I am writing this blog with the intention to share thoughts on the
common and basic fundamentals of project management and a few practical
approcahes which any project manager should apply or implement in their
projects.
The content here might not excite or interest full grown project managers with already developed PM skills but it would rather be beneficial for beginner level PMs or PMs to-be.
Also it's more applicable to people who have been purely working on technical side and have majority of their experience in technical implementation or team leading activities.
Projects fall into a wide variety like simple, complex, moderate, easy, difficult, short, long-term, etc. But few generic principles or approaches would definitely be helpful when it comes to project planning and execution.
Here, I am sharing certain key points which might definitely prove to be helpful.
[ Courtesy: Book on "HBR Guide to Project Management" ]
General starters:
- Delegate activities to team members to upskill your team, rather than working yourself on the tasks
- Identify bottlenecks soon that could upset the project schedule. And also identify the ways to remove bottlenecks
- Keep all stakeholders always involved and informed of the project's progress, status and for any schedule modifications
- Hold weekly or biweekly team meetings for progress monitoring.
- Setup clear agendas for your meetings and do not drag it for too long. Keep it short.
- Tips to control project slowdown:
- Renegotiate with project stakeholders - increasing budget or extending deadline.
- Re-examine budgets and schedules to see if you can make up the time elsewhere.
- Narrow the project scope i.e can the non-essential elements of project be dropped to reduce costs and save time.
- Deploy more resources - see if you can put more people or machines to work.
- Accept substitution - can you go with less expensive or more readily available item ?
- Seek alternative resources
- Accept partial delivery
- Offer incentives - Can you provide bonus or incentives to facilitate on-time delivery ?
- Demand compliance
- Manage problems:
- Identify time slippage and monitor progress regularly to see if your team is on track.
- Scope creep - when stakeholders ask for changes, it's your job to communicate clearly to them how it will affect the cost, time or quality.
- Quality issues
- People problems - communicate frequently with team members, see small signs of emerging problems like team member's irritability, increased tension, loss of enthusiasm, or inability to make decisions
- Evaluate project performance and team performance
- Do post-evaluation - lessons learned, skills upgraded, reusable code or components identified, future business possibility
Planning phase:
- Project scope should be as clear as possible; and define clear boundaries up front. It should specifically mention the dependencies, assumptions along with the in-scope and out-of-scope items.
- WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) has to be kept as accurate as possible. And typically should have 3 to 6 levels of activities (depending on project complexity)
- Develop a budget; and if not directly involved for budget preparation - atleast keep a basic information on the project budget and monitor it. If going beyond, then inform the stakeholders in advance.
- Use helpful tools for PM like Gantt, PERT charts (Performance Evaluation & Review Technique)
- Identify correct resources with the right skills you want.
- Ensure all members in the team contributes and benefits.
- Understand the business thoroughly and understand what exactly is required with major inclination towards a specific set of functionalities or use-cases. Identify the problem statement; and once done don't focus directly on implementation.
- Set realistic expectation with the project sponsors; don't commit unrealistic timelines and overcommit yourself and the team. It could result in a nightmare later on. Always keep few days as buffer.
- Perform project premortem with the team - discuss what might go wrong, and enlist team members' thoughts and points they provide what they think can result into a project failure.
- When considering scope change, make sure your stakeholders fully understand the purpose of the change.
- As a PM if you are lobbying for a change, you have got to have a plan for funding it. If the future revenue generated by the add-on won't cover the cost, find other places in project where you can save money, and focus on things you can directly control within the next 30 to 90 days in the schedule.
Build-up phase:
- Understanding customer's priority tasks is important - which tasks are most imp should be aligned first and also the sequence in which they will be executed.
- Clarify the assignment before starting the activities
- Organize your team - Get people engaged quickly, ask their opinion about the charter, their past experience dealing with similar projects, how often we will meet, organize meetings, show demo, review progress, etc.
- Do a political analysis of key players. Which persons will be supportive, enthusiastic, which might be anxious or even resistant, who would need special attention
- Conduct brain storming activities with team to identify all activities
- Encourage your team to be creative and use new technologies in the project for quick and better solutions.
