Business Record - Iowa Biz

Preamble Your Project

Happy Independence Day from Iowabiz!

To celebrate our nation's birthday - and with help from my friend, Josh Nankivel, and his fellow authors at PMStudent - I thought it appropriate to look at our constitution as one big project charter:

We the people At their core, projects are about people.  They are of the people, by the people, and for the people. People skills are the chief component of what makes a project work.

In order to form a more perfect union Does your project support the cohesive mission of your organization?  If not, you'll have stakeholders pulling you in every direction.

Establish justice In a project setting, "fair" is a myth. There will always be somebody who perceives your project solution as unfair.  As a leader, you are shooting for an equitable solution.

Ensure domestic tranquility Keeping your stakeholders and end users at the forefront of your focus can prevent embattlement down the road.

Provide for the common defense Projects will always be embattled by office politics.  Why not keep your sense of humor and be prepared for the worst?

Promote the general welfare While you are meeting deadlines and building deliverables, why not develop your people and manage their skills and talents in the process?  It could save your project.

Secure the blessings of liberty While there are many tools and approaches in project management, the best practice is to maintain your flexibility, try new things, and ultimately just do what makes sense for your project and your team and your organization.  Rigidity kills projects.

To ourselves and our posterity What kind of legacy is your project leaving for the organization?  Will people ignore and dismantle the solution once you have moved on, or will they embrace what you have accomplished?

On behalf of my fellow Iowabiz authors, I wish you a safe and happy Independence Day holiday.

Carpe Factum!

Dude! We're Gettin' the Gang Back Together!

This weekend, my wife is dragging me has asked me to escort her to her 20th high school reunion.  All weekend long, I will be cursed regaled with mundane and boring exhilarating and adventuresome stories about growing up in her hometown.  At least there will be other spouses there... and maybe a cash bar.

Seriously, reunions are important elements of our socialization.  Sharing stories is a craft as old as the ages, and remembering all of the silly antics.of our youth can be an enjoyable walk down memory lane.

Even in a project setting, reunions are important.  The obvious reunion should occur before disbanding even takes place.  It is the lessons learned session.  Even if you are a project of one person, sit down and document all of those Homer Simpson D'OH moments that you wish you could do over, as well as those choirs-of-angels-singing-in-celebration-of-all-you-did-right moments.  My preferred method is the start-stop-continue approach:

• Start:  What didn't you do that you wished you had done?

• Stop:  What did you do that you wished you hadn't done?

• Continue:  What did you do right that you will keep doing?

While the important benefit of a lessons learned session is external reuse, the ability to have a "reunion" and share stories is important to the internal project team as well.  Stephanie Barnes refers to these "after action" meetings, and she shares the following:

Even if no one outside of the project team uses the lessons learned it’s important for the project team to do the analysis. Sometimes things are happening so quickly on the project that team members need to take a few minutes once the project is done to tie everything together. Once all the tasks are complete they can see the big picture of what actually happened and the consequences of certain actions and decisions so they can learn and do things differently next time, make new mistakes rather than repeating the same ones time and again. I know I like to make new and improved mistakes rather than the same old ones.

I also like to keep in touch with various members of project teams long after the project has completed.  There are some teams which were together for many months, and I try to keep in touch with my teammates through various forms of networking:  lunches, coffee, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter.  It's helpful for me to be reminded of the project stories (the good, the bad, and the ugly) which have made me the project manager I am.

So dust off those year books status reports and get in touch with your former teammates.  Reunions can be fun... no, really!

Carpe Factum!

Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues

My daughter winds up her third grade career today as my wife ends another year of teaching high school.  Stretched ahead of us is the vast unknown of unbounded imagination, family vacations, adventure-filled books, backyard discoveries, splash-filled swimming pool moments... and annoying mosquito bites, occasional sunburns and long-winded sibling spats (as long as we're being realistic about the next 10 weeks).

