Archive for category: Project Management

Project ideas pop up all the time, but that doesn’t mean they are all worth pursuing. Companies want to reap enough benefits from the time and money they spend on projects. To make sure a candidate project is worthwhile, someone needs to complete some prerequisites before the project is launched.

Who gets these prerequisites in place when the project idea is so early in initiation? Management might ask a project manager to work on them. And that person might become the project manager if the project is approved — but also might not. If the organization has a project management office, a PMO staff member could take on this work.

Here are the prerequisites that ensure a candidate project is worth pursuing:

An engaged sponsor. For a project to succeed, the sponsor needs to believe in the project’s business value. That’s because the sponsor:

• supplies time and funding to determine if the project is viable
• identifies the research the project requires
• decides the degree of risk the business is willing to accept
• figures out business priorities
• works through conflicts if key stakeholders disagree about the project’s focus

A clear goal. There should be a clear definition of the candidate’s project outcomes. The definition can be high-level. The sponsor and key stakeholders need to understand and agree on these outcomes. (Project initiation then focuses on picking the approach to create those outcomes.) The viability of the project also depends on resource availability, the ability to change business processes, and dependence on old systems that may be difficult to alter.

Available business analyst skills. Some projects focus on improving the way the organization does business. Others produce a new product or service. Business analysts and members of the business need to work together to evaluate these opportunities. It’s tempting to sketch out new processes or envision new products without thorough research and engaging business analysts. Skipping this effort adds risk and increases the chance of inaccurate assumptions that lead to project failure.

An understanding of priorities and budget. Organizations have only so much money to spend on projects. And they also prioritize projects based on how they support the organizations’ goals and objectives. Whoever evaluates the candidate must identify the candidate’s budget and priority. Otherwise, people might view the project as a waste of time or out of line with management’s objectives. 

An experienced project manager. The chance of project success increases when an experienced project manager takes the helm. The level of experience depends on factors like the project’s significance, complexity, and size. For instance, someone trained in project management but with little experience could handle a small, lower-priority project (and gain experience at the same time). A critical and complex project will need a senior project manager.

Who has performed these early steps in projects you’ve worked on? Are there other steps you’ve seen performed before launch? If so, share with us in the comments section.

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

Coming Up:

Office Hours– On August 9, Sam Yankelevitch and I will talk about overcoming obstacles for global and remote project teams. Working remotely is a reality today: it’s increasingly important to pay attention to the quality of our interactions with our distant colleagues. Language, culture, and distance influence the way we work together with stakeholders on our projects. We can either leave these factors to chance, or we can learn to leverage them to improve our project outcomes.

A project review is typically run from within an organization, while an external compliance-monitoring organization, such as a consulting firm or government agency, often conducts a project audit. Without the proper perspective, a project review or audit can be like a trip to the dentist. Here are different management approaches you should take with project reviews and audits to make them as constructive as possible.

• Understand the scope of the exercise. The first step to support a review or audit is to understand its scope and intent. Typically, the primary topics are: 1. compliance with documented processes or accepted practices and 2. the mindful use of money. For a supportive review, share the available documentation concerning the project so the review team can select what they want to review. Government audits (or reviews that are trying to target errors rather than educate or be supportive) are a different story. For these, ask the audit or review team what documentation they require and provide that. This will limit the scope of the audit/review and make the exercise easier to manage. Note: you might be tempted to flood auditors with lots of documentation to show your project control capability. However, that usually backfires, because it gives auditors more targets to investigate.

• Gather information on your project management processes. Have artifacts ready to show that you’ve conformed with agreed-to project management processes. If you haven’t complied with a documented process, demonstrate that you consciously did that with management’s concurrence so you can provide that to the review or audit team. Documentation that review teams typically request include risk or change logs, your project schedule with notes on the assumptions used to build it (like team member availability of 30 hours per week), and decision logs.

