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Project Management Done Right 'If you don't know where you're going, you'll most likely end up somewhere else.' A prerequisite for successful Project Management is a clearly stated, agreed upon set of reasonable expectations. It has been observed by Tom DeMarco (and many others) that the lack of such expectations is the most common reason why projects fail. Thus, managing expectations is one of the important points of Project Management. A Project has Goals (i.e., deliverables), Resources (i.e., people, money, facilities, etc.), Constraints (i.e., budget, deadlines, etc.), and a Project Manager. The Project Manager is also responsible for the other four important points of Project Management: determining that the Resources are appropriate for meeting the Goals within the Constraints - and then directing, protecting, and developing those Resources so as to actually achieve the Goals. (Which point is most important? Which is the most important leg on a chair?) How the Goals are achieved is generally called Methodology. A particular Methodology is a general approach to solving a class of problems. Napoleon could not be all over Europe directing all of France's battles, so he appointed Marshals to lead some of his armies. He told his Marshals to "Charge toward the sound of the cannons." It was a Methodology that, in the confusion of battle, would usually get the French troops to the right pace and lead to victory. And it worked. So the British commander, Wellington, gave his subordinates a Methodology, too. "When you face Napoleon, retreat. When you face the Marshals, attack immediately." Ultimately, Wellington's forces won. Any good methodology is certainly better than no methodology. Even better is developing the judgement to deal with each situation in an optimal manner. Management in general is about people as individuals and about relationships among people. Management is mostly about observing (i.e., watching, listening, measuring, etc.) so as to be able to take appropriate actions that head off problems and enable the team members to do what they have to do with as few hindrances as possible. Listening is an active communication skill and a critical management success factor on most projects. But the word communicate starts with the letters "CO." They mean, "it takes two." People can only communicate effectively when they know their audience (even when it's an audience of one). First you must listen to someone and come to understand their knowledge, their perspective and their use of language. Only then can you figure out how to phrase a message to guide their understanding from where it is now to where you want it to be. Since people are individuals, their needs will vary. The effective manager is flexible, recognizing these differences and dealing with people accordingly. The manager must be seen to be fair - but fair treatment does not necessarily mean identical treatment. (John is six foot six and weighs almost 300 pounds. Mary is four foot one and looks as if she would blow away in a gently breeze. It may be appropriate to get chairs of equal value for them, but not to get two identical chairs.) One of the manager's most important roles is to develop the abilities of the people on the team and the 'team spirit'. Napoleon observed that "Men will do, for a bit of ribbon, that which they would never consider doing for any amount of money." That is team spirit. The industrialist James Lincoln put it this way: "The incentive that causes people to strive so mightily for success . . . is recognition of our abilities by our contemporaries and ourselves." It is the role of the manager to create situations that afford this incentive. Since the project deliverables will usually be produced by the other team members, rather than by the Project Manager, all else is often secondary. (This is especially true when the primary objective of the project is to build the abilities of the team members.) "The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." The field of mathematics known as 'Catastrophe Theory' teaches us that a very small force, applied at the right place and time, can have major ramifications in the future. The manager tries to think strategically, planning ahead and taking actions intended to keep problems from arising. But the world is complex and unexpected day-to-day issues will arise and have to be resolved. Ready, Fire, Aim! This is one of the most common causes of problems. I have never encountered a business situation so time critical that action without thinking was appropriate. The usual result is that you still have the original situation to deal with, and in addition you now have to do damage control. You can try to minimize damage control situations, but don't expect to eliminate all of them. Sometimes things go wrong. However, how you deal with such situations is very important. You should try to utilize them as learning situations. When something goes right, it is often difficult to figure out why it did so. When something goes wrong, it offers an opportunity for insight into the shortcomings of your business practices. You can learn from these insights and so prevent a re-occurrence of similar problems. (Airline safety is so high because so much effort is put into analyzing each crash that does occur.) You can delegate someone on your team to deal with the problem, but you are the manager and so, whatever has gone wrong is your responsibility. Try to duck that responsibility and you will soon have team members who spend their time hiding rather than working. Time Management is a hot topic these days. It generally gets down to two issues. The first consists of Project Planning, PERT Diagrams, Critical Path Analysis, Task Prioritization and Scheduling. In other words, 'What should you do first, what should you do second and what should you not bother with at all?' The second issue is one of metrics. How should you measure what is being done, how reliable are the measurements and what should you do with them? Metrics can be very helpful, particularly if used to help you learn about biases in your estimating techniques. But they can also be deadly. Think long and hard before instituting a measurement scheme. Whatever you measure will likely be improved, but at what cost? If you measure days spent coding, you will likely get coding completed quickly. But how many bugs will be in the code? And how easy will it be to maintain the code, now that all variable names are three characters or less in length? (Saved typing time, you know.) "Balanced Scorecard" is a methodology designed to help avoid the worst problems associated with the simplistic use of metrics. It does this by asking, 'What else, besides profit, should we be measuring, so as to help ensure our long term success? It helps. But ultimately, there's no substitute for judgement. |