ProjExc - Project Management Consultants

Project Management Matters

The current turmoil in the world economy is taking recognition of Project Management as a core business competence to a new level. The fundamental principles are fairly stable, but the knowledge of how to apply them remains in high demand.

Over recent years, Project management has grown into a vital tool for success as we have often observed. Driven through necessity in the current climate, trends such as fewer management layers, greater flexibility, and more project-based work have made structured project management much more critical. 

Project Management has abandoned its historic homes in 'big' industries (e.g. construction, engineering and aerospace) to transform the service, financial, computer, and general management sectors.  Did you know that in the UK alone, more than £250 billion is spent on projects every year, yet as the OGC (Office of Government Commerce) tells us something like 70% fail to meet their objectives.

At ProjExc we take a 3 step approach to helping businesses in these sectors improve their project management capabilities. 1. Methods > 2. Tools > 3. Competence.  We use our experience of the big businesses and help scale it to suit those who need it to thrive it these challenging times. 

For more information take a look at our website at www.projexc.com, or even better call us now on 0845 527 9971.

Frustrated by project failure?

Every day we come across more reasons for project failure, and it's rare that they can't be boiled down into a small number of headings. We were interested to see a summary of 5 reasons on the Project Management Hut blog recently:

Executive Level Non-Support. All executives must stand behind the project plan if it can have any chance for success.

Improper Staffing. I have never seen a project succeed when overtime is pre-scheduled into the plan. Outside resources or consultants are the best alternative when in-house staff resources are inadequate.

Poor Project Management. Very few skilled managers ever get the opportunity to manage a project from inception to completion. As a result, most assigned project managers lack the experience in handling the broad range of problems that arise during the course of a project.

Unreasonable Completion Dates. Management in its wisdom will declare target completion dates, or worse…deadlines, even before a project plan is constructed.

Poor Project Planning. While many tools exist to assist in this process, it is the analysis of an experienced project manager that is needed to develop the plan and smooth out its deficiencies.

Our experience is that failure usually falls under 3 headings:

1. Lack of adequate planning
2. Lack of control & communication during the execution of the project
3. Failing to review the project and jumping headfirst into the next one without learning important lessons

If you need help in making sure that your projects are sure to succeed, do get in contact with us and we can explore how best we can achieve that for you. Call us on 0845 527 9971

Don’t be a scapegoat

Cautionary advice for project managers looking at IT/change projects from ZDNET, in an interesting article. Here are the top tips (more details in the article so follow the link):

• Get your head out of the software
• Plan and define as much as possible—but don't go overboard.
• Manage scope creep—for real.
• Don't be lazy with risk management.
• Get a grip on expectations.
• Govern with strength.
• Prepare for intervention.
• Drive behaviour to use the technology.

Interesting that the first tip came first. All too often we meet businesses (usually, but not only, in the technology sector) whose people get excited about a piece of software that looks great on the monitor, helps justify the next PC upgrade, but does nothing for the project or the business. Every time we would encourage clients to go through the process of planning, scoping, controlling risks and the like using the simplest tool that meets the need (pens, paper and MS Office often fit the bill – in more ways than one!). What do you think? We'd love to hear your views.

Project Managers – Technical Competence

ProjExc often help their clients to source project managers. One of the early obstacles in identifying the ideal candidate profile is agreeing the need for "technical" knowledge. This can be technical knowledge of the product or experiential knowledge of the market place.

There isn't a definitive answer.

One camp believes that unless you have a thorough understanding of the product/market there is no way that you can successfully manage a project in that space. The other camp says all that is needed to successfully manage a project is solid project management skills, tools and processes, while technical knowledge will create a natural draw to work in the project rather than on ensuring its success.

As with most things in life, ProjExc are proponents of balance. Generally, solid project management competence is the key. Planning and issue resolution can be helped by a little "technical" knowledge (sufficient to know when one is having the wool pulled over one's eyes). ProjExc would love to know your views on this. Contact them by email, via their website, call them on 0121 250 3534 or post your thoughts on their blog.

   

Project Excellence – elements for success

Project Excellence is increasingly becoming the key to business success. We often work with our clients on a "three-legged stool" model of project excellence and how to keep the balance right for business projects:

Element 1 – Processes
The first of the 3 elements of project excellence (and so business success) is getting the process or methodology right. Balance is critical. Too simple and there is no benefit, too complex and no-one can follow it.

Element 2 - Tools
The second of the 3 elements is equipping project managers with appropriate tools and templates. We consider the scope of these tools, their purpose and how to avoid common pitfalls (like buying an expensive tool that doesn't fit the business process). On our PM Portal we list many of the PM tools which we commonly come across in our consultancy work.

Element 3 - People (Usually Leadership)
Finally, the people angle. It is imperative that project managers are given the skills appropriate to achieving success. It sounds simple but this critical element is all too often overlooked. In addition to the usual "hard" project management skills (planning, estimating, reporting, risk management, quality management, ....) we find that leadership and client relationship management are an increasingly critical element in the competence toolkit.

