Voices on Project Management

Does the End Justify the Means?

2009-11-19T23:34:57Z

I like coffee. The smell of the freshly brewed morning cup of coffee invigorates me. Just this morning I met with my mentor and I prepared as usual by getting to the cafeteria early with my cup of coffee in hand.

Our conversations usually range from project war stories to best practices and lessons learned. This time around, the discussion centered on a "must-win" proposal effort. You feel confident about the current proposal, but the day before the submission, you're called into the executive office and told the final cost must be reduced by another 20 percent.

Thoughts swirl through your head. Given that you're the project manager, you'll have to update the basis of the estimation so it supports this new, lower cost.

Many times a must-win proposal means being the lowest bidder, hoping to make up the difference from future change requests. If this is the case, then the direction from the executive office borders on unethical conduct.

Why? Because within defense contracting, a firm fixed price contract is the preferred choice for the government because any overrun would come out of the contractors' profit margin. Imagine that you know it would really take you US$100 to do the job but you bid US$80 knowing that you're the lowest bidder in order to win the contract in the first place. Once you are awarded the contract, you employ various strategies to bring to light that the customer really needs additional "enhancements" in order to fully execute their missions. Magically, the total cost of the enhancements seem to add up to another US$20, plus additional margin.

All bids must provide basis of estimation (BOE) to justify the dollar amount. On the day before the proposal submission if you are directed to lower the final bid number by 20 percent and there is no way you can revise the basis of estimation in time and you signature is on the proposal, then you are lying to get the business.

So what do you do?

I think that if the original basis is sound and was validated through independent review, then it's the job of the project manager to say no and explain why that can't be done without compromising the integrity of the submission.

Before I could for a response, my mentor said it was okay not to have an answer right then. When that day comes, my action will be rooted in principle and on doing what's right.

Does the end justify the means?

On a personal note, I'll be taking December off in anticipation of a new addition to our family. Best wishes to you for the various holidays coming up.

The Power of Prevention

2009-11-18T16:36:46Z

I received an intriguing question at a recent webinar I led: "How does Six Sigma training address or include the concept of acknowledgment?"

That question was actually a new one for me! So I turned to my colleague, Anne Foley, director of Six Sigma for International Institute of Learning Inc. Apart from the usual reasons why you need to acknowledge a team member, I asked what role she sees acknowledgment playing in Six Sigma training?

She said the training discusses the kind of culture you establish if you only acknowledge those who put fires out, without acknowledging those who actually prevent the fires.

"Fire prevention is critically important to business success but often goes without notice. If you want to change the culture, you must change the way you acknowledge, celebrate and reward employees by honoring those who prevent fires as much (if not more) than those who put them out."

Anne talked about how one of her green belt students discovered his company had a defective inventory management count. Finances showed the company had spent a certain dollar amount on inventory--and that did not match the amount of inventory in the system, which did not match the physical count.

He investigated and found that the inventory-entry process was broken, which could have left the company without critical inventory to run its business had the problem not been discovered. He found it, fixed it and his boss was so happy he wrote it up in an internal company newsletter and gave his employee a whole week off--with pay.

At several companies where Anne has conducted training, managers are trying so hard to acknowledge and encourage fire prevention that they actually run competitions among those who prevent errors--and the awards are big--from free dinners to stock options.

Sincere and heartfelt acknowledgment always makes a profound difference to people. But did you know it also prevents fires? What an awesome tool!

So thanks to the student who brought this question to my attention. I learned something important and hope you did, too!

The Award Nomination Goes To ...

2009-11-12T21:16:14Z

Do you know a project manager whose achievements deserved to be honored with more than a few nice words? Do you work for an organization where innovation has contributed to the bottom line and the project profession? Or, have you recently worked on a project that went far above and beyond expectations?

Then, it's time to nominate this person, project or organization for a 2010 PMI Professional Award. (See the full list of 2009 Professional Award winners.)

The deadline for most PMI awards--which include categories for products and books as well--is 26 April 2010. For the highly coveted PMI Project of the Year award, the deadline is 1 March 2010. Nominations for both the PMI Eric Jenett Project Management Excellence Award and the PMI Distinguished Project Award are accepted all year.

You can get more information about the awards and submission process on PMI.org.

Taking on Project Management Myths, Part 5

2009-11-11T22:37:16Z

It's finally time to expose the biggest myth as I close out my taking-on-the-myths series, hopefully generating plenty of lively responses.

Myth 2: Comparing your project's budget to actual costs is a natural way of assessing cost performance.

Truth: Comparing budgets to actuals is not only useless, it's misleading.