How often do we romanticize the projects ahead of us?  After all, every new project yields so much potential for fun, excitement, and positive NPV that we can hardly contain ourselves, right?  Some people look at new projects and see ponies and rainbows and butterflies and shooting stars (at least those where you let the marketing team pitch the project for you).  Ask the IT staff about the same project and they will conjure up versions of hell that would make Dante shudder in fear.  As with many projects, the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Reconciling stakeholder expectations is a scary yet necessary undertaking.  If you asked every member of your family to give you their version of the ideal summer vacation, I would venture a guess that you would wind up with wildly different answers (at least you would in my house).  The project is the same (summer vacation) and the end expectations are the same (enjoyable relaxation and recreation).  For me, that looks like cycling and hammock time.  My wife has a strong desire to camp (yeah, outdoors... crazy, huh?) coupled with reading a mountain of books.  My older daughter envisions swim lessons and camp (with cabins, only slightly more civilized) and trips to the grandparents for unbridled spoiling.  My younger daughter is completely go-with-the-flow, as long as she is entertained.  We all have the same goal (enjoyment), but our perceptions of the deliverable (outcome) and approach (requirements and tasks) differ.

In The Thinking PM blog, the nail is hit on the head:  deal with the stakeholders early to define and set expectations.  If I waited until August to ask everybody if the summer were successful, I'd be a really lousy husband and father.  We're setting up the calendar of events early, so we all get a say in making summer successful.  Of course, there are boundaries.  There will be no jetting off to Europe, no horseback-riding lessons, no Harley-ridin' adrenaline-laden trips to Sturgis, and no Phineas-and-Ferb-esque antics.  In setting expectations with stakeholders, it's equally important to mention what WON'T be in scope, as mentioned in the TAPUniversity blog post about scope.

My friend, Lyle Holman, a local consultant, shares with his colleagues his "Holman Expectation Curve" (pictured above).  At the beginning of every project, fantasy is high and reality is low.  The two curves eventually converge at what is called the OMG (Oh My God) moment, followed closely by the CTJ (Come To Jesus) meeting.  The curve is inevitable; virtually every project experiences it.  The real trick is to get your project stakeholders to the OMG moment as quickly as possible.

So school's out for the summer.  Are you ready to make it an enjoyable experience for everybody?

Carpe Factum!

Does Your Project Have a Fan Club?

Last month, I was in Milwaukee teaching a business analysis class for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Of course, any self-respecting social media participant (blogger, Twitterer, et cetera) couldn't really claim a trip to Milwaukee unless he spent some time with the indomitable (in a warm teddy bear kind of way) Phil Gerbyshak.  And even better (if that's possible) is spending time with Phil AND his girlfriend, Ellen Winters.

To say that Ellen is a great singer would be like telling da Vinci that the Mona Lisa is a "cute drawing."  She is utterly amazing with the vocals in multiple genres, especially jazz.  I've already almost worn out her latest CD.  Besides performing, Ellen also teaches music in both Chicago and Milwaukee.  She shared with me that one of the things she tells her students is to appreciate those who CAN'T sing (like me), because every performer eventually will need fans.  To paraphrase her comments, "For every one of us who is able to perform well, we need the other nine to come to our concerts and buy our CD's."

So true.

And her comments apply to project management as well.  A lot of project managers just plow through the scope and schedule of their project without much regard to those who need to support it... financially, socially and psychologically.  If a project manager is supposed to spend 90 percent of his time communicating, then a substantial portion of the communication should be building the fan base.  Just because somebody isn't sharing the stage with you does not make them any less important to the success of your performance.

Ask yourself the following:

1. Do you know who is impacted (and who just thinks they are impacted) by your project?  What is their vested interest?  Make a list of the top 20 people who need to be excited about your project.
2. How are you answering the WIIFM (What's In It For Me) question?  Do you know the value proposition your are bringing to those not on your project team?  Check your project charter or business case; this should be addressed.  If it isn't, add it.
3. How are you building excitement for your project?  Are you holding lunch-n-learns?  Do you have a Web site or a newsletter or a blog or a Facebook page or a Twitter account?  Have you unveiled a prototype so people can visualize what you are doing?
4. Are you living it?  Are you spending all your time trying to get others excited, but maybe you're not feeling it yourself?  People have a strong BS-o-meter and if the person at the top isn't excited, others won't be either.
5. Are you creating fans or evangelists?  Are the people you're trying to excite going to turn around and excite others or does the passion wane quickly?

