Flick of the Wrist, Getting Out of a Project Jam Quickly

I was on my way to work one morning and I had an uneasy feeling. I was coming up to the side of an 18 wheeler on the right and had a car on the left. There was a line of cars merging onto the highway and I could see their heads turning wanting to get out from behind the 18 wheeler as quickly as possible. I knew that my motorcycle was not visible to the people in the cars and I knew I had a decision to make. I could slow down to let all the bigger vehicles go ahead. The problem is that there was a load of traffic behind me as well and they don’t take kindly to motorcyclists slowing down. I could try to change lanes but there wasn’t anywhere to go. I chose to give the bike some gas, flick my wrist, and get ahead of all the traffic. Turned out that was the safest thing to do, my uneasy feeling went away and I was safely on my way to work.

If you’ve ever managed a project during a project traffic jam you may be able to relate to that uneasy feeling of not being able to get the job done. The traffic jam is usually caused by a constraint like not enough funding or resources. Each project has a similar need and each project must meet their objectives in a certain time period. And like morning rush hour, no matter how much contingency you give yourself, there is always something that can go wrong that is not preventable. This particular morning I had visibility of the traffic, I had an understanding of the traffic dependencies and I was able to make a decision to move quickly through the traffic.

Project Visibility

Being able to see the projects in an organization is critical to be able to understand potential impacts to a project. Since projects never operate in a vacuum visibility is a must. Visibility is caused through communication. Whether the organization uses standard project reporting using spreadsheets or a tool designed for portfolio management being aware of the active and the pipeline projects is needed. It doesn’t matter whether the organization is Functional, Projectized or Matrix. There are always limited resources and constant changes to the market, business priorities and strategies which cause projects to start and end. Because of this, the portfolio operates much like our highway system and projects operate much like the vehicles on the highway system. Some are large and take a great deal of effort to maneuver like an 18 wheeler and some are easier to maneuver like a motorcycle. The fact is that visibility must exist. Visibility is not built by an office but by each project manager making sure their project is visible to the organization.

Project Dependencies

Visibility is the first ingredient and dependency is second. Much like building a project schedule and determining task dependencies, projects have dependencies. Project dependencies can be based on a few criteria but the main criteria when discussing a portfolio are resources and funding. Since projects within a program are related it the capability or objectives of one project may need to be implemented before a dependent project can be started. In the case of the portfolio, the projects aren’t related so the dependency is usually people and dollars based. Understanding the dependencies is like understanding that none of the cars can merge safely until the 18 wheeler passes or that they can’t move into my lane unless I’m not in their way. Project dependencies help provide the basis for decisions.

Decision

In the traffic example I decided to “flick my wrist” and get away from impending doom. Being on a motorcycle, I could go from 65 to 75 to 65 in a matter of seconds. The decision seemed fairly straight forward. I would make a different decision if I were driving an 18 wheeler, a delivery truck, a pick-up truck, a luxury sedan and on down the line. When I hear someone say “It Depends” I usually feel like rolling my eyes but the truth is the decision made depends on the size and complexity of the project. The decision to gather the project team together, explain the convergence of the projects, discuss crashing the schedule and moving forward with the plan is the equivalent of “flick of the wrist”.

Additional Thoughts

It is very possible to achieve this type of quick response in a projectized, agile project management environment and much more difficult in a functional traditional project management environment. I’m not suggesting that we all adopt agile since the project environment will have all size and complexity of projects. I am suggesting that the decisions associated with project management must take into consideration many parameters.

“Flick of the Wrist” is only possible if there is visibility of the project portfolio, an understanding of project dependencies based on resources and dollars, and an environment in which quick response is possible.

Ride On, Manage On

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Project Management and Motorcycling

I started this blog in hopes of putting into words the wonderful similarities between project management and motorcycling. I began venturing into the blogosphere by putting my thoughts to the test. Since I’m a little behind the blogging curve (the world of blogging has been around since about 1994) I found myself trying to get a better handle of what sites exist for project management, agile project management, lean project management, and software develop in general. As I expected, the world is full of blogs for this purpose, some are award winners and some are, well, not. Needless to say, finding a voice in this blogosphere is a bit interesting. I won’t bore you with the details of getting this up and running (there are many sites about starting a blog). I will continue to venture into the project management and motorcycling realm, discussing the correlations that exist. For those that ride I hope to provide a perspective that is meaningful and for you that haven’t ventured onto a motorcycle, it may prove interesting since I will use examples from the road, and I’d venture to say that would include most folks. To keep things interesting, I’ll be taking a look at some of the other blogs, articles and books and let you know what I find. Hope to see you on the road.

