I have always admired Stephen Covey’s writings. In his book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Mr. Covey talks about being Trustworthy. As project managers if we are not trustworthy, we are not going to be effective. When you are trustworthy, you can be counted on to keep your word. Trustworthiness is a qualitative measure so we cannot apply some objective measure to how honest or reliable a person is.
As mentioned in Paul Friedman’s Book “How to Deal with Difficult People”, Paul states “Faith in people is fragile”. “Every single breach of trust diminishes people’s confidence in you”. Paul goes on to say, “Most people believe themselves to be more trustworthy than others think they are. We forgive ourselves more readily for minor transgressions that linger in other people’s minds. We know why we neglected to do something. We know we had a good reason and intended no harm. However, others cannot read our minds or know what our lives are like”.
Take your promises seriously. When you are unable to keep your commitments, be quick to admit fault, explain, apologize and do whatever is necessary to repair the damage and reassure others that you will redouble your efforts so you do not repeat the same mistakes. Trust is earned, but it is earned only after you demonstrate that you are Trustworthy.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Friday, May 06, 2005
Project Requirements and the WBS
The project manager is responsible for controlling a project's requirements. To start the process of managing requirements the project manager works with the team to create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
A couple of things to keep in mind regarding a WBS are:
A WBS should identify the level tasks to be completed, and relate to the project’s deliverables.
The customer(s), project sponsor, and stakeholders are actively involved in creating the WBS.
The WBS helps avoid future "scope creep".
As you can see the WBS is an important project artifact. The WBS accomplishes several things:
It assists the project team to identify and create specific work packages
It is another way of communicating the project's objectives to the team
It is the foundation for future project planning and activity sequencing
In closing, a WBS summarizes deliverables, shows work relationships, helps the team to estimate costs and perform risk analysis, and assists the team to identify project assumptions and dependencies.
The WBS is your friend. Start taking time to create one for every project.
A couple of things to keep in mind regarding a WBS are:
A WBS should identify the level tasks to be completed, and relate to the project’s deliverables.
The customer(s), project sponsor, and stakeholders are actively involved in creating the WBS.
The WBS helps avoid future "scope creep".
As you can see the WBS is an important project artifact. The WBS accomplishes several things:
It assists the project team to identify and create specific work packages
It is another way of communicating the project's objectives to the team
It is the foundation for future project planning and activity sequencing
In closing, a WBS summarizes deliverables, shows work relationships, helps the team to estimate costs and perform risk analysis, and assists the team to identify project assumptions and dependencies.
The WBS is your friend. Start taking time to create one for every project.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Business Process Mapping
Does your organization perform business process mapping? Mapping of business processes is important if you want to understand what is happening. Mapping your "as is" processes tells you a lot about what you may already know, but also a lot about what you don't know.
When you begin to map your processes, you will start to see the activities, products, information, and decisions being made that support the process.
Some reasons to map your business processes are:
Mapping the "as is" processes will assist your team when doing detailed analysis
Helps to identify process ownership, and identifies the roles that support the process
Helps to show the difference between cycle time and value-added time
Helps to measure process performance
Helps to identify problem areas to address
Establishes performance baselines when creating "to be" processes
Identifies process bottlenecks, and disconnects
Shows relationships between activities and products
NOTE: When looking at what processes to model, the processes that cross functional business areas should be addressed first.
Three principles to keep in mind when process modeling are (in this order):
Eliminate wasted time and work
Consolidate efforts where possible
Automate (where it adds value)
When process mapping we are always asking questions like "why are we doing this", "why are we not doing that", "can this step be eliminated, consolidated, automated", "can we do this step/sub-process better, faster, smarter, cheaper”? Business process mapping can help your organization to operate more efficiently and respond to change faster, which ultimately will lead to improved customer satisfaction.
For more information be sure to Google "Business Process Mapping" or "Business Process Modeling"
When you begin to map your processes, you will start to see the activities, products, information, and decisions being made that support the process.
Some reasons to map your business processes are:
Mapping the "as is" processes will assist your team when doing detailed analysis
Helps to identify process ownership, and identifies the roles that support the process
Helps to show the difference between cycle time and value-added time
Helps to measure process performance
Helps to identify problem areas to address
Establishes performance baselines when creating "to be" processes
Identifies process bottlenecks, and disconnects
Shows relationships between activities and products
NOTE: When looking at what processes to model, the processes that cross functional business areas should be addressed first.
Three principles to keep in mind when process modeling are (in this order):
Eliminate wasted time and work
Consolidate efforts where possible
Automate (where it adds value)
When process mapping we are always asking questions like "why are we doing this", "why are we not doing that", "can this step be eliminated, consolidated, automated", "can we do this step/sub-process better, faster, smarter, cheaper”? Business process mapping can help your organization to operate more efficiently and respond to change faster, which ultimately will lead to improved customer satisfaction.
For more information be sure to Google "Business Process Mapping" or "Business Process Modeling"