Category Archives for 3=Execution

How to Create a Cause and Effect Diagram

Do you have problems? Projects running behind schedule? Cycle time for a business process increasing? Sales down? People continuing to live in silos? Let's discuss a simple but powerful tool for solving problems - the Cause and Effect Diagram (alias Fishbone Diagram).

Steps to Create a Cause and Effect Diagram

1. Identify and clarify the problem. State the problem objectively. Ask questions concerning the problem. As Jack Welch said, “Continually expand your definition of the problem, and you expand your view of all the different ways that it can be solved.” Write out the problem or effect on the far-right-hand side of the diagram. Draw a horizontal line (the spine of the fish) to the problem.
2. Identify the cause categories. For example, use the 4 M categories: Machine, Method, Materials, Manpower. Add the categories to the diagram. Draw diagonal lines (bones of the fish) to each category.
3. Brainstorm causes for each category. Add causes to the appropriate category lines.
4. Identify the most significant causes.  Ask the team to identify the most significant causes. Remember the Pareto Principle - 80% of the problem comes from 20% of the causes.
5. Define the risk response plan. What can be done to eliminate or reduce the most significant causal factors? Who will be responsible for taking actions? When are the actions due? 

“A problem well-defined is a problem half-solved.” -Anonymous

Power Tips for Cause and Effect Diagrams

1. Invite creative problem solvers who lack knowledge of the problem domain. Does this sound counterintuitive? Your team members may have deep-seated thoughts and assumptions about problems. Ask someone unfamiliar with the problem to participate in the session. Invite them to challenge the norm and inject a different perspective.
2. Resist the temptation to solve the problem when identifying the problem and causes. Many people prematurely jump to solutions before understanding the problem and causes. Seek first to understand.
3. Dig deeper in identifying the causes. Use the 5 Whys technique. Identify the problem and then to ask “why” five times. You may ask “why” less than or more than five times. Continue until you identify the primary root causes in which you can take actions yielding significant results.
4. Use the Cause and Effect Diagram to analyze an opportunity. For step 1, identify the opportunity rather than a problem. For step 5, seek to exploit or enhance the opportunity.

It's Your Turn

Are you behind schedule on one of your projects? Develop a cause and effect diagram to identify the causes. And then determine which of the causes had the greatest impact. Don't stop there. Determine how you will minimize the probability and impact of those causes going forward.

Build A PMO You Can Be Proud Of

Some Project Management Offices (PMOs) never get off the ground. I've seen others that are started and a year or so later die a slow painful death. So, how can you build a PMO you can be proud of, one that thrives?

Why Are There So Many Troubled PMOs?

No one intends to build an impotent PMO, but it happens. The PMO lacks power and effectiveness. Therefore, people see the PMO as a hindrance, not an enabler.

Click here to discover 40 reasons PMOs fail. Furthermore, I describe how to handle PMO threats—things that may hinder your ability to build a PMO—here.

Let's look at five ways we can improve vitality and provide value to our organization.

"There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing." –Aristotle

Five Keys to Successful PMOs

1. PMO Sponsorship. Without a strong, influential sponsor, the PMO is doomed. Don’t have a sponsor? Then don’t create a PMO. Because you will be fighting an uphill battle, one that you will likely lose.

2. Clarity. Define specific, measurable goals. How will you measure the success of the PMO? What are the Key Performance Indicators?

The PMO leader should also be clear about the type of PMO being implemented. The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) describes three types of PMOs:

• Supportive – provide support to project managers in a consultative role. Provide templates, training, best practices, and lessons learned. Control is low.
• Controlling – require project managers to follow a project management framework or methodology using specific tools and templates. Control is moderate.
• Directive – projects are managed by project managers in the PMO. Control is high.

Since clarity is essential to success, you must continuously cast the vision of where you are going, how you get there, and why you are going there.

3. Alignment. Define a process to ensure projects align with the organization’s mission and goals. What criteria will be used to select projects?

