What qualifies as a project?

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Photo by Lala Azizli on Unsplash

During a recent LinkedIn Live session, an attendee asked “What actually qualifies as a project when summarizing project management experience? Could it be creating a lesson plan or procuring items for a charity auction?” 

According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK®), a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique project, service, or result.

Let’s dig a little deeper to see what qualifies as a project.

A project:

Satisfies a set of requirements. According to PMI®, projects create a unique product, service, or result. That unique result needs to satisfy some established requirements. Without requirements, you won’t know when your endeavor is complete. Although you can launch an Agile project without fully defined requirements, you still need some high-level requirements to get started.

Requires a sequenced schedule of activities. To qualify as a project, the project goal needs a purposefully sequenced series of task. Otherwise, you’re just working on your ongoing to-do list, which doesn’t qualify as a temporary endeavor.

Considers scope, time and costs. Fundamental to qualifying for projecthood, a project must produce a result that’s at least partially defined when it starts (scope), work with a schedule of tasks (time) and work within a budget (costs.) In other words, scope defines the project result; the schedule of tasks completes the scope within a timeframe, this making the project temporary; and people and other resources (which incur costs) are needed to complete the tasks.

You could argue that only two of these elements (scope, time and cost) are required.  Occasionally, a project won’t have a prescribed deadline or budget is not a major factor. If you’ve run projects that only require management of two of these three elements, you aren’t truly an experienced project manager. 

Produces benefits. A project delivers a unique product, service, or result; and it takes time and money to do so.  To justify that time, money, and effort, the result has to produce some kind of benefit to the organization.

Given these conditions, does creating a lesson plan or procuring items for a charity auction be considered a project? Yes!

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

Effective Project Management During the Pandemic

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In one of my recent LinkedIn Live broadcasts, someone asked how project management could evolve, given new and changing rules imposed by the pandemic. Here are a few key ways in which project management could adjust to be effective during the pandemic.

Focus on using tools for remote work effectively. More than ever, project management involves people working remotely, which amplifies the need for contact and useful communication tools. Those shiny new team management tools available today provide new communication and collaboration capabilities. However, without establishing new habits, those tools might be used improperly (or not at all) leading to missed or mangled messages. To ensure tools for remote work actually work, get with the team to understand the habits and approaches they use from their home office.  Then, strive to align your stakeholders around a common set of practices.

Address work circumstances in project requirements and the requirement gathering process. The pandemic adds a whole new dimension to requirements collection. Team members and clients might work in offices, at home, or both. They might work different numbers of days per week in each location. They might work different work hours because of childcare responsibilities. These circumstances are a consideration both for the requirements gathering process as well as the project requirements themselves. The idea of belonging and inclusion that is popular thinking in the talent management world needs to be applied to projects. Project requirements should address how information and interactions are transferred and how integrations between processes and tools are managed. And the requirements process should support requirement gatherers and requirement providers working in different places and on different schedules. One things for sure — counting on people sharing information over the cubical wall is a thing of the past.

Robust communication planning. Communication needs are broader and more challenging. during the pandemic. How do you ensure stakeholders feel informed when you can’t see their reactions easily? The Project Management Institute (PMI) states the person who initiates communication is responsible for ensuring it’s received and understood. That takes serious work when stakeholders are dispersed and remotely located. In a pandemic-era communication plan, center stage belongs to follow up calls, careful scrutiny of email replies, and diligent follow-up when no response is received.

Place emphasis on integration and interaction risks. Risk plans should emphasize specific risks associated with integration, interactions between staff members, and assumptions about serving clients. For example, we can’t assume transport or product delivery will be normal until the pandemic truly subsides. While things are improving in wealthier nations, virus-related impacts and restrictions could remain in other countries for some time to come.

More focus on organizational change management. Peter Senge is quoted as saying “People don’t resist change. They resist being changed.” Organizational change planning and execution needs to have greater emphasis in our pandemic-affected world. Change can be difficult because of isolation and the stressful changes people have to make. Be sure to focus on potential change fatigue and work hard to understand the magnitude of change people need to absorb. Also, consider how to provide more individual attention to stakeholders to ensure project business outcomes are realized through organizational change.

Do you have suggestions for other ways project management needs to adjust for pandemic realities? Let’s get a conversation going in the comments! The LinkedIn Learning library has some great courses about working and building relationships when working remotely. Go to the library and then search for “remote work.”

Budgeting in an Agile Environment

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Photo By Leon from Unsplash

In one of my recent LinkedIn Live broadcasts, an attendee asked about budgeting in an agile environment. Here are the steps for building and maintaining a sound budget for an agile project. 

