Journyx Project Management Blog

CIO reports that Robert Half Technology has published the results of a study on IT project plans as the economy turns around. 1,400 CIOs were interviewed and here are some of the results:

[...] 37% intend to implement software and hardware upgrades that had been deferred due to poor economic conditions in 2009. Another 16% plan to roll out virtualization projects that were previously shelved, and the same percentage of IT leaders polled said Web site design initiatives would get the go ahead following an economic recovery.

These new IT projects include cloud computing and social media initiatives. Interestingly enough, our CEO recently published an article on how you can be ready for the recovery by prioritizing and executing projects that are coming off the bench.

Which of your IT projects might come back into play now that the recession is nearing its end?

A recent Project Times article lists the following 10 leadership qualities as required for project managers:

• Inspires a Shared Vision
• A Good Communicator
• Integrity
• Enthusiasm
• Empathy
• Competence
• Ability to Delegate Tasks
• Cool Under Pressure
• Team-Building Skills
• Problem Solving Skills

These skills enable project managers to keep their team motivated and to adapt to different situations that arise. They are necessary in order to steer projects through the inevitable storms that come. A ProjectSmart article agrees, stating that “a project manager with a combination of strong project management technical skills and relevant leadership and other important skills will find him/herself in a position of strength within their organization and a valuable resource overall.”

What would you add to the list?

The Requirements Network has an excellent article out on the necessity of well-developed requirements for any project. The author likens requirements gathering today to the popular 90s sitcom, “Seinfeld,” writing:

In a nutshell, we approach requirements the same way we approach any other communication or conversation. When you think about it, most communications and conversations are one-sided and egocentric. Seinfeld was an excellent example of multiple people carrying on conversations in the same room without either listening or being heard. Translate this into requirements gathering and you get ambiguity, miscommunication and missed requirements.

She goes on to recommend that requirements gathering adhere to the SMART philosophy, meaning that requirements must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Repeatable and Timed in order to succeed. She argues that there wouldn’t be such a dismal IT project failure rate if organizations adhered to this formula. Do you agree?

A new installment of Dr. David Hillson’s “Managing Risk in Projects” series has been published at PM World Today this month. In this article, Dr. Hillson focuses on the problems that can arise to hinder effective project risk management. He groups these into 3 categories: problems with process, problems with people and problems with persistence. In the first situation, project risks that are identified are not always addressed. If no action is taken, then the exercise was in vain.

Regarding problems with people, Dr. Hillson writes, “Risk is managed by people, not by machines, computers, robots, processes or techniques. As a result we need to recognise the influence of human psychology on the risk process, particularly in the way risk attitudes affect judgement and behaviour. There are many sources of bias, both outward and hidden, affecting individuals and groups, and these need to be understood and managed proactively where possible.”

Finally, problems with persistence includes the fact that risk management “must be an iterative process, requiring ongoing commitment and action from the project team. Without such persistence, project risk exposure will get out of control, the project risk process will become ineffective and the project will have increasing difficulty in reaching its goals.”

Kimberly Wiefling at ProjectConnections has written a new article about “catalytic events” that can lead to permanent behavior change and improvement. She encourages readers to work to find permanent solutions to recurring problems, using the following analogy:

Imagine a parking garage that installs timestamp machines at the entrance to spit out tickets than can be checked upon exit to verify the total time spent in the garage, but without the gates that force cars to stop until they take the ticket. Without the gates in place, some people would surely forget to take their ticket at the entrance. Maybe a pile of tickets would accumulate at the base of the machine—no big deal. But from time to time there would a line of cars backed up at the exit when an exiting driver finds themselves ticketless. The parking garage attendant is left to sort out the mess. Repeatedly. Yuk.

Simply installing a gate at the entrance that is raised only once the ticket is removed ensures the right behavior by the customer—each driver must take a ticket before entering the garage. As long as the gate is working properly, and ignoring the possibility of criminal activity, the problem of forgotten tickets is now permanently solved. Of course the driver could still manage to misplace or lose the ticket, perhaps by removing it from the car, or—in the case of extremely messy cars or disorganized drivers—the ticket could actually become lost inside of the car itself. (Maybe in the future parking garages will just slap a barcode on the outside of the car when you drive in, or just take a picture and use pattern recognition to match exiting cars with entering cars, who knows.)

