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.

Ride On, Manage On

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Projects Need Slow To Go Fast

If you’ve ever watched a tennis tournament like the US Open or a golf championship like the British Open you’ll notice something very important. Each and every player takes time before they take their swing or serve the ball to think through what they want to accomplish. The tennis player bounces the ball before the serve and the golfer takes a few practice swings. They aren’t focused on the amount of time that passes but are focused on the end result. Projects, like tennis and golf, need that same deliberateness, projects need the appropriate time and thought before the start of activity. Project managers must set project activity up for success before starting, that doesn’t mean once, it means throughout the project. Project managers must be deliberate in the time that they take for project success.

When discussing Agile Project Management it becomes clear that there is a point when the project slows, it doesn’t stop, it slows. At the end of an iteration, which occurs every 1 to 4 weeks, there is a retrospective or, more simply, a review and planning period. The team, in conjunction with the client, reviews the completed work and plans the next iteration. This is the place where the player bounces the ball or takes a few practice swings. There is also a discussion of what went well and what needs to change during the next iteration to improve the process. Having grown up in a traditional project management world it seems strange that this seems new. While the duration of an iteration is fixed and agile adapts easily to such a process, most projects benefit from this type of review and planning. There isn’t anything in any traditional methodology that prevents project managers from using a similar construct, no matter how long the project is. Agile also suggests daily stand-ups, another way to take some time to see how things are going. While traditional project management says little about daily stand-ups, employing daily stand-ups doesn’t go against traditional project management methods.

Project managers are challenged to go beyond checklists, templates and tools to be successful. They must employ techniques to allow the project to recalibrate, rejuvenate and recharge when the project is challenged by difficult stakeholders, unclear objectives, new technologies and changing priorities. These challenges will occur on every project in some way. Creating a moment in time for the project team to pull together and plan the next “point” is one of the most important things a project manager needs to learn how to do effectively. Using an Agile construct like the retrospective or the daily stand-up allows project managers and team members time to breath, time to think through where the project is headed and time to make better decisions. Projects, like tennis and golf, need to slow down just before the activity starts so there is clarity and deliberateness to what they are doing. Delivering a project quickly, requires moments of slowness.

Ride On, Manage On

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Slow Can Be Good When Managing Projects

Moore’s Law, although focused on the integrated circuit, can be generalized for other technologies. The law, established in a paper in 1965, suggests that the rate of change in processing speed of the integrated circuit doubles every two years. The digital age has made it possible for many technologies to advance at roughly this same exponential rate. While Moore’s Law is technology based it has been generalized to show the exponential rate of change within business and businesses have been trying to keep up with that rate of change ever since. We continue to evolve our management practices recognizing that change is inevitable and that change will continue to accelerate as technology drives us forward. While it is critical to “keep up” with the rate of change it is also critical to learn when and how to slow down long enough to ensure we are spending our limited resources on the right work at the right time. Slow is a tool that needs to be used regularly to gain perspective.

In my last post I presented the Slow, Look, Lean and Roll mantra of cornering in motorcycle riding. This tool is used to corner efficiently and safely. The idea is to slow down prior to entering a corner retaining enough speed to increase speed throughout the turn. When you slow down too much you risk losing momentum and when you don’t slow enough you risk losing control. While neither one is favorable, losing momentum is less disastrous than losing control. Project and Program Portfolio Management provides an organization the opportunity to slow down to ensure they can navigate through the next curve.

When discussing IT project delivery the “next curve” can be anything from a new version of an existing package to a new business opportunity that requires technology to support it to new technology that can change the businesses competitive advantage. Whether it is technology that maintains a business’s current position by providing basic needs, keeps a business competitive by staying in line with the competition or provides the business the ability to differentiate itself in the market place, taking the time to review the portfolio of projects in flight is not only necessary, it is a strategic move. Learning how to slow down enough to maintain momentum and ensure safe navigation of a turn is a skill that must be mastered.

We have learned to start better than we have learned to stop and we are focused on accelerating more than we are focused on when to slow down. A person learning how to juggle is focused on the catching of the ball rather than focused on the tossing of the ball, a person learning how to ride a motorcycle is focused on going more than focused on stopping, and a project manager learns how to start a project much sooner than they learn how to stop a project. We are focused on making things go which is understandable. Having active projects provides a sense of accomplishment, moving feels better than stopping, especially if you are stopping before you’ve finished your project. It is clear that taking time before moving forward, to think things through, to plan the curve, is important. Otherwise tennis matches, golf tournaments, and other sports would move a lot faster. There are time outs for a reason. Slowing down, taking a breath, and squeezing the breaks allows time to make good decisions. Losing momentum is not the right answer, going into a curve too fast is not the right answer, becoming skilled at slowing down at the right moment is the answer.

Ride On, Manage On.