If you'd like to know more about how ProjExc can help sort the elements out for your organisation call us for a free, no obligation chat on 0121 250 3534, or visit our website to find out more.

The Projects Group (TPG) is Acquired

We have learnt that PPi, a leading learning solutions company, announced recently the acquisition of The Projects Group plc, a specialist Project and Programme Management Support organisation. The acquisition includes TPG Academy, TPG Consultancy and the newly launched TPG Knowledge Base.

The acquisition of TPG by PPi will extend the company's market leadership for quality learning solutions. Additionally, the combined group will be the number one Project and Programme Management training organisation. The expanded company combines best practices and proven solutions across all vertical markets, both in the commercial and public sectors.

TPG will remain a specialist project and programme management business with a unique breadth of professional experience and services. As well as supporting all UK and international qualifications with the most flexible blended learning system on the market, TPG provides consultancy, maturity assessment, staff profiling and knowledge management.

At ProjExc we have used the services of TPG for a number of our clients, and have always been delighted with the results. Hopefully that will continue with the support of their new owners.

10 Useful Lists for Project Managers

I am getting close to publishing my favourite 10 lists to help project managers. It changes regularly, and there are lots to choose from. While we have a number of our own that we've built up at ProjExc, there are also some great lists out there as well. I recently spotted 2 on the techrepublic.com blogs by Tom Mochal which are worthy of mention:

10 Processes to Sharpen your PM Skills:

1. Define the project
2. Plan the work
3. Manage the workplan
4. Manage issues
5. Manage scope
6. Manage risks
7. Manage communication
8. Manage documentation
9. Manage quality
10. Manage metrics

Lists in themselves are not going to change the world, but as a quick checklist (backed up by some real skills and experience) they can be extremely useful to an individual juggling a number of balls. This 1^st list could well fall into this category.

The 2^nd list takes a different tack – I can see it has its uses when someone is being asked to perform the role of project manager as a bolt-on responsibility. I'm just not sure how many people would judge themselves honestly, particularly when a bonus may be dependent on taking on the task. Perhaps the best use of a list like this would be for an assigning line manager to consider the exhibited attributes of an individual before asking them to take on the PM role?

10 signs that you are not cut-out to be a project manager:

1. You are a poor communicator
2. You don't work well with people
3. You prefer the details
4. You don't like to manage people
5. You don't like to follow processes
6. You don't like to document things
7. You like to execute and not plan
8. You prefer to be an order taker
9. You are not organised
10. You think project management is overhead

Comments welcome as always!

Project Leadership Competence

Project Management is widely recognised as a critical factor in project success. ProjExc firmly believe that competence in project leadership is an essential part of a successful project manager's toolkit. We find that a successful Project Leader needs to be able to:

•    Develop the project vision
•    Build the project management team and lead the team through the key steps of the project management process
•    Lead the project team through the four stages of team development (Storming, Forming, Norming and Performing)
•    Demonstrate excellent communication skills: verbal, both one-on-one and with a group, and written skills.
•    Understand and use interpersonal relationship skills such as constructive feedback, conflict resolution, managing individual styles and personalities
•    Demonstrate high level facilitation skills
•    Be skilful at influencing, persuading and negotiating across the organization and removing obstacles for the team
•    Have the ability to accept criticism, feedback and input from others
•    Use skills in using tools and approaches such as brainstorming, organizing, decision making, project management, conflict resolution, and so on.
•    Sell and promote the project both within and often outside the organization.

Recognising this, Steve Harland our project leadership specialist has helped us to develop a number of project leadership development modules which can be structured around the specific needs of a business to provide a tailored project leadership programme. Typically these fall into 2 broad categories, i.e. Team Communication and Relationship Building, and Creating a High Performing Project Team.

10 Tips for Great IT Managers

I recently read a great article on ZDNET providing advice to IT managers challenged by the common problem of reaction overtaking their proaction.  The advice in summary provides 10 great tips:

1. Spend time (and money) developing your people
2. Get to know what your staff really does
3. Don't do it for them
4. Know the business and make sure it knows you
5. Treat communication as a busy, fast-moving, two-way street
6. Encourage everyone to work as a team
7. Provide feedback regularly and let employees know what you want
8. Hire well
9. Understand best IT practices, but don't just make them buzz words
10. Be a good project manager

The advice to be a good project manager is:
"Did your last project suffer scope creep? Most projects, particularly IT ones, don't fail because the project itself was bad. Most failures are a result of weak project management. If you haven't had any formal project management training, find and invest in a good program.  Don't fall into the trap of thinking that simply by having regular meetings, you are managing the project. And since IT usually has more projects than people, be sure to train lead workers with basic project management skills so you can delegate specific aspects of the project or even entire projects to their control."

This is good advice, but only part of the story.  In our experience at ProjExc, it is critically important that those managing projects (especially if it is not their main responsibility) are given the support of appropriate methods/processes and systems which match the methods, otherwise the investment in the training can be wasted or worse.