The entrance gate is a permanent solution to a recurring problem. Having seen recurring problems on project teams decade upon decade, and growing weary of asking, urging, coaxing, begging, and pleading with people to change their ways, I dream of such remedies to errant behavior!

Can you think of ways to address recurring problems and change behaviors in your organization?

Many of us will face the day when we are assigned a project that we are not equipped for. Rather than letting it ruin our careers, TechRepublic suggests a 5-step plan for taking on the project and driving it to success.

1. Make the project a priority from the start.
2. Commit talented people to the project.
3. Get over the learning curve as fast as possible.
4. Plan the project work but adjust quickly.
5. Keep communicating.

The writer also encourages readers to keep in mind that it is often highly visible, challenging projects like this that can launch your career to a new level. Rather than run from it, IT professionals and project managers should embrace the opportunity.

A ProjectSmart article called The Hidden Costs and Dangers of the Shortcut highlights how the strategy of taking shortcuts can sometimes derail the project entirely. Michelle LaBrosse writes:

Let’s say you are running a project, and the goal is to upgrade a road to a remote property. You solicit bids from several contractors and ask them to do it for the least cost possible, and you also stipulate you don’t want to get any permits.

None of the contractors are willing to work under those conditions, so you get your own earth moving equipment and a friend with some experience to help you upgrade your road.

In the process, you fill in a spillway to a dam for a reservoir. You think this is no big deal because the fine you pay for that is far less than what it would’ve cost to hire a contractor to do the job properly.

Three years later in a heavy rainstorm, the dam breaks because the spillway has been compromised. Seven homes are washed away in the ensuing flood and 10 people die. Now, what was intended as a shortcut to save money ends up taking lives.

What kind of results could come from taking shortcuts in your own projects? Lost revenue? Lost opportunities?

Over at TechRepublic’s IT Leadership blog, Rick Freedman has written about the importance of not only focusing on projects in themselves, but also to understand the core business strategy that fuels the portfolio. He writes:

Here are my three best practice tips for keeping the overall project strategy in mind:

* Participate: The best scenario is one in which IT has a seat at the table as corporate objectives and strategies are being devised. Even if you aren’t invited to the strategy meeting, you can still contribute by posting your ideas and opinions in forums, suggestion programs, user committees, online communities, and various social media outlets.

* Study: Learn what directions your organization is thinking about taking in the future. Many enterprises have internal communication programs that are set up to ensure that all associates have a clear idea of the overall corporate strategy. Publicly traded companies must report to the SEC, and these reports are gold mines of data about the strategies, challenges, and risks associated with the company’s market, competitive position, and product mix. So are analyst opinions, which often cut to the heart of the challenges with a company’s strategies. In addition, trade magazines are one of the deepest sources of data on the risks, concerns, and opportunities in a particular vertical market, and they provide budding corporate strategists with plenty of great ideas about what the competition is doing and about what IT can bring to your firm.

* Think strategically: IT professionals and project managers who can think past their project and can see the entire context of the organization’s portfolio and strategy, are enabled to make the right decisions at every level of the project, from selecting the right components to pilot in a prototype or early iteration, to determining which projects should live or die depending on their overall contribution potential.

As many of you know, our CEO Curt Finch is the author of All Your Money Won’t Another Minute Buy: Valuing Time as a Business Resource. ÊWhat you may not know is that he’s picked up the pen again and is currently working on a second book on how to execute projects on time and on budget.

To that end, he’s looking for project management war stories – the good, the bad and the ugly – and wants to hear from you if you’ve got one. Please e-mail Curt with the following information:

• Number of employees at your company
• Number of employees who work on projects
• Company industry

We look forward to hearing from you!

A recent PM World Today article begs the question, is project management a core skill and no longer a niche capability? The writer, Peter Taylor, had recently set up a poll in LinkedIn that asked this question, and 42% of respondents said that it is a core skill while 36% said that it is both a core skill and a niche capability. Only 19% believed that it is a niche capability alone.

What does this mean? Taylor writes,

Project management methodology is a ‘core skill’ that all managers need to be aware of but, the actual project management activity is still a ‘niche capability’ that requires additional training and experience in order to be successful. Managing a small, simple project is no big deal and most people can do it. Managing a large, complex project with substantial risk, diverse stakeholders, a geographically distributed team, multiple constraints and high stakes is best reserved for real experts. The successful business of the 21st century recognizes the value of ‘niche’ project managers working under a supportive executive that has a foundation of project ‘core skills’.