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Simple Is Not Easy When Discussing Project Management

It was sunny, in the 70’s, and I was riding on some quiet back road near home. The bike was riding smoothly over the small hills and I was relaxed. I was coming to a familiar curve so I slowed, looked through the turn, pushed on the bar to lean the bike and slowly increased the throttle. This is the text book process for negotiating a corner or turn on a motorcycle. The mantra we are taught is slow, look, lean and roll. It is a simple process and will work every time. It is critical to slow down enough for the type of turn being made. Once you are in a turn on a motorcycle you must continue to slowly increase your speed to maintain traction. This is the part that isn’t so easy, especially when you start the turn with too much speed. The natural instinct to slow down when you are going too fast will lead to disaster on a motorcycle. Increasing speed to increase traction is simple, it isn’t easy. Just like cornering a motorcycle, the project management process is simple, it isn't easy.

Every person manages some project in their life time and probably manages their daily lives much like managing a project. The process can be expressed in a simple manner. The fundamental process flows something like this:

1. Identify the problem or opportunity
2. Determine what is needed to solve the problem or exploit the opportunity (scope/requirements)
3. Create the plan for achieving the need outlined in step 2
4. Execute the plan
5. Make sure things stay on track
6. Check to see if everything was completed

It doesn’t seem very complicated and is pretty straight forward. So why isn’t it easy? The answer lies in two dimensions. The first dimension is the selection of which items to move from step 1 to step 2 and the second dimension is everything that can go wrong (or right) from step 2 to the end. In project terms these two dimensions are known as Project Portfolio Management and Risk Management. Organizations lose traction when the right opportunities or problems are not effectively selected and projects lose traction when risks are not effectively managed during project delivery. Effective selection of projects and effective management of risks follows the same model as turning or cornering in motorcycling. Slow, Look, Lean, and Roll.

In motorcycling, each word holds significance to maneuvering a bike effectively, efficiently and safely. Each word has a specific purpose and must be done in order. Slowing first allows a motorcyclist the time and space needed for the other three tasks. Looking through the turn sets the motorcycle in motion to change directions, a motorcycle goes where a motorcyclist is looking. Leaning the bike through the turn and then increasing speed to maintain and increase traction through the turn. When these are done out of order it can end in an accident. It is important not to slow a motorcycle when it is leaned over in a turn. The bike will lose traction and will go down. When a motorcyclist doesn’t think they can negotiate a turn that they have already started they are taught to increase speed and increase the lean to maintain and increase traction while turning more sharply.

This model works for Project Portfolio Management and for Project Risk Management. In the next few posts I’ll present the model for both. This simple mantra will assist organizations and project managers remember that simple is important to ensure adoption and simple doesn’t mean easy.

Ride On, Manage On

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Project Failure or Portfolio Failure?

Successful projects are hard to achieve. That was true when The Standish Group, West Yarmouth, Mass., a research firm focused on project management first published their findings in 1994 and is true in their 2009 report. Project management organizations and certifications have been in place longer than these studies and have not been able to break the simple truth that projects are challenged or fail more often than they succeed. As a matter of fact the 2009 news is worse than last year. This news isn’t about project failure, it is about an organizations ability to select projects that will succeed.

"This year's results show a marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding which are delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions" says Jim Johnson, chairman of The Standish Group, "44% were challenged which are late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions and 24% failed which are cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used."1

Project managers and their organizations continue to work to move toward more project successes, fewer challenged project deliveries and an overall reduction in project failures. We have evolved from project management to program management to portfolio management. We have discussed a traditional approach to projects (waterfall), an iterative approach, agile and lean. We’ve employed Six Sigma, TQM, CMMI and other process and quality tools to increase quality of delivery. We are diligently working to solve the problem of project success.

We compare IT delivery to building bridges, building homes and other visible, tangible projects and hope to find answers. We won’t find the answer to successful IT project delivery through those comparisons until we find the answer to a couple of fundamental question. We first have to answer the question of accountability. Is the project manager accountable from inception of an idea to delivery of the idea’s solution? When we answer that question we then need to determine the project boundaries. When do we start measuring a project to determine whether or not it succeeds or fails? Again, if we look at a project from the inception of an idea to the delivery of the idea’s solution then we will be looking at a much larger number of project failures (cancelled projects).

It isn’t a surprise that the numbers of projects that are challenged or have failed have increased. In today’s economic climate the number of cancelled projects has increased and there are fewer resources to do the same amount of work which will cause projects to be challenged. In reviewing this information it becomes clear that there is a gap between measuring project success and measuring project management success. The project manager must be held accountable for the results of project success, failure or challenge and project management methodologies, techniques and tools must provide the guidance needed for successful delivery. The simple truth is that organizations must include portfolio and program management to create an environment for successful project delivery. Organizations cannot have successful projects if they are not set up for success before a project manager is assigned. The project manager builds software. Organizations must plan what is to be built based on organizational strategy through a portfolio view. The Standish Group study reveals more about portfolio management than project management.

Ride On, Manage On
The Standish Group. 21 April 2009. http://www1.standishgroup.com/newsroom/chaos_2009.php

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