Holiday Action Items - Be grateful and help others

Happy holidays and best of luck in 2009 for you and your family!

Back to the blog after the new year.....

Regards,

Rick Price

Best Practices of 2009 - Rescoping Project Plans

It has been a very tough year for project work across the board. Maybe you started out the year with a clean slate and a few projects to complete. But, as the year wore on, you found yourself rescoping your project plan, and the completion of those projects is delayed. If you have been around awhile you rescoped your plan in response to market conditions as they impact the business sector you work in. You were able to stay on plan and execute. If you have not been working during a recession before, then you may have reacted to market impacts while you rescoped your project plan. You got off track with your project plan, and struggled to get back onto the plan for execution.

So, its the end of the year and many, many C-level guys and managers are preaching doom and gloom for 2009. No matter what happens, your will need to manager your projects for results. You want to ensure project success, even if you have market constraints impacting your project plans.

What positive actions can you take to rescope your project plans for 2009?

1. Accept that you have to do more with less, and reallocate resources via the triple constraint. Become the turn-around Project Manager.

2. Retain experienced staff by offering job security while taking wage cuts. Make sure you lead this effort by a substantive pay cut as well.

3. Recruit new hires at lower wages, for longer project lifecycles. Make sure you do not take a large salary increase against your project payroll.

4. Review vendor contracts and relationships with prospective vendors to lower acquisition costs for products needed to support the project. Retain vendors who can renegotiate financial terms, and release those that cannot (keep in mind the cost of any penalties).

5. Review and revalidate project requirements with stakeholders. Some project requirements are mission critical, perhaps other requirements can be postponed to later phases of the project plan's master schedule. Reprioritize requirements in the Change Management Plan, Risk Management Plan, Impact Analyses, Change Control Board to avoid any out of balance ripple effects.

I am sure there are many other ways to leverage project success during a recession. If you have examples, please feel free to post them here.

Happy holiday wishes for you and your family and the very best wishes for your projects in 2009!

"Hands-On Project Management"

Whenever I read job posts for Project Manager, there is a wide variation or misuse of this term. Would you hire a Project Manager without appropriate credentials, skills, and experience? Why do I keep seeing postings for Project Managers with 1 - 3 years experience? How much of a budget will you entrust to such a junior level person? In actual fact, the hiring manager is recruiting a "Task Manager" at best, who will not have budget authority, hire/fire responsibilities, who will not manager people, but more likely will coordinate tasks, go for coffee and doughnuts, etc. Can you imagine a Project Manager with 3 years experience leading a project such as the Petronas Towers? This is one of my favorite all-time great projects which had 2 extremely experienced Project Managers (one for each tower!).

I recently spoke with the C-level of a firm that feels happy enough to use the term "global" in its corporate appellation, as well as its search for a "Global" Project Manager. During our talk about my credentials, skills and experience I was bombarded with what seemed to be a accusation, "I don't see where you have been "hands-on" anywhere in your resume. While he never gave his definition of "hands-on," I spent about 10 minutes trying to determine what he meant before I decided I was talking to a box of rocks and hung up. I suppose he was speaking about some depth of technical experience but failed to communicate that when using jargon.

"Hands-on" as a project manager? What did he mean?

1. "Hands-on" as a member of the Project Management Office?

2. "Hands-on" as a member of some part of the organization the PMO had a service level agreement (SLA) with?

3. "Hands-on" as any number of technical staff from telecom engineer, software developer, network engineer, tester, QA manager, release manager, and so it goes. I think this generally is what he meant in between his personal insults (a great management tactic used by drill sergeants on unsuspecting recruits everywhere!)

Asking if I was "hands-on" is a really poor way of trying to communicate. It shows more of what a person does not know, while expecting the listener to "fill in the blanks" or "connect the dots." This kind of double speak reminds of the very funny FedEx advertising campaign a few years back. "Run it up the flag pole to Rizzo!"

Solution #1 - Our communication in Project Management must be clear, concise and technical where appropriate.

There are several problems when a Project Manager role is "underfilled" by someone who is "hands-on":

1. Title does not match the actual years of experience/accomplishments

2. Years of experience does not match problem to be solved

3. Role as defined does not match an equitable salary

4. Credentials do not match those needed for the role

5. Required project results do not match the planned-for level of project effort

Risk #1 - If being "hands-on" means having a Project Manager serve other roles and do tasks more properly assigned to other roles on a project, there will be a true lack of project management capability and project maturity. That means the organization is not ready to undertake the project at all.

Risk #2 - If the expectation of the C-level is to use a Project Manager as "hands-on" in #3 above, then C-level does not have an adequate understanding of Project Management and will not enjoy project success. So at the "end of the day" time, money, people are wasted. Then the "re-work" must be done. Again, more time, money, and people are wasted. Expensive project indeed!

Solution #2 - Aligning and optimizing the Project Manager's credentials, skills and experience is key to project success. Afterwards the Project Manager must do the same task in recruiting the PMO team, and project teams.

Here is a link to an article you may enjoy about the 4 types of Project Managers/Projects:

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9182234_ITM

In the long run, I think the C-level was trying to tell me his projects are all in complete disarray and total chaos. And, that he wanted someone to fix it all overnight, for the salary he would pay a person with 3 years experience. I wish him good luck finding that person!

Chai yo Rama IX! Happy Birthday to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand

We wish a very happy birthday and also our hope for a speedy recovery to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand.

His Majesty has initiated over 3,000 projects to benefit the people of Thailand during his more than 60 years on the throne in Thailand. As Project Managers go, this number of projects is truly amazing. His Majesty can be seen in every corner of Thailand with his ever present camera documenting all phases of the project management lifecycle. His projects cover literally every public sector need for the Thai people.

I would encourage Project Managers everywhere to study the projects undertaken in Thailand under the leadership of this very special Project Manager. There are many lessons learned, and best practices for us all to benefit from.

We pay our respects to Rama IX and the people of Thailand on this special day, December 5, 2008! Chai yo krub! Long Live His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej!