In This Issue:
From the Editor
Kimberly Wiefling on coping with recurring project problems
Featured Templates:
Hold Still, There's a Stakeholder Over Your Shoulder
Begin the Beguine
Getting More Specific than Circle-Diamond-Rectangle
Of Course We Know What We're Making... Don't We?
Live by Hologram
Help Them Help You
Brian Irwin on the politics of Gen-Y team members and hyper-involved sponsors
Featured Bundle: Keep Your Hands and Feet Inside the Ride At All Times
ProjectPractitioners Blog
When stakeholders don't even know what they want
Where's ProjectConnections?
This month: Panama, New York, and Amazon
Next month: California, Japan, and Pittsburgh
Corporate Subscriptions
From the Editor
It's no tremendous revelation that one of the keys to success in any economic climate is identifying and meeting your customer's needs. But it can get tricky understanding what those needs really are, especially when your customer isn't entirely certain. Is that requirement a true need, or just a want? What purpose does it fulfill? And what about all the needs and goals of the stakeholders and team members involved in the project; they're often just as critical to success, but rarely understood until they blindside us at full-speed during some critical project turning point.
Unless, that is, you've taken the time to document and analyze all these needs as you start the project. This week we're focusing our attention on understanding your project customers across the board. Think of it as a suite of thinking tools to help you consider all the angles before any sharp, pointy edges poke holes in your project plan.
Featured Article
Here It Comes Again!Coping with the Worldwide Economic Mood Disorder and Other Recurring Problems by Kimberly Wiefling
Like economic mood swings, some project management problems tend to be difficult to avoid and recur periodically. Like bathing, or going to church, you can't just do it once and be done with it. While a lot of projects experience recurrent problems that are predictable and avoidable, some aren't. When prevention and avoidance aren't an option, it's best to have a strategy for rapidly identifying and dealing with them. We should expect that we'll need to deal with these predictably recurrent issues, and learn to handle them better every time. Human problems often fall into this category.
If you're a project manager working with humans you can be sure you'll face such a problem in the near future. Rather than waiting with fingers crossed, hoping for the best, do something about it in advance. If you knew that you'd need to take a bath every day or so you'd make sure you had access to a shower, some soap and a little privacy. Knowing we'll face human problems on a regular basis, we need techniques that enable us to deal with them promptly, effectively, and . . . well, repeatedly. Read more »
Featured Templates
NEW - Hold Still, There's a Stakeholder Over Your Shoulder – Stakeholder Analysis Summary Table - PREMIUMCareful, now—they startle easily. No sudden movements and you should be fine. We're not surprised you're tired, though. Tiptoeing around the competing needs of many different project stakeholders can get more than a little nerve-wracking. This stakeholder analysis template from Sinikka Waugh—founder of Your Clear Next Step and a ProjectConnections blogger—can help your team schedule appropriate attention to each stakeholder and decide how best to address conflicting interests when they do occur. The summary table format allows the team to lay everything out side-by-side for easier comparison while talking things through, and there are two pages of reminders and prompts to encourage a thorough analysis in any number of project environments. Get the template »
Begin the Beguine – Project Scope Definition: Statement of Work - PREMIUM
Outlining the project's steps can be a pretty crazy dance at times. If a vision statement feels too vague and a full charter is too much too soon, a Statement of Work provides an alternative somewhere in the middle. This annotated outline illustrates how to capture high-level objectives and key parameters in just a couple of pages—enough to make the dance easier, and not so much it exhausts everyone. The project manager can create a draft and then get the team's input, or brainstorm and draft it along with the core team. Either way, hold a signoff meeting where the team and all the major stakeholders officially confirm that the final SOW reflects the high-level plan accurately. Then go write your detailed requirements and specifications, with a lilt in your step and a song in your heart. Get the outline »
NEW - Well, the Spec Says the Circle Stuff Moves to the Rectangle – Use Case Specification Outline - PREMIUM
Models and diagrams certainly help with system architecture, but they may not specify critical assumptions like priority queuing or prerequisite data. Suddenly, what's in that oh-so-crisp circle on the diagram looks a lot fuzzier—along with your project requirements. Well-written use cases can prevent these problems by outlining the specific details of system functionality, components, etc. Instead of defining what the system will do, they define what the user wants to do with the system. A complete, detailed use case can then drive decisions about system architecture, user interface, manuals and tests, and more. This complete, annotated document outline—another excellent guideline by ProjectConnections blogger Sinikka Waugh—includes examples of pre- and post-case conditions, flows, business rules, special requirements, and even training notes. Get the outline »
Of Course We Know What We're Making Don't We? – Product Definition: Critical Success Factors – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until March 18, 2009
The project is underway, and you've got a pretty good definition of what the customer wants. Do you also have a good product definition? Edith Wilson of Hewlett Packard based this checklist on her study of the differences between numerous successful and unsuccessful products. It includes a worksheet for reviewing the current state of your project's information, so you can compare yours to her description of well-defined information. Then you can use that comparison to record an assessment of the current state of your project information. Have confidence in what you've got covered, and know what you still need to flesh out as you're working through the early stages of your project. Get the worksheet »
Live by Hologram... – Project Communication Plan - PREMIUM
Fortunately, most project customers don't require flashy technology and daily meetings. Most would probably be happy with a team that didn't attempt to "go dark" and spring a not-so-fully-fledged project on them a week before the deadline. Bottom line: it pays to keep the lines of communication open, so the customer can keep track of progress and the project team can keep track of evolving customer needs. By taking the time to outline a communication plan, you tell the team that you value their time enough to only hold meetings that matter, and you tell the customer that you value them enough to keep talking to them. After all, even Obi-Wan Kenobi had to adapt to changing project circumstances. Download the template »
Help Them Help You - Project Manager Support Survey – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until March 18, 2009
If you're an executive, you're leaning on your project managers more than ever to keep your organization's projects going through tough times. Doesn't it make sense to offer them the tools and support they need to make that happen? This short survey form treats your project managers as organizational customers, and asks what kinds of training and support they feel they, their team members, and related functional managers need to excel. This allows you to target critical and increasingly scarce training money to the topics important to your organization's success right now, and in forms you know they'll be receptive to using. Get the template »
Featured Article
Texting Team Members and Supervising Sponsors, by Brian Irwin
Q: "I am currently leading a project to develop a software system which will provide a custom accounting interface which will tie into the company's inventory control system. The project team consists of several business analysts, programmers, and technical experts. Terry, one of my programmers who is a recent college graduate, does not arrive at the office until around 9:30–10:00 a.m. In meetings, he will send texts and answer email on his cell. As the icing on the cake, he recently asked to work remotely.
