In This Issue:
From the Editor
Alan Koch on Employee Recognition in an Agile Team
Career Corner:
How to Report to Management in 100 Words Or Less
Site Highlights:
Is It Really Worth It?
We Wished It True
It's Funny 'Cause It's True
But Seriously Folks
Planning to Succeed
Burning Questions
Do I Really Have to Make Everyone Happy?
Project Practitioner Blog
Keeping the Band Aid Affixed
Got Time for an A-U-D-I-T?
Finally, a Worthwhile use for Social Networking.
Where's ProjectConnections?
This month: Tokyo, Pittsburgh, and California
From the Editor
This week we're shifting gears to talk about how to talk about some project realities: risk, rewards, and recognition. We're still hard at work on our new Fast Track for Business Analysts, and two of our new templates this week address common BA duties that you've probably been handling for years without knowing it. Plus, Alan Koch addresses a sticky issue we hadn't considered until it was brought up: team recognition in an agile environment. We've also highlighted resources in some of the riskier areas of project management: estimating, product definition, and how to manage a pool of stakeholders that's larger than your project team. Read on…Featured Article
Employee Recognition in an Agile Team, by Alan Koch
An organization I worked at wanted to improve the project results we delivered. While we revised our project management techniques and training, we realized that another critical factor is the people that initiate projects and serve as the primary stakeholder of the project, referred to as business owners. We decided that these people—who do not work on projects as their entire job, but were key members of the project teams on which they participated—needed to learn more about the role of business owner and its responsibilities.
Fred sent me this question: "I've read that recognition (in whatever form is most valued to the individual) is an important motivator. In the context of Agile team dynamics, I'm guessing that individual recognition could be counterproductive to everyone working well together, but recognition would be a better motivator if it were directed toward the entire team rather than just to a few individuals on the team that stood out. What do you think?"
The Agile methods are designed to make the work environment itself a motivator for the team members. But well-placed recognition can be a powerful addition—if it is done in an Agile way!
Career Corner
How to Report to Management in 100 Words Or Less – Executive Summary of Project Status and Risks – MEMBERYou're due up before the executive committee and you feel like there's a ton to tell them. One of the pitfalls of executive communication is the desire to provide too much background information, to "help them understand." After all, how can they possibly understand the full context of the project unless you explain about everything that's happened?
The fact of the matter is, they probably don't want or even need to know everything. You don't want them mired in the past two months of frustration. You want them focused on solving the issues you need them to address so you can move on. Yes, they need context, but whittle it down to the bare essentials: milestones, targets, risks, budget – everything the execs need to get a C-level view of what's going on. Our Executive Summary template shows one way of getting all that on a single page. And putting it all in a concise format like this will force you to think through what's truly critical to their understanding, as opposed to just sharing the pain. With that, you can move on to the conversations you need to have, focused on the resources and decisions required to get through the next two months.
Have no fear – if they have questions, they'll ask! But they'll also remember that you talked about the things that mattered to them, not just the things that mattered to you. That's the kind of report expected from a top-tier project leader. Get our template »
Site Highlights
NEW – Is It Really Worth It? – Cost Benefit Analysis – PREMIUMStop! Are you sure this project is really worth the time you're putting into it? Even if there's general agreement that the project is A Good Thing (and we all know that's not always the case), it can pay huge dividends to sit down and calculate just how good a thing it really is. This guideline explains how business analysts – or those filling the business analyst role – can assess what benefits a project will bring to the organization, and measure whether or not those benefits truly offset the costs. It includes advice on measuring the intangibles as well as the obvious dollars to donuts comparisons. Make sure the right resources are getting assigned to the right projects, and have the numbers to back it up. Get the template »
NEW – We Wished It True – Benefits Realization Plan – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until September 16, 2009
If only wishing made it so. But in projects, as in life, it's not so easy. You have to prove the expected project benefits actually happened. That means planning how and when to measure those benefits. This template shows you how to create those plans, simply and without a lot of fanfare, and ensure that they survive after the project is delivered and the team has moved on. By planning ahead for these measurements, you not only reassure stakeholders, you also improve future projects with concrete, recorded demonstrations of what paid off (and what didn't) and by how much. Get the template »