Sure, you can ask all of the basic start up questions that are required to begin a project.  But as Ellen deftly pointed out, you can be the best performer in the world, but if nobody is there to "buy it"... does your performance really matter?

Coordination Takes More Than a Prayer

Our church has recently been going through a great experience in the form of a 24x7 prayer room.  The concept is really quite simple:  We've designated a couple of rooms in our ministry center that are solely dedicated to prayer, and we have people staffed in hour-long increments to do nothing more than pray while they are in there.  This is not our first time doing this, and each time it improves on many levels.

You may be thinking, "WHOA?  Why are church issues being discussed on a business site?"  Just hold your grail; I'm getting there.  Besides the observation that project management can be a religious experience, the prayer room has provided some excellent lessons on project staffing:

1. Know the scope of staffing - our prayer room runs for just over 11 days.  Hence, we have a blocked in 270-hour period to fill with resources.  On your projects, let both the resource and their supervisor know the approximate dates they will be needed so they can manage workloads more easily.

2. Document the need - we have a single sign-up sheet (i.e., one version of the truth) that stays right outside the prayer room and allows everybody to know when they have signed up to staff the room.  In projects, using a tool like MS Project can provide you with reports such as "Who Does What When?" to give you that needed look-ahead.  The key is communicating and setting expectations to avoid surprises.

3. Have backup - We have one "on call" person for every 24 hours of prayer to handle no-shows and other issues.  In your projects, identify your resources who may be no-shows and develop a contingency plan in case they "sleep through" their assigned task.

4. Handle logistics - This is our first prayer room in our new ministry center, so one logistic that needed to be addressed was building security, making sure our members could access the building and they were safe the whole time they were in the room.  Do your project resources have the right materials, supplies, equipment, hardware, software, and travel logistics to complete their assigned tasks?

5. Match skills to tasks - While this isn't a huge issue for our church, since prayer requires a functioning mind, a willing spirit, and the ability to stay awake between 2 and 3 in the morning, it does become a larger issue for your project tasks.  Ensure you have the right people assigned to the right task at the right time.. and do this during planning rather than execution.

6. Learn and improve - Like I said, this isn't our first time out with this exercise.  Each time, we keep track of lessons learned to make the next experience even better.  Track what went well in your projects to improve it the next time out.  With each project, the staffing challenges should diminish as you learn how to manage them better.

Follow these simple guidelines and you should have people where you want them when you want them.  If not, you may find yourself in need of a more active prayer life in order to get your projects done.

Carpe Factum!

Communication: Blanded or Branded

I just returned from Louisiana, providing back-to-back keynotes to the PMI chapters in New Orleans and Baton Rouge on project communication. It's a common understanding around project management types that 90 percent of a project manager's time should be spent communicating with project stakeholders... through meetings, status reports, issues logs, emails, et cetera.

What too few project managers think about is stamping these critical communications with their own personal brand.  They think, "As long as I get the email sent out, who cares what people really think about it?"  This can be a very dangerous attitude and approach to project management.

The more I evolve in this profession, the less I enjoy spending time with other project managers.  I don't have anything against them, mind you; I'd rather spend my time with people who are actually out there DOING projects but just not giving themselves the title of project managers.  I tend to learn a lot from those outside my industry, and their projects tend to be more interesting.

One such person is Mike Wagner from the White Rabbit Group.  He's the first one who taught me that branding should be DIRTY, and it was this principle on which I based my presentation on project communications:

DIFFERENT:  Do people see a noticeable change in your communications among the sea of emails and deliverables fighting to get through the "crap filter"?  Are you being noticed?  If you are being noticed, then you are probably either loved or hated.  Even being hated is a good thing; they'll remember you.

INVITING:  If your communications are 8-point font with no white space or bullets, you are probably not luring people into your communication.  Rather than putting up barbed wire that turns off your audience, learn the "art of seduction" to make them want to know more.

