Achieving Success One Project at a Time

There's no question that every project manager would like to experience success on every project. The reality, though, is that more than 50% of all projects end in failure to some degree. Maybe not total and utter failure, but they fail to some degree to reach full customer satisfaction, or end user usability, or hit the mark the project budget, or get delivered on time. In some way or another, more than 50% are not fully successful.

Even in project failure we can learn something to take forward to the next project, and the one after that, and so on. When we learn to ride a bike we crash, we fall off, we run into the side of the garage. But eventually we get it. And we get better each time we ride the bicycle. That's how project management works as well. We may be terrified as we run our first project and any success we experience may be purely due to luck or that it was a simple project or that we receive lots of help getting there. But we learned something. And we learned more on the next project, and so on. We eventually get to that point 20 years down the road where we can look back and see a path of many project successes that have build us a solid reputation as a skilled project manager.

As we establish our reputation as a good project manager one project at a time, there are a few basics that we must remember and try to incorporate as part of our normal flow of managing the project. Doing this will help us to ensure that our continued success is due to planning and experience and not relying on luck for most of our successes:

Produce planning documents

Those documents that seem like placeholders at the front of the project: the communication plan, the risk management plan, the resource plan, the project charter, etc. are actually important documents. We produce them and get them signed by the customer and then we have a benchmark to work from. We skip them and have no agreement on those processes with the customer and we leave open the possibility for questions and interpretations throughout the engagement. Choose the former, not the latter.

Do the fundamental things

Produce weekly status reports. Hold weekly status calls. Meet regularly with your project team to touch base even when there isn't a lot of work going on. Maintain the project budget and resource plan meticulously. If you continually do these things regularly throughout the project and don't skip meetings you set solid expectations with your team and your customer. As a result you keep project participation high, accountability high, and customer satisfaction high.

Practice the best communication possible

Don't assume your team and your customer understand something or always know what's going on. Don't assume that everyone knows what's expected of them. Always strive to practice efficient and effective communication throughout the engagement and you'll see the results in positive ways from your team and from the satisfaction level and participation level of your customer. Communication like this is critical to the success of your project.

Conduct lessons learned sessions

Finally, don't skip the lessons learned sessions. Even though it becomes increasingly hard to focus on the project after implementation and as you and your team begin to drift to other projects, schedule this session with your team and your customer and go through the project and what happened good and bad. It's important and you'll learn from it.

Summary

We take each project individual and methodically, following best practices to achieve both success (hopefully) and, more importantly, valuable experience. Even project failures help us to become much better project managers if we learn from them.

Practice best practices, stick to the basics, document requirements well and allow for proper planning, and then communicate effectively for your best chances of success.

Strategies for Onboarding New Project Resources

There are several reasons why new resources would be onboarded mid-stream on a project:

• A project resources moves to another project
• A project resource has left the company
• A project resource is performing poorly
• A new skill set is needed on the project
• Additional resources are needed to get the job done

The list can probably go on and on. The reasons can vary, but what can't change is the fact that onboarding a new resource must be done as quickly, efficiently, and effectively as possible. It needs to be performed as seamlessly as possible so that the project doesn't skip a beat. It needs to seem to the customer as though it never really happened - it should go that smoothly. Ideally, it's as smooth as changing the name in the your project management software tool to the new resource. Because anything less and your project is in danger as well as the confidence that you have built up in your customer in the ability of you and your project team to deliver on the engagement. If a changing of the guard on the project causes bumps, then your customer is going to feel them and that is never good.

First, you must assess the situation in terms of the outgoing resource and their status on the project. Consider these questions when assessing this...

• How key is this person's role on the project?
• How critical is their expertise specifically for this customer's requirements?
• How involved have they been so far with the customer?
• How can we get a new person engaged quickly on the same knowledge level?

Understanding these issues can help you get the right person in the role and transition to the best of your ability in order to minimize the affects on the project and the customer.

