Learning Solutions for Increased Project Performance

Welcome to Our February 2012 Issue

Included in this issue:

• Change for the Better
• Project Management Q&A
• When “NO” is Not an Option
• Resource Allocation: Questions to Ask Yourself
• Surviving a Difficult Project
• If You Have to Let Someone Go, Do It Right
• Are You Properly Prepared for Project Stage Gates?
• Project Management Tips and Tricks

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pmPractitioner is published as a service to the project management community. Each issue provides practical project management solutions and tips adapted from a variety of business publications and resources.

Change for the Better

It’s true that every new project brings some type of change, whether it’s minor or major. A sensible change plan, open communications and commitment from leaders are especially important to ease the way.

When faced with potential change, be sure to follow these steps to success and ask the relevant questions at each step:

1. Make the Case

Why change? Who would be affected? What would change look like? How would we get there?

2. Design the Change

What must be developed and how? Who needs to do what? Will it produce the desired outcomes?

3. Ensure Readiness

Are support systems in place to implement the change? Do people have the necessary skills to carry out the new practices? What obstacles need to be removed?

4. Implement and Measure Impact

Who, what, where and when? (Is a tactical plan in place?) Are we creating the right outcomes? What issues need to be resolved? What additional opportunities are there?

5. Anchor New Practices Into the Culture

What behaviors are critical to success? What did we learn? How do we reinforce the behaviors that are important to us?

People are the gatekeepers of change – they have the power to make an initiative successful or to kill it. Change efforts that are inclusive and well-thought out are much more likely to be accepted and adopted by those affected.

Adapted from Change Leadership, Action for Results, Inc.

February Project Management Q&A

Test your project management knowledge with these questions or use them as an exercise to help prepare for your PMP certification exam.

1. You are working in an environment where the functional manager shares power with you, the project manager. However, the functional manager has more power, in this instance by having budgetary control. You are working in which type of environment?

2. There are several methods of estimating both time and cost. According to PMI, which of these methods tend to be the least accurate?

Answers appear at the end of the newsletter.

When “NO” is Not an Option

As a project manager, you’ve learned that the word “no” can fall harshly on the ears of sponsors, stakeholders and customers. You may be marked as uncooperative and create resentment that will injure your project.

On the other hand, you know full well that you cannot simply surrender yourself to any and every request since doing so would cause just as much damage.

Rather than a blunt negative, this five-part approach will likely serve you better:

1. Don’t say “no” – requesters cannot hear your rationale while they are feeling denied. Instead, they focus on creating their own arguments.
2. Open, instead, with “I see a risk to you here.” Emphasize the risks your requester would face if you were to say “yes” (missed deadlines, added costs, etc.).
3. Be sure not to mention the risks or inconveniences to you or your team. Requesters expect you to handle those yourself.
4. If requesters complain, assure them that you are striving to protect them from blind risks.
5. Finally, for any risk you point out, you must offer an option. Better still: invite the person to join you in finding a lower risk option.

Adapted from Managing Multiple Bosses, Pat Nickerson

Resource Allocation: Questions to Ask Yourself

When trying to determine your project’s people needs, answering these questions can help:

• Did you identify the tasks to allocate to your resources?
• Do you know all the different types of resources you will need?
• Is there a resource pool where you can get all the resources you need? If not, will you need consultants (or otherwise outsource)?
• Did you run a resource histogram for each person?
• Did you need, or attempt, to level each of the histograms?
• When assigning people to tasks, did you consider behavioral as well as technical factors?
• If you use consultants or outsourcing, did you perform a background analysis first?
• If overtime appears in the histograms, is it constant or sporadic? If the former, what steps are you willing to take to deal with the effects of burnout?

Adapted from Project Management Practitioner’s Handbook, Ralph L. Kliem and Irwin S. Ludin

Surviving a Difficult Project

All projects have their challenges, even the “easy” ones. Sometimes, though, we’ll find ourselves embedded in a project that is a struggle from start to finish. The causes can be many: politics, poor resources, clashing personalities, waning support. To get through a “project from hell” successfully, it’s important to adopt a survivor mentality or you’ll find yourself crashing and burning before long.

Determine that you will:

Learn and Grow Through Adversity: Try to always take effective action and make choices that convert negative experiences to learning.

Take Ownership: Accept that you have the power of choice. Acknowledge stress and frustration but don’t get swallowed up in blame or finger pointing.