"I've noticed this trend over the past several years. This hinders my ability to provide control over the project and stay in touch with what is happening on the project. Is this a symptom of the next generation of workers or is there something I can do as a project manager to make my life simpler?"
How do you handle a team member who doesn't seem engaged in the project, and a project sponsor who is a little too involved? Read Brian's answers »
Want to hear more of Brian's take on project politics? He'll be appearing at the Northwest Arkansas PMI Chapter on March 16 to speak on "Politics, Leadership, and the Art of Relating to Your Project Team." More information »
Featured Bundle
Keep Your Hands and Feet Inside the Ride At All Times - Project Kick-off Bundle
Remember your last project, when the team was never sure about the real goals and there was so much re-work caused by shifting priorities and unexpected feature requests that your designers were going in circles? That was last time. This time you're getting off the roller coaster and starting off right. We've collected a dozen templates designed to help you clarify the project goals and objectives, put together the right team, and manage the tradeoffs when (not if!) all the extra requests start coming in. Launch a new project or re-launch a struggling one with everyone on the same page as the executives who started it all.
Find out more »
ProjectConnections bundles are a purchase avenue for members who can't or don't wish to maintain a Premium subscription, but they also provide a convenient licensing mechanism for project managers or PMO heads looking to supplement their project office resources. If you'd like your whole department or organization to benefit from this or any other ProjectConnections bundle, we'd be glad to provide licensing terms. Just email deanna@projectconnections.com for more information.
Project Practitioners Blog
Here's a sampling of what has cropped up on the Project Practitioners blog in the last two weeks. There's plenty more, so if you don't want to miss anything you can catch up on the main page or subscribe to the RSS feed. When you're tired of reading doom and gloom in the news, we've got some more forward-thinking options here:Niel Nickolaisen continues his list of suggestions for Guiding, not Micromanaging, Projects.
Ann Drinkwater provides suggestions for handling stakeholders who don't know what they want in When No One Can Decide.
Sinikka Waugh takes a pro-active approach to risk prioritization and management in The Project Manager and the Glass.
Where's ProjectConnections?
Randy Englund will be in Panama to conduct a seminar on "Creating Excellence in/through Project Management" as well as present a paper on "Managing Up the Organization" at the PMI Panama Symposium (www.pmi-panama.org/simposio2009/) in mid March. Then he addresses "Powering Up Your Interaction Quotient" (powerinteract.englundpmc.com) on April 10 with Bob Lauridsen for the PMI San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (www.pmi-sfbac.org). In April Randy teaches "Project Management Negotiation Principles and Techniques" and then conducts the "Project Management Office" course in May at UCSC Extension in Silicon Valley (courses.ucsc-extension.edu). He travels in April to Atlanta for PMI SeminarsWorld and then to Amsterdam in May to present at the PMI Global Congress.Carl Pritchard will be in Albany, New York later this month, discussing Advanced Risk Management at the local PMI chapter on March 23. Later that week, he'll be in the neighborhood of the World Trade Center, for a PMP Prep class in New York City on March 26-27. April 7-8 he'll be teaching PMP Prep in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Details and registration information are available on Carl's website.
Kent McDonald won't be around and about much until the May 1 Central Iowa IIBA Business Analyst Development Day 2009. But we can't resist a shout out about his new book with Pollyanna Pixton, Niel Nickolaisen, and Todd Little, Stand Back and Deliver, which is now available on Amazon for pre-order. With four outstanding contributors like that, how can you go wrong?
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
Want your team members to have their own access to templates and how-to resources for their project work? Need to share documents and deliverables beyond your project team? We make it easier with affordable corporate subscriptions and licensing. Detailed information regarding corporate options is available online. Give your whole team, or even the entire organization, cost-effective access to our comprehensive online library of resources. You already know how helpful it's been for you. Now it's time to share with everyone else. Find out more »Not sure if corporate terms apply to you? Check out our licensing terms at the top of our Terms of Service page, in refreshingly ordinary, everyday English.