2010 Project Management Trends?

Late last year, ESI International a surveyed a global panel of consultants and senior executives and identified the top ten project management trends in 2010.  Some of these seem a little strange, but we have to keep in mind that part of ESI International's business is delivering project management training.

According to the survey the top ten project management trends are:

1. The implementation of new Project Portfolio Management solutions will soar

2. Reliance on Requirements Metrics to measure performance will increase

3. Senior Executives will embrace the value of Project and Program Governance

4. PMOs will go to the next level with Business Analysis Centres of Excellence

5. Demand for Agile Project metrics will increase

6. Vendor management and program outsourcing will move front and center

7. Risk Management will become a Project Management obsession

8. Crisis environments will leverage Project Portfolio principles for better outcomes

9. Project management learning measurement will no longer be “a Nice to Have”

10. Project management learning will push out of the classroom

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Ten Keys to Civility

A local foundation here in Florida, USA has developed a set of "Ten Keys to Civility".  These are a perfect set of guiding principles for the project manager. Click here to view their website and find out more.

TEN KEYS TO CIVLITIY

Respect Others - Honor other people and their opinions, especially in the midst of a disagreement.

Think Positively - Keep an open mind and assume others have good intentions.

Pay Attention - Be aware and attend to the world and the people around you.

Make a Difference - Get involved.

Speak Kindly - Choose not to spread or listen to gossip.

Say Thank You - Let others know they are appreciated.

Accepts Others - Our differences are what make us interesting.

Rediscover Silence - Keep noise to a minimum.

Listen - Focus on others in order to better understand their points of view.

Keep Your Cool - Accept life's challenges with grace.

Project Managers Need to Behave

When CIOs were interviewed by ComputerWorld in 2001 regarding what skills a Project Manager should have, the consensus was the following competencies are the most important: Technology, Business, Behavior - not necessarily in that order.

I know that I have lived a sheltered project management life, but I think many project managers haven't sufficiently mastered the "Behavior" competency.   I admit my experience is limited, but I have worked with many project managers, and I believe that we all could improve our skills as they relate to the "Behavior" competency.  We should all be able to agree that in order to motivate people a project manager needs an understanding of human behavior and how to motivate teams.  How many project managers do you know have mastered these skills?  How well do you do in this area?  I can admit that I have room for improvement.

As I said, "Behavior" was listed in the top three of the most important competencies.  I find that to be interesting because other surveys of CIOs find that the number one complaint about project managers is that they are whiners and excuse makers.  How can we change that?  Collectively we must decide as project managers to exhibit the highest ethical and behavioral standards, and take responsibility for our project's results (without whining).  We must be empathic,  good listeners, be trustworthy, and not gossip and participate in destructive office politics.

Why is my Project Late? (Revisited and Updated)

Consider these things when planning a new project...

Design Changes – Design changes during project execution almost always cause delays and cost impacts to your budget.  Once the Scope document has been signed, any changes to the design need to go through your Scope Change Request Process.  In my opinion, most project scope change requests that occur during the project execution phase should be declined and deferred until after the project go live date.  This is due to the fact that it is difficult to properly estimate the scope and cost of new work, and most importantly the impact the new work will have on the existing work.

Skill Sets – When planning, assumptions are made (or should be) regarding people's skills. Sometimes these assumptions turn out to be wrong.  Also, you will usually have people on your team who are new or have little experience.  These new or lower skilled workers won't be as productive as higher skilled workers, and many times these less experienced workers extend the cost and duration of your project.  Make sure your project schedule has accounted for skill levels.

Unplanned Work or Workarounds – Many times changes must be made to the sequence of planned work.  These changes can impact time, cost, budget, and quality. Think about these risks up front and discuss what if any workarounds will be used.  Ask why the sequence must be changed and work with the team to ensure the changes to the project occur with minimal impact to the schedule and cost.

Rework – Rework happens; it is part of most projects (especially IT).  Ensure your project plan accounts for rework.  

Team Morale – Turnover, project conflict, sick time, vacations all can wreak havoc with your schedule and budget; plan for these things.  A happy team is a productive team. Ensure your team is working towards a common goal and not working against each other.  Remove disruptive team members from your project if their behavior can't be changed.

