I’ve been on both sides of the scheduling tool:
I’ve been the Program Manager working with a Project Controls Specialist who’s trying to pull together a project schedule from multiple teams.
I’ve been a Scheduler who has worked with teams to put together that release level schedule.
In both cases, we’ve always had the same problem:
How do you communicate what’s described in detail inside your scheduling tool to the team in a way that:
- Is succinct
- Communicates critical milestones
- Shows dependencies to the relevant teams
In spite of the hours you spend reviewing durations, checking predecessors and successors, and making sure every activity is linked, no one else seems very interested in looking at the Completed Schedule.
Even a brief walkthrough of the schedule can be sleep-inducing. You know you’ve lost them when their eyes glaze over and you suddenly see yourself as Charlie Brown’s teacher explaining the homework assignment: ‘Mwah, Mwah, Mwah.’
In a Waterfall environment, having a formalized schedule is unavoidable. To help minimize some of the zoning out, I’ve used a few of the following ideas with varying degrees of success:
- Milestone Table
This is the most obvious way of breaking free of the Gantt chart and showing critical dates. Unfortunately, you lose the ability to literally see the dependencies. In longer schedules, however, Gantt charts fail here too. - Powerpoint slides or Excel spreadsheets
While it’s more labor-intensive, pulling the dates into a picture that can show dependencies and risks can be helpful in eliciting more response from the team. The problem here is that you have a static view that never changes; unless you repeat your original effort to pull the live dates from a schedule that runs in the background. - Visio Chart
Using Visio to pull together a dynamic view of the schedule can help solve your rework problem. Someone has even devised a way to link it to your Microsoft Project schedule. Unfortunately, I have always used another project scheduling tool, so updating the dates was always required. The good news with this option is your visual milestones move when you update the dates.
In an Agile environment, the schedule seems to have disappeared. While it may be maintained at a higher level to communicate program dates, at the sprint-level, it’s been replaced with what seems intuitively obvious: a sprint plan that is simple enough to show where people are and what work is remaining.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the schedule and have even grown to love maintaining its links and dependencies. As a project manager, I enjoy generating the reports and running Monte Carlo analysis to understand whether we’re anywhere close to hitting our end date.
It’s just that no one else seems to be all that interested. And as a communication tool, it’s a big FAIL.
Where’s the love?
Disagree with me? Leave a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the future may have only 1,000 vaccuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1.5 tons.
unknown, Popular Mechanics, March 1949
Predicting the future is a difficult thing.
Even for those with their fingers on the pulse of an industry, it can be illusive. Could Popular Mechanics in 1949 have envisoned the iPad?
Predictions like the quote above make me skeptical of articles and posts on “The Future of Project Management. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, much less what the future could bring to a profession?
So don’t believe me.
I don’t blame you for reading Future-focused posts. I like reading them too.
My craving for certainty drives me to read posts on the future. I guess I’m hoping I’ll find something to help me survive in what still seems like a very chaotic marketplace.
Believe the trail of failed predictions.
The truth is, we never know what’s going to happen. The mix of people, events and the nature of the economy would make predicting the future of project management an iffy job for fortunetellers. Project Managers who make data-based decisions should probably avoid them.
Believe what you see.
What do we know for sure? Not much. I’m sure you’ve heard the following:
Buzzwords
- Business acumen
- Being “Green” is in
- Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean
- Social Networking
Trends that are changing the way we work
- Contracting instead of hiring full-time employees
- Outsourcing
- Virtual Teams
Believe that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Don’t leave here thinking that I’m telling you to ignore the trends or God forbid, the buzzwords. Enjoy them, learn from them, and use them to extend your effectiveness. Just remember that the basics of Project Management haven’t changed.
The best practices outlined in the PMBOK or PRINCE aren’t going to change whether we’re using ENIACS or iPads to track the progress of a schedule.
The tools and techniques we use to manage risk won’t change whether we’re talking with teammembers in Bangalore over a teleconference bridge or sharing ideas over Google Wave.
Instead of looking for certainty in a prediction that will, like most fortunetelling:
- Be vague
- Broadly described and
- Be completely wrong when the “future” turns into the present
Let’s work on the fundamentals.
