Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Networking skills for Project Managers

Published
by
Ron
on February 26, 2009
in project management, projects and resourcing
. 0 Comments

I often hear the cry from project managers that they do not have sufficient resources for their project. When I begin to question what they can do about I get a range of suggestions however, few if any mention networking.

Networking is a process of building relationships.

So, my question to people who say they do not have sufficient resources is what networking internally or externally are you doing? What are you doing to build up trust in you and those you work with?

It’s amazing just how much networking goes on during our project management training courses. We have had people agree to meet up after the end of the course to see how they could support a project; others have recognised the need to keep in touch; some have brazenly said to another person how much they want the skill a person has and that they should get together quickly to help deliver a key aspect of a project.

Identify early in the life of your project the type of skills you need to help you deliver. Use all the knowledge of those in your project team and if you do not have a project team then what about your colleagues? They will have loads of networks and contacts….

Remember, external resources cost you money which may well increase your project budget so check out who you know internally. Once you consider networking your resource pool gets larger. Whether your resource pool can deliver when you want is another story and you may well need another set of skills for this.

And, if you need any help developing your networking skills get in touch with Will Kintish. He will always help and maybe get yourself on to one of his courses. I have negotiated a 20% discount when you mention my name

Networking is essential for all project managers; not the ultimate answer but it is a valuable tool which is being underutilised

Too busy - well read this to enhance personal productivity

Published
by
Ron
on February 19, 2009
in personal organization, project management training and project manager
. 0 Comments

I regularly get comments that “we are too busy” or “there are simply not enough hours in the day”. Others have said “we have more work than we can cope with.”

Organizations are really busy places at the moment and many face an uncertain future. Person productivity, personal organizational skills, excellent time management all buzz words that we all need to think about.

I came across some practical advice from Patrick Merg (http://www.patmerg.blogspot.com) who suggested using something called MoSCoW. He says, “when I am overwhelmed, I use MoSCoW to prioritize various tasks”

M - MUST do this task. In this context MUST is similar to Steven Covey’s Important / Urgent Quadrant. Schedule time to handle this task now.

S - SHOULD do this task. The world won’t end if it is not done today. But it’s a task that if it does not get done could lead to problems. This task should remain in your personal task backlog (to do list).

C - COULD do this task. This task is neither urgent nor important now. This task could remain in your personal task backlog (to do list) or be delegated.

W - WON’T do this task. Doing this task won’t move the project forward or provide any value. Delete this task.

Patrick says: “We can’t add more hours in the day but we can spend the time we do have on the right things By looking applying MoSCoW ratings to tasks and responsibilities, you can make sure you are focused on the right priorities and remove waste by not spending time on needless tasks.”

Good suggestion Patrick and can read more of Patrick’s Blogs at http://www.patmerg.blogspot.com  

What do we want? We want a project management process? *

Published
by
Ron
on February 17, 2009
in benefits of project management, project management and project management training
. 0 Comments

When I ask individuals who come on our project management training courses what they want to achieve by attending the training one area jumps out; they want a project management system or process.

They do not want bureaucracy; they want practical approaches that will help deliver projects on time to budget and with the right results and they want a system that can be used across the organisation.

Course participants leave our project management events really motivated to deliver however when they get back to their place of work they often face a problem; usually it is a senior manager who shows no interest in their new skills and knowledge. More than one person has suggested it would have been better to have muddled along as before because while they have the project management solution, their manager shows no interest in it.

Senior managers usually sign up to any in-house project management approach and in a lot of cases Executive Boards approve the system. But, and it is a big but…why is it that so many senior managers who wanted the system in the first place do not actually engage with it?

I receive feedback from many people in many different ways and two pieces received last week reflects what I see all too often:

• senior managers not signing off project documentation holding back project progress

• poor risk management at a project level which senior managers condone by their lack of involvement

So why bother with having an in-house project management approach in the first place? If senior managers do not engage with the process ensuring it works it becomes redundant, it causes de-motivation and projects are not delivered as they should be. I wonder whether any of them fail to engage with the performance management system or ignore health and safety requirements.