Schedules – Trying to do too much in too little time will result in delays. Once you get behind it is very difficult (nigh, impossible) to catch up. Your project will have delays.  You need to have contingency plans to get back on track quickly.

Work Environment – Ensure that your team has a proper workspace. Cramming people into poorly designed work spaces will lower productivity.

Tools – Ensure your team has the right tools to do the job.  Having the right tool, but not getting into the teams hands at the right time will cause delays in your schedule.

Project Manager Overload – Too many people on a project team without the proper management oversight can cause major problems for the project manager.

Overtime – Adding hours to people's schedules in order to make a deadline will usually do nothing but increase your budget. Adding overtime rarely results in getting a late project back on track.

Executive – Executive apathy can kill your project. People are usually not going to make your project a priority if their boss isn't willing to tell them it is important.

Project Management Stakeholders

Adapted from the book - Power and Politics in Project Management by Jeffrey K. Pinto

In the project management world there are many different opinions regarding how to successfully manage a project.  One of the most important things we need to do in project management is manage the expectations and relationships with our stakeholders. Some things to keep in mind to help us manage our stakeholders are:

Assess the culture (is it supportive, what is the balance of power, what are the stakeholder attitudes?)

Identify the goals of the stakeholders (are the goals realistic, attainable, communicated?)

Assess our own capabilities and limitations (are you politically savvy, respected, a good negotiator?)

Define the problem (define goals, risks, relationships)

Develop solutions (create action plan, determine the right solution for the right time)

Test and refine the solutions (New learnings must be incorporated, replan, retool, rethink)

While there is plenty more to do in regards to managing a project successfully, this list of "must do" items will help you get started.

Principles and the Project Manager

Principles are mile posts that help to guide our conduct. They come from natural laws that are recognizable by all cultures. Principles have been around since the dawn of time.  They are timeless and aren’t dependent on us making them a permanent part of our lives.

I believe a most of our problems in society come from the fact that many of our leaders and manager don’t live principle-centered lives.

What are principles that are easily recognized? These are a few: Patience, Kindness, Tolerance, Integrity, Honesty, Encouragement, Trustworthiness, Empathy…

Principles should guide our conduct, and when they do, they are easily recognizable by others.  When our leaders decide to reject principles in order to gain power, influence or money, the organizations they lead are in deep trouble.

Many times leaders attempt to put aside principles to get short-term gains.  They believe by making speeches filled with empty promises they will gain the trust of others.  This happens all the time in our organizations, and results in the same mistakes repeated over and over.  Having said that, we keep electing the same people to office over and over, don’t we?  Where has this gotten us?

Albert Einstein said, “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them”.  To solve the tough problems we need to look at our paradigms and habits and be willing to change them.  Sometimes this means firing (not re-electing) our current leaders.

Do we really think we can just buy our way out of the current mess on Wall Street without fundamentally changing the way things work (paradigms and habits) and putting principled leaders in place?  Can you or your organization really change things for the better without focusing on principles and rethinking your paradigms and habits?  Do organizations really believe that layoffs alone change anything when their current broken paradigms and habits are left intact?

I have seen the results of unprincipled leadership, and the behaviors these “leaders” exhibit can have a profound, lasting, and negative influence on others.  The sad part is these leaders believe they are part of the solution, however we know better.  You can’t lead your way out of a problem that you don’t fully understand, and if you try to do it without principles the results are easily predicted. DISASTER!

Big problems cannot be solved by small people and small mindedness.  Remember, principles aren’t values. The Mafia has values, but their practices certainly aren’t related to principles. As Stephen Covey say’s “Principles are the territory. Values are the map”.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Project Teams - Revisited

Project teams can be a project manager's greatest resource or can be a huge impediment to getting things done.  I have a lot of opinions about project teams and most people would find them to be controversial.  I will state them here and hope for feedback.