I’m far more interested in understanding how the fundamentals can be improved on with new tools and ideas than in scrying the future.
Disagree with me? Think posts on the Future of Project Management add value? Leave a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
A conclusion is simply the place where someone got tired of thinking.
- Anonymous
In my last post, I covered three ways to help improve project closeouts. The end of a project should not be “a place where someone got tired of thinking.” In today’s post, I’ll cover three more tips to help you to close well.
The real question is how do you close out your project with your sanity and sense of humor intact? Here are three more ways to make the end seem less onerous:
- Handoffs or Not dropping the ball and going home
Sometimes the problem is not in the original execution, but how you hand off the ball. Check on how the team plans to hand off responsibilities. If there’s a support team that will field calls from customers, make sure they have the training, documentation and technical support they need to be successful. Should the nightmare scenario happen and your application crashes and burns, the one thing customers will remember is whether support was easy to call or whether they felt like they were abandoned. Putting a support plan in place is a critical element in closing well. - Signing in blood or Getting Signoff
At some companies, getting signoff can be a complicated matter of getting buy-in from multiple stakeholders with different agendas. In your case, it could be as simple as getting a couple of internal stakeholders to sit down and discuss their concerns and their perspective on releasing the product as it is. Work the issues they raise and get their acceptance before releasing your product. Concerns they raise before release that you don’t acknowledge and respond to can become “reasons I never should have accepted the product” afterward. - Making a List and Checking it Twice: Creating a Punchlist
It may seem like an obvious thing, but the act of simply creating a list of what needs to be resolved before you declare “done” can help you get signoff. Punchlists may slow down the final closure process, but they can help surface hidden issues or concerns that would have eventually hindered acceptance. And remember, it’s not just creating the list, it’s reviewing the list and addressing the concerns your stakeholders have before release.
While these tips won’t make you like closing any more than you do now, they may help you avoid a few pitfalls. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve project closure? Leave a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”
-Orson Welles
What is your favorite part of the project lifecycle?
Some project managers love openings and pulling it all together. Others love slogging through the murky middle.
My favorite part is the end, when everything comes together and you deliver something. Whatever. Something complete. Then I get the payoff, “cha-ching!”, that makes project management something I love to do.
If you love project management, but closing out does nothing for you, then the real question is how do you close out with your sanity and sense of humor intact? In the next two posts, I’ll cover six ways to make the end seem less onerous:
- Stephen Covey style: Begin with the End in Mind
If you’ve missed doing this at the beginning of your project, it’s not too late. Do it now. Review the timeline and look at what might be needed at the end. Do the customers need training? Do your support personnel need training on the features or the new product you’re delivering? Think through the sequence of events in the Life of Joe User who finds out on Monday that your application was loaded onto their laptop. Without instructions. Without training. And they need to use your application to get their work done. You’ll begin to understand why the customer can get a little tetchy.
- What the **** do our customers want? Reviewing your Stakeholder Register
Another way to uncover what the users might need after you release your product is to review your Stakeholder Register and consider what problems it is supposed to solve for them. A quick review of the register can be helpful in helping you find a gap in your current rollout plan.
- Are you passing flaming torches? What risks remain open?
You’ve completed the work.
Software Quality seems good.
The Paperwork has all the I’s dotted and T’s crossed, but are you done? If there are outstanding risks that could fall out of the sky on an unsuspecting customer, then guess what? You’re not done. Review the risks with your stakeholders and make sure that if a mitigation plan is not in place, then you have a stakeholder willing to own the risk and drive it to closure.
I’ll stop at three today and save the final three for next Wednesday.
While these tips won’t make you like closing any more than you do now, they may help you avoid a few pitfalls.
Do you have any suggestions on how to improve project closure? Leave a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”
- John Maxwell
I was riding the train into work when I read this quote for what seems like the hundredth time. Each time I’ve read it, it seemed to have nothing to do with me or with my job.
The term “Leader” always seemed to apply to charismatic people who point out the direction and say, Go Execute!
So you’ll understand why I always read over the quote, until that morning: when I understood that “adjusting the sails” is the same as making do with what you’ve got.
‘Make do with what you’ve got,’ is a familiar idea to many project managers: if not the exact phrase, then they know it by experience. When I read the quote that morning, it occurred me that every day project managers take situations that are handed to them and then adjust to help their projects move forward.
