From the Editor

Do your projects suffer from not enough project management? Or do they actually suffer from too much? The project landscape is littered with craters of various sizes caused by an overload (or perceived overload) of management processes, attention, and tools, put in play as a result of the well-meaning but sometimes misguided one-size-fits-all mentality toward the automatic goodness of anything project management, plus an unfortunate focus on mandating process steps and rules without actually educating anyone on process flexibility. We therefore dedicate a chunk of this newsletter to the art of achieving "just enough project management" on every endeavor that matters to you and your organization.

Executives, PMs, and every team member have a critical role in achieving this goal, no matter how intractably mandated the current process may appear to be. And if you currently have too little project management in place, this advice will help you spot the warning signs and achieve "just enough" from the start. The good news is that the ability to achieve "just enough" can actually lighten everyone's workload, win the project manager many new friends, and do a better job for executives of making sure that projects succeed. It's good for you, it's good for them, it's good for the projects!

Featured Article

Hawaii Uh-Oh
by Kent McDonald

There is an inherent danger in writing about your job on a regular basis—you begin dissecting everything that happens in your life and try to apply it to a lessons learned in that particular field. Experiences on trips seem to be an exceptionally easy target for these lessons learned stories. I mention this downside because I am about to use my recent vacation to Hawaii to discuss risk management, and managing scope and schedule changes when things go bad . . . well, let's say, when things stray from the plan.

My wife and I were on the second of our four flights on the way to Kauai the Friday before Valentine's Day when I heard one of those things you never want to hear over the loudspeaker of an airplane. "If there is anyone on the plane who is a nurse, doctor, or paramedic, please identify yourself by ringing your flight attendant call button, we have some questions for you." That sparked the following series of events: Read the rest »

Kent McDonald is slated to speak at I-BADD in Des Moines, Iowa on May 7th (Central Iowa IIBA) on understanding the problem your project should solve and ensuring that it produces true business value.

Site Highlights

NEW - Read It? I Can't Even Lift It! - Impact Analysis - PREMIUM
Information is good; drowning in it isn't. When considering a project change or a particular solution, or choosing between multiple possible solutions, it helps to have a thorough understanding of how each option will impact business areas, systems, and external organizations. Will it add to the development time? Will it require additional training, or reduce turnaround times? Can you sort through the options without leveling a small forest? Our Impact Analysis template will help you correlate all those variables and determine the best course of action, all in a compact, easy-to-digest table (or a few of them). That trumps a 23-page analysis report any day of the week. See for yourself what just enough analysis looks like »

Sinikka Waugh provides a reusable checklist for leading volunteer efforts in her blog entry this week. This is an outstanding offering for anyone coordinating an effort in their off-hours, whether it's your own volunteer time (like a Scouting troop or a charity fundraiser) or to coach your teens on their first organization efforts for high school clubs. It's a great reference for new project managers, too!

Need guidance building your project team? Check out Lisa DiTullio's post on putting together A Winning Team for some practical suggestions, not just on what to look for, but also on how to go about finding it.

Kent McDonald reminds us that even so-called IT projects can add measurable business value, and provides a real-world example from a current project.

Matt Glei reminds that risk management, like project management, must take place in the real world. Along with a reminder that risk management need not take hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, his column provides a potent reminder that not doing risk management at all can cost a whole lot more. His extensive list of real-world, hum-drum, everyday project risks ought to bring every PM and exec up short, and remind us all to spend the extra time (just enough extra time) out of the gate.

Executive View

I maintain that too much project management (or in some cases, simply the perception of too much) can be almost as harmful as not enough.

How can I say that? After all, the results of not enough are obvious—well documented in nasty project failure statistics, and well understood by many of us from ghastly personal experiences.

In my opinion, the dangers of truly-too-much and perceived-too-much must be dealt with proactively. We as PMs must be aware of how our tools are being used and perceived, shoulder responsibility for adapting and selling our toolkit to those whose time we are affecting, and make sure we actually see the project forest in the midst of all the process trees. This subject should also matter to every executive who wants consistently good project performance across the organization. What if all that great process, intended to get you great project results, is not actually delivering what you expected? And for those of you thinking you need more/better processes to help with project discipline, read on for cautionary, but also encouraging, words about how to ultimately get it right.

Here is why I am more afraid of too much project management in an organization than not enough: Read the rest of the article »

Look at your process with fresh eyes and a creative spirit

Don't make them do it the same way every time! - SPECIAL
This Premium resource is free to registered Members until April 1, 2010
Having a project management or development process should NOT mean that people are expected to do things the same way every time. This guideline on adapting project processes contains real-world examples of how companies with established processes actually encourage creativity-of-use. Executives, put some time into helping PMs see that they can use the process flexibly. PMs, get some ideas for deciding what matters most, so you can confidently just say no, and yes, to the right things for each project.