My general theories about project teams follow:

Project teams often tend to waste a lot of time, and like to blame others (inside and outside the team) for lack of project process

Project team members are rarely on the same page

Internal politics doom many project teams from the start

Project managers usually often don't have the ability to reward or punish bad behavior

One or two "bad apples" can spoil the whole bunch

Many functional managers don't believe they have to support project teams, and at times they do all they can to undermine the team approach to managing projects

A "visionary" is a person that is usually often disengaged from everything, and accountable for nothing

Lack of leadership, direction, and follow-up from top management is the number one cause of project failure

If you have a member of your project team that would rather be doing something else, do everything you can to grant their wish

Most project managers and many managers are wimps when it comes to managing individual members of their teams

Lots of organizations talk a good talk when it comes to project management and change, then go about managing change using the same old failed processes

Many project team members are loyal to their functional departments, not to the project

Teams by nature are dysfunctional, and because of this fact the project schedule and estimates should reflect this

Dysfunctional project teams are usually the fault of senior management because of their refusal to attend important project team meetings.  Ultimately the project manager is still accountable for project team dysfunction.

Many Some project teams are composed of the wrong people doing the wrong things at the wrong times.

Project team dysfunction is normal.  Staying dysfunctional is typical, but in the end detrimental to the careers of those involved.

Project Management Sayings - Rewind

Part 1 -  I thought the statements below made a lot of sense, or were humorous. Look for part two next week.

Good estimators aren't modest: if it's huge they say so.

The sooner you begin coding the later you finish.

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

What is not on paper has not been said.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.

If you don't attack the risks, the risks will attack you.

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.

The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.

A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well-planned project only twice as long as expected.

If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan.

When all's said and done a lot more is said than done.

If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

Feather and down are padding - changes and contingencies will be real events.

There are no good project managers - only lucky ones.

The more you plan the luckier you get.

A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.

Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when.

If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.

Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him they don't want him.

Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination.

Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.

Good project managers know when not to manage a project.

Metrics are learned men's excuses.

For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes.

If there were no problem people there'd be no need for people who solve problems.

Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices.

Good project managers admit mistakes: that's why you so rarely meet a good project manager.

Fast - cheap - good: you can have any two.

There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale.

The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it.

The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time the last 10% takes the other 90%.

The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale.

To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project.

Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea.

The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable being uncomfortable.

When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.

If it wasn't for the 'last minute', nothing would get done.

Nothing gets done till nothing gets done.

Warning: dates in the calendar are closer than you think.

There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop.

Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.

If project content is allowed to change freely the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.

If you can interpret project status data in several different ways, only the most painful interpretation will be correct.

A project gets a year late one day at a time.

A project isn’t over until the fat check is cashed.

Powerful project managers don't solve problems, they get rid of them.

Focus on What Matters

You can’t be a good project manager if you are constantly distracted by negative thoughts and negative people. Choose today to get back to some of the basics of what it means to be centered. A few lessons I have learned are listed below:

Surround yourself with positive people

Smile more and whine less

Believe that most of the time others are doing their best

Get rid of negative thoughts

Be happy with what you have, but don’t accept less than what you deserve

Be true to yourself and others

Be trustworthy

Be a good friend

See failure as a blessing because you can learn from the experience

Be positive, and an inspiration to others

Be grateful for what you have because it may be gone tomorrow

Discipline Gets Project Results

One of the things that hurt project teams most is the lack of an enterprise focus and oversight regarding the management of projects. It takes discipline to manage projects, and enterprise project discipline is lacking when executives are disinterested or disengaged. Great organizations (not just project managers) manage projects well, and in doing so they have employees with higher morale, they get better project results, and implement projects faster with higher quality.

So why don't more organizations keep closer tabs on their projects at the enterprise level? Some would say the executives are too busy strategizing, and the projects are running just fine without their oversight. I think people that say this are fooling themselves and have little to no project management discipline.

Before we go further, we need to ensure we have a clear understanding of the word discipline. Discipline is the act of encouraging a desired pattern of behavior. George Washington said: "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all". In other words, discipline is the glue that holds organizations together.

We can't have agile and effective project methodologies or organizational processes without discipline. In short, effective discipline requires effective organizational oversight. Finally, discipline begins at the top and works its way down. Organizations with poor discipline generally have weak, ineffective leaders at the top. Weak, unengaged, ineffective leaders kill organizations.  


The lack of project discipline is the fault of all project team members, but the cause of a lack of discipline lies at the top of the organization.

Disconnected, disinterested, and unengaged leadership is unacceptable in any organization. Undisciplined organizations have high turnover, low employee morale, and poor project results. These organizations cheat their investors and customers by not providing the highest level of service possible. Highly disciplined organizations make and keep commitments, manage to clearly stated and measurable goals, and have executives that are engaged and visibly participate in the oversight of projects and day-to-day operations.


