PMBoK7 Perspectives: More Systems Thinking

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The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7) talks about recognizing, evaluating, and responding to system interactions, which means project managers must engage in systems thinking to drive positive project performance. Adding to last week’s list, here are more ways that systems thinking can boost project performance. 

Turn up the empathy. The best project managers empathize with business stakeholders. In fact, their empathy is so well-tuned, they think like their business stakeholders. They can anticipate the concerns stakeholders might raise and understand what approaches will reduce those concerns. They understand business stakeholder goals and tailor the project to help bring them to fruition. They FEEL as well as see what is happening. That feeling is a form of intuition, where they listen to the words stakeholders use to determine whether they are comfortable (or not).

Assumptions get you started but not to the finish! Systems thinking involves understanding the role of assumptions. Projects usually require assumptions prior to launch. Clever and reasonable assumptions can support projects that otherwise might not be approved. However, all assumptions are risks! If the assumptions are incorrect, the business case can easily become invalid. So, start by making assumptions, launching your project, and then work to validate those assumptions. As you validate your assumptions, your risk decreases. With sound systems thinking, most, if not all, elements within an assumption can be validated. These validated facts allow you to finish your project with minimal risk!

Hold methodologies loosely. With standard methodologies, you establish a pattern of behavior and share standard tracking reports that stakeholders are familiar with. That is a significant benefit but doesn’t guarantee that the methodology is the best approach to project delivery. With systems thinking, you can identify the value that each step and deliverable provides to your project and business. If a deliverable doesn’t provide value, skip it, or change or minimize it. Create a customized methodology for your project with only the steps and deliverables that add value and share the methodology with stakeholders. It shouldn’t be changed so much it becomes unrecognizable but should be better positioned to meet the needs of the project and its stakeholders.

Be as agile as possible. Being agile isn’t the same as using an agile methodology. Being agile means that you strive to learn as much as you can as early as you can in the project lifecycle. Develop prototypes ASAP – a whiteboard and post-it notes may be all that’s required. Test your products as early as possible. Recognize when your business is changing quickly or that stakeholders are figuring out what they need as they go, so you can be ready for changes to hit your project. Allocate contingency budget for changes if you are working in a waterfall model and be prepared to change plans quickly to respond to business needs.

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

Coming Up

Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training will be published in a few months.

LinkedIn Office Hours April 13, 2022, 1:00PM MT- Prerequisites for a Project Management Entrepreneur

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. But being your own boss isn’t for everyone. In this LinkedIn Office Hours event, Seyi and Bonnie welcome John Riopel and Oliver Yarbrough to a panel discussion about what you need to know before diving into the deep end of the PM entrepreneur pool. We will cover how to tell if you’re cut out for entrepreneurship; the difference between being a contractor and a business owner; skills and tools you need to be a PM Entrepreneur, and steps to take before you quit your job.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Systems Thinking

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The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7) talks about recognizing, evaluating, and responding to system interactions, which means project managers must engage in systems thinking to drive positive project performance. Here are a few significant systems thinking perspectives that boost project performance. 

Business change is the goal (not just project completion). Smart organizations close projects when they have achieved the desired business outcomes, not when the project deliverables are completed. In a project world, integrating business analysis, project management and organizational change is at the heart of systems thinking. For example, a new business process or product description should lead to a plan for producing deliverables. That plan will describe the business value that is desired. As the deliverables are produced, stakeholders need guidance through organizational change management initiatives to ensure the products and business changes generate that value. 

Build on the past. Project deliverables can be more effective when they leverage what’s already in place via other projects. Agile project approaches do this well and quickly. Because deliverables are deployed in short sprints, the agile process consistently builds upon the past by improving features that aren’t as effective as they could be and expanding features that already add business value. However, you don’t need agile to build on the past. Projects in well-organized portfolios often represent steps to a strategic set of changes. Along the way, new requirements and business needs create obstacles or opportunities that must be managed.  You can enhance project performance by understanding the objectives for each project in the portfolio and the value they provide to the business. Then, you can determine how to incorporate newly discovered business objectives into a series of projects.

Understand the “dominoes.” Change is a constant in the business world. Business changes, personnel changes and new requirements can create a cascade of items to address. For example, a change in a construction project alters the triple constraints of scope, cost, and schedule. But it can also change contractor agreements, suppliers’ processes, financing, and inspection requirements. Understanding the cascading changes that arise during a project and addressing them proactively is a fundamental way that systems thinking boosts project performance.