RELEVANT:  Are you giving your stakeholders the right messages with the right timing?  Even the best of news can be a disaster if it's delivered at the wrong time.  Learning how to headline and summarize makes for more relevance than dumping everything you know.  What does your audience care about?

TRUTHFUL:  I write business fiction, but there's little room for it on a status report or an issues log.  Balance tact with honesty and sensitivity to ensure the correct issues are hitting the radar screens of those who can help resolve them.  Prove you are managing your project with integrity.

YOURS:  Can people tell your style from Herb in the next cubicle?  Are you proud of your communication?  Do people see your markings all over a project archive?  If so, you are personally branding the messages and the channels to truly own what you're saying.

Yes, you can spend your 90 percent communication allotment doing everything exactly the same way as everybody else.  Or you can make your message shine through and get your project (and yourself) noticed.

Carpe Factum!

Are You Smarter Than a Third Grader?

I have a third grader at home who is constantly curious about the English language.  (Of course, having a dad who's a writer and a mom who's an English teacher may be a contributing factor there.)  Hardly a day goes by when she's not asking about the meaning or origin of a given word.  And I usually send her to the trusty Webster's Dictionary - not because I don't know the word myself, but because I want her to get comfortable with looking up the definition for herself.

As project managers, we're charged with completing tasks according to a schedule and a budget, but do we ever back up a step and ask about the requirements that led to the tasks?  In many environments, there's a hand-off of information between those defining the project and those executing the project.  This is unfortunate as it leads to many breakdowns in communication and in performance.

I've spent the past four years researching and studying and applying a lot of systems theory in preparation of writing my next book.  (Actually, the fascination with systems theory goes back about 25 years for me, but the last four have constituted the intense scrutiny.)  As project managers, are we looking at our deliverables (outputs) as the product of the requirements that defined those same tasks (inputs)?  And are we backing up even further and looking at the previous system where the requirements are the outputs and the business problem or opportunity represent the inputs?

If you are in the initiation or planning stage of a project, start asking some hard questions:

1. Why are we doing this task?  What is it producing?  (HINT:  if all of your tasks start with an action verb, answering this question should not be that hard)
2. Whom is this task benefiting?  (You have to know the stakeholders who care about the task.)
3. How will we know this task is complete?  (From an effort and a quality perspective, what does "done" look like?)
4. What dependencies are related to this task and its outcome?  (What are the inputs you need to produce this task?  What other "things" will be produced because of this task?)

Yes, the other questions about who is working on it, when will it get done, and how much will it cost are important.  But I would contend you are selling your projects short by not going back to the dictionary and digging into the definition of your project.  And doing so might just make you smarter than a third grader.

Carpe Factum!

What If...?

Kids' brains are great for asking the "what if" question. And the more ridiculous the question is in our mind, the more serious the question is in theirs.  "What if we all had magic wands?" or "What if my dog were a pony?" or "What if I could have all the chocolate I wanted?" ... these are the critical questions of their age.

Sometimes we adults should ponder "what if" questions more frequently.  Sometimes we should even venture into the truly scary "what if" questions; they might make us appreciate what we have.  For example, my friend Rosa Say (whose blog is a beautiful find of wisdom) recently sent me a link to a post asking "What if... there was no project management?"  It listed the critical tasks of a project manager and then pondered an organization without their existence:

• Project status reporting
• Project schedule management
• Conducting regular project status meetings
• Project budget and resource management
• Coordinating all project communications

A world with no project management?  Be afraid... be very afraid.  While Brad Egeland's post did an admirable job making the case for project management, it really stopped shy of what a truly exemplary project manager can do for an organization:  change the culture.  I know, I know... it sounds all soft and squishy and fluffy.  But I've seen this over and over again in many organizations.  When project managers are allowed to do their jobs well, other people stand up, take notice, and proclaim, "I gotta get me some of that!"  Okay, maybe they are not that enthusiastic; but accomplishment, results and success are their own best judge.  Having recovered an HR/Payroll software project, it didn't take long for the successful outcome of that project to reach the radar of the CEO, who then replicated its success across the other projects in the organization.  Successful project management perpetuates itself throughout a culture.

