An often overlooked step in the project management team is the project/client representative. The person responsible for being the messenger, intermediary between the project team and the client is a critical role. Larger companies pay professionals to strictly fill this role, while smaller companies often let the PM handle that role. This is fine in most cases, unless your PM is not good at customer relations. Customer relations’ professionals spend their entire day thinking of how to build trust, gain confidence, and maintain a relationship. Project managers spend their day doing this on some level within their project team, but it is not their main focus. If you are good at customer relations it will make the project run smoother because the client will have a certain level of trust. If you are not, the project becomes hindered. Why? Because, the client doesn’t have a needed level of trust in you, they begin to question your work. Now the client wants more status meetings. Maybe the client begins to micromanage your project and requires more of the project manager’s time and attention? This can quickly snowball because of one misunderstood statement that breaks a fragile trust. Whoever is communicating with the client, make sure it isn’t General Patton. While he gets the job done, in the project world he would make the job more difficult.
Groupthink…Project Killer
Susan Cain just wrote a piece in the NY Times talking about the destructive force of groupthink (article found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=all). This started me thinking how groupthink applies to project management and the synergy created or hampered within a project team.
After reading the article I am more convinced that as a project manager it is important to encourage and draw out people’s experience and opinions. It is imperative that project teams have a voice and strong leadership to maintain project goals while remaining open to the team voices. Otherwise, we have the inverse problem. Instead of shortsighted groupthink that has little innovation and a blind rudder. You get analysis paralysis where the goal is clear but the wheels just spin. Which is worse? Probably about the same…nothing gets done, or it does, but it is completely wrong and misses the mark. What do you think?
Ever Have One of Those Meetings?
I was in an important meeting and the project team pretty much knew that a certain person wasn’t carrying their weight. This person wasn’t a complete let down…but could do more. During the course of our project meeting an issue was raised as to why a task had not been completed. This person became defensive and started pointing fingers and making excuses. I lost it. A normally mild manner person, I let him have it. I gave him the what for and how come. However, I was out of line and spent hours in one on one meetings apologizing to this person and the rest of the team. There is a time to kick someone in the pants and a way to do it. My way that day was wrong. It costs our team more time in apologizing then this person not completing their task. The bottom line is we have to play the game with the team that we have. There isn’t always time to replace someone and many times there isn’t anyone else available…period. My advice…if you aren’t getting the job done, own it and move on. People respect that more than excuses. Secondly, be slow to speak or you may make a situation worse. I know, because I did
Negotiating and Managing Project Expectations
One of the many factors in project cost overruns is due to setting unreasonable expectations. Whether working as a consultant outside a company or as a project manager within a company, all too often we become “yes” men to secure a deal or please superiors. We may win in the short term by getting the job or by delaying management’s wrath by telling them what they want to hear, but, in the long run, both scenarios are losers. As a consultant you land the gig and wind up with bad word of mouth advertising as being late and over budget. As an internal project manager you develop a reputation of being unreliable and/or overly optimistic. Instead, be real and upfront about duration and costs of expected projects. Give pushback to help set reasonable expectations. Maybe someone else will promise the moon? You should challenge competitors’ unreasonable assertions. You may still wind up losing the deal, but in the long run you will maintain your reputation and eventually land more deals because of it. Short term pain for long term gain is tough in this economy. What is your word worth and where do you go to get your reputation back?
The Gantt Chart and Daily Project Coordination
All project managers have used or at least heard of a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart was created by Henry Gantt around 1910 and still widely used today. It was used in major projects like the Hoover Dam. Henry Gantt designed the Gantt chart to help manage project scheduling and work progress. If you read his book, Work, Wages, and Profits (1916), you will note that Gantt believed it was imperative to communicate daily schedules to key players and by not doing so rendered schedules useless. Gantt thought it was important to be a project coordinator, to coordinate activities, and reduce conflicts. I think this is an important and often overlooked part of being a project manager. We often look at the larger picture and fail to identify “Daily” influences that cause project slowdowns. We should have daily expectations and identify barriers to those expectations each and every day.
Reference:
Gantt, H. L. (1916). Work, wages, and profits. San Diego, California: University of California Libraries.
Small Bites
I like keeping project tasks really, really short. A week-long task is sometimes too long, but obviously satisfying when finished. I also like keeping product releases very short. A release might have only a few of these short tasks. That ensures that the product is always within a few days of release. Project scheduling is simpler when tasks are short.
Let’s do a meeting!
Does your company do too few meetings? Yeah, you heard me right… too few.
If you’re like most corporate employees, you’ll answer, “Definitely not!”
Most of the scenes in the Dilbert comic are in meeting rooms. That should tell you what Scott Adams thinks of them. Meetings are the first signs of death in a once vibrant company. But beware; lack of meetings may spell the same results.
Meetings done right should get your blood pumping for action. You should go away wanting to try something new, or hoping for change, or at least inspired to follow. Make that the aim of your next meeting!
Timesheets are boring
Why get passionate about a boring timesheet tool? They are little more than cells and dropdown choices that collect your time and expenses. An endless bucket. Pointless. Employees reluctantly fill in those monotonous little cells every Friday afternoon or Monday morning for the week prior. Time tracking is a chore with little value.
Okay, that’s one perspective…
But have you ever viewed them as an investment? Like pouring value into your organization that you can mine later? Consider that for a moment.
What if you could magically predict how long your next project would take? Or cost? What if you could walk into the next meeting with hard evidence that your company talents are unfocused and distracted? That you are fighting too on many fronts? And in too many battles without clear endpoints? Wouldn’t that be worth documenting your time for.
That’s what time tracking gives you, among other things. Still see it as a boring chore?
Do you like Project Robots?
You just buried your mom and returned from the funeral. You’re a Project Manager on a high profile project for one of the largest tech companies in the world. It has only been one day since the funeral and you are still raw with emotion. Now imagine that you get an email informing you that you are not getting a break from the loss of your mom, but in fact, your workload has been increased. How about a spouse fighting cancer? Need a little time? No! Instead, how about an increased workload? Sound crazy? Well, imagine no more…these are true stories. This brings me to an important point.
In talking with a friend of mine with 26+ years of project management experience about Agile vs. Waterfall methods, he said, “You can have all the methods and processes you want but it all comes down to personal relationships and human intervention”. This gentleman was responsible for one of the largest SAP installations in US history. I was taken aback by the simple answer when he stated another simple cliché, “Take care of your team and your team will take care of you”, which means that they will take care of the project.
The examples given in the beginning of this blog are not meant to say that we shouldn’t be tough or suck it up. However, besides being in my opinion morally wrong, it is flat bad for business. Is the man whom just buried his wife still ready to climb that mountain for the team? Or, is he waiting for the first chance to jump ship?
All too often we pay lip service to our employees, “Let me know if you need any more resources”, while completely ignoring the realities of life.
I guess the bottom line is we can keep on pushing the machine, but what happens when the machine navigator gets ran over? Does the machine keep going and if so, who is driving…a robot?
Make sure when you ask someone if they need help that you don’t ignore the reality that is staring you right in the face — unless you like robots.
Time estimates are tricky
If you are an inexperienced project manager, engineer, or designer, consider tripling your initial time estimates for projects. That’s not a slam. It’s just that new managers don’t take a lot of minutia into consideration when developing project time estimates. Experienced people have been through a lot of project cycles. They have seen a lot, and the know the hundreds of little things that can bog a project down or extend it long beyond all normal estimates. So if you’re new, triple the schedule until you know the details.