So, let's look at key strategies or processes for bringing on new resources to your project in mid-stream.

Provide all project materials

The first step of the process is to get a new resource anything and everything that you possibly can on the project. Of course, this works best if they have some time to get up to speed and aren't immediately thrown into the fire on the project. If the outgoing resource isn't already gone, but has an exit date set, then this entire process - including the next steps below - will be much smoother and it will likely affect the customer to a far lesser degree.

Provide the incoming new team member with everything that was put together for project kickoff including the statement of work for the project. Also, get them the current and recent versions of the project schedule produced from the project management software tool, weekly status reports for the past two months at a minimum, the current versions of the issue lists and risks lists, copies of all deliverables produced and delivered to date, and resource forecasting and budget information - if applicable - for the project.

Direct contact knowledge transfer

If possible, the incoming resource needs knowledge transfer time from the outgoing resource. If the outgoing resource has left the company or was an utter failure on the project, then this step is either not possible or not necessary. But in the case where they are leaving for another assignment, then secure time away from the team and the customer for the two resources to discuss the role, the project, and the customer and to transfer key project knowledge and status. Ideally, the new resource would shadow the outgoing resource on the weekly status customer call for one to two weeks before actually participating.

Team knowledge transfer

Following, or during, the one on one knowledge transfer activities, conduct a series of unofficial team meetings for the purpose of getting the new resource up to speed and offloading knowledge to the knew resource from all team members. How long this takes will probably depend on the urgency of the situation and the number of team members on the project, but one or two meetings should be enough in most cases.

Customer introduction and transition

Finally, conduct an introductory meeting with the customer where your new resource is introduced and can discuss his or her background and what their role will be on the project. Ideally this will be a separate call from the regular weekly status meeting and would also include the outgoing resource. However, that's not possible in all scenarios and it may have to happen as part of the formal weekly status meeting.

Managing the Project for Success

Managing the Project for Success

At the end of the engagement, every project is looked at as either a success or a failure. The end result of the project is going to be judged - usually by the customer, the project team, and senior company management. Just about every individual who either had a hand in the project or was somehow affected by it will have an opinion.

When judging the success of the project there are usually three key factors to look at - three key success determiners. These are:

* Was the project delivered on time?
* Was the project delivered on budget?
* Was the customer satisfied - is the delivered solution a workable solution that solves the customer's needs?

With the success criteria defined, we still must understand that there are many ways to get to the point of a successful - or failed - delivery on a project. One is luck, but I really can't go into that because no one has any control over that option. So let's look at some of the ingredients that go into good project management - some might consider these to fall under the category of best practices.

Good communication with all project parties

Communication is, in my opinion, the number one contributor to success or failure on the project. Everything - to some degree - revolves around effective and efficient communication. In order to lay the groundwork for good communication on the project, the project manager should develop a formal communication plan to that will identify what types of communication happen, when formal meetings and reports take place or are produced, who is responsible for each type of communication, and how to contact all important parties involved in the engagement. With this document in place and understood - and followed - by all, your chances for realizing efficient and effective communication in the engagement will greatly increase.

Timely delivery of status updates up and down the chain

This falls in the category of doing what you say you're going to do. During project kickoff - and hopefully in a formal communication plan - the project manager identifies when and to whom project status information will be delivered. Many project managers let this act slide or sometimes skip weekly reports and formal status calls. When that habit starts, customer satisfaction often slides with it. Deliver the information as per the agreed upon schedule. A well-informed project team leads to great project success. A well-informed customer leads to greater customer satisfaction, which is one of the key project success determiners as we previously discussed.

Continual project schedule and project budget oversight

The project manager who regularly revises and delivers the project schedule to the team and customer ensures that everyone is up to date on project tasks and what's coming in the near future. No surprises. And the project manager who is constantly monitoring and revising the project budget and overall project resource forecast will never be surprised to find that the project is 40% over budget. Why? Because it will never happen. Continual oversight and forecasting of the project budget will mean that the project manager will always be aware of the slightest deviation from the planned budget and will be able to take corrective action or at least discuss with the customer and senior management to figure out the best changes to make.