Remember, if you aren't visible, your aren't relevant. If you aren't relevant, you aren't needed.

In closing, dysfunctional organizations believe that the workers are solely responsible for managing projects and operational work. These organizations believe that the executives should spend the majority of their time strategizing and making policy. This is a failed approach (see General Motors, Ford, K-Mart, etc), and ensures the work, including projects, will take longer than planned and cost more than what was budgeted.

Executive leadership and oversight of projects has been proven to motivate project teams to be accountable, results driven, and focused on achieving a common goal. Good executive leadership provides the glue that keeps teams working together, provides inspiration, exhibits integrity, sets an example for others to follow, and is accountable.

Great People

What common behaviors or attributes turn ordinary people into great people?  Here are a few I have assembled from various sources, including Tom Peter’s book "Reinventing Work, The Project 50" .

Great people almost always have had some of the traits below.

They are Risk Takers

They often don’t appear rational

They are obsessed with success (success is clearly defined up front)

Their ideas are often ahead of their time

They can be peculiar, creative, off-the-wall

They are often described as irreverent

They have a burning passion to make their dreams come true

They are determined to make a difference

They have little tolerance for the “the way it has always been done” crowd

They LOVE to go against the grain

They have thick skin

They have charisma

They thrive on chaos and often love to generate chaos

They are great at what they do

They hate J.A.M.S – Just Another Mediocre Success (Tom Peters)

They have a positive influence on the lives of others (not everyone, all the time)

They make lots of mistakes and are quick to admit they made them

They often ask forgiveness vs. permission

They hate, hate, hate politics and petty people. (They will occasionally play the “political” game to get what they want, but they know most career politicians are disingenuous, self-centered, and are only interested in furthering their own careers.)

They are great at marketing

They are often (not always) great listeners

They are masters of the little (important) things

They know how to sell

They hate whiners, complainers, and corporate Dilberts

They aspire to something higher than themselves

They are concerned with doing the “right” thing

They often make lots of people mad (usually the politicians and career procrastinators)

They know how to laugh

They call others out for a lack of commitment or disingenuous behavior

Should project managers adopt some/all of these behaviors?  The great ones already have.

No Fun at Work?

Back in 1940 a man by the name of John Gallo, an assembly worker at Ford Motor Company, was fired after being "caught in the act of smiling".  He had been warned on a previous occasion for "laughing with others".  At that time Ford's workers weren't allowed to hum, whistle, or talk with other workers, even during lunch.  Henry Ford believed that work was for work and play was for outside of work.  He believed the two should never be mixed. 

Southwest Airlines has a completely different philosophy.  They believe that "people rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it".  If you review their website you see comments like “our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring longterm competitive advantage.”

Part of Southwest Airline's mantra is to:

Have FUN

Don’t take yourself too seriously

Maintain perspective (balance)

Celebrate successes

Enjoy your work

Be a passionate team player

What is the culture look like at your company?  Are the employees excited to come to work or do they dread coming to work?  Remember, if you and your team aren't having fun at work you aren't doing your best work. 

Groups, Values and Toxic Turkeys

I really liked George Carlin's last book; "Last Words - A Memoir".  In it he wrote the following, which I find very scary and very profound all at once.

"The worst thing about groups are their values...you will do things in  the name of a group that you would never do on your own...because you’ve lost your identity,  because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that’s bigger than you are and that controls you.  

What are your group's values?  Honesty, trust, cooperation, respect, or get it done at any cost?

Project management is about groups of people working together to bring to realization the project's objectives...and doing it on time, on budget and with expected quality and scope.

In my experience, most project teams are staffed with decent, cooperative, competent people, but many times there can be one or more toxic team members bent on steering the group to service their personal agenda.  These toxic turkeys don't care about the project's objectives, they only care about themselves and their own agenda (usually hidden).  When you see this type of person on your team remove them or get your sponsor to remove them before they poison the rest of the team and stop your project's progress.

Remember what Carlin said about large groups, "the larger the group, the more toxic it is, and the more of your beauty as an individual you have to  surrender for the sake of group thought."

Click here  to purchase George Carlin's last book from Amazon.com.

