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10 Habits of Highly Effective Project Managers
Just because you've been a project manager since the days of "Gilligan's Island" is no guarantee that you are an effective project manager.
As a matter of fact, you may be still trying to get off your island. Even the Skipper and the Professor can't seem to help...encouraging...huh?
So, how can we produce intended or desired results in our projects? Here are 10 tips. Forming habits requires time and effort, but let's decide first which of these would be most helpful.
10 Habits of Effective Project Managers
Define what you mean by risk
The term "risk" means different things to different people. Some individuals think risks are negative events (i.e., threats); others include positive events (i.e., opportunities). Whether you are starting a project or a program, be clear about what you mean by the term risk.
Define and use a risk management plan
Many project managers and project teams approach their projects with no idea of how they plan to identify risks, assess risks, define risk response plans, implement response plans, or monitor risks. Don't make this mistake. Define a risk management plan and reach agreement with your team as to the approach and the amount of rigor you plan to use.
12 Good Reasons You Are Struggling With Small Projects
“Why am I still having problems with small projects?
This plaintive question is one I’m asked from time to time. I’d like to give some reasons why project managers struggle to manage small projects.
Pitfalls of Small Projects
1. You think these endeavors are simple. In general, smaller endeavors have less risk. However, these may have a complex set of variables.
Be sure to analyze the complexity. For example, you may engage your team to develop a context diagram and/or data flow diagrams early. This exercise allows the team to understand the context of the project.
2. You don’t have a charter. Individuals are assigned projects at the last minute with a tight deadline. Rather than discussing the undertaking with stakeholders and documenting the business case, problems, goals, and deliverables, the project manager hits the ground running. Later, stakeholders demand costly changes.
Make it a priority to engage your key stakeholders and develop a project charter. This exercise will provide a good foundation and reduce the changes later. For smaller endeavors, one should be able to create a charter in short order.
3. You are applying the wrong level of rigor. I see two extremes: First, managers do not follow any methodology. Second, managers perform unneeded tasks.
Keep it simple. Determine the steps you plan to take and develop the planning documents that will provide real value. Execute and stay with the plan.
4. The Project Sponsor is invisible. Many pint-sized-projects have no sponsor at all. The organization may assign a sponsor, but the sponsor has abdicated his or her role to the project manager or someone on the team.
If you don’t have a sponsor, solicit a fitting sponsor. Discuss with the sponsor their role and ask for their commitment.
5. Your team has been poorly staffed. Often, these undertakings are assigned leftover resources. Any warm body will do or will it?
For all endeavors, define the required knowledge and skills. Seek to staff the team accordingly.
6. Poor risk management. Yes, smaller ventures typically have less risk. This does not mean there are zero risks.
Risk management should not take much time, but be sure to integrate risk management in your project activities. Simple qualitative analysis should be sufficient for evaluating the risks.
7. You are not performing change management. A stakeholder asks for a change in the scope. It’s not a big change. You say okay.
Users request additional changes over time. The cumulative effect becomes significant.
Decide upfront how you will manage, track, and report changes. When is a change order required? Who has to approve it?
8. You are managing a project no one cares about. Projects may be selected arbitrarily. In some cases, the project does not align with the company’s strategy. The team knows the venture is a low priority and give it little attention.
This is a management issue. Management should create a Project Board that reviews requests for strategic alignment.
9. Your team is too large. Your project may be small, but it impacts several areas of the company. Everyone feels like they need someone on the team. You have fifteen people on the team when a handful will do.
Create a small core team. Make sure the team represents the primary stakeholder groups. You may wish to create a supplemental team of individuals who may be engaged as needed.
10. You are using the wrong tools. One may spend more time setting up their tools than managing the effort.
Keep things simple. For example, rather than using complex scheduling tools, you may use Excel.
11. You are managing too many projects. An individual may have a heavier load than they can manage. These managers may have difficulty prioritizing and juggling all the activities resulting in wasted time.
The resource manager should be careful to assess each project, estimate the time required for each project manager. Monitor success rates for these endeavors and make adjustments as needed.
12. You have not identified the important stakeholders. Surely we know who the stakeholders are or do we? We are tempted to skip the stakeholder identification.
Don’t make the common stakeholder mistakes. Small projects can touch a complex set of variables. Neglect in identifying and managing the stakeholders can be costly later in the project.
How About You?
Take a few minutes to review your small projects. Do you need to let go of some misconceptions and make some changes? Create some new habits. Don’t allow yourself to slip back into unproductive behaviors.
Ask the Right Questions at the Right Time
The success of a project manager largely lies in the individual’s ability to communicate. Some project managers have great oratory skills but don’t ask the right questions at the right time.
Here are some key questions for each of the project management process groups. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list; just some questions to get you thinking. Neither will you need to ask all of these questions for every project.
Keep in mind, the project process groups are seldom sequential, one-time events; they are overlapping activities that occur throughout the project.
Ask the Right Questions at the Right Time
Initiating Process Group
- Why are we doing this project?
- Is your project sponsor fully engaged and on board?
- What is the authority level of the project manager?
- What do we wish to accomplish?
- What are the products and services we wish to deliver?
- What are the budget constraints?
- What are the schedule constraints?
- What assumptions are being made?
