“I did not sign up for this project management stuff.”

Published
by
Ron
on February 2, 2010
in project learning, project management and project management course
. 4 Comments

There I was in full flight during a project management course when someone said: “I did not sign up for all this project stuff.”

The person who made the comment was a graduate, had studied hard to become a professionally qualified solicitor within a company. He was effectively questioning why he was why he was involved in project management and on the course.

After a brief series of questions (from me) and answer session from him I established that he was part of a two major projects and had contributed enormously to build a business case for one of them. He enjoyed his work as a solicitor and he felt that he was being dragged into project management against his will.

It is important to mention that like many of the people we work with he was not involved full time in projects. Project management played a large part in his job.

The argument he was following was the same one many people have used when they start to get promoted into management roles; they leave behind their professional work. He felt uncomfortable; unsupported and could not see the context for project management.

Regular readers will note that I have written extensively about the role of senior managers. It is hardly surprising that people come up with comments such as the one made by the solicitor if senior managers do not discuss how the vision will become reality. How else is a corporate strategy to be delivered but through delivering projects which inevitably means professional staff getting involved in them.

I was able to convince this person and others of the real value of project management. He was going to go back and speak to his senior management and ask some important questions! 

Project briefing - sponsors must do better!

Published
by
Ron
on January 26, 2010
in project briefing, project management skills, project management workshops and projects
. 4 Comments

That was the response from participants on a project management workshop.

How did this come about? We have an activity where I give them a brief. By brief I mean some background information about a project. This led to a an interesting debate with a substantial proportion voicing concerns that the briefings they had from senior mangers were vague and did not help them very much.

This reminded me of a client we had some years ago. They requested we design a briefing exercise to help senior managers develop skills in this area. We broke the project management course into 3 groups with 3 people being briefed.

The most telling comment from the 3 people being briefed was that they did not understand the project and felt they had loads of questions they wanted to ask but did not feel the person briefing them wanted to hear them. This, from a peer - someone on or about the same level in the business!

So, what are the lessons for all of us?

1. If you are a project manager you must somehow find a way to ask questions or get answers to questions about the project. The method(s) you will need to use will vary depending on who the senior manager is alongside where they are geographically and in the company hierarchy

2. If you are a sponsor you need to create mechanisms to ensure questions can be asked and you can answer them or refer them to people who can. A common complaint on project management training courses is that it is so hard to get questions answered

3. Briefing skills need to improve. Evidence presented to me on our project management courses and with colleagues points to poor skills in this area

4. Project management workshops for senior managers should include activities to develop their briefing skills

5. Time needs to be spent on briefing - self evident from all the information above. If time is not given to briefings then risk levels for the project could will increase

So, project managers, next time you are receiving a briefing that is not quite up to the mark, what will you do? Senior manager; what actions are you going to take to ensure that your briefings are well received. 

Government computer failures add up to huge bills for taxpayers

Published
by
Ron
on January 19, 2010
in project learning, project management and project management skills
. 0 Comments

The government comes in for huge criticism in today’s The Independent Newspaper (19 January 2010)
Banner headlines shout:

“Ministers blamed for “stupendous incompetence” after tax payers left with huge bills for bungled projects”

The article highlights 10 notorious projects including the most costly programme; the £12.7 Billion IT system designed to revolutionise the NHS. The article questions the benefits of the system with pledges going unfulfilled for many years.

The Independent suggests that “Government departments right across Whitehall have been guilty of overseeing embarrassing IT failures” and that IT experts are too easily wooed by suppliers. “Insiders said a lack of expertise within the Government about the technology industry meant they were willing to believe claims made by major IT firms before contracts were awarded.”

Politics clearly plays its part and Tony Collins Executive editor at Computer Weekly says that. “There are too few people in the hierarchy of Labour who understand IT enough to understand that it is not a talisman - there is nothing magical about it.” David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party has signalled a move away from big IT projects, suggesting he will use technology to increase the transparency of government. Collins however suggest that “Once you’ve got civil servants giving you a host of reasons why you should not be more open, I fear the Tories will sink into the same depths of secrecy that Labour has found itself in.”

The article then lists 10 “botched” projects - pretty awful reading. When will we ever learn?

You can read the full article here.

So, as my project sponsor….

Published
by
Ron
on January 18, 2010
in project management, project sponsor and sponsor
. 0 Comments

Project Manager (PM): Can I just check, are you the project sponsor for this project?

Project Sponsor (PS): Yes, I thought you knew that

PM: Well, I thought it was the case however, no one has formally told me. I am putting together various documents for this project and it is obvious that this will take me quite a while. I want to talk with you, the sponsor about the overall project governance process.

PS: Project governance. What do you mean exactly by this?

PM: Sorry, it’s project management jargon that gets in the way. Well, we need to define the boundaries. What decisions can I make, not make? Budget issues; what is my spend limit and who can amend the project on such issues as budget? I guess you could sum up governance as:

“defining accountabilities and responsibilities for decision-making at a strategic level or project level.”

PS: But you are experienced and have a lot of knowledge and skill. You do not need me to sort this type of thing out.

PM: I understand that, however you have said this is a high risk project. Without some overall project governance - you being involved then the risk profile gets worse! How are you going to assess that the project is going in the right direction? How will I ensure that I get the right resources? What sort of reporting is appropriate for this project; to you, to other senior managers? All of this needs to be sorted out now so I can build your requirements into my schedule.

I do have a suggestion.

PS: What’s that?

PM: Why don’t we grab a couple of hours say early next week when we can go through the requirements from both sides? We can develop our own check sheet. I am sure it will not take us too long. How does that sound?

PS: Like I’m fixed up! Must admit, I did not think we would need to do this.

PM: You can see why we do need to sort out governance arrangements can’t you?

PS: I guess so. It’s just I have never done it before if I’m honest.

PM: That is why we are having this conversation! Shall we say Monday at 10 am? I’ll get the coffees!

—–
Tag: project governance
categories; project management, sponsor, project governance

Questioning, one of those project management skills that needs to be well honed.

Published
by
Ron
on January 11, 2010
in Uncategorized, project management workshops and questioning skills
. 7 Comments

I was facilitating a workshop with a project team and realised that something was wrong!

Symptom: the 5 people in the project team were talking differently about the project

Analysis: I gave each person a piece of flip chart paper and asked them to write down the project objectives

Result: 4 different sets of objectives (2 were the same)

We discussed this and the team came to the conclusion that they had not done enough asking. This however was challenged by one of the team members. She gave a schedule of people they had spoken to and it was impressive.

The room went quiet, very quiet.

I then asked whether the group felt they had dug deep enough with the types and level of questioning; whether they had really teased out the true objectives. Silence again!

Then after a difficult discussion in which the group identified the questions asked they came to the conclusion that they needed to further develop not only their project management skills but their questioning skills.

We identified a number of questions that they needed to ask to identify clear objectives. At the same time we discussed the need to develop their questioning skills. I was able to give them a handout on this topic which they found really useful.

How good are your questioning skills? This group like many who come on our project management training courses needed to develop their questioning skills. They found the handout useful so I have placed this here for you to download and it’s free!

So, the question is, to download or not to download….and whether you need to develop your questioning skills.