Step 1. Determine your Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The MVP is the smallest possible product that will satisfy the most important business needs. To deliver value to your business as soon as possible, building the MVP (and nothing more) in your initial release is sensible. That way, you deliver the product faster with the smallest budget. As the MVP is used and more is understood, the business can fund development of additional functionality as needed.

Step 2. Build your estimate around people and time. With the MVP identified, the team can estimate how many people and sprints will be required to build and test those functions. This is an easy way to build an estimate. If you plan to have three developers for 12 two-week sprints, your initial estimate is the cost for 72 person-weeks (3*12*2) plus overhead costs needed in your organization.

Step 3. Adjust the number of people and sprints as you learn. Like any project, your initial estimate involves guesswork. As you build features and work through your backlog, you will probably need to adjust your budget. The team should proactively agree to when to re-evaluate the budget. After three to five sprints is a good rule of thumb. Like your original budget, the adjusted budget can be built based on the number of people and sprints, and the length of the sprints.

Step 4. Augment the budget for specific features. The priorities and needs of the business can change during your project.  In addition, discoveries or new ideas for features can surface. As a result, the business may decide to add or delete features and increase/decrease the budget accordingly. While this creates a bit of a moving feast with your project and budget, the changes are made to accommodate the needs of your product owner. 

Step 5. Keep stakeholders in the loop. Ensure your stakeholders are aware of the status of your budget. This is relatively easy with the agile approach. Whenever there are changes to the backlog (when scope is added or deleted,) you communicate those changes and the corresponding budgetary adjustment. By sharing the approved scope changes, you proactively answer any questions about why the budget has changed.

Managing your budget in an agile environment is a straightforward process as long as the agile team manages backlog features in conjunction with the product owner. Follow these steps and worrying about budget management will be a thing of the past! 

For more about agile projects, check out Doug Rose’s Agile Foundations course.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

 

Pre-requisite Skills for Project Managers

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In a LinkedIn Live session with Bob McGannon, someone asked, “What pre-requisite skills are needed to qualify for consideration as a project manager?” While there are many valid answers, here are skills Bob and I look for in project management candidates.

  • Great communication. Project managers constantly communicate, verbally and in writing. Effective communication skills are paramount for project management.
  • Relationship building. Project management is a relationship business. Although tools and processes help a project manager, they require working with people. From team members to senior leaders, members of the public to members of the Board, project managers need to leverage positive relationships to be effective. 
  • Highly organized. Project management requires coordination among numerous tasks, people, strategic and operational objectives, finances, and communication expectations, to name a few. A project manager’s days are varied and full of challenges and queries from management. Project managers need to keep things organized to respond to the day-to-day demands of the job.
  • Keen intuition. Keeping track of everything that a project manager needs to understand can be a monumental challenge. Although tools and exception management help, having a “nose for trouble” can be invaluable. Tools don’t always expose issues early enough to identify the ideal response. Individuals who can sense issues with team members or project tasks possess an invaluable skill for project management. 
  • Juggling capability. Good project managers resemble parents who can conduct a conversation on the telephone, respond to one of their children’s needs, and make dinner at the same time. Although multi-tasking isn’t ideal for productivity, jugglers can focus their attention on multiple things and respond when needed. Given the myriad demands placed upon project managers, good juggling skills are helpful.
  • Appreciation for detail AND the big picture. Effective project managers understand the required level of detail needed to deliver their projects. They also understand how their project’s requirements and outcomes fit into the overall business. An appreciation for building (or working with others to build) everything from a detailed project task list and schedule to a high-level business case abstract is vital for success.

Have we missed something in this list? Add a comment to share the skills you feel are required for project managers and let’s get a discussion going.

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

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

Dealing with Opponents to your Project

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Sometimes you must deal with someone who opposes your project. Here are tips to handle this uncomfortable and quite common situation:

Don’t ignore it. This issue isn’t going away. It’s crucial to fully understand the opposition to your project and address it. Otherwise, the opposition will intensify and become more difficult to manage. If you need help doing that, ask your sponsor for support. Keep dialogue open with your opposing stakeholder and representatives of their organization, so you can learn as much as you can to resolve their concerns.

Focus on business benefits and risks.  Project opposition often comes from misunderstandings or fear of change. Compare the opposition to your project against the benefits. Treat concerns as risks and work on mitigation strategies. Include people who both support and oppose the project as you derive risk and risk response strategies. As your project progresses, ensure your status reports provide detail to inform both project supporters and opponents. Project opponents who aren’t informed are likely to escalate their concerns with your project – so keep the status reports flowing to all interested parties.

