ABCs of Project Management
By Lew Sauder
Published by Lew Sauder at Smashwords.
Copyright 2012 by Lew Sauder
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Dedicated to my family:
Emily, Sam, Holly and Heather
Introduction:
This book is not intended to be an all-encompassing glossary of project management terms. Rather, it is a high-level summary of the key things a project manager (PM) must be aware of in order to be successful. I also steered away from technical project management terms such as Estimate at Completion (EAC) and Actual Cost (AC). While these may be considered important measurements for some PMs, they’re not always used and not always necessary for successful project management.
I chose to focus instead on other aspects of project management and softer skills that aren’t always covered in a technical text about project management. So if the terms here seem a bit out of the ordinary, that’s the point. I tried to focus on terms that you wouldn’t normally find in a typical book on project management.
Although in a consulting environment the ultimate consumer of the project is the client, a PM may be an employee of a company serving an internal business unit. The term Project Customer will be used for the ultimate consumer of the project’s end product.
ABCs of Project Management
Agile: A popular approach to project management, which continues to gain popularity. An approach that plans work “sprints” of anywhere from one to four weeks. During these sprints, team members work as a team to complete tasks to which they have committed completion. The antithesis of agile is waterfall, where all tasks of a project are worked on until the project is complete.
Anticipation: A project manager must always expect the unexpected before it happens. Risk analysis is one of the first things new project managers are taught for very good reason. One of the key aspects of being a project manager – more important than being a task master – is anticipating risk and having a contingency plan or two, in case the risk becomes an issue. (see Issue Management)
Attention to detail: One of the most critical skills a project manager must have is attention to detail. Although PMs are not necessarily technical, the PM must develop enough technical skills to “talk the talk” with the team members in order to understand important issues and explain them in layman’s terms to the project customer. The PM must be able to understand how the details of each issue affect the project as a whole and how one issue is related to another.
Backup Plan: It’s not enough to have a plan of action, it’s important to do the appropriate risk analysis and have a backup plan should those risks turn into issues. I once heard this compared to flying a fighter plane by an Air Force pilot. He stated that while you’re in flight, in addition to maintaining your elevation and monitoring the dials, you’re constantly on your guard, looking around for anything that can go wrong and being prepared with a plan of action to adjust before it’s too late.
When managing a project, the PM should always be prepared for curve balls with an alternative plan.
Bench Strength: It’s good to work for a firm or have a business relationship with a firm that gives you bench strength when the need for a specialist arises. When planning a project, the staffing plan includes people that you will need on a day to day basis. However, issues often arise that require a surgical strike from an expert. You may need someone deep in a particular subject area for a 1-2 day on-site visit to provide specialized insight to the project customer. This works well for the project customer since they don’t have to staff an expert on the project full time, while benefiting from the ability to reap the benefits of such knowledge as needed.
Birddog: Most of the myriad of tasks in a project plan are not performed by the PM. It is important to balance being the task master while avoiding micro-management. Setting expectations as tasks are assigned is the key to this balance. The PM is responsible for all of the tasks getting completed and must answer to the project customer when they aren’t completed on time. Because of this, they often have the tendency to check status with the assigned team members on a frequent basis. If 50% of the time has advanced, then why isn’t 50% of the work completed? It doesn’t always work that way in reality. It’s a leap of faith to give the task’s owner the freedom to work on a task without reporting status until the time it is due. If the task is not done, the PM has no recourse.
As a result, the PM needs to birddog the task as little as possible to monitor progress, without hindering the team member’s status by spending an excessive amount of time reporting status.
Budget: Nearly every project has a budget. Like an orchestra director, the PM’s job is to orchestrate all resources of a project; People, hardware, software, equipment, etc. The PM must decide when to bring expensive resources on to a project (not too early and not to late) and when to release them from the project (again, not too early and not too late) to optimize the limited budget funds available to the project. The PM needs to closely track all expenditures and be able to forecast any future expenses to keep the project not only on-time, but on budget.
Cautious Optimism: Although there are many documented exceptions, most projects don’t begin going south at the beginning. Most projects have a “honeymoon” phase in which the PM works on planning and setting up everything they will need for the project. As the execution phase begins, small issues arise which are easily resolved without much sweat. During this initial period, risks haven’t had the chance to turn into issues and everyone sings the PMs praises for such a well-run project.
Once the team gets a little deeper into execution however, unidentified risks begin rearing their ugly heads. The project that was cruising along suddenly has engine trouble and may even run out of gas if the issues become too costly or unwieldy.
During that initial phase, the PM should constantly be considering any risks that could occur and documenting them in a risk log with possible risk mitigation strategies for each. When reporting status to the project customer during the initial stages, the PM should caution them that things are on track because it’s too early for things to go off-track. There is still plenty of time for things to go wrong so don’t get too excited.
Change Management: The most certain thing you can expect is that as soon as you document a plan, things will change. Business requirements are quite fluid. Business owners change their minds and business strategies change. They often want the PM to squeeze changes in without changing the final end date of the project. PMs must have a formal change management process in place that documents any changes and reports all ramifications the change will cause back to the business. This includes additional time and cost. If the business insists that the change be implemented without a change to the timeframe, the PM must determine how additional resources can be organized to get the job done.
Co-located team: The opposite of virtual teams, co-location means having the entire team work within a large team room (usually a conference room). Co-locating the team can increase productivity by enabling immediate communication and resolution of issues. The downside is the interruptive environment when many discussions are taking place around you while you try to work. A member of a co-located team must have – or develop – the ability to work in the midst of organized chaos.
Communication: Perhaps the most important of skills a PM must have the ability to communicate and to facilitate communication between all stakeholders of the project. In addition to the ability to speak clearly and efficiently, the PM must be able to listen to others and ask direct questions that focus on resolving issues. Additionally, the PM must be able to write emails and reports that are appropriate for their audience and relay information in an understandable manner.
Confrontation: Conflicts are a certainty on any project. Team members will have issues with each other and business owners will have disagreements with team members. The PM must be able to confront issues without being confrontational. In order to facilitate conflict resolution, the PM must be willing to speak in a straightforward, open and honest manner. Allowing issues to fester, hoping they’ll go away will almost always result in the problem growing larger and out of control.
Credibility: As the focal point of the project, the PM should always be cognizant of perceived credibility. The PM should always strive toward being honest and open at all times. When mistakes are made, the PM should take responsibility and admit to mistakes. When issues arise on the project, the best approach is transparency rather than covering them up. Raise the issues with the project customer, provide resolution options considered and the plan of action being pursued. Although it may appear to make the PM look bad in the short run, the business customer will ultimately respect your honesty, resulting in credibility for the long-term.
Customer Service: Whether in a consulting environment where you are managing a project for a client, or working within an organization managing a project for an internal business unit, the group that you manage the project for should always be treated as your customer. This approach is a constant reminder to the PM that your ultimate goal is pleasing them. You won’t always give them good news or tell them what they want to hear. But the long-term goal is to deliver the project as efficiently as possible in a way that delivers value to them. Customer service is not a department, it’s an attitude.