- Write each item on a sticky note, and post the notes on the wall. Once all activities are up there, organize them into activities and put the groupings in sequence. Some activities will run in parallel and some sequentially. This will also give you idea which ones to keep and which to drop
- You will need to keep setting and resetting priorities to ensure you and your people are always on target.
- WBS with Time boxing:
- List down everything you need to accomplish in a given week, month or quarter. It may help to group them by job function, strategy, business devt, operations and people mgmt.
- Estimate how much time each item will take
- Block appropriate amount of time for each item.
- Team will feel better about the work it's doing. Everyone will be more focused. Peopl will avoid burnout from taking on more than they can handle.
- Scheduling the work:
- Examine relationships between tasks - identify the dependencies and order of tasks. Once done, brainstorm with your team to come up with a rough sequence that makes sense in light of the dependencies you have identified.
- Creating draft schedule - assignment of deliverable with start, end date, task relationships, identifying bottlenecks , develop workarounds. PMs use tools like Critical Path Method (CPM), Gantt chart, PERT charts, etc to make it easy and more efficient to manage.
- Optimizing the schedule - ex: see if all dates are realistic (especially for critical tasks); any tasks were left out, have you allowed time for training, some tasks are not overcommitted, bottlenecks, imbalances in workload
- Do not rush to complete. And do not compromise on quality and compliance.
- Getting your project kick-started -
- Keep a launch meeting. If conducted property, it has a substantial symbolic value. Better is face-to-face meeting of all team members. Being together at beginning of long journey and getting to know each other will build commitment and bolster participants' sense that this team and project are important. If certain people cannot attend, can be done through video call or audio call atleast.
- Welcome everyone aboard - acknowledge n thank all who will contribute to the project. Mention each person by name.
- Ask your sponsor to say a few words - have him articulate why the project's work is imp and how its goals are aligned with larger organizational objectives.
- Make introductions amongst one another
- Share the charter
- Seek consensus of everyone on what charter means
- Describe the resources available - workers, and budget available
- Describe incentives - what will members receive, beyond their normal compensation, if the team meets or exceeds its goals.
- Provide activities and tools for working together - providing free T-shirts with team logo, idea sharing, fun activities, teams group collaboration,
- Norms of behaviour - like neutralizing conflicts between team members, regular attendance in calls, office work, maintain confidentiality
- Team discipline
- Team members should show support towards team members
- Performance goals that flow from the common business purpose
- Mix of complementary skills
- Strong commitment towards work
- Mutual accountability
- Making a fast and constructive start is imp and providing a clean handoff to those who implement is imp too.
Implementation phase:
- Effective project meetings
- Identify the necessity of meeting, if yes then only organize it.
- Clarity the agenda and objective of meeting
- Only invite the required participants so not to eat away everyone's time. Only those who have something to contribute or something to learn should only be present there.
- Restate the meeting's purpose to sharpen the meeting's focus.
- Let everyone say or speak. If someone not speaking or shy to speak, ask them specifically if they have anything to say.
- Don't let the discussion flow out of direction, maintain the direction of the discussion.
- End with confirmation and action plan that includes clear time frame.
- Send out MoM
- Remind individuals of their tasks and deadlines.
- Offer support to anyone who may be overloaded with work or struggling with a task. People are reluctant to ask for help even when they know that they need it.
- Adaptive approach to project management
- If your project involves unfamiliar technology or is larger than others you've overseen or tasks are different from those your team has handled in the past - then the traditional approach to project mgmt may not work. In such cases, some decision tools like return on investment, net present value, internal rate of return might be useful. You would need to consider an adaptive approach.
- Approach tasks iteratively like in Agile (sprint wise)
- Have fast cycles or iterations.
- You can discuss and identify the tasks which need to go on priority and which would make atleast an MVP for customer. If large tasks seem to be undoeable, divide them into small chunks and get it delivered one by one.
- Emphasize on early delivery - small, early deliverables encourage feedback and adding learning into subsequent activities.
- Have members in project who can quickly adapt (ex: fast learners)
- Reasons for good projects to fail
- Traditional project planning carries 3 serious risks:
- White space - Planners leave gaps in project plan by failing to anticipate all project's required activities and work streams.
- Execution - Team members fail to carry out designated activities properly
- Integration - Team members execute all tasks flawlessly, but don't knit all project pieces together at the end.