I know that senior managers are pressurised to deliver. However, the very area which can help them in a really practical way and which many have approved they seem to ignore.

The need for senior management involvement can be seen when you look at the Chaos Report by Standish. It shows the importance of involvement of senior management which comes 2nd in a list of 10 project management success criteria. Without this, no matter how hard you work (which accounts for approximately 2.4% chance of project success) you will struggle.

*So, what is needed is not just a project management approach. It is a project management approach actively supported by senior managers*.

Where’s the project handover plan

Published
by
Ron
on February 11, 2009
in project, project management training and training
. 2 Comments

Over the last 6 months I have spoke to a number of people and groups who have had really negative comments about the way a project has been handed to them - the project becomes the other teams (or persons) day job.

One person suggested that handover was a polite term. They had a project “thrown” at them, last minute, little detail and no budget to ensure they could deliver it.

I decided to ask some project course participants what plans they had in place for handing over a project (so that it becomes someone else day job). Very few had such plans.

During one of these training events we developed a brief checklist of what could be included:

• identifying and managing key stakeholders including the group who will receive the handover
• a clear date for handover of the project
• a communication plan that starts early in the life of the project and includes the target group
• change management issues and how these will be handled
• getting the target group involved as early as possible including someone being on the project team who also acts as a change agent
• developing appropriate training for this group or ensuring it is included in the handover plan
• clear risk management
• having clear roles for the recipients in the department taking on the new work e.g. it may not be your responsibility for organising the training, it could be their responsibility

Your project handover checklist will no doubt be different having more project specific items. It does however reflect the need to develop a plan that works for your project and for the group taking on this new piece of work.

A couple of course participants took a different approach. They saw handover as one of the stages of the project, had someone manage that particular aspect. They involved stakeholders and staff from the appropriate areas. The stage was seen as part of the overall project.

So next time you are working on a project; is a handover plan appropriate? If yes, have you taken key stakeholders along with you and are you managing all the change management requirements?

Sorry, Britain is closed.

Published
by
Ron
on February 3, 2009
in benefit management, project, project management training and return on investment
. 1 Comment

Yesterday saw the UK have its worst snow fall for 18 years.

Schools were closed, transport was non existent and we were all advised to stay at home, unless it was urgent! The Mayor of London Boris Johnson, said on TV that “it was the right type of snow, there was just too much of it”. A friend working at an exhibition in the Midlands said visitor numbers were drastically reduced; we could not get one of our Consultants to a client for a 3 day project management training course.

Today, hospital outpatient clinics are shut, schools still closed and many people will still find it difficult to get to work. So, it looks like we are closed for another day.

Can we afford the impact on the economy? Ought we to be spending money to deal with incidents like this? Some people have described the snow as a light dusting compared to the US and some Scandinavian countries. They manage, so why can’t we? Business leaders are suggesting more planning, politicians say we cannot afford to invest for a one off situation.

We are a country in recession. We need to take every opportunity to sell ourselves positively to others. We lost this battle big time.

Clearly organisations have made some calculations that it is simply not worth spending the money for one event in 18 years. Try and tell this to those companies that suffered financially yesterday - Oxford Street, one of London’s premier shopping experiences, was shown deserted except for snow piled up. Interestingly, could we have coped if only 50% of the snow had fallen? I doubt it.

The radio this morning is full of observers suggesting that the cost to the economy will be billions of pounds. They also point out that the cost of prevention would have been much less.

Let’s bring this back to projects. When you look at your projects, do you really ensure that it is worthwhile investing time and money in? Do you clearly identify the real benefits to the stakeholders and what will be the costs of investing in the project and what will be the cost of not investing? Do you have a clear process for making a judgement whether to invest? If not……..

As for me today; I’m here. I cannot speak for the rest of the UK but yesterday, we were definitely closed.