Win-Win: Increasing Project Delivery Capability by Providing Opportunity to Your Teams

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Win-Win: Increasing Project Delivery Capability by Providing Opportunity to Your Teams

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Providing opportunities to team members makes them individually more capable, which leads to more organizational capability for delivering projects. Here are things you can do – TODAY – to create this win-win environment. 

  • Encourage sharing of risks and issues that may arise. Project status can change based on what’s been completed, what’s delayed, what stakeholders are talking about, new ideas, and risks that arise. And you’re more likely to hear about them when you support your teams. Here’s how. Whether updates are positive or negative, thank people who share this information. Your first response should be “Does something need fixing?” followed by “What can we learn from this?” That way, you not only address project issues, but also create learning and growth opportunities for your project team members.
  • Build in discussions of risk and learning. One agenda item for every project status meeting should be the status of existing risks and potential new risks. Periodically, include an agenda item for a team member to share something they’ve learned. This presents project work as a way for project team members to learn and grow. It also improves your project outcomes and provides incentive for people to join your project teams in the future.
  • Help team members understand the business relevance of their project work. A WBS and short task names don’t convey the relevance of tasks to your team members. Take the time to help them understand how their deliverables fit into the big picture to improve the business. The deliverables you receive will be on target and your project team members will expand their business knowledge and opportunities for growth.
  • Share the business’s impressions of your project. Often, project managers shield their project teams from business stakeholders, especially when business pressures cause wild reactions to status changes or preliminary project change ideas. But you, as project manager, should share how the business views the project and how its outcomes will be used. That deeper perspective helps the team grasp the strategic relevance of the project and builds capacity to produce results on future projects.

I’m a big fan of win-win approaches, so I know this is an abbreviated list of how to promote and benefit from a win-win focus. How have you promoted win-win in your organization and what other benefits have the organization and individuals received?

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

Coming Up

One of the most frequent questions Chris Croft and I get is “Do I need project management certification?” quickly followed by “Which certification or certifications should I get?” Everyone’s journey is different, just like Chris and I took very different paths. So, we’re going to explore whether project management certifications are valuable, what else you can do to make yourself stand out, and finally, which certifications to look at if you decide you need them. Bring your questions to this informative and fun session. By the way, this topic is just one that we explore in our new course, How to Launch a Career in Project Management.

Register for the Office Hours session here. (The session recording is available on the event page after the live broadcast ends.)

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 42,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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What Conditions Must Be Met to Close Out a Change Request?

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What Conditions Must Be Met to Close Out a Change Request?

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In project change management, stakeholders might request a change to introduce new functions, modify a requirement, or resolve an issue. Many project managers close a change record when the change control board approves the change to proceed. Others when the change has been completed and included in the project deliverables. Neither approach is valid, because the reason for approving the change request in the first place might not have come to fruition. So, what conditions must be met to properly close a project change?

  • The change is completed within an acceptable cost range. When management approves a change based on estimated costs, they believe the benefits justify the cost. If the change has exceeded estimated costs, you need to re-evaluate the validity of the change request’s business case. That is, does a positive business case still exist for keeping the change in place?
    • If the change will produce value that justifies the cost of the change, close the change request        record.
    • If the value provided doesn’t justify the cost, keep the change request record open for further action. For example, you might back out the change from the project to avoid downstream risks or issues with increased solution complexity.
  • Tests prove the installed change satisfies the stated business need. Business stakeholders should test the products created to satisfy the requirements of the project change request. Also, determine whether stakeholders can follow the instructions in any user documentation produced for those products. You can close the change request record only if both activities have been completed successfully. If not, determine whether corrections can be made as part of the current change request record. Or you can create a new change request record to address modifications required to satisfy business stakeholders.
  • The change doesn’t introduce unanticipated risks/issues. A change request approval process includes estimated costs, confirms the approach for making the change, and highlights risks. If the design, construction, or implementation of a change introduces unanticipated risks or issues, keep the change request record open. Then, determine how to address the issue or mitigate the risks. Review your plan to address the issue/risk with key stakeholders. If stakeholders approve of your plan, take those actions, and close the change request record. If the stakeholders aren’t satisfied, rework the plan until the stakeholders are satisfied. You can close the change request record only when unanticipated issues and risks have been addressed to the stakeholders’ satisfaction.
  • The change doesn’t affect other constraints. A change request might affect other project constraints. For instance, implementing a change might require other changes to make it work. This form of scope creep can be expensive. So, watch out for a change domino effect to get something to work. Quality concerns can also arise from the results of a change. What if an added function in a solution leads to occasional operational errors? Answering that question can be difficult and contentious. Finally, a change might increase the cost of ownership of the product(s) the project produces. Of course, this is something that should have been identified during the analysis of the change request before its approval. If something was missed, re-evaluate the change to determine whether the increased support costs are worth the business gains.

Do you have questions or tips for closing out change requests? Share with us in the comments section.

For more about managing project change requests, check out Claudine Peet’s Change Management for Projects course.

Coming Up

Office Hours: Gen AI: The Project Manager’s Edge July 19, 2023, 9am MT

AI is transforming project management in several ways, such as taking over the creation of complex and realistic schedules through analysis of all available data. As a project manager, you may wonder how to harness generative AI applications in your work and how to implement them successfully. Join me and my fellow LinkedIn instructors, Doug Rose, Dave Birss, and Christina Charenkova to explore how to put AI to work on your projects. Sign up here.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than xx,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Refining Your Project Resource Plans

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The people who work on your project are both a significant factor in its success and a significant cost. So, it’s a good idea to analyze resource plans with an eye to maximizing success while minimizing cost. Here are a few things to think about to make your resource plans shine.