Give them "cheat sheets." (It's not cheating, it's focusing on, and teaching, what matters.) - PREMIUM
No matter how big your process binder or online template repository, you can instantly make it smaller—by using quick overlays for different types of projects. Execs, consider creating a Process Quick Reference in this format to help everyone see the forest again. PMs, use the included cheat-sheet format for guidance on team members, milestones, and key activities, and the deliverables checklist format as a worksheet to decide and document which items really ARE needed each time.

Do what it takes to get the process hold-outs! - PREMIUM
Wishing won't make it so. If an entire group has decided the process does not apply to their work, they may have a valid point. Whether it's a particular functional group holding out, or a merger situation with dueling processes to reconcile, plan a high-return background project to bring everyone into the same philosophical fold with an updated process that actually DOES work for everyone. See these example project plan and project tracking files, built specifically for a process update project, to get your own effort underway simply and effectively.

Before you go Agile as the supposed solution to all your problems.... - PREMIUM
Know why you're doing it and put some thought into what techniques and methods from Agile really will help in your environment. Read this article on selecting appropriate Agile methods then pull the right process resources for you from our comprehensive Agile page.

Take a few targeted steps to fix specific (and very typical) "too much" problems

Anything that causes this many [bad] meetings can NOT be good, by definition! - PREMIUM
Make sure your meetings aren't the root of all perceived process evil, sapping productivity, and killing morale in your group. Let the team in the room tell you how it really is, using the questions in this meeting evaluation guidelines.

If I can find him I'll make him sign it, but why bother? - PREMIUM
Are your project signoff points (phases, deliverables, end of project) a stressful, time-wasting joke? Yes, it sounds harsh, but meaningless signature scavenger hunts do get flagged as a common time-waster. Execs, do you know why you're signing, and do you even have time to do justice to what your current process requires? PMs, what executive attention benefit do you really need at each review-and-signoff point, and how can you get it? This guideline includes an example signoff process created by an organization where 35 disgruntled project managers and a handful of executives together defined what really mattered and came up with a more streamlined signoff process that everyone thought was worth their time.

Asking repeatedly does not cause it to get done faster - MEMBER
Another perennial source of "The PM is wasting my time again" comments: the dreaded act of status collection. So stop collecting. Tell them what you need to know and why, let them tell you how they want to tell you, and stand back and leave them alone. Yes, it can work, as evidenced by this case study on how an exec and team together conquered his tendency to micromanage task data and their rebellion against all things status-y.

Use simple approaches to emphasize what really matters and thereby teach flexibility

Give them the Picture before you overwhelm them with the Word documents - PREMIUM
This example Project Process Philosophy Chart was created to introduce a new process to an IT organization, with an emphasis on the key reasons for having a project process in the first place (you know, goals, handoffs, reviews, communication... the great leverage points, not just all the tasks and deliverables.)

Silly projects and the benefits of simple process framework - MEMBER
All project tasks are not created equal. Sometimes using simple project examples, where obviously every tool in our toolkit is not required, is a great way to emphasize what matters most, and loosen people up to likewise extrapolate for their own projects. These before and after pictures of holiday gift shopping (with and without the application of key PM principles) is still used by the author to get people laughing and softened up during in-house company process classes.

Silly projects and the benefits of simple project deliverables - MEMBER
And for yet another simple teaching example for the applicability and value of PM principles to even small projects, see this detailed example of adapting PM techniques and templates to a real-world mini-project.

Burning questions around just-enough and particular high-leverage parts of the project process

Does every project need a big project plan document? - PREMIUM
Everyone probably has a different definition of "big." More than two pages? More than 25? The underlying concern is this: what constitutes a project plan that is meaningful and also useful and usable, as opposed to being just so much overhead that someone had to spend time creating and maintaining? The plan document for any project needs to be long enough ... Read the rest of the answer »

What does it mean to make project trade-offs? - PREMIUM
Trade-offs are the result of a process where the team evaluates options for the project and decides which approach best meets the project's goals. We've all had situations where there were choices to be made and we had to decide which was the "best" or "right" choice for the situation. Do I spend the time to study for an exam, or go to the party? Do I spend more to get a fancier car, or save that money for getting to eat out more? Project managers are faced with... Read the rest of the answer »

What's a good way to know if we're "done"? - PREMIUM
A great way to judge whether you're done is to set completion criteria earlier in the project. Those criteria can cover what it means for major deliverables of the project to be done, and what "complete" for the whole project includes. Completion criteria are a communication and management tool. For particular deliverables, they provide an important aspect of quality management. At the project and deliverables level, completion criteria help ensure that ... Read the rest of the answer »

Where's ProjectConnections?

Carl Pritchard will be at PMI SeminarsWorld next week in Naples, Florida (March 22-23), to speak on Managing Multiple Projects. If you're interested in Earned Value Management, he is conducting an EVP workshop for PMI Baltimore the following week. See his website, www.carlpritchard.com, for more information.

Kimberly Wiefling will be speaking at the Silicon Valley PM PM SIG March 24 in Santa Clara, CA. The topic: "Heart - Lung - Kidneys! If Everything is #1, Then Nothing Is."

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