Integration is a PEOPLE process. Product integration is challenging, as products don’t always come together as intended. This can lead to project delays and ballooning budgets. An example is the Mars probe that was lost due to a simple integration failure, when one module used imperial measurements and another used metric. The best systems thinking approach to integration is to work on people, ability, and team integration. Your product integrations will go smoothly  when you ensure the skills you deploy have positive relationships and show respect for each other and the contribution each can yield. Those relationships increase the effectiveness of communication and the sense of a shared goal. Better products, with fewer instances of integration elements being missed, is the result when teams work together more effectively.

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

Coming Up

Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training will be published in a few months.

LinkedIn Office Hours April 6, 2022, 1:00PM MT- Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in an AI-Driven World

Yesterday’s future is today’s reality. In order to fully take advantage of that reality, professionals need to think entrepreneurially while leveraging the latest technological advancements such as AI.
In this Office Hours session, Oliver Yarbrough and Bonnie Biafore will discuss how you can grow you career by –
– Harnessing an entrepreneurial mindset
– Leveraging AI to deliver successful projects
– Adjusting your outlook and approach to delivering value
– …and so much more
The world is changing. Ask yourself, “How will I adapt to these changes, so I can advance?”

LinkedIn Office Hours April 13, 2022, 1:00PM MT- Prerequisites for a Project Management Entrepreneur

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. But being your own boss isn’t for everyone. In this LinkedIn Office Hours event, Seyi and Bonnie welcome John Riopel and Oliver Yarbrough to a panel discussion about what you need to know before diving into the deep end of the PM entrepreneur pool. We will cover how to tell if you’re cut out for entrepreneurship; the difference between being a contractor and a business owner; skills and tools you need to be a PM Entrepreneur, and steps to take before you quit your job.

Defeat scope creep with effective change approval criteria

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Scope creep is an insidious ooze of changes that can sink a project. Robust change management that thoroughly evaluates the merits of proposed scope changes is key to thwarting the creepy scope threat. One place to start is with solid change approval criteria. 

Typically, change approval criteria evaluates:

  • How scope changes
  • Project costs added or removed due to scope change
  • Schedule changes due to scope change

These evaluations are enough for small projects or very minor changes. For more significant scope change, it’s better to strengthen your change approval criteria. 

How does the scope change affect project risk? Change-related risk can vary. Adding new technology, tightening deadlines, or deploying multiple changes simultaneously can challenge your business. Examine the risk each change brings to your project and the business.

Does the scope change add stakeholders to the project? Adding stakeholders to an existing project can trigger replanning, alter success criteria, or lead to issues with prioritizing requirements. These activities can be very disruptive and should be carefully evaluated before approving a change.

Is additional integration involved? Increased integration of technical tools, business processes or both will add complexity to your project and expand your need for testing. This can also require additional specialized personnel on your project.

Are multiple vendors required? Multiple vendors add contract management time. In addition, vendors working together can add complexity and conflict, as vendor expectations and agendas may differ. Examine your history with vendors to assess the merit and impacts of a change.

Does the proposed change support the spirit of the project’s original scope? Ambitious or creative stakeholders can recommend project scope changes that won’t enhance or expand the original intent and business case for your project. Evaluate changes against the initial project purpose to ensure your projects remain focused and stay within triple constraint expectations.

Do you use other criteria to evaluate proposed project changes? If so, share with us in the comments section.

For more about change management, check out Scott Mautz’ Change Management Foundations course.

Coming Up

Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training will be published in a few months.

LinkedIn Office Hours April 6, 2022, 1:00PM MT- Embracing an Entrepreneurial Mindset in an AI-Driven World

Yesterday’s future is today’s reality. In order to fully take advantage of that reality, professionals need to think entrepreneurially while leveraging the latest technological advancements such as AI.
In this Office Hours session, Oliver Yarbrough and Bonnie Biafore will discuss how you can grow you career by –
– Harnessing an entrepreneurial mindset
– Leveraging AI to deliver successful projects
– Adjusting your outlook and approach to delivering value
– …and so much more
The world is changing. Ask yourself, “How will I adapt to these changes, so I can advance?”

LinkedIn Office Hours April 13, 2022, 1:00PM MT- Prerequisites for a Project Management Entrepreneur

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. But being your own boss isn’t for everyone. In this LinkedIn Office Hours event, Seyi and Bonnie welcome John Riopel and Oliver Yarbrough to a panel discussion about what you need to know before diving into the deep end of the PM entrepreneur pool. We will cover how to tell if you’re cut out for entrepreneurship; the difference between being a contractor and a business owner; skills and tools you need to be a PM Entrepreneur, and steps to take before you quit your job.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Focus on Value

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In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll explore how project managers can focus on delivering value the business, 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 significant ways to deliver value to your business as you manage projects. 