- Who will be impacted? Which stakeholders have the greatest interest and power?
- Who will comprise the project team?
- What are the most significant risks?
- How will we know if the project was successful?
The Project Charter
Unfortunately, many people think of the project charter as an administrative hoop they must jump through to get their project approved. Therefore, many charters are written hastily with little thought.
The value of the charter process is engaging stakeholders, discussing the issues, resolving conflicts, and getting agreement as you initiate the project. The stakeholder interest is considered and aligned, resulting in less likelihood of costly changes later in the project.
Risk Management Wisdom and Humor of the Ages
Most of us have personal and career goals. Our ability to achieve those goals is dependent on our risk management skills, that is our ability to manage opportunities and threats. We seek to make good things happen and to eliminate or reduce the bad things.
Through the years, I have captured my favorite quotes related to the art and science of risk management. I hope you enjoy the insights as well as the humor.
1. "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling but in rising every time we fall." —NELSON MANDELA, SOUTH AFRICAN STATESMAN
2. "Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude." —THOMAS JEFFERSON, U.S. PRESIDENT
3. “People with goals succeed because they know where they are going.” —EARL NIGHTINGALE, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER AND AUTHOR
4. “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses those skills to accomplish his goals.” —LARRY BIRD, NBA PLAYER AND COACH
5. "The world is getting to be such a dangerous place, a man is lucky to get out of it alive." —W.C. FIELDS, COMEDIAN AND MOVIE STAR
"They that are on their guard and appear ready to receive their adversaries are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent." —BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, SCIENTIST, PUBLISHER, AND DIPLOMAT
6. “There is a myth that people hate change. Not true! What scares them isn’t change, it’s uncertainty. They worry about whether the changes are good or bad. People love change when it involves pleasant surprises. What they fear are the unpleasant ones.” —ALAN MULALLY, CEO OF FORD MOTOR COMPANY
7. “Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” —WINSTON CHURCHILL, PRIME MINISTER OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
8. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.” —FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT, U.S. PRESIDENT
9. "A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." —GEORGE S. PATTON, GENERAL IN THE U.S. ARMY
10. “The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster, or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips.” —J. PAUL GETTY, ANGLO-AMERICAN INDUSTRIALIST
11. "Not only do I not know what's going on, I wouldn't know what to do about it if I did." -GEORGE CARLIN, COMEDIAN
12. "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." —SUN-TZU, CHINESE GENERAL AND MILITARY STRATEGIST
13. “A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.” —GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, IRISH PLAYWRIGHT RISK
14. “They that are on their guard and appear ready to receive their adversaries are in much less danger of being attacked than the supine, secure and negligent.” —BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, SCIENTIST, PUBLISHER, AND DIPLOMAT
15. “When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it.” —YOGI BERRA, BASEBALL PLAYER
16. “100 percent of the shots you don’t take don’t go in.” —WAYNE GRETZKY, PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY PLAYER
17. “You decide what it is you want to accomplish and then you lay out your plans to get there, and then you just do it. It’s pretty straightforward.” —NANCY DITZ, MARATHONER
18. “Treat people as if they were what they ought to be and you help them become what they are capable of being.” —JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE, GERMAN WRITER AND POLYMATH
19. “The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. if you can fake that, you’ve got it made.” —GROUCHO MARX, COMEDIAN AND MOVIE STAR
20. “I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.” —RODNEY DANGERFIELD, COMEDIAN
3 Ways Your Team Makes Your Project More Risky
This is a guest article by Elizabeth Harrin from GirlsGuideToPM.com.
Much of the time, risk management at the beginning of a project looks like getting the team in a room to review the whole project and work out what might be coming that could affect how the project proceeds.
The project manager writes up the discussion in the risk register along with what the team is going to do to avoid or amplify (in the case of positive risk) the risks. As the project progresses, more risks are identified, dutifully added and managed.
Risks Caused by Team Members
What’s happening here is that we’re looking at the work and impacts on the work. This approach to risk management is very task driven. We ask questions like:
- What might prevent us from hitting that milestone on time?
- What might mean we need to ask for a budget increase during this phase?
- What quality problems might we come across that would give the client an issue?
- Who might be a difficult stakeholder on the project?
These are all valid questions. But they miss one crucial area that massively affects everything on the project every day. Us. The project team.
Our skills, ability to work together as a team, or lack thereof, present the biggest chance of success for the project and also the biggest risk.
Here are some examples of how the people on your team make your project inherently more risky.
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
- 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.
- 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.
- Brainstorm causes for each category. Add causes to the appropriate category lines.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- Lack of user input
- Incomplete requirements
- 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
Poor project quality can have profound effects on projects resulting in rework, schedule delays, higher cost, frustration, morale problems, and lack of customer satisfaction. Project managers cannot afford to miss the mark here. Quality matters.
When buying eyeglasses, what do people look for? One person may focus on features such as the frame style. Another person may want anti-scratch coating or UV-blocking treatment.
Others also look for a great customer experience—how they are greeted, how easy it is to find their frames, and the fast, accurate checkout process.
Projects are similar–project customers, whether internal or external, want great products and service. How do your customers describe your service? Are they getting the product features they want?
Here are some common quality management mistakes. Overcoming these seven mistakes can greatly improve your chance of success. Continue reading