For example, the project selection criterion might include:

• Strategic importance: Does the project tightly link with the strategic plan?
• Financial viability: Does the project contribute to the financial success of the organization? Is the project profitable?
• Flexibility: Does the project provide business and technical flexibility to accommodate future changes?
• Risk: How high is the risk? What is the project risk score?
• Regulatory compliance: Is the organization required legally to comply with new regulations?

Kill non-value added projects. Transfer resources to value-added projects. Certainly, resource management across the project portfolio is a critical success factor.

Some organizations also use a gate review process. At certain stages of each project, the project is reviewed to ensure continuous alignment.

4. Execution. Teach project managers to use a scalable project management framework or methodology. Provide templates to aid project managers in their execution. Another tip, offer to mentor and support project managers during the execution of their projects.

5. Continuous Improvement. Evaluate the framework, tools, techniques, templates, as well as the projects. Develop and maintain lessons learned.

How to Jump-Start a PMO

Thinking about starting a PMO? I recommend that you develop a project charter with your project sponsor and key stakeholders. Define the problems you wish to overcome, goals, deliverables, assumptions, constraints, and top risks to a successful implementation. You can build a PMO that you are proud of through early collaboration with your stakeholders, persistent leadership, and staying focused on delivering value to your organization. Best wishes!

Why Project Managers Need Business Analysts for Project Success

The Standish Group says three of the biggest factors that lead to failed and challenged projects are:

1. Lack of user input
2. Incomplete requirements
3. Changing requirements

We should attack these threats with a vengeance. How can we do this? We add skilled requirements analysts to our teams.

When Do Project Managers Need a Business Analyst?

The role of the project manager is to achieve the project’s goals or objectives. Who performs the business analysis tasks for the projects? That depends.

For small projects, the project manager may assume many roles including but not be limited to:

• Project manager
• Requirements analyst
• Tester
• Facilitator and scribe
• Trainer
• Chief bottle washer (just kidding)

For larger projects, project managers must find ways to complete project tasks through others. They must not fall into the trap of doing everything themselves. Wise project managers recruit team members with the necessary skills and talents.Continue reading

The What, Why, and How of Project Requirements

How big of a deal are project requirements?

The Project Management Institute says, “47% of unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poor requirements management.” –Requirements Management, A Core Competency for Project and Program Success

In his book — Just Enough Requirements Management — Alan Davis shares, “Various studies suggest that errors introduced during requirements activities account for 40 to 50 percent of all defects found in a software product.”

What are Project Requirements?

Stakeholders hear the term “requirements” but interpret the meaning in different ways. Before we can manage anything, it’s critical that we have a working definition.

Requirement: something that is needed or that must be done. –Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Project Management Body of Knowledge defines requirement as “a condition or capability that is required to be present in a product, service, or result to satisfy a contract or other formally imposed specification.”

Karl Wiegers — author of Software Requirements — shared this definition: “Requirements are a specification of what should be implemented. They are descriptions of how the system should behave, or of a system property or attribute.”Continue reading

To Improve Project Quality, Start Early, Stay With It

How Do You Respond to Project Conflicts?

Project managers, team members, and other stakeholders have disagreements, some heated, some not. What’s important is how you respond to project conflicts? Conflicts can be beneficial if handled in an open, transparent manner.

Successful project managers do not run away from conflict; they run toward it. They call it out by name in a neutral and unoffending manner. And they quickly engage the appropriate stakeholders in order to discuss and resolve the issues.

Furthermore, the best project managers are risk managers constantly mitigating conflicts. How? First, these leaders communicate well—they tell the team where they are going, how they will get there, and when things will occur. Second, they clarify goals, priorities, and requirements. Third, these project managers work with their teams to break down the project and make activity assignments clear.Continue reading

How to Recognize and Reward Your Project Teams

People grow tired of working for unappreciative organizations. If it goes on long enough, the top performers get frustrated and leave. Therefore, it’s important to develop a culture of appreciation.

But rewards and recognition can be tricky. People are motivated in different ways. John may be thrilled by his challenging project work and the opportunity to learn something new. On the other hand, Susan is supercharged by gestures of appreciation—public recognition or a simple thank-you card.