Use of repeatable processes when managing the project

Finally, nothing beats using the successful processes that have worked in the past. Luck is a good thing when it happens, but relying on it for continued project success never smart. And if you aren't using good tools and repeatable templates and processes that have brought successes on previous projects - if you aren't learning from the past - then you'll always be relying on luck. Put in place solid tools, repeatable processes that bring project consistency, and meaningful templates that project managers can use over and over again with confidence and your project success percentages will definitely rise over time.

Using Collaboration and Communication to Ensure Project Success

Using Collaboration and Communication to Ensure Project Success

In my opinion - and I believe many project professionals' opinions - the number one key to project success is effective and efficient communication. I don't mean sending emails every hour on the hour. That's neither effective nor efficient. That is a waste of time. Information overload is not really helpful for anyone and your project resources will come to resent you - the project manager - for filling up their days with useful reading. In fact, they'll learn to tune your verbal and written communications out if you are an ineffective communicator. Why? Because they'll feel they have better things to do and that you're not really adding any useful information to their efforts.

Along with effective and efficient communication on projects is the concept of collaboration. Collaboration can have many meanings in the project management world. In general, the best way to solve the project collaboration issue is by utilizing a solid project management tool like Project Drive's web-based project management and collaboration tool.

Let's look at and discuss four keys to effective communication and project collaboration:

Creating a project communication plan

One item that is critical, but often overlooked, is the project communication plan. When the project manager puts a detailed, official project communication plan together at the beginning of the project he is telling everyone that this is how information will be processed and delivered on the project. It sets an expectation with the project team and the customer, it can be another paid deliverable on the project if planned right - thus increasing revenue, and it adds to customer satisfaction and confidence because they know there's a plan in place that they can hold you to.

Producing timely project status information

Of course, once a communication plan is in place, you MUST follow it. And one of the key areas of project information dissemination is through the detailed weekly status report. Produce and deliver a detailed status report and revised project schedule at least one day in advance of the project status meeting with the customer and don't deviate from the schedule. Likewise, be diligent about delivering updated relevant project status information through effective emails throughout the week - don't wait for weekly status call to get important information out to everyone. And always follow-up the status meeting by sending out notes to all participants to ensure that everyone understood what was discussed and that all parties are on the same page.



Conducting regularly scheduled informational meetings

As mentioned above, plan to hold regular weekly official status calls with the customer. It's your chance to check up on the customer's progress on any assigned tasks, provide the customer with detailed updates on your team's progress, and review and discuss any outstanding issues and risks. Just as important, though, are weekly informal status meetings with the entire project team. This is the project manager's chance to get all status information from the team, discuss decisions that need to be made and any concerns team members might have, and to discuss newly assigned tasks and give proper direction. Use this time to prepare much of the discussion that will take place during the official formal weekly call or meeting with the customer.

Using an effective scheduling and collaboration tool

Finally, choose and effective tool to both manage your project schedule and allow for team collaboration on the project. Choosing a good web-based collaboration tool like Project Drive is often a good idea and can drive effective and efficient communication and information-sharing on the project, as well as making your project team members responsible for providing their project task updates to you with no excuses.

Project Management Office Success Factors

More than three quarters of large corporations have some form of a project management office in place. How it's defined, exactly what its responsibilities are, how formal it is, and how it's run is going to be different from company to company, but the project management office is a major part of the landscape for most project-oriented activity within major companies.

Given that fact, I'd like to discuss what I consider to be the four key factors for project management office - or PMO - success. I've come up with these four factors after playing varying roles in creating, running, and dismantling PMOs over the years. Through these experiences, I've become opinionated as to what works and why certain PMOs have failed in companies I've worked with and for.

