What are the 3 key project management problems you face? That was a question I posed on a recent project management training course. I asked the group to put each answer on to a post it note and theses were put on to a flip chart to examine. It is interesting that of the 27 post it notes 14 of these related to people. These included;
• people failing to communicate effectively on the project
• lack of buy in from key stakeholders
• people not completing assigned tasks on time as they agreed to do
• resistance from staff directly affected by the project
• getting people on side
Other problems included:
• keeping to the agreed budget
• over optimistic timescales
• difficulty in accessing information
There is much energy and effort put into project management training. However, the focus seems to be on methodologies and process. Would we be better to link the methods and process with some people skills training? I often hear of ‘people’ issues that need to be resolved but by their own admission participants say they find often them difficult to deal with.
Maybe, just maybe there needs to a different emphasis; linking the project management training with people skills. Maybe the training needs to be modular starting with project management course and a link into the people side with specific modules such as influencing or negotiating or leadership.
These are my thoughts, what about yours?
I wrote about multitasking in my blog in late March (see here and here) this year. There have been a number of further posts from other Bloggers on this topic and the latest from Josh Nankivel is worth a read.Josh suggests;
“As project managers, I feel it’s our duty to protect our staff from bad multi tasking.”
His blog is worth a read and so is Raven Young’s who always has something really good to say.
You can read Josh’s comments here
Do you have a budget for your project? This may seem a strange question however anecdotal evidence (and it is strong) from people who come along to our project management training courses have to deliver their project ‘at nil cost’. When they query with senior management what the budget for the project is they are told quite clearly that there is no budget, deliver it at NIL COST.
I however query whether this is the case as their time costs money; there is no such thing as free time in the project management world.
From conversations I have had people engaged in this type of project fail to account of their time spent on the project - a cost! This is an uncomfortable area for some people as it shows:
• senior managers expectations are sometimes impractical as to what can be achieved without a budget
• time costs seem to be excluded in any business case calculations showing estimates and those of their senior managers are sometimes erroneous
• the need for project managers to assert that the project needs a budget or that the business case is flawed
However project managers are not alone in not thinking about the cost of their time is free. I came a cross an article by Fraser Hay. Fraser is a marketing wiz and runs The Results Academy.com , and in a blog he said:
“….they (the group) were spending £434,000 of their time a month trying to win new business, close deals and sell their professional solutions…however, it become quite apparent that they were not putting a value on their time, or keeping a track on how much time they were spending or investing in various marketing activities each month..including the time spent each month travelling to and from their one to ones, appointments etc.”
We all need to look at how we spend our time. We all need to account for our time. If we do not then we have real problems delivering effectively. Let’s start changing the mindset of those managers and companies who see delivery of key projects at NIL cost! It simply cannot be done!
My thanks to Lee Fischman who has suggested in his words:
”I’ve decided a grass roots effort might be interesting counterpoint to the Standish report. I created a single-question survey here:”
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oOq7Hzgz6BCYZfgZoNC72w_3d_3d
And will be posting results here:
http://swprojectsurvey.blogspot.com/
Do contribute to the debate amd thanks again Lee for this.
The above words came from a British Computer Society report recently published by Dr John McManus and Dr Trevor Wood-Harper. It comes hot on the heals of the Gartner Report which I mentioned in a blog last week.
The report examines 214 projects covering 1998 - 2005 with just over 40% of the project value being €10m-20m. The research highlights that only one in eight information management projects can be considered truly successful (failure being described as those projects that do not meet the original time, cost and quality requirements criteria).
Of the original 214 projects 51 were cancelled (23.8%). The authors cited a range of reasons for this which included:
• business strategy superseded
• poor requirements management
• business benefits not clearly communicated or overstated
• Governance issues within the contract
The report goes into more detail than I can here but it highlights yet again the problem of project failure. Is well worth a read.
This is the 2nd successive week I have written about a lack of success in the project management world. So, is project management getting better? To me, these statistics show that project management does not seem to be getting any better. However, what is your perspective on this? I had some interesting comments on Linkedin (www.linkedin.com) and at the end of my blog Project Management Is it Getting Worse? comments. I’d be really interested in your views.
You can read the report published by British Computer Society here
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