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Project Management: Facilitation Skills

I was riding my motorcycle down a quite stretch of road on a nice sunny afternoon. The steady hum of the engine and the sound of the wind were muffled through my ear plugs. My brain was wandering off to dream world, not a good idea on a motorcycle, when a pothole jarred me back to reality quickly. I was jostled and my adrenalin pumped through my veins.

I’ve had similar experiences managing projects, things are going very smoothly, on time, on budget, with the agreed to scope, achieving the project objectives, when something “bad” happens. My primary analyst who’d been on the project since its inception has to quickly leave the country. This example of losing a critical resource is a risk on most projects. The risk is usually accepted (unless there is additional information that increases the probability since creating contingency plans associated with the more improbable risks uses valuable team time and energy. Having a risk management plan that defines the process to use when an improbable risk is realized is the simplest way to manage this type of an event. Whether the complexity and size of the project requires formal documentation or not, the project manager must be prepared to put on a facilitators hat when these types of events occur.

I started learning facilitation tools and techniques fairly early in my project management career and I’m grateful it worked out that way. I’d like to say I had a grand plan laid out to hone my project management skills but that isn’t the case. I wanted to learn how to run meetings better because of the time that was being wasted, I wanted to close open items sooner since open items chew up time and resources and I wanted to be able to manage the team effectively and efficiently. I believed that being a good facilitator and gaining an understanding of the associated tools and techniques would help in all of those cases.

I best course I took is Interaction Associates Essential Facilitation. I was able to apply the tools and techniques I learned right away in my project management job. I found that the meetings I had became much more effective and my ability to lead improved as well. The book How to Make Meetings Work by Interaction Associates founders Michael Doyle and David Straus has been an invaluable source of tools and techniques for continuing to develop my facilitation skills and as a gentle reminder of managing time wisely.

There are a host great facilitation methods and tools that provide project managers a wealth of knowledge for managing meetings, creating plans that work, making decisions, resolving issues and creating contingency plans for risks when needed. There isn’t a one size fits all when discussing facilitation techniques. Different teams need different guidance and the project manager must find the tools and techniques that work best for their team. Facilitation skills ensure that the project manager understands team dynamics and ways of dealing with time sensitive set backs or opportunities. Being knowledgeable in the field of facilitation is an important ingredient to project success.

Ride On, Manage On.

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Simple Tools for Complex Problems

One of the key ingredients in successfully managing a project is the ability to make timely and appropriate decisions. The projects that are the most painful are those where the decisions created the pain. Whether the decision was delayed, premature or non-existent, the decision caused the project distress. Making decisions requires a few ingredients. It requires an understanding of the question, available information influencing the decision and an understanding of the consequences, positive or negative, of making or not making the decision. Armed with this data and a process for making decisions, project managers and project teams can navigate the decision making realm.

A decision making process can be fairly straight forward and doesn’t have to take very long. A decision log can help track the decision that need to be made and those that have been decided, much like a risk or issue log. Tracking decisions is helpful. How many times have you heard “I thought we already decided that” or “I know we decided that, I just can’t remember why”. The mechanics aren’t as important as tracking that it was done. Simply put, the question that needs to be addressed is documented, possible options are identified, impacts of the options are determined, a recommendation is formulated, the decision is made and the consequences of the decision are tracked or monitored. The process is similar in nature to the Deming Cycle, a science experiment or an issue resolution process.

The tools for making decisions are similar to the tools used for process improvement or issue resolution as well. There is a great little book called The Memory Jogger. It contains tools for brainstorming, categorizing ideas, analyzing results and other capabilities associated with quality improvement. The book provides an easy to understand format for the use of the tools including the purpose, reasons to use it and the process of using the tool. Armed with these types of tools the decision making process can be straightforward.

There are some tools that aren’t in the memory jogger that I have found extremely helpful in making decisions. The main one is the four quadrants. Much like the quadrants of First Things First by Stephen Covey, the tool helps provide focus and narrows the options fairly quickly. It is possible to use the four quadrants by providing a two values for the x-axis such as easy to implement and difficult to implement and two values for the y-axis such as low cost and high cost. The diagram would look something like the diagram below.

The team would then place the ideas associated with the options in the quadrants, relative to the other ideas. This would quickly narrow the options that the team would review. This tool is a very simple to use tool and can be used whether the question is simple or complex.
The important aspect of making decisions is having a process to use. It helps maintain an objective rather than a subjective review and decision making process. It also will help put together information for others to make a decision with. Simple tools for complex problems helps to reduce the complexity and the risk.