It's Funny 'Cause It's True – Pete's Estimating Rules – MEMBER
When tallying up project risks that have caused sleepless nights, "we didn't think it would take that long" has got to be near the top of the list. Inaccurate estimates are a perpetual risk list item. This humorous take on the pitfalls of measuring ourselves provides estimating rules learned the hardway. It's lighthearted, but there's value in taking the humor to heart. Consider sharing it with your team, right before you start your estimating work (or right after you finish it, but before you build it into the schedule). It may serve as a valuable conversation starter about the necessity of spending just a little more time really pinning things down. Read the rules »
But Seriously Folks – Estimating Process and Methods – PREMIUM
Slightly more formal, but no less true, this guideline examines some of the methods you and your team members can use to generate more accurate estimates for your project's tasks, even when they insist that there's no way to generate an estimate at all. It outlines eight different methods and explains how and when to try them. But it also provides a general overview of the estimating process, as well as some things to keep in mind as you progress through your scheduling work. Get the guideline »
Planning to Succeed – Product Definition – Critical Success Factors – SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until September 16, 2009
When you set out to create something new, make sure the project plan and specifications set the team up to succeed, by meeting these basic criteria. This checklist helps teams double-check their overall management plan and detailed specifications to be sure they cover the right areas. But it can also help you highlight the items that are worthy of inclusion in your project charter document – critical success factors for the project to be successful from a business perspective. Checklists are included for product development and marketing promotion campaigns, along with suggestions for other kinds of criteria so you can adapt it to any kind of project. There's also a worksheet to help you track and assess your project information. Get the guideline »
Burning Questions
Do I Really Have to Make Everyone Happy? - Managing Multiple Stakeholders – PREMIUMQ: We have so many different people, departments, and customers pulling in different directions, and everyone has ideas and opinions. How do I manage multiple stakeholders and their priorities on large project teams like this?
A: Your project teams will nearly always include multiple stakeholders. Projects of any size, and their solutions, impact multiple people, each of whom is a stakeholder (because they've got "something at stake" in the project and solution). But not all stakeholders are created equal, and not all have an equal vote in the details of the project, or the solution. Read the rest of this answer »
See our complete Burning Questions index for more practical project advice, like how to keep risk from disrupting your project and what to do when your team insists they can't possibly estimate the work.
Project Practitioners Blog
Ann Drinkwater provides advice for maintaining legacy systems (or lobbying for their replacement) in Keeping the Band Aid Affixed.
Sinikka Waugh wants to know if you've Got Time for an A-U-D-I-T to improve the effectiveness of project managers everywhere.
Kent McDonald, just back from Agile 2009, thinks he's finally found a worthwhile use for social networking.
Where's ProjectConnections?
Kimberly Wiefling returns to Tokyo in September for more Leadership programs, including a public Global Leadership and Management Program on September 8. She's also taking reservations for her next workshop on Creating a Vision For Your Future, scheduled for September 19 in Redwood City, California.
Lisa DiTullio is in Grapevine, Texas next week, to present at the National Association for Healthcare Quality conference September 14. Later that week, she appears at the Massachusetts Hospital Association's conference, "The Leaders Behind the Leadership," to provide an introduction to project management, and at the PMI Michigan Capital Area Chapter to review "A Decade in Project Management."
Niel Nickolaisen will be in Athens, Greece, to address Pragmatic IT and Alignment in October 15 for the IT Directors Forum '09. CIO Year Ahead Summit "Flawlessly Execute Your Strategy -– For Free" November 8-10, Indian Wells, California.
Carl Pritchard will be teaching Project Management Essentials in Pittsburgh, PA September 16-17. More details and registration information are available on Carl's website.
Randy Englund is facilitating an online course for the UC Irvine Extension on "Management, Leadership, and Team Building in a Project Environment," and demonstrating that extensive interaction is possible through the online technology. In October he travels first to Orlando, Florida to present a paper at the PMI Global Congress North America on "Leading for Results." The following week he presents "Facilitating Risk Management into a Corporate Culture" at the PMI Austin, Texas Professional Development Day. Then he's off to Barcelona, Spain to work with Alfonso Bucero on the second annual Project Portfolio Day.
Corporate Subscriptions and Licensing
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