  • Focus on your approach, not just outcomes. The way project managers deliver their projects can be as important as the outcomes they deliver. Many projects are disruptive because they take operational leaders away from their day-to-day duties. Project managers who focus on value consult with the business regarding the scheduling of work. When deadlines are in jeopardy, they strive to understand business circumstances. For example, project team members may be temporarily called away to address an urgent situation that’s a higher priority than the project. Considering this, project managers keep stakeholders apprised of project status and listen when concerns are raised. The business will be more likely to engage in future projects when there is a focus on professional project delivery throughout the project lifecycle, as well as the outcomes projects produce. 
  • See value as qualitative and quantitative. PMI defines value as “the worth, importance or usefulness of something.” It’s important to understand that stakeholders’ assessment of the value of “usefulness” involves a lot more than how deliverables satisfy a business case. Value is determined by how deliverables support familiar processes and are integrated with tools and downstream processes, much more than what balance sheets show. The difference between a deliverable and a solution is how stakeholders accept it as part of their daily routine. You contribute value when deliverables are viewed as a solution.
  • A valuable project is only the beginning. Project delivery that embraces value leads to – more projects! Value received inspires confidence and generates more ideas for business improvement. These may generate project change requests to add scope, which can add value (as well as introduce risk.) Great project managers discuss how to maximize value, either by incorporating the change request or staging the request for phase 2 of the project. And they learn from those requests how to design downstream projects to deliver further improvements. In that way, delivering value is the start of an improvement journey, not the end.
  • Value supports strategy. The way projects are delivered can support or detract from corporate strategy. For example, a new business application could rely on an existing technical platform, or it can take advantage of a new architecture that is part of the corporate strategy. In a different context, a building may be constructed with sustainable principles in mind, utilizing clean energy and eliminating waste. Though it may be more difficult to support strategic initiatives, good project managers work with their teams and senior stakeholders to guide their projects to satisfy the short- and long-term goals of corporate strategies.  

If you have suggestions for focusing on value in projects, share with us in the comments section.

For more about delivering value, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

Coming Up

Recording for Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training is complete. Look for the course to be published in a few months.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Creating a Collaborative Team Environment

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Photo by Randy Fath on Unsplash

In this edition of Project Pointers, we’ll look at building a collaborative team environment, one of the new project delivery elements in the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7.) Here are a few ways to create a collaborative team environment for your projects.

  • Define roles, not just responsibilities. Productive teams have clear roles and approaches, which can be defined by the project manager, team leader or the team themselves. Team members need to understand their roles, so they know where each person’s responsibility begins and ends, and how information or process steps will be passed from one person to the next. For example, “perform testing” describes a responsibility. That isn’t enough for someone to understand the role. Are they supposed to test a product at various points as it is built, or only the end product? Do they perform testing themselves or include a customer or end user? How and where will the test results be recorded and shared?
  • Organize sub-teams. Often, the best way to tackle a set of tasks is with a small group of people. Define sub-teams and identify who will coordinate the team’s efforts to share status with the project manager. This isn’t necessarily a team leader, but rather the person who will ensure proper coordination and communication as the sub-team performs its tasks. To reinforce collaboration, recognize the entire sub-team when items are completed, not just the team leader or coordinator.
  • Establish support and review standards. Teams that produce outstanding work use the collective experience and expertise of its members. Leverage that with a peer review process to assure deliverable quality. The peer review process is not to find fault, but to identify ways to produce superior work. To reinforce this approach, recognize both the individual who identified an improvement and the person who adopted the improvement into their deliverable. This supports a team environment where collaboration is recognized.
  • Focus on communication approaches. The larger your team, the more communication processes need to be defined and followed. This used to be straightforward, when periodic meetings would be scheduled in a conference room. This isn’t as easy today when team members work from offices, homes, and other locations. Different tasks and reporting requirements necessitate different communication mediums. For example, reporting task completions can be done via a virtual meeting tool. Reviewing a complicated technical deliverable requires rich communication that’s beyond the average person’s and work location’s capability with virtual meeting tools. The lesson here is twofold. First, pick the communication medium based on what the meeting needs to accomplish. Second, understand each team member’s capability with virtual tools when face to face meetings aren’t feasible. Make sure well-trained team members can put the full capabilities of virtual tools to use. 

