Going for a walk this afternoon, I was immediately struck by the vivid change in the scenery that has gone from soft greens to fiery oranges and reds. The atmosphere of the walk totally changed by Autumnal scents – mushrooms, woodland damp. The air crystal clear after recent rains.

I do this walk frequently, but it appeared transformed and engendered an engagement with the landscape that felt totally different to the last time I did it.

So it is with our business projects and operations.

The landscape is changing constantly and yet many of us can remain stubbornly reticent to look at those changes and see how we could be changing as well.

• Perhaps of methods of operation are outdated.
• Perhaps there are new project management methodologies that could help us deliver more effectively.
• Perhaps our customers needs have changed and we need to change with those needs.

As business managers, it is important to take the time out to understand those changes. To talk to our customers. To look at new ways of operating and educating ourselves as necessary.

Here at MyProjectTracker, we are changing. Our product is going to evolve based on feedback from our customers. More on this to come. It is going to take some time and indeed can be seen as “going backwards to go forwards”.

We’ve listened and are going to adapt in order to deliver on our business plan.

It is not acceptable in today’s challenging business climate to remain static. To rely on past principles and methods to get the job done without validating that they are still relevant.

I leave you with this thought from President Kennedy;

A definition for poor service delivery

When perception of the service by the customer is poor, but the provider believes that all is well!

A definition of good service delivery

When perception of the customer is aligned with the reality of the service being delivered and both say that all is well!

A definition of excellent  service delivery

When the perception of the customer is greater than the reality of the service being provided!

While perhaps poorly constructed statements, the message I am trying to portray is that customer perception is everything.

If they believe that something is lacking in the service, then there is a problem even if the internal stats say otherwise.

Perception is the key to all successful service provision (along with actually delivering the service).

But often that perception of service is not articulated by the client. They can be seething with a perceived absence of service that is never brought to the table so the service provider carries on with the mis-conception that all is well.

However, it is not up to the client to articulate their perceptions of the service – although some might. No, it is the responsibility of the service provider to find out how they are doing.  And unfortunately the only way to find out is to ask!

1. Account managers have a responsibility in meetings or over that cup of coffee.
2. Service desk engineers have a responsiblity to seek feedback before they resolve that call.
3. User surveys should be undertaken.

Whatever the method, the service provider needs to understand how they are perceived by the client. Or it could be the death knell for the engagement.

Ideally, the service provider wants to engage the client on further business out of the perceived (and actual) value being delivered and not on a cost basis.

Otherwise it’s just a race to the bottom that no-one wins.

What are your thoughts?

Photo: Kevin Dooley

A project is a little like a compost heap.

Madness you say.

But bear with me, there is reasoning behind my madness.

• A compost heap is essentially a mix of components to produce an end result – quality material for spreading around the garden!
• A compost heap, to be effective, needs to be worked. Turned over. Allowed to breathe.
• A compost heap needs to be managed. You can’t just fire any old crap into it. You need to put the right materials into it.

Our family compost is contained in one of those green plastic composters. You open the lid, fire in the kitchen waste, close the lid and let it break down. There is a door at the bottom to collect the broken down materials. The output if you will.

This year, we have used poor materials.

Too much kitchen waste. Not enough “woody” material.

We have been bad at managing it.

Not turning it over. Not making sure the lid was on it correctly.

We were not too worried about the result.

The compost is really not great and we can’t use it.

We weren’t watching what was going on and the compost that should be so useful is.. well… not!

Projects can be like this as well.

Without the correct ingredients;

• Your team.
• Your raw materials.
• Your planning.
• Your project scope.
• Your project sponsor
• Your project manager.

Without the careful management from a project manager;

• Scope management
• Risk management
• Issues management
• Budget tracking
• Team management
• Project reporting

Your end result will not be achieved. Sure, something will come out of the project – but will it be what you intended?

So how is your “compost heap”? Are you happy with the way you are managing it?

Photo: Hardworkinghippy

Outsourcing a function should only be done if it’s working !

This sounds like a contradiction.

Why on earth would you want to outsource something that is already working, rather than outsourcing something that is not working well and driving you mad?

Why outsourcing?

Outsourcing is designed in the main to do the following;

1. To allow a business to focus on its core functions.
2. To reduce costs (direct or indirect).
3. To create “flex” i.e. to enhance the team when there is a peak in demand.

By it’s nature, a successful outsource can only be achieved when the business understands what makes up one of more of the above and is in a position to measure same.

1. Outsourcing an element of the business that does not appear to be core but is then determined to be core. If in doubt – wait until you are sure.
2. If there is not a fundamental understanding of the costs of delivery of a function, then it should not be outsourced. How will determine if you are saving money during the exercise?
3. If you are unclear of your capacity requirements in the future, you should not outsource to create the flex. There is always a minimum charge in an outsourcing agreement that allow the outsource provider to cover their costs and engage correctly. You may end up spending more than you need if you have not correctly assessed your capacity needs.