This post is for project managers who, like me, have read that quote and felt like it didn’t apply. If you hear from no one else, read it now and believe that you are a leader when you:
- Are given too much process for a 6 week project or not enough process for a 9-12 month, multi-site, multi-product effort.
Whether you’re working with Quality to waive unnecessary paperwork for people who need to get “the work” done or you’re feeling your way through a process that that doesn’t cover new products, partners or new business arrangements and needs to be adjusted to help your team get “the work” done, you’ve read it here first: You’re a Leader. Thank you. - Are given limited resources and a desired (read committed) date.
You’ve met with the Customer / Product Manager to hear the need by date. You’ve met with the Development Manager to go through a resource chart and heard an explanation of why your request is impossible. Now you’re faced with the task of working with the feature managers to see what is possible, taking that undesired date and presenting the truth to your customer. Guess what? You’re a Leader. Thank you. - Are given a project in the middle of organizational seismic change.
Change happens in organizations. Nowadays, it seems like change occurs every ten minutes. If your project is impacted by Offshoring, company acquisitions, layoffs or management changes, and you work with the team to keep the project from slipping dates or failing due to external risks…Congratulations. You have met the criteria: You are a Leader. Thank you.
Every situation where you confront the unexpected and the seemingly immovable is a place for you to shine as a leader. Remember that on days when you feel a little overwhelmed and decidedly unleaderlike.
Until next week, Leaders.
Leave me a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
It’s the third week of the month again.
If you’re new here, the third week of every month, I pull together all the links that I’ve run into since last month that made me think or laugh.
This week’s Bug on Windshield links are related to: Personal Effectiveness, Project Management, and Fun.
Personal Effectiveness
- Why Handling Resistance is like Sharing Pie
- 10 Ways to Generate New Ideas
- 5 Ways to Improve Reading Comprehension
- 20 Powerful Beliefs that can push you toward success
- How to Reduce the Number of Meetings to one a quarter
Project Management
Fun
- Amazing. LED Hanging Scrolls
- All of Seth Godin’s ebooks in one place
- The Complaints Choir of Tokyo
- Japanese Photographer Bends electricity to his will
That’s all for this week. Leave me a comment, send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.
-Carolyn Wells
If I had created the world…
Ice cream would be calorie-free and…
Every newbie Project Manager would have a PM Toolkit that comes with instructions on when to use each Tool or Technique.
Like a Promise Box*, you could reach inside the Project Advice Box and pull out just the right Tip or PMBOK quote to get advice when things are sliding in the wrong direction.
Unfortunately, beyond the Magic Eight Ball, there is no such thing as an advice generator. As a result, many PMs end up learning hard lessons and generating their own set of best practices.
When I read No Time for Tact: 365 Days of the Wit, Words and Wisdom of Larry Winget, I recognized five pieces of advice that would have been great starter cards for the Project Advice Box.
If only the world were mine…
Jan 21: Sometimes you lose. When it happens, don’t be a jerk about it. Sometimes you win. When it happens, don’t be a jerk about it.
This is hard. Despite numerous humiliations, it never seems to get easier. Keep in mind that you want to continue working with people 5 minutes after your humiliation or victory and stay away from the keyboard. Or the phone. Or talking about it to other people. Move onto the next thing and stay focused on the end goal: the team finishing the project successfully (which by the way is more than just finishing on time with quality).
Jan 23: Inspect what you expect.
Stuff doesn’t happen just because you expect it to happen; You have to make sure it happens by inspecting the progress.
Ronald Reagan had a saying that I love to quote because it helps me remember not to be as gullible as I used to be: Trust, but Verify.
Feb 8: Manage priorities, not time.
Time will not expand, no matter how well you plan your day. Accept the fact that much of what you want to do will fall off the plate by the end of the day. Identify what must be done before you leave and focus on getting everything on that list crossed off. You’ll feel like you accomplished something, in spite of the 200 emails in your In-box.
April 20: A guaranteed way to avoid criticism: Say nothing. Do nothing. Be nothing.
