ON THE EDGE
Project Managing Up!
Getting Management Buy-In to Project Management
by Carl Pritchard, Pritchard Management Associates
You've arrived. Your team understands the basics of project management; you have a certification; you have the software. All seems right with the world. Just one problem: management still sees you as potentially unnecessary overhead. At best, you are an administrative nuisance that the customer demands. At worst, you're a hindrance to the sales department. Your mission? Get management to see the value of project management.
This quandary has frustrated project managers for years. Many of our own families have trouble understanding what we do for a living, let alone the management teams above us. For some, the answer has been to host presentations on the goals and objectives of project management. For others, the answer has been to shift the job into an amalgam of technical performance and project management commitments.
If we really want management buy-in to what we're doing, we need to get back to the classic question of "What's in it for them?" That's the question senior management asks, and we should be ready to answer. The answer is not that we'll provide them with reports, updates, and efficient use of resources (although we'll definitely do that, as well). The answer is that we give them the ability to manage. We open the door so that they can make informed decisions. We give them options.
One of the classic complaints of managers at all levels is the fact that they don't get to do as much managing as they would like. They express concern that they spend their time in administration rather than management, moving paper around versus making decisions. Which would you rather do?
We can afford our managers the opportunity to do more of the latter by educating them on what we can provide. But that then means they have to actually understand project management, which is a bridge some managers are not quite prepared to cross. To get them over, we need to become the educators. Rather than teaching them network diagramming or team dynamics in the project environment, we should be teaching them what options they have to manage us. (And, by virtue of the back door relationship between the two, they'll probably learn a lot about project management in the process).
What Can Your Managers Expect?
Managers don't know your capabilities. They are frequently unaware that they should expect clear, unambiguous scope statements. They often don't know that the project manager should have a baseline schedule and cost plan and should be able to identify variance from that plan. They don't know that relative levels of resource consumption should be tracked and identifiable.
Rather than teaching them these practices, consider teaching your management the questions you (as a project manager) are capable of answering:
- Do we have a clear, mutually agreed-upon synopsis of what the customer wants?
- Has there been any change to that synopsis since last we met?
- How much work have we done?
- How does that compare to how much work was to be done by now?
- How much did we spend on it?
- How does that compare to how much we were to have spent for that work?
- Do you need any support from me to get it back on track?*
- What risks (if any) need to be escalated to my level?*
- Did any of our major risks turn into realities?
- What changes have been made to the project?
- Is the customer happy?
- Are the team members satisfied with their work?
- Do you need any of my intervention with the customer or the team?*
Note that the starred (*) questions are the actual management intervention questions. They are where management works to earn their salary. The rest of the questions are so that they can put those starred questions in the proper context. Frequently, executives I've worked with have been unaware their project managers should have this depth of information at their disposal on an ongoing basis. This is not special information that should just have to be churned out for a special management meeting. It's information that should be embedded in the project plans and available at virtually a moment's notice.
It's a pretty impressive set of information, but if the senior management team doesn't know it's out there, they can't act on it. It's not asking them to micromanage. It's asking them to take on a role appropriate to their level and responsibility.
What the Questions Teach Them
I used to drive junk. As a result, I had an extended relationship with my mechanic and the staff at Donald B. Rice Tire (my mechanic), the home of "round tires and square deals." I used to take an uninformed management position in dealing with them. "Here's my car. It's broken. Fix it." And they would. But the relationship was sometimes contentious. I was uncomfortable with them determining what would happen to my car (and my wallet). That's not unlike the approach some executives take with projects. "Here's the customer and the project. Do what they want. Make them happy." And the executives become uncomfortable because they are uncertain what's happening to their customer (and their wallet).
In time, through the careful, guided coaching of a few true professionals, I learned to ask the mechanic the right questions. "What parts will you be replacing? Are there alternative approaches (junk parts, refurbished parts)? Is there anything else that I might want to address while you have that part off the car?" In the process, I felt more in control. I was able to make more decisions (although I still have no clue how to do what my mechanic does). I was a more informed customer of their services. I learned to do this because a few professionals took the time to say, "If you want more control, here are the questions to ask."
Knowing the questions opens the door for a clearer understanding and a greater sense of management control. I have no idea how to replace a water pump, but I now know that they can be purchased refurbished or new (and that you rarely want to strip one off a car in the junkyard). I have options. The options all work for my mechanic, as I'm not changing the work he does. I am changing my perceived level of control.
In trying to teach management the project management questions, project managers sometimes feel compelled to teach Auto Mechanics 101. That's a mistake. Management doesn't need to know how to build a network diagram. They do need to know that their project managers know how to sequence activities and can identify, at a glance, when the activities will cascade one into the next to extend the schedule too far. And if there are alternative ways to arrange the schedule, then management should be aware of the alternatives and their implications, without having to learn the intricacies of the Finish-Finish or Start-Start relationship.
Getting Management to the Right Questions
To get them there, we can start by laying out the options. Consider these two approaches-
1) "The team is in the Storming phase of Tuckman's model of group development, and some intervention on your part would help move us to Norming."
2) "There's some team contention over roles and responsibilities, and I'd appreciate some help. If you could either sign off on the responsibilities list for the functional managers or consider giving us some "war room" space down on the fourth floor, it would actually help a lot in terms of minimizing some of the conflict we have going right now."
The first is probably a more in-depth explanation of the rationale for why the help is needed, but it really doesn't address what senior management is expected to do. The second is a vast improvement. It gives management clear options on what they can do. It limits the number of potential outcomes that we (as the project managers) may have to contend with. It clearly moves the project forward, and affords our management the opportunity to exercise some of their authority in a non-threatening fashion.
The first is also a weaker approach because it forces management to understand some of the nuances that they, frankly, shouldn't have to. Tuckman's model may be a nice piece of data for them to have, but it's probably overkill. They don't have the time or the inclination to go research the implications of forming, storming, norming, and performing. That's our role.
Management will ask the right questions if they're given the right data. The more that we can do to outline those options for them, to engage them in the projects with options within their sphere of control, and to afford them the opportunity to manage, the more that we will see them participating at appropriate levels and supporting the project organization(s). Ultimately, they'll be a lot happier with their mechanics.
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