Technology Questions

Marshall McLuhan said “first we  shape our tools and then they shape us.”  Sometimes how we are "shaped" by technology isn't pleasant or what we were expecting.  We need to keep in mind that technology for technologies' sake will never deliver anything of lasting value.  When thinking about implementing a technology ask yourself a couple of very important questions.

Can we or should we do it?

Will it make our situation simpler or more complex?

Will it help us to solve a problem or cause a problem?” 

Should we do nothing?

Also, when implementing technology remember these three rules:

The customer is your partner

The customer defines the requirements

Open systems beat closed systems

Remember it isn't the technology that matters, it is what the technology makes possible.

Freedom of the Press - Around the World

Click picture to enlarge

Does your Project Still have Value (revisited)

Are you working on a project that has diminished in value?  If you or others are questioning the value of one of your projects, think about these things:

What would happen in your organization if the project were cancelled?  Would some of the cancelled project's objectives find their way into an existing project... a new project? Should a portion of your current project be de-scoped because of changes beyond your control?

Does the project still link to your organizations strategic goals and/or objectives?

Does the project still have visible support from senior management?

Does the project still generate excitement?

Is your organization still going to gain all the efficiencies or be more competitive as a result of successfully completing the project?

Are you hearing a lot of negative "buzz" about the project?

Would your project have had more value if it were implemented sooner? 

Is the project over budget, late?

Is scope creep a problem?

Has the project sponsor suddenly abandoned the project?

I'm know there are lots of other questions that could be asked. We need to keep in mind that all projects eventually end. Some end when they are completed successfully, and others are terminated early for a variety of reasons. 

The important thing to keep in mind is that you must continually communicate across, up, and down the organization to find out what others are thinking about your project, and more importantly, you muse communicate what is happening with your project.

If the project manager is the only person in the organization that thinks his or her project has value, then the project manager isn't really thinking.

Basic Team Communications

Do you know the difference between objective and subjective language/information? Objective information is precise and uses specific targets or numbers/indicators to help ensure the communication is clear. Subjective language uses unclear or non-specific information with terms like “accurate”, “quick”, “big”, and “best”. We can’t agree to subjective terms because they mean different things to different people. 

We obviously want to use objective language whenever we communicate important information. Remember to use the “SMART” test when communicating with your project team (either in writing or verbally):

Specific

Measureable

Attainable

Realistic

Time constrained

Unclear project communications are the fault of the project manager, and can lead to project delays and cost overruns. When communicating with your team, be aware of their listening filters because these will affect how your message is received. Lastly, always ask questions of your team to ensure your message is being received and understood.

Quality Revisited (again)

Quality is a heavily tested knowledge area on the PMP exam and as such we should all be familiar with the subject.

According to Philip B. Crosby, Quality is “conformance to requirements”.  He goes on to state the Four Absolutes of Quality as:

The definition of quality is conformance to requirements

The system of quality is prevention

The performance standard is zero defects

The measurement of quality is the price of nonconformance

Another Quality Guru is Joseph Juran.  He states that “Quality is fitness for use”.  He also defines something called the Quality Trilogy.  

It is composed of:

Quality Improvement

Quality Planning

Quality Control

Juran also goes on to define the “Ten Steps in the Quality Improvement Process”.  They are:

Build awareness of the need and opportunity for improvement

Set goals for improvement

Organize to reach the goals

Provide training throughout the organization

Carry out the projects to solve problems

Report progress

Give recognition

Communicate results

Keep score

Maintain momentum by making annual improvement part of the regular systems and processes of the company.

Lastly, we look at what Dr. W. Edwards Deming says about Quality.  According to Dr. Deming, Quality is “continuous improvement through reduced variation”.  

His five principles are:

The central problem in lack of quality is the failure of management to understand variation

It is management’s responsibility to know whether the problems are in the system or behavior of people

Teamwork should be based upon knowledge, design, and redesign.  Constant improvement is management’s responsibility.  Most causes of low quality and productivity belong to the system

Train people until they are achieving as much as they can (within the limits of the system)

It is management’s responsibility to give detailed specifications

Do the above statements reflect the situation in your work environment?  Is your management engaged in Quality?  Are they hands-on, hands-off, or asleep at the switch? 

Quality is everyone’s job; however Quality cannot be managed with out the participation of management.  I would even be so bold to say that “poor quality equals poor management”.