Monthly Archive for June, 2009

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?

Project communications - MUCH more effort needed

Published
by
Ron
on June 10, 2009
in change management, project management communication, project management training and project managers
. 4 Comments

One area that always seems to raise its head in any company we work in is communications. It really gets people’s emotions going. In project management training course participants openly speak about how poor communications are within their company projects - something of an irony?

Figures collected by my company Project Agency show that 69% of people questioned feel that project management communications are poor or very poor. Horrendous figures!

When questioned, project managers who attend our training g courses point out that communications is not a high enough priority. The results however of this practice show themselves with stakeholders becoming gatekeepers (with the gate firmly closed); project team members making false assumptions and objectives being harder, much harder to deliver.

From discussions it appears that:

• there is too much emphasis on the use of email - ironically, some of those on our courses often receive 80 -90 emails a day and many go un-read

• project timetables are really tight and those managing the project comment that they ‘do not have time to develop a communications plan let alone implement one’

• the need to communicate effectively in change projects is not as appreciated as it should be by team members and senior managers -thereby putting little emphasis on it

• few people have had solid experience or training in ‘communications’

I have suggested many times that the project team should include a communications expert. Often, there are in-house communications experts who can provide valuable skills and in some cases, I have suggested buying in this service.

So, just how good are you at communicating? How do you know? Why not spend some time reflecting with your project team on the way you communicate and how effective you are in this area and the impact your communications have on your project(s).

We all talk about the need for effective project communications; now is the time to deliver on this.

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw