Is your project grey? If it is it’s a risk!

Published
by
Ron
on July 1, 2009
in grey areas, project, project risks and sponsor
. 0 Comments

No, this is not some new patented Rosenhead colour scheme to categorise projects! Or maybe it is!

Let me set the scene. I was talking with a woman who is involved in a partnership project - it involved her company working in partnership with a key supplier. In the process of describing the project she mentioned that there were a ‘few grey areas’ (uncertainties) in her project. These uncertainties, which she brushed aside, needed closer attention. I pointed out the risks within the project:

• no clear role allocation - who was the project manager, who was the sponsor. She was unsure who could make what sort of decisions?

• understanding what the project is trying to achieve - this was a project that was going to be rolled out to all the different business centres provided this project was a success. But, what would encourage them to roll out the project when what constituted success has not even been talked about?

• changes - an inevitable feature of all projects. There had already been a number of changes to the project but there was no process for capturing them and decisions making was very haphazard

• she queried whether the combined project team had the right skills to enable them to deliver the project. No one had analysed the appropriate skills for team nor drawn up any development plans

• overly optimistic estimates - some targets have been set however she and the whole project team have queried the lack of realism of some of the key dates in the project.

• project v business as usual - this project has been billed as a key business priority for her company and the supplier. However, all those involved have massive business as usual agendas. Is this project really such a high priority?

Because this project was not set up correctly between the two parties the risk profile is probably quite high. ‘Grey areas’ are uncertainties within a project. Uncertainties = risks.

It is the project managers’ job (along with team members and senior managers) to surface the grey areas and try and get them resolved. No easy job as I’m sure you will agree. But, the lack of transparency, the hiding of these risks is abdicating responsibility of the project manager, team and of course senior management. As one of our previous clients said; “sometimes you simply have to raise your head above the parapet with senior manager, as long as they will listen.”

Learning from project failures

Published
by
Ron
on June 24, 2009
in learning, project and project failure
. 1 Comment

I recently wrote a blog called Project failure - Do We Ever Learn . This is not the first time I have written about learning and project management so imagine my surprise when I saw a report from National Audit Office (NAO) called “Helping Government Learn”. Now before you are all turned off from reading, this is a good read; it contains a lot of valuable learning!

I nail my colours to the mast here; I started my career as a trainer and consultant. I saw the workplace as a great place to learn. It is a rich place to gain knowledge and skills but, not everyone thinks as I do!

There have been many reports on government projects before so why is this different? This report takes a different slant. It looks at learning; suggesting it is a key organisational issue. The report from the NAO identified a number of points:

• 90% of management boards rarely discuss learning at their meetings
• they suggested that silo structures prevent learning across the civil service
• there are ineffective mechanisms to support learning
• there is a high turnover within the workforce
• there a lack of time for learning

It seems that sharing learning within the civil service is not common. However, how common is it in the company where you work? My experience suggests there are few organizations that really do learn from projects.

Now some of you reading this may well say so what? The problem is actually very simple; unless we learn from our mistakes (and our successes); we will only continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

The report suggests a number of changes:

• making staff feel it is safe to speak about project failure

• encouraging knowledge sharing by project teams

• ensuring that there is systematic reflection on performance during and after a project - even if it means delaying moving on to the next project for a while

• make sure learning from consultants is captured before they leave - build it into the contract

The report is almost 60 pages long, has videos to support it and you can download it here . Let’s hope we can all learn - from each other!

How to fix government IT projects

Published
by
Ron
on June 18, 2009
in failed projects, gateway reviews and project
. 0 Comments

Computer Weekly went out of its way in this weeks leader column to praise the out going Government’s CIO Ian Watmore suggesting “he is like a cool breeze entering a hot stuffy room”. They talk about his “plain speaking, lack of fear when taking sensible risks. More than that he is open about past mistakes, analyses them, and tries to apply what he has learnt from them”.

Computer Weekly expands on the Leader with a 2 page article saying that Watmore gave MP’s the most credible account of what is wrong with public sector IT, what needs to be done and how innovation can be stimulated.

So, what did Watmore suggest or say:

• he put the differences between the public and private sectors simply; “the government has too many initiatives”

• he suggested that Gateway Reviews should be published (something long advocated by Computer Weekly)

• departments are wasting money. How? By hiring consultants “to say things civil servants don’t want to say”

• the government are keeping alive failing projects too long when they could be stopped earlier and cheaply

• keep people in their roles for longer. He does realise, though, that few people will stay for 5 or 6 years - the duration of some projects. He did suggest a better way of grooming successors

• to stop projects from failing Watmore suggested having them run by experienced people who have made mistakes, and have recognised where these mistakes have been made

• he also suggested the government has had its fingers burnt by making policy announcements without understanding the problems of implementation

Continue reading ‘How to fix government IT projects’

Who is driving project management in your business?

Published
by
Ron
on June 17, 2009
in project, project monitoring and project sponsorship
. 5 Comments

During a discussion with a client it suddenly hit me. Here we were talking about improving project management in the company but what was staring us in the face was the need to have a driver; the vehicle had no one steering it!

The driver was senior management. They were too busy; they failed to engage with the new project management processes. They wanted and expected delivery of the agreed agenda but took little part in ensuring projects were well sponsored - in some cases there was a complete absence of sponsorship leaving project managers floundering. In addition:

• project monitoring was not seen as essential to project success

• project boards got bogged down with low level detail

• expected delivery dates were far too optimistic with resources available

Do not get the impression that the company was not delivering against projects. It was. However, it could have delivered a lot quicker and easier if senior managers only played their part.

Senior managers failed their driving test!

It’s people who deliver projects - conference!!

Published
by
Ron
on June 12, 2009
in crisis, project and project management conference
. 3 Comments

I have always said that it is people who deliver projects. Processes, systems certainly help however, at the end of the day it is you and me and our colleagues that deliver those tricky change projects.

I am delighted to say that The People Special Interest Group - a sub group of Association for Project management are holding a conference. It is called

“The power of people - perspectives of crisis”

There are some really interesting speakers and as you would imagine they have some expertise of crisis management; the London bombings, fire fighting - literally as the speaker is from The London Fire Brigade, why and how people behave differently in a crisis and developing strategies for dealing with crises in projects.

For a full agenda go here

The date of the conference is July 7th and it will be in Central London - cost pretty reasonable!

See you there?