To back up this little piece of iconoclasm, I will invoke the widget example I use when teaching the subject of cost performance measurement.

Imagine you are a project management assigned to a project to make 2,000 widgets in two months with a budget of US$2,000.

You time-phase your budget US$1,000 in month one and US$1,000 in month two.

At the end of the month one your accountant tell you that you've spent US$1,100. How are you doing?

If you said "poorly" based on the fact that you have spent US$100 more than you budget, go to the back of the class.

If you said, "It depends on how many widgets you've made," go to the front of the class.

Because if you've made 1,300 widgets, and each widget is worth US$1, then the proper comparison is obviously the US$1,300 in earned value against the US$1,100 it took to make them.

A very simple example, I grant you, but it starkly supports my assertion.

The Biggest (in my opinion) Myth: Agile and scrum are novel improvements to traditional project management, tailored for the software industry.

Truth: Agile and scrum were developed to allow IT projects to indulge in all the scope creep they wanted.

My take is that the most lethal practice to project health is to allow informal changes to the technical baseline without changing the cost of schedule baselines--a practice commonly known as scope creep.

The IT industry is particularly susceptible to this, since changing the size of a building or the speed of a ship is hard to miss and affect. But changing the look, feel and capability of a software package may require little more than adding a few lines of code--and how hard that can be.

What started happening within the IT industry, on a common and costly basis, was that seemingly small changes in the various code modules created a configuration management nightmare.

So, we see the introduction of tactics that "max out" project team communications, including co-location and employee roles that define the nature of their interactions with their colleagues, customers, and the technical agenda.

But I have to ask: If the technical baseline was thoroughly and clearly defined at the project's start, and only changed formally, would any of this really be necessary.

So what do you think? Myth or reality?

Editor's note: PMI members who are interested in agile should check out PMI's new Agile Community of Practice.

Defining Your Project

2009-11-07T00:04:06Z

Project management may not be all about document management, but it's a necessary and important part of the job. And it all starts with the project definition documents created in the planning phase.

As the name implies, these documents outline the details of a given project, such as business goals and requirements, scope, budget and project management plan.

Project definition documents should include:

Basic project data: Goals, objectives and any business issues to be resolved

Project execution parameters: Definitions of project boundaries, key policies and procedures that are specific to the organization and that must be followed to integrate the project work and its result into the organization during and after the product delivery

Required project management methodology: Governs how the project is planned, how each phase is executed and what's required to move from one phase to another

And don't forget any other information that might be helpful to anyone who wants to know about the project.

What's great about A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) is that it offers project managers an idea of what should be included in the project management plan. Project managers can then create various project definition documents that best the the project at hand.

What tips do you have for putting together project definition documents? Are there certain processes you always follow?

Putting the PMBOK® Guide in a Cultural Context

2009-11-04T20:54:05Z

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide) is developed by hundreds of volunteers to represent generally accepted good practices in project management. But is this enough?

There are already extensions to the PMBOK^®Guide for the construction industry and government that expand the basic framework to meet the needs of these sectors. Is there a need for extensions to meet the needs of different cultures?

The value of diversity and the challenges of managing culturally diverse teams was the focus of Tom Sullivan's feature article "Common Ground" in the October issue of PM Network^®. My column in the November edition of PM Network, "Culture Shock," highlights some contractual issues that impacted a major mine development. As projects and teams become more global, managing appropriately within and across cultural boundaries is a key project management skill.

Although there's no right or wrong in culture, different societies resolve challenges in different ways and use very different structures to communicate information within businesses and projects.

As PMI moves toward the start of the next PMBOK^® Guide update project, I would like to take the opportunity to discuss issues and challenges of managing projects in a cultural context. Do we need cultural extensions to the PMBOK^® Guide or is there more value in retaining it as a core definition of good practices that apply worldwide?

I've had my say in PM Network, now it's your turn to weigh in. Over to you!

Marketing Your Experience

2009-10-30T16:22:41Z

Forty-two percent of people polled think it would be "very difficult" to find a new job in today's economy, according to a survey of more than 2,5000 LinkedIn users by Right Management, the talent and career management arm of Manpower.

With those kinds of numbers, it's no surprise that the job market seems to be top of mind with just about everyone these days. Whenever I interview people for stories (or even when I'm just having a casual conversation with project managers), the topic seems to weave its way into the discussion.

It was a subject that came up a lot at the PMI global congress a couple of weeks ago. At one point I was talking to Al Zeitoun, PhD, who was representing his organizations Booz Allen Hamilton in the PMI Career Center.