Use Constructive Humor: See humor in the situation and in yourself. Recognize the lighter side to every situation without putting yourself or others down.

Practice Conceptual Thinking: Think ahead to understand both near- and longer-term consequences of decisions and actions on yourself and others.

Expect the Unexpected: Understand that life is highly flexible and avoid labels that impose idea restriction. Try to make unusual connections and be willing to experiment to solve a problem.

Adapted from Discovering the Spirit at Work, Action for Results, Inc.

If You Have to Let Someone Go, Do It Right

We spend significant time and effort screening our project team members to assemble just the right people. Still, sometimes things just don’t work out, and we need to let someone go.

Perhaps it’s an easy decision. The team member is not making an effort to improve or is deliberately rejecting policies. Perhaps it’s an agonizing decision. The team member is well-liked, but inefficient. However, the decision is still the same; you must terminate him/her. The best approach is to do it quickly and with compassionate understanding – but do it.

Some tips:

• Be Private. Don’t chance humiliating the person.
• Be Direct and Clear. Communicate your message quickly and concisely.
• Retrieve Project Property. Collect computers, documents, tools, etc.
• Offer Reassurance. Use good manners and compassion.
• Don’t Speak Badly of the Person. Remaining team members could lose respect.

Never terminate someone when you’re angry. Never terminate someone over the phone or via email –do it in person. Never argue your decision or bargain with the person. It’s too late to negotiate.

Adapted from Now Hiring!, Steve Lauer and B. Jack Gebhardt

Are You Properly Prepared for Stage Gates?

For long-term projects, such as those found in the biotech and pharma industries, project teams are often expected to pass through a series of “stage gates” as they move towards project completion.

For each gate, the project team is expected to prepare a business presentation that answers the key questions relevant to that gate. Answers to these questions are the result of activities and deliverables completed by the team in the current stage, as well as the plan for the next stage.

It is extremely important to be ready for this vital meeting – one where approval is needed before the project can move ahead.

To ensure you are well-prepared, ask yourself the following:

• Can I answer the key questions with confidence?
• Did we complete the relevant gate deliverables?
• Does my team agree on the answers, conclusions and recommendations?
• Does my team have confidence in the plan going forward?
• Have we identified what project specific key questions need to be answered by the next gate?

Adapted from PDP Practitioner Training, Action for Results, Inc.

Project Management Tips and Tricks

Give the Problem Center Stage

Having a project meeting that centers around a specific problem? Write the problem out on a flipchart and place it at the front of the room to keep everyone focused on why you’re there.

Adapted from Customer Service for Dummies, Karen Leland and Keith Bailey

Pause Before You Answer

At times, it is necessary to give negative feedback to others. When you have to do it, remember that During the Q&A portion of a presentation, always pause before you answer. The extra two seconds gives you a chance to refine your response. Also, if you get an unexpected zinger, the audience is already used to your style and pausing won’t telegraph the fact that you need extra time for a difficult issue.

Adapted from Get to the Point, Karen Berg and Andrew Gilman

Be Flexible

To achieve their goals, excellent leaders are flexible when dealing with different people under different circumstances and in different situations. Be aware of each person’s work/life needs and recognize that it is often a big mistake to try and treat everyone the same way.

Adapted from How Do Excellent Leaders Lead?, Nigel Williams

Batching Small Scope Change Requests

It is not always practical to get the sponsor to approve all small scope change requests, especially if they are senior managers with little time to spare. A solution is to batch small changes up into a bundle. Keep track of the small scope changes, their business value and their impact on the project. Then, when they hit a certain threshold, you take all of them to the sponsor to discuss and get a decision on each change.

Adapted from Scope Change Control Techniques, Ten Step Project Management Process

Answers to February Q&A

1. The correct answer is ‘c’ (Weak Matrix).

A matrix environment is defined by a sharing of power between functional managers and project managers. The stronger the functional manager’s power, the weaker the matrix. So in this case since the functional manager has budgetary control, it is considered a weak matrix.

PMBOK Fourth Edition, pp. 28-31
Knowledge Area: Life Cycle and Organization
Process Area: N/A

2. The correct answer is ‘b’ (Analogous).

Analogous estimating is a “quick-and-dirty” way of estimating. You just estimate a current project based on a previous project’s longevity and cost. It’s quick but tends to be inaccurate.

PMBOK, Fourth Edition, pp, 171-172
Knowledge Area: Cost
Process Area: Planning