A world with no project management?  What if... just what if... that's describing YOUR organization?

Carpe Factum!

Gimme a 'P'!!!

When teaching graduate classes at Drake University, I feel it's my responsibility as a professor to demonstrate to my students that passion is a key ingredient to approaching their work.  As I constantly tell them (and remind myself), "If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right."

Yes, this even applies in project management.  About ten years ago, Tom Peters released an article in Fast Company, which has become a cornerstone of the project management class I teach.  It was called "The WOW Project" and talked about how even the most seemingly mundane projects have a WOW factor to them; we just have to find it.  Recently, Fast Company republished the article on their site.

Even more recently, The Duct Tape Marketing Blog had a great post about building excitement.  The author, Don The Idea Guy, states:

First, you have to feel excited about an idea if you're going to work passionately toward making it a reality. 

But he goes on to say,

It is only through an exchange of excitement (causing others to feel the same excitement that you feel) will get others to provide the buy-in necessary to move your idea forward.

He goes on to give specific tips on maintaining excitement.  This is great stuff!  I've seen far too many "I see dead people" cubicle dwellers on projects.  Yet many project managers accept these zombies as a fact of life (no ironic pun intended) and allow them to suck any potential morale out of those who could be potentially excited.

In this tough economy, more people are worried about keeping their jobs than they are about building excitement for those same jobs.  But there is a direct correlation.  People who are excited about their work probably will have a better chance of keeping it.

Ask yourself this:

1. As you are recruiting project resources, are you looking at passion and personality fit as much as you're looking at skill sets?  Skills can be taught; it's harder to teach passion.

2. Do you have people who are "sucking the life" out of your project?  Can you get rid of them or try to coach them?

3. Does your team understand why the project warrants passion?  Do you?

4. Are there hidden gems within your project where passionate elements can be uncovered?  Are there diamonds in the rough of the seemingly mundane?

It's been fun hearing from my students about their passion for working with these small businesses around town.  One of the key elements for building passion is the feeling that they're truly making a difference.  That alone will build more passion and excitement than you as a project manager can generate.

Carpe Factum!

The Eyes Have It

Recently, I took my mom in for the second of some planned outpatient surgeries on her eyes.  The first one didn't go as well, and so she was experiencing a lot of double vision.  Always the optimist, I tried to encourage her that her upcoming Hawaii trip would allow her to see twice as much tropical beauty, but she didn't buy it.  Hence, the second surgery successfully brought both eyes back into alignment so she's seeing one of everything again.  (Just don't introduce her to any identical twins in the near future... it might freak her out, okay?)

One of the reasons why many projects derail is because of the exact same issue my mom was experiencing... different vision from different stakeholders.  There was a great article recently by Satya Narayan Dash on the PM Hut blog about this very phenomenon.  Comparing three projects, Dash concluded that project success is not the same as project management success, and shared three points of consideration:

1. Define target success for the project and the project manager
2. Define target success for the organization considering the project involved
3. Define failure for the project and the project manager

Recently, I facilitated a half day session where senior managers were sharing their views on integrating their business functions.  While they had fairly specific visions of what they were striving for, there were open doors for misinterpretation.  Who hasn't had a misstep in defining what "user friendly" or "open access" mean for different stakeholders?  When you define the target success, make sure you use specific criteria and are as objective as possible in the outcomes.  My preference is to list criteria as simple yes/no results (either the project solution meets the requirement or it doesn't).  Then weigh the specific criteria to score the overall project success.  To do anything less is the project management equivalent of what my mom experienced with her vision - the eyes will be shooting in different directions and you'll wind up with organizational double vision.

This is one area where a wise project manager will leverage the skills of a solid business analyst to help in the definition.  It will keep your project vision in alignment.

Also, make sure the discussion about success and failure criteria is held at the beginning of the project (preferably during initiation or no later than planning).  To define these criteria at the end of the project will ensure one thing:  failure.

Carpe Factum!