Does This Project Management Shoe Fit?
Project Management is a hot topic. Businesses often suffer from a dearth of Project Managers in-house. But when you say you need PM skills, you need to be specific about what kind of project you are talking about. R&D Projects are very different from software system implementation projects which are very different from post merger integration, product launches or customer focused initiatives. It is important to fit your Project Management approach, methods and tools to your kind of project. So…
What Kind of Projects Are We Talking About Here?
This site is focused primarily on:
- Enterprise Technology Implementations
- Projects that Span Multiple Functions and Geographies
- Projects that Change Your Business Processes
- Projects that Improve Your Customer’s Experience
Some typical examples include:
- Systems Implementations such as SAP, CRM, PDM
- Business Process Improvement
- Organization Redesign
- Integrated Product Development
If your project is one of these, you will find the tips on this website useful. If your project is not on this list and you are, for example, developing a new product or new technology, or your project affects only one or two areas of your business, you may still find useful information here but be sure to scale and customize it to your needs. A small project needs fewer steps or phases. Less complexity means fewer resources, shorter time frames and usually, simpler approaches…you get the idea. You must be the judge of how to right size for your unique situation.
Word Magician
My client just sent me a note thanking me for my help in rewriting a document for our project. She said, “Thank you for updating this. It is very good. You are a real word magician.”
Is this a good thing? Is this an added value for project management? I think the answer is yes…and yes. Using language clearly is very, very helpful on projects when you need to be sure you are saying exactly what you mean so that people in multiple locations can understand you. It is critical on global projects where English is not everyone’s native language. Words may or may not be your strong suit but either way, it is worth it to take some extra time to re-read your emails and your project documentation and make corrections. It is worth it to spend a moment to try to say what you mean. This should not require more than an extra few moments of focused attention. It is not about using descriptive language and big words. What is needed is almost always in the direction of simplifying and organizing your thoughts. Once you are very clear about what you do and do not mean, writing them down clearly is pretty easy and quick. So here is the magic ingredient for clear writing:
Think first, then write, then check what you wrote!
Now I am going to re-read and edit this post!
Role Forward
Do you think writing a detailed description of project roles is a boring waste of time? OK, maybe you are not that extreme. Do you think it is a good idea but not a top priority say, ahead of creating the project work plan? You are wrong on both counts. If you don’t do this up front and use it every time you introduce new team members, and if you don’t make sure that everyone is actually working according to their roles, you are sowing chaos into the fabric of your project. Does this mean that everyone has to ONLY do what is in their role? Of course not. There is always some overlap and always a need for people to pitch in and help on activities beyond their role. But if you don’t get clarity about each person’s primary responsibility, you are asking for trouble. So DO IT! Here is a starter template and exampe you can use to make the job easier:
Who’s On First?
While you are running the bases of project management, your stakeholders are wondering “When are we going to see the benefits of this project?”
Deployment Planning is the process of figuring out which business units will receive which new system functionality, business processes and tools and when they will receive them.
Why invest in deployment planning?
To ensure that you optimize costs and benefits over time.
Some changes to roles, processes, technology must take place right away – NOW!
Some are better planned as your short term follow-on activities – Next
Some may occur in a second phase of the project or initiative – Later
Here’s a little Deployment Planning Algorithm for really geeky project managers:
Optimized Deployment = (Now+Next+Later)/Time
This probably seems really obvious and simple. It is if your project is small. It gets exponentially more complicated with scale. Given the multitude of dependencies you are balancing such as business requirements, customer requirements, budgets, process hand-offs, training development and executive schedules, a step-by-step approach to your Now-Next-Later Deployment Plan is a critical success factor for most large projects.