Outsourcing is a great way of allowing business to develop in an effective and controlled manner. But outsourcing should be approached with with open eyes and an awareness of what the engagement is going to mean to the business.

Outsourcing won’t work if it’s been done out of despair of a poorly performing function or if no measurements are in place for the function being looked at.

What are your thoughts? Have you outsourced elements of your business and regretted it? What worked, what didn’t?

Photo: joachimtraun

Breaking down borders is a good thing. At least normally. It facilitates closer harmony between nations and is to be encouraged.

The same applies to borders or silos in business. They are generally a bad idea and limits creativity.

But on occasion borders are needed.

The borders I’m talking about in this instance are roles and responsibilities.  The terms of engagement if you will between different areas – project teams, service delivery teams, the client or operational units.

Without defined roles and responsibilities, particularly in a project or services arena – accountability becomes diluted. When problems arise, everyone can walk away without having to deal with it. Or there is confusion on who is supposed to be doing what in an engagement.

To prevent this happening, it is critical to have roles and responsiblities established in any engagement.

• Project teams need to understand what their deliverables are and where their responsibilities stop.
• Clients need to understand the specific of any project or service delivery contract that they are engaged with.
• Operational teams need to understand the elements of any service that they are responsible for maintaining.

The definition of the project roles and responsibilities need to be agreed as part of the project scoping exercise with the client with internal teams have theirs clarified through the work packages.

Operational team should have clear definition on their engagement with any service delivery along with the necessary escalation points into other functional units.

Irrespective of the function, every team and every member of that team should understand how their roles and responsibilities deliver the end result. And also understand the parts that other teams play in the delivery also.

So while borders can be inhibitive, in some instances they do make sense. Just don’t hide behind them.

What are your thoughts?

Photo: Dmealiff

Rage against the machine – a most excellent rock band… but not the topic of this blog.

The machine I am talking about here is the one that I see day and day out in business projects and operations.

The machine that creates;

1. Pointless meetings that cost in lost man hours and achieve very little.
2. The debates on quality and consistency of delivery.
3. Over-commitment but under delivery.
4. Disappointed clients.
5. Stressed out teams.
6. Reduced productivity.

The list goes on and on. Project and operational teams the world over are guilty of some or all of these and indeed many more besides.

But why does this happen? Why do services business continue to operate in this manner?

Clients are largely responsible in many ways. With pressure on to reduce costs and the large amount of choice out there, it is easy for them to push and push project delivery houses to lower the delivery costs while asking for greater scope.

At some point the value proposition is lost in many businesses and it becomes simply a drive to offer to deliver a project more cheaply than the next guy. But a race to the bottom is not where any of us want to be.

But clients only do this because they can.

Because service delivery businesses allow them to do this. By not creating the value proposition that their business provides. By not creating the unique selling point that allows them to be more expensive than the other guy, but to still get the business.

The problem is that by reducing the selling price, then investment to make things better in the longer term because difficult and the circle starts all over again.

So try to find your value proposition. Your way of delivering projects that allows you to deliver solid quality while retaining a viable cost base and profit margin to allow you to get better and stronger.

Rage against the machine!

What are your thoughts? Is there a way of stopping the race to the bottom and the focus on simply delivering cheaply rather than with value?

Photo: IT290

Seth Godin wrote a little post this morning about digging holes for ourselves. And he’s quite right – we do!

In a project management context we dig holes when;

1. We don’t address project issues as they arise in a timely manner.
2. We don’t have a closed project scope.
3. We havn’t relayed to the customer correctly what they will be getting out of the project.
4. We under-quoted to get the job and are now trying to do things on the cheap.
5. We havn’t the right resources on the project.
6. We don’t apply lessons learned from previous projects to the latest ones.

We all have the things we don’t address when we encounter them before, during or after a project implementation.

But why don’t we address project management issues quickly?

Personally, I feel that this is mostly about fear.

• Fear of not getting the job in the first place.
• Fear of displeasing the customer if we don’t jump over ourselves to deliver the world.
• Fear of creating a bad impression with the boss.
• Fear of being “found wanting”.
• Fear of making the wrong decision.
• Fear of failure.

This is human nature. It’s natural to fear what can and does go wrong.

But fear simply makes a small hole bigger.. and bigger….

Better to stick your head above the parapet and make the touch calls when they are necessary. Hiding issues is simply delaying the inevitable and in the longer term can actually make them much larger.

Protect against fear within the project team by ensuring that they have;

• A feeling of openness and the ability to express themselves without fear of retribution.
• Iron tight processes for delivering a project.
• A “people orientated” project manager who can handle team, customer and senior management alike.