He told me project managers looking for work need to make themselves relevant--to the work they're doing and the industries they're serving.

But what does that mean and how do you do it?

Mr. Zeitoun went on to explain that your experience and background have a lot to do with it, but it's also about being able to relay these experiences in an interview, to an executive, etc.

I didn't really give this second point too much thought until I started talking with Stewart Kidd from CSC and he said something very similar. He told me project managers have to be able to describe their experiences and skills--from the basic information (the number of direct reports you've had, the industries you've served) to the more thoughtful (how you've overcome challenges).

That got me wondering: How are people keeping relevant in today's job market? And then, what are some good tips for selling yourself and your experience as a project manager?

Forgiveness or Permission?

2009-10-29T13:35:17Z

Recently I had the opportunity to put together a "sales pitch" presentation to inform a potential customer about a latest and greatest widget. The audience included a vice president, a manager, some end users and a finance analyst. Since this presentation could potentially bring in a sizable amount of work for our team, I was nervous from the start.

Throughout the briefing, there were a healthy amount of discussions going back and forth between our team and our potential customer. Momentum was high after I concluded a few live demonstrations.

However, toward the end of the presentation, the infamous question came up, "How much is this going to cost?" My manager was the intended receiver of the question. There were some initial unintelligible hums followed by a long pause.

Then I interjected and started to describe a comparably scoped project that we'd done and how much resourcing it took to complete. I pointed out the similarities and proceeded to work with the audience in flushing out a detailed project scope. We concluded the briefing with a favorable impression and an agreement to continue our engagement.

As we traveled back to our office, I realized in answering for my manager that I'd decided to act on the notion that it's easier to ask forgiveness than to request permission. I am curious to know what my fellow project managers thing of this idea ...

In my case, my manger made a comment later that he would need to add "Pitch Man" to my current title. To my relief, he was smiling.

Taking on Project Management Myths, Part 4

2009-10-27T17:02:54Z

Part four of my taking-on-the-myths series will challenge our statistically minded segments: the risk managers.

Myth 4: Using Monte Carlo simulations to generate contingency budgets or schedules is an appropriate approach and should be more widely adapted.

Truth: Monte Carlo simulations are needlessly complex and shouldn't be used.

Of the three most common risk analysis methods used in creating a contingency schedule or budget--risk classification, decision tree analysis or Monte Carlo analysis--the latter is by far the most complex, so naturally it has the reputation for being the most robust.

But is it really?

Consider the data points your Monte Carlo simulation driver asks of you: original budget (or duration), one or two "things-going-wrong" alternatives, their odds and costs, and at least one "things-go-great" scenario, with its odds and estimated costs.

This is the exact same data set that would support a single-tiered decision tree analysis, except that the Monte Carlo version invokes a random-number generator to fill in hundreds (or even thousands) of other data points, which can then be used to analyze confidence intervals--at least supposedly.

But all of these other data points are artificial! The ensuing confidence intervals are far from reliable, hoopla notwithstanding.

Myth 3: Risk management is so important to project management that it should be employed throughout the project's life cycle.

Truth: After the baseline is set, formal risk management is pretty useless.

This last assertion is guaranteed to invoke a passionate debate, but consider your personal performance. Do you function better when you are confident or when you are worried? And what does formal risk management bring to the table once the project is underway, other than institutional worrying?

Analyzing ominous trends or performance information indicating a problem in order to head off threats to project success is what project managers do on a daily basis. Spending excess time quantifying those threats doesn't improve your odds of success.

Setting the Real Schedule

2009-10-23T15:15:47Z

Effectively planning a project timeline starts with gathering the appropriate inputs to develop schedule process. And spending the time to carefully plan the activities, sequence them, define durations by gathering this data from performing resources, build resource calendars and get estimates is critical to the project.

It ensures a great start, good data and estimates that are better than just an educated guess.

But, I often find many holes in the scheduling exercise.

You have to deal with a lot of details about the activities being planned, the maintenance windows, resource availability (or unavailability), the timing and sequencing of activities, the amount of detail we have vs. the amount we actually need, etc.

I find it helpful to map out key activities on a wall, with the critical path being set and clear. Then I break the activities down and put the similar chunks of information together.

You don't always get a complete picture of the schedule--it's a progressive process. And you sometimes you miss some things when you don't visualize all the steps that you have to go through. But it fleshes out the dependencies and the risks.

Of course a lot depends on the project itself, how much information is already available and how much knowledge the person who does scheduling has about the technical side of the project itself.