Ride On, Manage On

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Project Management: Checklists

Project managers have a checklist for just about everything. There may even be checklists for making sure all of the checklists are done. The point of this is not to slam the use of checklists. My parents used checklists to pack for vacations, there are checklists for our cars servicing and I’m sure we all have started hundreds of checklists to remember our list of weekend “To Dos”. Checklists are a good tool and like other tools, we tend to over use them until we learn the strength and weakness of the tool. So it is for checklists in managing projects.

When I first took the Motorcycle Foundation Safety course we were first taught using a couple of checklists. The key ingredient to teaching the use of the checklist was to help us understand the purpose of each component so that when it was checked we had knowledge behind why it was on the list. Having a checklist isn’t the key, having an understanding of what is getting checked, the purpose of the action item, is the key. Knowing why an item is on the checklist will help determine whether or not the work is actually completed and completed at the right time.

I actually like checklists, checklists give me a sense of security. Being able to check off a list of actions can give a sense of accomplishment. The sense of security and sense of accomplishment can be deceiving. Just because it has been checked off doesn’t mean that the appropriate work has been done. We had pre-defined checklists when starting our motorcycles, these pre-defined checklists are what cause problems for projects and project managers. Learning to manage a project through the use of checklists is helpful but, checklists won’t be the answer to managing projects. It is like doing risk identification once in a project, you can check it off your list when you finish the risk identification, the problem is that risk identification is never “done” and is needed throughout the project life cycle.

Checklists are designed to help reduce risk, the risk of missing something that is important to a project. That makes a checklist a useful tool. I’ve been most successful with a checklist when I’ve used a pre-defined checklist as a starting point and addressed each item on the list in some way. I’ve asked the simple questions of who, what, when, where, and how to each item so that each item was well defined, was questioned each time and then addressed as part of the project. Checklists don’t replace knowledge, experience or understanding. Using them blindly will not improve delivery, it will hinder delivery.

Checklists are friend and foe, strength and weakness, useful tool and an anchor around the neck of the project manager. They should be used wisely. If you are new to project management be aware that every problem is not a nail and a checklist is not a hammer. It is simply a tool to walk through the questions of who, what, when, where, and how for an item that must be done. Remember that many of the tasks that are part of managing a project are recurring and on-going. Many of the project management activities aren’t complete until the project is closed. Rely on the project team to build checklists and use them to ensure the completion of agreed upon work that is to occur once in a project. Otherwise, everything will be a checklist.

Ride On, Manage On.

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Project Management Focus

There are few things that matter more in project management than focus. The areas to focus on include objectives, team, stakeholders, outcomes and many other project variables. In fact, there are so many areas that it can be difficult to decide which area is most important and the most important area can be different depending on the project and can be different depending on where the project is relative to the delivery life cycle. It is also important to remember that the project will go in the direction that the project manager is focused. Let me elaborate. When the project manager is focused on risks then the project will be about the risks, when the project manager is focused on resources then the project will be about resources, when the project is focus on metrics then the project will be about metrics and when the project manager is focused on outcomes then the project will be about outcomes. The project manager focus creates the project focus.

Methodologies are created to help teach project managers when to focus on certain areas or aspects of the project during the project life cycle. A methodology suggests that during the initiation of a project the primary focus is on the stakeholders and scope and during the planning the primary focus is on the team and schedule. The other thing that a methodology provides is a specific language for the various areas or aspect of the project life cycle. Armed with the “what to do when” and a common language, project managers set out to deliver a successful project. It would be great if it were that easy. A project manager could use the right language and check off whether the work that should be done is done during the right portion of the project life cycle. A checklist here or there would be all that is needed. We all know that it just isn’t that easy. Checking off whether something has been done is not the same as providing the right focus at the right time.

It is true that stakeholders have a primary focus during initiation, they have to be identified, their needs have to be captured and they have to become engaged. The project manager must maintain enough focus on the stakeholders throughout the project so that they stay engaged. Missing a stakeholder causes problems in most projects, losing one can cause a similar problem. The project manager must focus on developing the right schedule during the planning phase and must maintain enough focus on the schedule so the project stays on track. Staying focused on the schedule may mean a project delivered on time but it doesn’t mean the project is successful. Focus must move fluidly like the waves of the ocean. A successful project occurs when the project manager changes focus based on the project need.

The primary focus of all project delivery, from initiation through close, must be on the business benefit seen through the lens of the project constraints. There must be a balanced focus, primarily on the benefits the project is to deliver, without ignoring the constraints of the project. When the focus is only on the constraints the opportunities may be lost and when focused purely on the benefits the constraints may be forgotten. This balanced focus for all activities provides the right view into who needs to be engaged, what needs to be delivered, when the work needs to be done and how the work needs to be done. This balance can provide the project manager the right focus for project success.

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