There are, I’m sure, lots more ways of ensuring that issues get dealt with quickly so those big holes don’t get dug.

What would you add to the list?

Photo: Coljay72

The importance of project reporting cannot be understated. The ability to report directly correlates with the ability to react.

If you have timely information, you can address a situation in a timely manner.

Without timely information, issues can go unnoticed until it is too late. Once resolvable minor niggles can fester into broader project issues that will cause one of the big four to fail (budget, time, quality or scope) – or indeed all four!

Depending on the role of the reader, the requirements for project reporting are fundamentally different.

Senior management require a snapshot view across all projects.  Which ones are doing ok, which ones are coming off the rails and might need their attention.

Project managers need more granular detail of the individual project(s) that they are responsible for.

When you are implementing an online project management tool for supporting your project management processes, one key element is the ability to quickly get access to relevant information.

• How’s the budget doing?
• How’s the timeline?
• Are there any issues flagged?

If you can’t get the basics quickly and easily out of your online project management tool, or any project management tool, then you need to consider whether it is fit for purpose.

The intention of any project management tool should be to support and aid the project management capability of the business. Reporting is a fundamental part of this. You shouldn’t need to go looking for the information – it should be there at a touch of a button.

Is your project management reporting accessible?

Is your online project management tool a facilitator?

Online project management tools of every flavour are available for both niche industries and at a generic level.

They are useful tools to have facilitating central communications, document storage, financial oversight and reporting.

But the point to remember about them is that they are just that – tools.

Your online project management tool should facilitate your project management efforts and ensure that it allows for the smoother running of your projects.

In reality, this is all that it can do.

And it can only do that if the information being input into the tool is accurate.

What your online project management tool needs from you!

The old adage (and pardon the language here please) – “Crap in/Crap Out” – applies absolutely to the use of an online project management tool.

• A tool cannot know your budget – unless you tell it.
• It cannot know your team – unless you tell it.
• It cannot know your schedule – unless you tell it.

And once it’s all set up, you need to tell it what you’re up to.

• How much money you have spent and where.
• The hours your team is working.
• Any changes you are making to the schedule or completion dates.

Without meaningful data, an online project management tool will simply become just another place for storing irrelevant information.

So when you make the decision to my a project management tool or any work flow management tool for that matter, the understanding needs to be in place of exactly what the teams are going to need to capture.

Why are we putting this information into the project management tool?

The biggest challenge to the success of a tool is ensuring that the project team do their updates in a timely manner. More often than not, they simply need to record their hours worked.

But often, it is a struggle to get these updates done without the project manager having to remind the project team frequently!

What I have found is that explaining to the team why they have to do something often removes some of this problem. The “why” should be relevant to them. e.g. If you put your hours in the tool we’ll have the ability to see the amount of work that you did on the project. We’ll also be able to check that the time we allocated to you for the task was sufficient so that for future projects, we get our estimations done more accurately.

So online project management tools are useful. But they are only as useful as the data allows and this should not be forgotten.

Photo: Winterbicycle

There are two types of management styles that I have experienced in my life when it comes to dealing with issues (known or otherwise).

1. The Ostrich who pretends that the issue is not happening or not going to happen until the very last second and then frantically tries to find the resolution.
2. The Silverback gorilla who watches constantly to assess what is going on and get it sorted – whether it’s an internal challenge from within the group or an external threat.

The most successful are those that plan for things going wrong so that they can be addressed according to that plan.

Even if a problem arises that they had not foreseen, they are eminently capable of addressing them as they arise.

Why?

Because they use the planning for the perceived potential threats to help resolve the one that hits them out of the blue.

Unfortunately, “the Ostrich” is a common problem in organisations when things look like they are going pear shaped.

Lack of communication and a mis-placed faith in already stressed resources to “get it sorted” seem to permeate considerable amounts of organisational managers.

This is often driven by fear.

• Fear of the senior management team berating you from their ivory towers.
• Fear of being found out and having your competence challenged.
• Fear of losing your job.

Fear is the most unnecessary feeling that can permeate within a working environment. It discourages everything positive that comes from openness, teamwork and getting the best out of people.

It also loses business valuable time, money and expertise.

It is up to senior management to ensure that the door is always open. Sure, they might still verbally “clobber” someone who has made a mistake or brings a problem to their door, but they are also likely to help get that problem addressed.

I am not condoning inadequacy or poor performance. If the manager in question is not up to the role, then they should be moved on (assuming that training/mentoring does not help).

However, if they are up to it and open enough to confess to a problem in their project or department, then this should be encouraged without fear of retribution or consequence.

This feeling will be passed down to the team.

• Communication will open up.
• Ideas will flow.
• Issues will be addressed.

Business will operate more smoothly!

What are your thoughts? Do you know the “Ostrich” or “Silverback”?

Photo: Storms