Many project managers tend to bypass this process or minimize it and leave it to the day-to-day "figuring out" process, rather than planning the scheduling sessions with the team. That reduces the quality of the overall plan and forces the project to go through more changes than it has to.

Controlling the project schedule is a process that is done a lot easier when the upfront work is done. Coupled with accurate reporting on project status, the schedule can be easily adjusted and kept up to date and relevant, without constantly re-baselining the schedule.

Stop Being So Humble!

2009-10-22T15:32:16Z

I had the honor of presenting on the power of acknowledgement at PMI Global Congress 2009--North America in Orlando, Florida, USA last week. Whether it was a long presentation or a booth demo, people told me they were inspired into action.

I got into a deep conversation on acknowledgement with Efrain Pacheco, a senior project manager at the U.S. Department of Justice and assistant vice president of the Chapter-to-Chapter Outreach Program for the PMI Washington, D.C. chapter.

Efrain shared something poignant. He told me he's humble by nature and this is the way he was brought up in Ecuador. And as a result, he has difficulty accepting acknowledgements.

At the Executive Office for Immigration Review where he worked as project manager for the information systems and IT support, for example, Efrain was given an award for turning around project.

It was given to him in from of his whole office. So he smiled, but he told me he couldn't say anything or even let himself feel anything because he felt so strongly that his entire team should have received the award.

Efrain's story brings up two important issues: the need to accept acknowledgments with grace and appreciation, and the positive value of wanting to share the glory with one's team members. I am going to focus on the first now and address the other in a future post.

Here's the deal, folks. When we don't accept an acknowledgment graciously, it's as if that person gave you a gift, and you said, "No thanks. I don't want or need that. I don't even like it."

That's what an acknowledger is left with when the acknowledgee says, "Oh, it was nothing" or "It was no big deal." Or as in Efrain's case, when he just smiled but didn't express his appreciation and allow himself to feel the joy that comes naturally with being acknowledged. He just couldn't let it in. Instead, he kept a wall around himself.

When I told him he was rejecting a gift, he was shocked. He had never thought of it that way. He is now committed to working on accepting the precious gifts of acknowledgment.

Remember, someone who acknowledges another in a heartfelt and authentic way is making himself or herself vulnerable. They are trusting that the person will fully receive their gift.

Don't disappoint them.

The Future is Now--No, Really

2009-10-21T15:35:59Z

We've been getting a major dose of the future with the release of PMI's Project Management Circa 2025. And even though it does seem a little odd to be envisioning what a profession will look like when some of its future practitioners are only about 10 years old right now, some of the shifts are already happening.

Just in the past few years, we've watched sustainability become ingrained in projects. Or as Anne Larilahti, head of the environmentally sustainable business program at Nokia Siemens Networks, so eloquently put it in a sustainability panel at congress last week, companies are going to start considering the planet as "a stakeholder in its own right."

Dave Prior, PMP, of Valtech, bemoaned the lack of any new project management tool since the emergence of critical chain--before Google, the iPod or the Agile Manifesto.

"Our entire profession has been spun on its head--that demands new tools," he said.

For him, that means mashups--"blending things that don't necessarily go together to make something better." He cited Danger Mouse's The Gray Album that blended The Beatles and Jay-Z, but argued that it's not just for hipsters. Mr. Prior, for example, relies on his own mix of the Art of War, Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai and A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), with a dash of agile.

He also talked about teams collaborating and using tweets, yamms and IMs for status reports because they all offer built-in meeting minutes.

Some of the Circa 2025 authors also offered up some predictions:

Dorothy Tiffany, PMP, predicted even more virtual offices and a lessons learned database "that comes to you instead of you going to it." Like iTunes offers up songs you might like, the project database would track data that details what your project is going through, and offer solutions and recommendations based on past initiatives.

David Pells, PMP, PMI Fellow, spotted new opportunities in emerging fields. Nanotechnology, for example, will "require many programs and projects with new dimensions of complexity." The transition to alternative energy also will "require a lot of investment--and a lot of programs and projects." And climate change is another big field, "affecting everything from agriculture to tourism." Project management hasn't traditionally been embraced in scientific developments, he said, but there needs to be more multidisciplinary collaboration.

Tim Jaques, PMP and Jonathan Weinstein, PMP, made several predictions about the future of project management at the state level. For example, megaprojects would span state lines, and project management offices would start operating more and more at the state level.

The Origin of Stakeholders

2009-10-20T17:49:07Z

Stakeholders must be important. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide)--Fourth Edition has over 380 separate references to the word "stakeholder."

