Coming up:

Bonnie Biafore and John Riopel will talk about how to manage dependencies, meetings, and overall communication in hybrid projects on February 17, 2022, at 1PM MT. Traditional and agile/iterative project management approaches have similarities and differences, so you might wonder how to manage hybrid projects that use both. Although the approaches differ, there are points within a hybrid project where deliverables need to align. For example, a traditional deliverable must be completed before part of the agile effort can start – or vice versa. Even in hybrid projects, the project team is a single team that needs good communication and occasional team-wide meetings to make sure the project is successful.

PMBOK 7 Perspectives: Tailoring Your Project Approach

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In the Project Management Institute’s latest version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7,) the section on tailoring recognizes that project management isn’t one size or style fits all. Tailoring means that you tweak your project management approach, governance, and processes to your organization’s environment and work at hand. In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll look at organizational factors that should drive project tailoring. 

  • Use familiar methodologies (most of the time.) Deploying a new methodology takes time and practice. In most cases, familiar methods for project design and delivery will yield the best results. When possible, stick with what your team and management are used to.

That doesn’t mean you should never try other methodologies. Introduce them on small projects that aren’t critical, where you can afford to stumble for the benefit of education. Most organizations that have succeeded with agile started small and adapted the approach to leverage its benefits while avoiding its pitfalls. Over time, they became comfortable with agile methods, developed foresight to avoid problems, and obtained the speed and responsiveness agile provides.

  • Accommodate the business’ risk appetite. Although all projects introduce risk, the degree of risk within any given project should reflect the risk tolerance of your business. Businesses with small profit margins or in highly-regulated industries where new approaches require government interpretation and new rulings might not support a risky project. Conversely, small businesses in a highly innovative market might demand fast technological leaps from their projects, which are inherently high risk. 

Tailor your management approach to take into account the project objectives and risk tolerance of your business. Aggressive timelines and new technology are appropriate when higher business risk is acceptable. If you need to reduce risk, use known approaches, conservative timelines, and sufficient time for planning and market testing. 

  • Consider the depth of your customer relationships. Considerable project tailoring may be required based on the relationships you have with your customers and how familiar your customers are with your products and services. If you know your customers and their business processes, you might plan fewer activities to confirm requirements and verify solutions. Conversely, with a new market segment, you should plan for more market analysis, requirements validation and product verification. Whether you are adding an enhanced product to a respected product line or entering a new market with a brand-new offering, tailor your standard project planning and delivery approaches to match. If in doubt, plan more verifications with your customers – you and they will appreciate it! 
  • Be mindful of the pace of change. The pace of change your business and your customers can handle is a significant factor in how you tailor your project and its deliverables. You may be better off delivering your project in small phases if your stakeholders are already dealing with a lot of change. On the other hand, if you need to leapfrog a competitor, moving fast with a significant change may be required. The nature of your business will also impact the pace at which you introduce change. A public utility company needs to be cautious and deliberate to protect vital infrastructure, whereas a web technology company can introduce change very quickly, assess the results and roll back a change with little to no impact. Adopt to the pace of change your business can handle, as it can be the difference between success and complete failure of a project.

For more about project management methodologies, check out Cyndi Snyder Dionisio’s Hybrid Project Management: Do What Works course.

Coming Up: 

Bonnie Biafore and John Riopel will talk about how to manage dependencies, meetings, and overall communication in hybrid projects on February 17, 2022, at 1PM MT. Traditional and agile/iterative project management approaches have similarities and differences, so you might wonder how to manage hybrid projects that use both. Although the approaches differ, there are points within a hybrid project where deliverables need to align. For example, a traditional deliverable must be completed before part of the agile effort can start – or vice versa. Even in hybrid projects, the project team is a single team that needs good communication and occasional team-wide meetings to make sure the project is successful.

PMBOK7 Perspectives: Analyzing Stakeholder Attitude

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In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll look at stakeholder attitudes, one of the new approaches to analyzing stakeholders in the Project Management Institute’s latest version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7.)