• If you discover that you overlooked a process, proactively create an action plan to correct that oversight. Say you’re preparing for a review or audit and find an obvious deficiency. Correct it by developing an action plan to implement the overlooked process. If there is time before the review or audit begins, document progress against your action plans. The team may still ask questions about this oversight. However, reviewers and auditors usually react positively to proactive corrective actions.
• Document important conversations. A project management best practice is to document key conversations, especially when the people involved made decisions. However, you might discover that some conversations slipped through the cracks. If you discover gaps in your documentation, go back and fill them in including signatures from the parties to the agreement. DON’T backdate the documents you create. (Use the current date, even though that highlights belated documentation.) If the reviews or audit team discovers your backdating practice, your integrity will be in question, which results in more scrutiny that will cause interruptions and delay you from returning to the job of delivering your project.
• Answer questions.– If the review or audit is focused on compliance and not supportive of you and the project team, answer only the questions asked. Based on the approach of a supportive review team, use your judgment and share information you believe is constructive. You should manage auditors differently, because they are searching for compliance items to scrutinize. “The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” should be shared with auditors…but don’t go beyond the scope of the question asked. Doing so will raise more questions and potentially expand the scope of the audit. Coach your project team members to follow this practice and things will be easier to manage. It’s also wise to debrief team members questioned by auditors and log the exchanged questions and answers. That makes it easier to respond to follow up queries from auditors or get clarification when an audit team comes to a conclusion that doesn’t reflect reality.
• If auditors are on track to discover something, share the issue and ask for advice. Trying to hide something ends badly when auditors discover deception. (We’ve watched enough police procedural TV shows to know that!) Develop an action plan to address the problem and then share the issue and plan with the audit team and ask for their advice. Using the audit as an improvement opportunity is a positive outcome, which is much better than being seen as someone who didn’t pay proper attention to project governance and tried to hide it. Be as open as possible with a supportive review team. You might find they have experience, hints and tips that will help your project and help you in your project management career.

If you have any tips on how to handle audits and reviews, share with us in the comments section!

The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7) emphasizes how managing risk with appropriate responses helps optimize project outcomes. Here are the five characteristics of optimal risk responses outlined by the Project Management Institute. 

Appropriate for the risk’s significance. The risk responses you choose should align with the impact the risk has on your project. For example, a response is appropriate if a risk could make your time-critical project finish several months late. Conversely, if a risk will cost $10 if it occurs, don’t bother spending time on it. As you consider risk response actions, determine how many people they require, any complexity changes, or changes to the outcome of the project. And ensure your risk response doesn’t create other significant risks for your project. Review your proposed response to ensure stakeholders are comfortable with it. 

Cost effective. The cost or benefit to the project if the risk occurs should be reasonable compared to the cost of risk mitigation. Don’t spend $1,000 to avoid a risk that will cost $300 if it occurs. If the risk impact is hard to quantify, such as the potential of impacting marketplace reputation, ensure your risk responses are in line with senior leaders’ perception of the risk.

Realistic within the project context.  Optimal risk responses should be easily executed, implemented quickly, using a universally understood approach. You should rethink any risk response actions that outside these conditions. Suppose you have a project involving five team members from one department. A risk response action that requires 10 people from four different departments won’t be easy to execute– it adds complexity and expands your project communication and coordination requirements. 

Agreed to by relevant stakeholders. Stakeholders should be comfortable with your response plans and should be able to participate or support your actions if needed. Take care to ensure all relevant stakeholders agree with your risk responses. You don’t want conflicts to arise when it’s time to respond to risks that are becoming issues.

Owned by a responsible person. The “responsible person” is the individual who is most capable of recognizing when a risk is coming to fruition, or has occurred, and can immediately respond. A key to effective risk management is to minimize negative impacts or maximize opportunities. To do that, it’s critical to act swiftly and authoritatively. The responsible person is usually a department manager or senior team member who handles the tasks impacted by the risk—not the project manager.

Do you use other characteristics to choose risk responses? If so, share with us in the comments sections!

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

Coming Up

I’m updating my Project Management Foundations course. Look for it in Fall 2022.

My latest course, Microsoft Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Essential Training, is now available in the LinkedIn Learning library. In this edition, you can not only follow the movie steps in exercise files. I included additional homework you can do on the file after the movie ends. Click the link to watch the course for free (for up to 24 hours after you click.)

The relationship between the sponsor and project manager is so critical that a change of sponsor is very disruptive. If you end up with a new sponsor, quickly establish rapport with them with the following steps.