Do you have any tips on building a collaborative environment? If so, share with us in the comments.

For more about team collaboration, check out Dana Brownlee’s Essentials of Team Collaboration course and Communication within Teams by Daisy Lovelace.

Coming Up

Recording for Project 2021 and Project Online Desktop Client Essential Training is complete. Look for the course to be published in a few months.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Be Adaptable

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Being adaptable as you manage your projects can support the success of your projects, a new element of project delivery in the Project Management Institute’s seventh version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK7.) Here are a few beneficial ways to be adaptable as you manage projects. 

  • Don’t fixate on perfection. It would be nice to build a perfect plan with accurate estimates and task dependencies, but it’s not realistic. Instead, work on learning as your project progresses and being adaptable to change estimates and plans as events unfold. Change isn’t admitting you’re wrong! When proposing project plan changes, skilled project managers share what they’ve learned to educate their management teams. It’s far better to proactively change plans, rather than try to meet planned expectations that are now impractical or high-risk. In estimating, the focus should be on being “less wrong” as your project progresses and you can use new insights to construct better estimates and plans.
  • Watch and respond to your organization’s direction. Projects are launched to change capabilities for an organization and/or its customers. However, organizations aren’t static while projects progress. Circumstances can affect how the project fits into the organization’s direction. Projects may be postponed, slowed down, team members swapped, or project outcomes may need to be brought forward. Great project managers don’t wait until they’re told to alter a project’s direction. They watch what is happening in the organization and draft what-if changes to project plans for presentation to management. The adaptable project manager responds, versus reacts, to changes in the business. 
  • Launch open-ended organizational conversations. Great project managers develop ideas about how to deliver a project. And they are adaptable to the desires and ideas of key stakeholders. They initiate conversations with and between those key stakeholders to discuss approaches for delivering the project and they present their ideas in those conversations. They combine their ideas with ideas from stakeholders that hold merit and support the needs of the business. You might be nervous about conversations without knowing where they might lead, but the long-term outcome of collaborating and adapting to pragmatic stakeholder project delivery desires can outweigh those risks. 
  • Defer decisions. Better decisions are made when more information becomes available. Although waiting to set a direction can be stressful, delaying a decision can be the best way to adapt to some project situations. For example, your vendor may be coming out with an updated version of their product, but the release date isn’t finalized yet. Rather than gamble on using the new version or creating solid plans to use the current version, set the software decision point as late as possible in your plans. When your decision point arrives, you can use up-to-date information about the release to decide.  

How has being adaptable contributed to the success of your projects? Share your experiences in the comments section.

For more about adaptability, check out Dorie Clark’s How to Be an Adaptable Employee During Change and Uncertainty course.

PMBoK7 Perspectives: Apply Expertise

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Photo by Jose Aljovin from Unsplash

Today, we’ll explore how project managers contribute benefits with their expertise, 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 significant ways to apply your expertise in managing projects:

  • Complete project tasks. Most project managers have technical and industry expertise relevant to their projects. Completing technical tasks can be an appropriate and helpful contribution to the projects we manage (although it isn’t the project managers primary role.) But you shouldn’t take opportunities away from other team members, which they might perceive as restricting their growth.  
  • Coach your team members. The best project managers increase the capabilities of their team members who work on their projects. They provide technical guidance without dictating how to complete tasks. They also help others understand the practice of project management, so they can contribute to building work breakdown structures, verifying estimates, and confirming schedules. Because projects often have wide-ranging business implications, they coach people on business elements as well, such as communication, presentation skills, and managing risk.
  • Improve the practice of project management. Project managers are known for getting things done. They bring confidence to their management team that envisioned changes will come to fruition via the application of sound project management tools and perspectives. Applying your project management expertise can help improve your organization’s project management practices. Spreading the word about project management practices is an effective way to support your business. Guiding managers as they work with you to deliver projects is another impactful way to apply expertise and increase your business’ project delivery capability.
  • Provide perspectives for management. Respected project managers can help management understand which approaches to facilitating organizational change will be supported by line managers and which ones won’t be! Project work provides project managers with a view to how operational management handles the pressures of increased workload created by supporting projects. Project managers know who responds well, who doesn’t, and which competing workloads might interfere with project progress.

Have you contributed your expertise to your projects in other ways? If so, tell us about it in the comments section.

For more about project management, check out the Become a Project Manager learning path.

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.