Furthermore, many project managers don’t have the budget for doing much. How can we create a recognition and rewards program that shows our appreciation and motivates our team, sometimes with limited means?

Here’s the good news—many studies have shown that employees value personal recognition more than money. In other words, it’s possible to create meaningful recognition and rewards programs with a limited budget.

When developing a human resource management plan, be sure to include a rewards and recognition plan. Predetermine how and when you will recognize your team members.Continue reading

How to Improve the Performance of Your Project Teams

Ever watched what happens when a new team is formed? Maybe you’ve seen a new team of little league baseball players, a music group, a civic group, or a business team. The initial dynamics can be rather rocky and uncertain, even with skilled individuals.

Imagine a new project team that was formed to consolidate customer service centers from 20 locations across the United States to five regional locations. The goal for Phase 1 of the project was the consolidate four centers in the Southeast to the Atlanta Customer Service Center. Here were some of the attributes of the team:

• Resources were preassigned
• Eight people comprised the core team
• Each team member lived in a different city
• Ages ranged from 28 to 62
• Four of the team members have worked on several projects together in the past
• Two members have never been on a project team

If you were the project manager, how would you assess the team? What steps would you take to develop the team? How would you help the team move through the team stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing more quickly?Continue reading

37 Practical Ways to Improve Your Project Communication

Are you looking for ways to improve your project communication? You’re not alone. Most project managers know that 90% of their time is spent in communicating – hearing, speaking, and seeking to understand.

Project managers constantly communicate — coaching, summarizing action items, influencing stakeholders, educating team members, listening, facilitating decisions, creating a contract with a third party, escalating an issue, and meeting with a project sponsor, to name a few. Great project managers are first great communicators. How can we get better?
Continue reading

How to Facilitate the Resolution of Conflicting Ideas

Have you ever encountered conflicting ideas when facilitating change within a department, business unit, or across an organization? Do you often see resistance to your change efforts? Have you ever started down a path that made perfectly good sense to you but seemed crazy to others?

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock (edited in Canva)

Perhaps you’ve recently started a program. The program team has been working on an organizational strategy, where the mission is translated into a strategic plan that is subdivided into projects. You are looking for ways to align your efforts to gain the greatest benefit.

For any program, it’s critical to identify your stakeholders and seek to understand their needs and expectations. Invariably, stakeholders have different needs. How can we resolve and harmonize the different stakeholder perceptions and distinct expectations?

Three Ways to Surface and Resolve Conflicting Ideas

1. Identify Stakeholders. First, identify the stakeholders. Stakeholders include individuals, groups, or organizations — internally and externally — that may be impacted by the change initiative. In the program example, stakeholders might include the project sponsor, the project team, the project manager, the board, program vendors, information technology, and human resources, to name a few.

2. Analyze Stakeholders. Next, identify the needs and concerns of the stakeholders. We should also identify the stakeholders with the greatest interest and power. Who can influence the change in a positive or negative manner? Change can be deliberate (planned) or emergent (unplanned). As much as possible, guide the change process in a deliberate manner. Things coming out of nowhere can be highly disruptive.

3. Facilitate the Resolution of Conflicting Ideas. After identifying and analyzing the stakeholders, turn your attention to resolving the conflicts. In the change management world, this is called sensemaking. Sensemaking consists of things that help individuals and groups to make sense of what’s happening around them. How does this happen? It often occurs in hallway discussions, rumors, gossip, and half-baked emails.

Healthy sensemaking, however, consists of activities aimed at understanding the impact and outcomes of the change process and agreeing on how to move forward. Approaches include:

• Clarifying the mission
• Defining the strategy
• Engaging the stakeholders in the change process
• Identifying the initiatives to support the strategy
• Open communications
• Team meetings

Are You Making Sense?

What change initiatives are you managing right now? Does the change make sense to your stakeholders? If not, consider identifying and analyzing your stakeholders. Pay particular attention to the high-power / high-interest stakeholders. Then apply some of the approaches listed above to harmonize the interests of your stakeholders. Best wishes!