- Manage above risks with rapid-results initiatives. Example - keep it result oriented. Do it fast
- Monitoring and controlling your project
- As PM, you need to monitor the progress of team and individuals to figure out whether your plan is really bringing the team closer to it's objectives.
- While monitoring and controlling the project, follow 5 basic steps:
- 1. Track project activities - individual members' activities monitoring. Use buddy checks i.e peer reviews of each others' tasks, if no one available for it, you can do it your self.
- 2. Collect performance data - either through tool or through short meetings.
- 3. Analyze performance to determine whether the plan still holds - when the plan need revision, you may have to extend the end date, apply budget reserves, remove some deliverables from project's scope or even cancel the project.
- 4. Report progress to your stakeholders - for such meetings, record it, circulate the MoM, action items, etc for future reference. You can keep such meetings either monthly, biweekly or quarterly also.
- 5. Manage changes to the plan - in case of major changes, spell out the costs and risks of adopting them and those of sticking with original plan. For such big changes, record them, circulate the new plan to your team members, and explain any changes that affect them.
- Managing people problems on your team
- You need to make sure the members stay on task, work collaboratively, and reach the quality standards you've established with your stakeholders.
- Possible problems with solutions:
- Tools of cooperation and change - select the right change tools
- Scenario 1: If emp agrees on goals but disagreee on how to achieve them, use leadership tools: vision, charisma, salesmanship, role modeling.
- Scenario 2: If emp disagree on both goals and how to get there, use power tools: threat, hiring and promotion, control systems, coercion (forcing someone).
- Scenario 3: If emp agree on both goals and how to get there, use culture tools to counter complacence (self-satisfaction). (A complacent person is very pleased with themselves or feels that they do not need to do anything about a situation, even though the situation may be uncertain or dangerous)
- Scenario 4: If emp disagree on goals but agree on how work should be done, use mgmt tools: measurement systems, SOPs (Std Operating Procedures), and training.
- Not throwing good money (or time) after bad
- Example: You approved the devt of a new product for your company last year - but now things are not going well. Despite previous forecasts that customers needed your product, the market has changed, and response is uncertain at best. But you are not going to throw away $10 million right ? Actually, spending another money or time on a doomed product is a wrong decision. Yet chasing after sunk costs (investments that are no longer recoverable) is a common error. Don't fall for that line of reasoning.
- Forget it. True managerial skills lies in the ability to ignore prior investments, costs and benefits and to focus instead on the situation at hand.
- Don't make choices merely to justify past decisions - You will not retain an underperforming, abusive candidate just because you hired him and don't want to be accused of flip-flopping. Same is the problem here. Avoid this problem by gathering external evidence to support your choices. When deciding whether to move forward on a project, consult as many outside sources as you can, so you're sure to consider how people other than your supervisor might view the situation.
- Failure to see the big picture often results in overly cautious decision making, which in turn can lead to sunk-cost trap.
- Focus on quality of decision, not the quality of outcome - Many people fall into the sunk-cost trap because they fear being judged for the unfortunate consequences of their good-at-the-time decisions. When things go sour, deicision makers become more worried. There are huge pressures to keep going even if all parties realize it's wrong and it's going to stay wrong. If you're managing a decision maker, you can prevent unnecessary escalations of commitment by making it clear that no one will be punished for not owning a crystal ball.
- More you equate time with money, the more susceptible you are to the sunk-cost trap
- Use decision rules to prevent cloudy thinking - Example - You hire a new middle-level manager to work for you. She does not peform well as per your expectation. Currently you cannot afford her current performance. On the other hand, you have invested a fair amount in her training. Furthermore, she may just be in the process of learning the ropes. So you decide to invest in her a big longer and provide additional resources so that she can succeed. But still she does not perform well. Now you have even more invested in this employee. So, precise targets can help you avoid such rounds of rationalizing. Establish in advance how much time and money you're willing to pour into a project or person before you need to see specific results.
Project closure:
- Handing off authority and control
- Capturing the lessons learned
- Log down the lessons learnt. Identify reusable component or reusable code if any.
- Evaluate business case
- Evaluate project plan
- Evaluate the project-management methodology
- Evaluate individual's performance