• Confirm the sponsor’s knowledge of the project. Always have a one-page project summary ready and review it with your new sponsor. Doing so highlights your organizational capability as well as brings your sponsor up to speed. Review outstanding support commitments from your prior sponsor (such as helping you obtain a key resource.) Your new sponsor may have different perspectives on those commitments so be prepared to discuss their rationales and consider alternatives your new sponsor may propose.
• Establish expectations of project management. Based on their perceived needs and preferences, sponsors have different expectations of project managers. Ask about your sponsor’s preferred method for receiving status information (written or verbal), and how they want you to alert them to issues that arise. Clarify the role they want to play in project-related decision-making and what you can decide independently as the PM. If you have a formal project charter in place, review the responsibilities section to guide the conversation. Be ready to adjust to suit your sponsor.
• Clarify your sponsor’s desired level of detail. Senior leaders often have distinct preferences about the level of information they receive. Some want high points, while others prefer to delve into the details. Ask your new sponsor for their overall preference regarding information they receive and if there are exceptions. For example, they may be happy with high-level information but want details about your response actions to address a critical issue.
• Confirm project success criteria. Your new sponsor’s perception of success may differ from their predecessor’s. Some sponsors emphasize meeting deadlines, while others are more patient to ensure that the project produces the highest quality deliverables. Review your success criteria and the priority of the triple constraints (scope, cost, and time) with your new sponsor. Tailor your plans as necessary if your sponsor wants to change priorities, but don’t forget to lodge a change request for approval when doing so!

What other tips do you have for building a relationship with a new sponsor? Share them with us in the comments section!

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

Coming Up

I’m updating my Project Management Foundations course. Look for it in Fall 2022.

Key stakeholders sometimes apply significant pressure to achieve unrealistic project goals. Pushing back against these requests can rattle the nerves of even the most experienced project manager! And it can be difficult to convince stakeholders to change their objectives or perspectives. What do you do when you can’t change stakeholders’ minds? Adopt a process that allows you to manage expectations and move the project forward. Here is a four-step approach to make the best of dealing with unreasonable expectations.

Step 1 – Share the facts. Develop a simple and direct argument that outlines your concerns with the project. Use prior project data, industry reference materials, and concerns presented by technical leaders. Your message is likely to be viewed as bad news, so be ready for a strong reaction. It may take a few tries to get your point across, so be persistent to get your message heard. Stick to the facts. Don’t let stakeholder reactions hijack your message into an emotional discussion. You’re sharing information about risks that need to be addressed. Keep in mind, it isn’t your job to prevent senior leaders from taking risks. Your job as project manager is to ensure that stakeholders recognize the risks the project presents. After your discussion, deal with the directions you receive as best you can.

Step 2 – Embrace perspectives. Share project risks across a wider audience and listen for additional stakeholder perspectives. Technical team members may be overloaded with issues or an unreasonable volume of work. Some stakeholders may have interests for their local team that conflict with the best option for the overall organization. All these things may land at your feet to handle. Be understanding and remember – you can address issues through transparent discussion only when stakeholders put their issues on the table. Help others understand these differing perspectives and generate discussions to explore a clearer path to move the project forward. 

Step 3 – Be ready to compromise. Don’t be stubborn. As the conversations you arrange unfold, some of your attempts to reduce project risk may be rejected. Seek a reasonable risk management position that allows you to make positive strides toward project delivery. The way forward may not be perfect. However, an 80% improvement in your situation is probably better than damaging a relationship to achieve 90 or 100%. When the environment for project delivery isn’t ideal, put extra monitoring in place to reveal issues as soon as possible. Discuss these areas of concern with your sponsor and in your weekly project meetings.

Step 4 – Demonstrate the path your project is taking. Capitalize on your monitoring to watch for issues. Create metrics that show the impact (or lack of) that areas of risk have on the project. Share the path your project is taking with stakeholders. For example, if you are concerned that key technical resources won’t be available to dedicate enough time to your project, establish a minimum amount of time needed to deliver your project on schedule. Monitor the actual hours your resource dedicates to the project and the completion status of their tasks. Report your results at status meetings to keep people appraised on the status of the risk. If the concerns you raised earlier (in step 1) are having an impact, you will have concrete data to justify your concern, and your stakeholders are more likely to support the changes you need to successfully deliver your project. If all is going well, don’t get complacent! Continue monitoring until the risk possibility has passed.

Do you have any pointers for dealing with unreasonable requests? Share them with us in the comments section!

For more about dealing with unreasonable expectations, check out Natasha Kasimtseva’s Managing Project Stakeholders course.

Coming Up

Next LinkedIn Office Hours will be on Wednesday, June, 1 2022-

Project Management Entrepreneurship Part 2: Skills and Tools

Have you thought about going out on your own as a project manager, instead of being an employee? Seyi Kukoyi, PMP, and Bonnie Biafore, PMP, provide guidance for that journey in the course Become a Project Management Entrepreneur (http://linkedin-learning.pxf.io/PMentrepreneur-li). In this follow-on LinkedIn Office Hours event, Seyi, Bonnie, John Riopel and Oliver Yarbrough discuss the skills and tools you need to be a PM entrepreneur.