Build a solid business case.  Ensure the business case provides a view of the benefits for the overall business. Leverage supportive stakeholders to help highlight your business case.  Items that benefit some stakeholders can create concerns for others. Ensure your sponsor is aware of any concerns so they can help counter roadblocks created by skeptical stakeholders.

Seek opportunities to support your concerned stakeholder. Understanding your stakeholder’s concerns can surface ideas for future projects that will provide benefits. Helping them build a business case for a follow-on project will help you preserve your relationship and further advance your business. It also demonstrates your ability to see the big picture in your business environment.

For more about managing stakeholders, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

Dealing with Pre-Determined Deadlines

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Receiving a project assignment with a pre-determined deadline happens a lot in the business world. Bob McGannon has these tips for addressing this uncomfortable situation as a project manager.

Understand the source of the deadline. Government regulations, once-a-year marketing events, and other circumstances can necessitate deadlines. The best place to start is to understand the need for the deadline and what scope flexibility may exist. The deadline may represent a manager’s internal commitment or hope. A trade show or conference is a hard deadline that can’t be adjusted.

To support fact-based conversations about the project deadline, first investigate what it will take to deliver the requested scope. As project manager, ask your sponsors to treat you like their auto mechanics. You wouldn’t take your car to the mechanic and say, “You’ll charge me $120 and have the car ready by 2pm.” You ask about the likely charges and when it can be ready. Take the same approach with assigning projects; accept management’s aspirations but ask for the opportunity to validate them to determine if they are reasonable.

Perform your duty as a project manager. It’s irresponsible to say “I’ll do it” before you determine if the triple constraints of cost, scope and time are reasonable.  Although pushing back on unreasonable constraints is difficult, it’s easier than later justifying why you missed commitments.

A sponsoring manager may not be aware of the challenges your project team will face. Sharing those challenges and the pros and cons of addressing them can help you craft achievable project objectives. Responsible project management involves putting facts on the table and conducting conversations about what can be delivered and the circumstances in which you can perform that delivery. 

Conduct the proper research. While you may have a gut feel that a project deadline is unreasonable, management decisions are rarely made without facts. Look to prior projects for timeframes and the level of effort required to produce deliverables. Track the typical time your managers require to make project-related decisions.  Determine the staff you have available. Your most talented staff members might not be available, which could mean more risks will surface and/or your project will take longer to deliver. Use that data to explain why committing to the current project deadline may be high risk. 

Be prepared to negotiate. Forecasting project completion is a bit of an art. The science develops as the project progresses and you learn more. Discuss elements that can help you meet the target deadline, such as getting the best team members, hiring skilled contractors, or cutting scope items that may be difficult to produce. Discuss milestones in the project timeline where you can re-evaluate the project completion date and be prepared to share what will be required to bring that date forward.

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

The topic for this post came from a question asked in one of my LinkedIn Live sessions. If you have a question, post it as a comment. It could become the topic for a future post.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

Choosing Project Team Leaders

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The right team leaders can help make your project a success. Here are sound strategies for assigning team leaders to your project. 

Add strength to your project leadership. Look for people who compliment and expand your skills. Be realistic about your own skills and how others can augment them. Tell your team leaders how their strengths can support you and the project. 

Increase visibility. Team leaders with visibility to critical stakeholders can help you promote your project in addition to providing critical skills. Shrewd project managers leverage relationships between team leaders and key stakeholders to review potential project priorities and directions. Team leaders can also obtain early opinions and impressions on project deliverables as they are being produced.

Instil confidence. People who are widely trusted add value as team leaders, because the organization is likely to follow their lead regarding changes or decisions. These confidence-building team leads might act as part-time deliverable reviewers. Their reviewer role provides a valuable quality check and can also boost stakeholder confidence. 

A Reality check – team leaders are often chosen for you. Managers often assign team leaders to your project. Therefore, it is important to develop good relationships with the managers who provide resources. Use the tips provided here as rationale when negotiating to get the best people assigned to your project. If your preferred resources aren’t made available, seek to have them assigned on “stand by” for risk mitigation purposes in the event you run into project issues. 

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

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

Managing Variances

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Managing the variance from your project baseline is sound PM practice. Here are tips to determine acceptable triple constraint variances (scope, time, and cost) for your project:

Examine your company’s behavior. Your business is likely to have common approaches for managing scope, time, and costs. Your project should conform to those norms for tolerating scope changes, schedule slippage, or budget overruns. While some businesses focus on maintaining a tight budget and schedule, others, due to intense competition in the marketplace, may focus on fulfilling scope, even if it means going over budget or behind schedule. In other business environments, schedule is critical. Government laws that go into effect on a certain date must have supporting systems and processes ready to go when a law is enacted.