In PMBOK7, Knowledge Areas are replaced with Performance Domains, which recommend additional activities in several areas, including stakeholder analysis. Let’s look at challenging stakeholder attitudes and responses that increase your success in stakeholder management.

  • Inattentive/indifferent. Key stakeholders can behave as if they don’t care about the project or its outcomes even if they would be positively or negatively impacted by those outcomes. They might not pay attention due to their workload, business issues, or other distractions. Remember, your project isn’t the only thing on the stakeholder’s plate.
    • To gain the attention of a distracted stakeholder, talk to the stakeholder’s peers and support staff to find ways to engage the stakeholder.
    • Use clear and persuasive graphics or flowcharts to show how the project might impact the them. Share this information with the stakeholder’s department.
    • Demonstrate that the stakeholder needs to decide between the alternatives by a specific date. Clearly communicate that the project team will make the decision if the stakeholders doesn’t respond by that date. This approach doesn’t guarantee a response from the stakeholder, but it typically gets their attention. If the stakeholder disagrees with your choices, you have documentation that they had an opportunity to make the decision and opted not to.
  • Fearful. Stakeholders who fear negative project outcomes are challenging to manage. Their past experiences may have been bad. Fear can manifest through micromanagement, requests for overly-detailed status reports, and drawn out decision-making.

Talk to your stakeholder to understand their concerns. You may have risk mitigation plans in place that address their fears. Communicate your plans, or create new risk items, and obtain the stakeholder’s approval for the mitigation and status sharing strategies should their concerns come to fruition. You might reduce their fear by demonstrating that you understand their concerns and have plans to address them.

  • Demanding and self-centered. All stakeholders are affected by the project by definition. Some stakeholders act as if they are the only project stakeholder. They place demands on the project without regard for the needs of other project stakeholders. If the demanding stakeholder is your sponsor, that is likely their prerogative. If not, emphasize the other project requirements you are managing with this stakeholder. If they continue to show no regard for other stakeholders, get your sponsor involved to negotiate with this demanding stakeholder. (Remember, the project sponsor is responsible for the project and its outcomes, and wants to see the project succeed.) The sponsor can then help you reprioritize the project requirements. At that point, you can cite the sponsor’s directions when you deal with the demanding stakeholder.
  • Wheeler/dealer. Stakeholders might offer funding or resources for a project in a bid to get their desired outcomes added to a project. They might be extraordinarily persistent! This can seem like a variation on the demanding stakeholder in the previous point. You might consider asking them to work with the sponsor to prioritize their outcomes. It might make sense to introduce new requirements or reprioritize requirements in exchange for benefits. For that reason, the best approach is to handle these proposals through your standard project change management practices.
  • Indecisive. Slow decision-making by stakeholders impacts project schedules — and cost when resources assignments must be extended. Being proactive is the best way to address this situation. Major project decisions have to be made after stakeholders consider the pros and cons of alternatives. Include a specific task, assigned to the sponsor or key stakeholders, delineating the decision to be made and the time allocated for them to research and consider their position. In addition, calculate and communicate what it costs for each day that the major project decision is delayed. This can help illuminate highlight the impact stakeholder indecisiveness has on your project. You can also use this information to create a project change request to alter the project schedule and budget due to the decision-making delays.

Have experience with any or all of these stakeholder attitudes? If you have insights and suggestions for dealing with them, add them in the comments section.

For more about stakeholders, check out Natasha Kasimtseva’s Managing Project Stakeholders course.

Coming Up

Bonnie Biafore and John Riopel will talk about how to manage dependencies, meetings, and overall communication in hybrid projects on February 17, 2022, at 1PM MT. Traditional and agile/iterative project management approaches have similarities and differences, so you might wonder how to manage hybrid projects that use both. Although the approaches differ, there are points within a hybrid project where deliverables need to align. For example, a traditional deliverable must be completed before part of the agile effort can start – or vice versa. Even in hybrid projects, the project team is a single team that needs good communication and occasional team-wide meetings to make sure the project is successful.