But the thousands of managers struggling today to meet stakeholder expectations may be interested to know that only a few years ago no one bothered. The whole concept of business or project stakeholders is a relatively new phenomenon.

The legal concept of a stakeholder is not new. Neither is the concept of "having a stake" in something.

One must also presume the concept of delivering a quality product to meet the needs of the end user, customer or client is not new.

In fact, many 19th century businesses had enviable reputations for customer service. Which leads to the question: What changed?

The origin of a business stakeholder in management literature can be traced back to 1963, when the word appeared in an international memorandum at the Stanford Research Institute. Stakeholders were defined as "those groups without whose support the organization would cease to exist."

The concept of business stakeholders was also a core part of the work on systems analysis in organizations conducted by researchers at the Tavistock Institute in London, England in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The concept has since grown from those beginnings.

During the last 30 years, the people and organizations covered by the term "stakeholder" have continued to expand and evolve. Stakeholder theory now includes the concepts of corporate social responsibility, organizational theory, systems theory, customer relationship management and governance.

And in the last few years, stakeholders have come to encompass anyone with an interest in or who is affected by the work of an organization or its deliverables, or as someone who contributes to the work or its outcome.

Now that the idea of a stakeholder has come of age in the project world, the new challenge is stakeholder relationship management maturity. Organizations that develop this capability quickly are likely to have a significant competitive advantage--at least until their competitors catch up.

Harold Kerzner: Project Managers Must Understand Business

2009-10-15T18:52:37Z

Project managers are in for some big changes. Coming in on schedule and within budget is all well and good--but it's not enough.

That's been the running mantra for a while now, but it seems to be gaining even more traction as Harold Kerzner, PhD, explained in the first-ever closing session at a PMI global congress in North America.

"Time and cost used to drive all decisions," said Dr. Kerzner, senior executive director, project management at the International Institute for Learning Inc. "Now we're saying, 'Wait a minute, are we providing value?'"

Without that, the project will be axed.

"If management doesn't see how a project will deliver a value, that project will be canceled even if it's meeting time and budget constraints," he said.

Not all constraints have equal value, Dr. Kerzner said.

That's quite a mind shift for project managers--and it's going to take a whole new skill set.

Indeed, Dr. Kerzner boldly predicted earned value management will be "obsolete very shortly," upstaged by value measurement methodologies that consider intangibles such as goodwill or reputation.

And while a mastery of technical knowledge use to suffice, that's now considered "old school."

"Project managers must understand business," he told the crowd.

They will also need an understanding of politics, culture/religion, stakeholders and people. And Dr. Kerzner predicted a new wave of certifications in complex projects, virtual teams, cultural differences and morality and ethics.

Project managers who go in armed with those skills will find a receptive audience in the executive crowd.

"The biggest change in the last several years has been in senior management support of project management," he said. "Senior management no longer views project management as a career path. It is now viewed as a strategic competence necessary for survival of the company."

Do you agree with Dr. Kerzner? Are you seeing increased demand for business understanding--or should project managers stick to what they do best?

Talking Careers at Congress

2009-10-13T18:21:25Z

The economy has taken some pretty heavy hits, but companies also know they need good project managers--and let's face it, the congress is a good place to find them. Now they have a place to meet: the PMI Career Center.

Several organizations spanning sectors have set-up shop in the center of the exhibit hall and are looking for capable project managers. While not all of the organizations have specific roles to fill, they are here to find top talent and to lead presentations covering different career-related topics.

"We value the capable project manager," says Kevin McDevitt, a senior program manager at Siemens and chairman of PM@Siemens USA Community.

"Sixty percent of our business is through managing customer projects. The better we do at that, the more of that money we get it keep. [Project management] is a core competency."

Some of the organizations in the Career Center are leading workshops as well. Consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton led one on talent management, for example.

Al Zeitoun, PhD, PMP, senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton and former PMI Board member, says his company is on an ongoing search for the best in the field--at every level.

"We are a firm that hires because of capability. We're growing continuously," Dr. Zeitoun said.

Software developer CSC isn't messing around. If you meet the company's criteria, it will scan your congress identification card and send the information right to its human resources department.

Stewart Kidd, head of enterprise learning and talent development, Organizational Capability Center of Excellence, CSC, said the company is looking to put the right project manager on the right project.

He says potential candidates need to be able to describe their skills and experience in very real, very convincing terms.

If you're a project manager looking to make yourself more marketable to organizations, Mr. Kidd suggests a couple of tips:

•   Be able to take your project management skills and transfer them from industry to industry
•   Get involved in local chapters
•   And network--who you know is almost as important as what you know.