Scheduled events will affect acceptable variance. Many businesses work on marketing release schedules, so products need to be ready for demonstration at key trade shows or other marketing events. Little to no schedule slippage is tolerable in these instances. There may be some tolerance for scope reduction however, if the product still meets market expectations.

Cost savings as a project outcome will affect your variance targets. There is likely to be little to no tolerance for budget overruns when cost savings is the project justification. However, if the cost savings come from improved processes or low-cost product production, scope may be the constraint where variances are unacceptable. Process changes that form the project scope may need to be unchanged to fulfill the cost savings objectives. In some cases, increasing the budget may be acceptable to ensure the long-term cost savings are achieved.

As you approach the end of your project, acceptable schedule variance tends to be tightened. This is because you have less time to recover from any delays. Budget constraints may tighten as well. If you are under budget, however, your ability to accept cost overruns for specific tasks may improve toward the end of your project. Be careful however – just because you are under budget doesn’t mean you can overspend on a given item – management may be counting on the excess allocated funds to apply to another project.

For more about managing variances, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

 

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.

SMART Requirements are Agile

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SMART guidelines are used to assess requirements in waterfall projects. They apply to agile projects as well:

Specific. In Agile, it doesn’t exist initially. Specific relates to the final product. Requirements are captured during development, not documented in advance. However, the end result typically goes beyond the detail and specificity of traditional requirements. When broad  requirements aren’t specific, they are typically broken down into several features in Agile, each of which provides specific functionality and can be more easily produced.

Measurable. The construction and evaluation of each feature focuses on measuring effectiveness. One of the most significant benefits of Agile is that performance and suitability measurement reviews are built into the development process. With a mindset towards prototyping, Agile features can be evaluated by users prior to implementation. When that cannot be done directly, for example, when a totally new business process is being created, the user-developer partnership used to build features in Agile reduces the risk of items failing to meet measurable business objectives.

Achievable. Feature sizing and prioritization ensures that achievability is regularly assessed. Features are examined for their integrity and ability to be produced during a sprint. Larger features are broken down into pieces that are more easily created, enhancing achievability. When the features can’t be broken down into manageable pieces, that’s a sign that they aren’t achievable. The developers and users can examine these features in real time to determine how critical they are and explore other ways to address the corresponding business need.

Realistic. In Agile, features are developed and accepted iteratively and in real time, versus weeks or months after requirements are documented in the traditional approach.  Agile lends itself to realistic outcomes and can accommodate the latest changes to business needs. The nature of Agile means the team learns about features and their capabilities more deeply, allowing users to make features more business-friendly. Feature capabilities have greater integrity and support better business processes.

Time-constrained. The sprint schedule is ideal for ensuring time constraints are placed on feature creation. In addition, there is the added value of being able to easily change timeframes when business priorities change. Reprioritization and re-stacking of features for each sprint provide an ongoing focus on development timeframes. While this time management approach isn’t perfect, features that require more time than anticipated to develop are re-evaluated and assigned to subsequent sprints as agreed by the Agile team.

 

For more about Agile, check out Doug Rose’s Agile Foundations course.

Why You Should Identify Risks Early

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Identifying risks early in a project is a best practice. Here are some benefits of this great approach.

Obtain critical information for project approval.  Without identifying risks early, an inappropriate project could be launched, wasting money and valuable stakeholder time. Instead, understanding the risks provides a balanced view of the value of project outcomes. The expected outcomes could be prioritized or enhanced based on the risks presented by the project team, making the project more viable. Or the project could be deemed inappropriate due to those risks.

Make your initial plans more realistic.  Project overviews, including high-level plans, provide context that helps drive project approval. Those initial plans must consider project risks to be valid. With risks identified, the team can define mitigation actions and include them in the plans. Risk information helps the management team make go/no-go project decisions in the best interest of the business. In addition increasing the integrity of the approval decision, it also proactively sets key stakeholders’ expectations.

Set a reasonable project budget.  Risk management often requires additional funds to cover the costs of actions or contracts needed to manage risk. And these can be expensive. Considering these costs early in project planning helps the sponsor set a reasonable project budget with greater likelihood of meeting business expectations.

Determine early staffing requirements. Addressing risks typically includes staffing considerations. Expensive, contracted specialized skills could be required to manage technical risks.  Alternatively, you could make sure internal technical team leaders work on your project. (However, internal team leaders’ time may be limited, which can extend your project schedule.)

Capturing risks early in your project allows for better and more comprehensive decision-making. Because decisions are good and management is more informed when approving projects,the likelihood of implementing business goals and strategies successfully increases.

For more about risk management, check out Bob McGannon’s course Project Management Foundations: Risk.

This post contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you click my links and make a purchase.