Let's examine these four factors in greater detail here - they are presented in no particular order because I feel that they are all equally important...

Secure executive buy-in for the PMO

PMOs come and go and, unfortunately, often the key to their failure in the first place was the lack of support from within their own organization. When a company's executive leadership doesn't back the PMO, then it likely won't have a chance in the long-term. For the project management office to truly be successful - and long lasting within an organization - it must have the backing of the company's executive management.

Without proper backing, PMO practices and policies will be difficult to enforce and slow to adopt. Some projects will circumvent the PMO process completely and eventually the PMO will become meaningless in the organization and ineffective to the customers it serves.

Appoint a strong PMO leader

If feel very strongly about this one. The PMO director should not just be the most experienced project manager leading the group who is also acting in the role of project manager on current projects. Certainly the PMO director will need to have a presence on high profile projects or on troubled implementations, but for the most part they need to lead the PMO and that should be 99% of their job. I've seen PMO directors who were stretched too thin leaving the project managers in the organization with little to no leadership direction to help handle project roadblocks, resource conflicts, training issues, and process concerns. Eventually, the PM practice in the PMO can start to erode.

Fill the PMO with good PMs

The PMO needs experienced project managers, not just PMP-certified PMs. Leadership and experience must win out when you're trying to establish the PMO and get early projects off the ground. Proven leaders with experience will get your PMO in the right position to be taken seriously throughout the organization. PMI certification, while good, doesn't guarantee experience or success. There needs to be a mix of skill, process understanding, and good, solid leadership.

Implement sound processes and use repeatable templates

For the PMO to be consistently successful, it must have consistent processes and practices in place for its project managers to follow and utilize. A PMO without sound processes in place is relying on luck to experience ongoing project success - and that luck won't last long. Proven and re-usable templates must be available for the project managers so that they can portray consistency to the customers whose projects they are handling. Consistent delivery breeds success and success breeds customer confidence.

Summary

None of these four steps guarantee success. And certainly only focusing on one will leave your PMO sorely lacking. But when all of these factors are acted upon, then you can be confident that you're giving your PMO its best chance for success.

It is critical that a company creates their PMO with the understanding that its mission is to manage all projects and that those projects be consistently handled by that PMO. Consistent project management is perceived by your customers as stability when you're running their projects. And consistent customer satisfaction breeds success, more projects, and greater profitability.

Advantages of Software as a Service

Web based project management software such as Project Drive can also be described as software as a service, or SaaS. Basically, what this means is the software is hosted on the providers servers instead of being downloaded and residing on individual computers.

There are several distinct advantages to using a hosted service, the most important to businesses related to costs. Most software applications are sold on an individual license basis necessitating a separate license, and the associated costs, for each computer on which the software resides.

Then there are the additional costs of having an employee install and maintain the software, including updates which can be frequent in many cases, backing up the data, purchasing hardware, etc.

With SaaS, since it is web based and housed elsewhere, the users pay a small monthly or annual fee based on number of users that is considerably less than purchasing individual licenses. If more users are required, such as may be the case with project management software, they can be added later and be up and running within minutes. The scalability of such software is essentially unlimited.

Another major advantage of web based project management software is that it is accessible anywhere in the world from any computer. All that is needed is access to the Internet.

Communicating with Team Members in Different Time Zones

In today’s shrinking world, many companies are doing business all over the globe. Team members based in different time zones working on the same projects can create problems for those responsible for managing the projects. It can be extremely difficult to share information and communicate with all team members in a timely manner.

However, web based project management software, such as Project Drive, provides the solution. All team members, regardless of their location, receive real-time updates on the project with the automated communication functions included in the software. Not only does it allow team members to send and exchange comments, but will also distribute emails on major actions. The email function allows:

• Selection of fields to trigger notifications and which users will receive them.
• Notifications to be sent to one or multiple users
• Notifications to be sent users when tasks are assigned
• Notification of users of important new information which requires their attention and converts these issues into tasks