  • Get skill levels just right. Most project managers are concerned about not having enough skilled team members. Turns out, being over-skilled can lead to problems, too. It’s great that highly-skilled folks will “do things right the first time.” But they might not do the job any faster. So, a higher-skilled person (who usually costs more) can increase your project cost without shortening the schedule. For the nest results, review your resource plans to make sure you have the right mix of skills you need. If necessary, supplement skills with contractors.
  • Are your resources really available? You might rejoice when you get a talented staff member assigned to your project. But these rock stars are often busy with day-to-day operational tasks. Work with management to confirm that “the talent” will be available to your project over the long term.

If their longer-term availability isn’t assured, consider a different approach. For example, assign a lower-skilled, yet capable team member to the project. And arrange for the higher-skilled person to review their work. That way, you’re more likely to stay on schedule while still obtaining the benefit of the talented team member’s knowledge.

  • When projects run in parallel. Team members can be pulled into multiple projects. If several projects need the same critical resources, plan your project alongside your fellow project managers. This avoids resource conflicts and undesirable schedule delays.
  • How do key stakeholders perceive your team members. Skill isn’t the only criterion for selecting team members. The right attitude and how key stakeholders perceive them is important, too. When key stakeholders don’t trust someone on your team, their confidence in the project could be low.

What if you need someone with critical, scarce skills who doesn’t have the best reputation with stakeholder? Build and share stakeholder management               plans that address the trust issues and maintain confidence in the project. For example, you might include additional reviews of their work or help the team member communicate more effectively.

  • Leverage contractors to build skill. Project requirements might necessitate hiring contractors because the appropriate skills aren’t available within your organization. To maximize long-term benefits, require contractors to provide skills training for your staff. That way, skill-building becomes part of the resource plan, expanding capabilities and reducing costs.

Note: Some people aren’t good at training others. If you’re going to have contractors provide training, require that the companies you contract with provide people with training experience.

Do you have questions about resource plans or tips for crafting awesome resource plans? Share with us in the comments section.

For more about resource plans, check out Chris Croft’s Managing Resources Across Project Teams course.

Coming Up

Office Hours: Great Meetings Build Great Teams July 11, 2023, 11am MT

Although great meetings won’t guarantee project success, poorly run meetings could lead to project problems. In this Office Hours broadcast, I’ll be talking with Jim Stewart, PMP and Rich Malzman, PMP about how to keep your necessary meetings from becoming necessary evils. Join us for a fun and informative session. (Bring your questions for a chance to win a complimentary eBook of Great Meetings Build Great Teams. Sign up here:

 

Office Hours: Gen AI: The Project Manager’s Edge July 19, 2023, 9am MT

AI is transforming project management in several ways, such as taking over the creation of complex and realistic schedules through analysis of all available data. As a project manager, you may wonder how to harness generative AI applications in your work and how to implement them successfully. Join me and my fellow LinkedIn instructors, Doug Rose, Dave Birss, and Christina Charenkova to explore how to put AI to work on your projects. Sign up here.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 41,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Boost the Power of Milestones

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Boost the Power of Milestones

Photo by Deniz Altindas on Unsplash

Project managers typically show progress with milestones that represent the completion of significant deliverables. But that only scratches the surface of what milestones can show for progress. Here are some other ways to highlight progress with milestones.

  • Progress points on the timeline. Particularly for longer projects, you can create milestones to denote that one quarter, one half, and three quarters of the tasks on your timeline are complete. It’s a great way to show high-level progress on your schedule. 
  • Circumvented risks. Risks make stakeholders nervous. Circumvented risks are high risk items that have been resolved — through successful mitigation or because the risk did not come to fruition. Create milestones to identify these positive events in your schedule. Along with adding these circumvented risks to your milestone chart, be sure to update the overall risk level of the project, too.
  • Positive stakeholder surveys. One way to measure the success of your project is to survey stakeholders about their satisfaction with it. Based on events surrounding the project, stakeholder satisfaction can waiver, particularly early in the project before they see results. Periodically survey your stakeholders. Then, create a milestone when you reach a pre-determined level of stakeholder satisfaction.
  • Significant non-deliverable items on the critical path. Not all critical path items refer to deliverables. Significant critical path items can include sink points where multiple paths through the project schedule come together, the acquisition of critical staff members, or a notable decision by a regulatory body. Add milestones to show these items on your schedule.
  • External dependencies. The acquisition of permits and certifications are worth noting. The conclusion of contract negotiations and other tasks involving external entities can be indications of progress. Use milestones in the project to identify and track them.

Note: Many technical projects use milestones only to show technical task completion. To make sure your progress reports are useful, include milestones for events that are meaningful to the business, such as process finalizations or positive business test results.

There’s really no end to what you can use milestones for. What other events and accomplishments do you highlight with milestones?

For more about milestones, check out my Project Management Foundations: Schedules course.

Coming Up

Office Hours: Great Meetings Build Great Teams July 11, 2023, 11am MT

Although great meetings won’t guarantee project success, poorly run meetings could lead to project problems. In this Office Hours broadcast, I’ll be talking with Jim Stewart, PMP and Rich Malzman, PMP about how to keep your necessary meetings from becoming necessary evils. Join us for a fun and informative session. (Bring your questions for a chance to win a complimentary eBook of Great Meetings Build Great Teams. Sign up here.

 

Office Hours: Gen AI: The Project Manager’s Edge July 19, 2023, 9am MT

AI is transforming project management in several ways, such as taking over the creation of complex and realistic schedules through analysis of all available data. As a project manager, you may wonder how to harness generative AI applications in your work and how to implement them successfully. Join me and my fellow LinkedIn instructors, Doug Rose, Dave Birss, and Christina Charenkova to explore how to put AI to work on your projects. Sign up here. 

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 40,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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