I spent a lot of time as a newbie project manager sweating on the keyboard when responding to email because I was worried about what other people would think. Ten minutes later, I would see positive responses and I would wonder what I had been so worried about. Focus on doing your job. Do your best, then let it go.
Sept 23: Focus on what you need to do right now. Too much time is spent worrying about what happened in the past or fretting about what might happen in the future. The past is just that: passed. It has passed by you and is over, so move on. The future probably isn’t going to be as bad as you imagine it to be.
Focus on the present.It’s all you’ve really got to work with.
When one of my project’s crashed and burned, I had to make a decision about whether I wanted to obsess over the failure endlessly (my preferred method to handle problems) or let it go and keep moving forward. Fortunately, I did not have any time to waste, I had to start tracking the recovery plan. It was a good decision and it’s been good advice for other areas of my life since then. Stay 100% in the Present. You’ll be far more effective than if you’ve left part of your attention in the past.
Larry Winget’s book has a lot of other advice that can make you laugh or wince, depending on which side of the hammer you end up on. Do you know of any other great truisms that would serve as great starter cards for the Project Advice Box? Leave me a comment or send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
*Promise Boxes, for those who are not from my region of the country or my religious tradition, are boxes with Bible scriptures and associated promises written on them. They used to be very popular devotional aids: pull out a card, read a promise, say a prayer for the promise.
“Reading furnishes the mind only with material for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”
John Locke
As my last post of 2009 and my first post in 2010, I wanted to share 10 books that I think are worth the time and money. While not all of the books are project management specific, their ideas will help you be a better project manager.
In last week’s post I covered books on Personal Effectiveness. This week, I’ll finish with 5 books that helped me keep or improve a positive attitude last year.
Confidence
What was missing throughout most of 2009? Confidence. Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s book on the subject was helpful in explaining how sports teams gained, lost and then regained confidence. She shows how can confidence can be built and maintained through small steps taken by leaders and their teams.
Key Quote:
“People with character have internalized – embedded in themselves – the three cornerstones of confidence: accountability, collaboration and initiative. When the going is tough, they are able to draw on those internal supports. They behave accountably in finding the strength for extra effort so as to live up to responsibilities. They behave collaboratively by reaching out to other people and seeking mutual support. And they show initiative by finding steps that can be taken through things that they control, that can make a difference, however small.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
Outlines how leaders create and maintain confidence in their teams and themselves.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because in this economy, understanding how to work past obstacles and defeats is essential in eventually achieving success.
Upbeat
There were days during 2009 when it was very tough to stay positive – especially when everyone wanted to talk about the economy. And how bad it was. And how your job search was going. Rajesh Setty reminded us that we lived inside our conversations, so it was critical that they were headed somewhere constructive.
Key Quote:
“To think differently won’t happen overnight but you have to start somewhere. My strong belief is that if you initiate change in the right direction, you will discover a solution for yourself very soon that outlasts any recession, and actually helps you thrive during such times.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
Upbeat asks hard questions about how you will adapt in order to thrive during a recession. Owning the book will allow you to revisit whether you’re adding value to your network or need to raise the bar in another area of your life.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
The book is written to entrepreneurs and encourages an entrepreneurial mindset when you sell yourself to employers within today’s marketplace.
The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (even when you have every reason to be miserable)
The most surprising book I picked up all year, The Great Eight, written by Scott Hamilton, provided a fresh perspective on happiness. In a departure from other books on happiness, Hamilton writes that happiness doesn’t fall in your lap: it takes work.
Key Quote:
“Consider yourself an athlete competing in a sport called happiness….It takes a discipline of focus and determination to achieve happiness. And no one will make it happen for you but yourself.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
In The Great Eight, the author outlines eight disciplines that he uses to define and achieve happiness. What is useful about this perspective on happiness is that it is “ready for everyday use.” This is not a sunny-day perspective: Hamilton fought off cancer and setbacks in his career before he wrote this book. Its advice was very helpful in dealing with setbacks and disappointments in my job search.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Hamilton writes that when a skater falls they are trained to bounce back up and pretend like the fall never happened. The same mental toughness is a good characteristic for any PM to acquire, since everything we do is seen and judged by everyone.
The Power of Nice
The Power of Nice? I know. But, in The Power of Nice, Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval explain how being nice can help you influence others.
Key Quote:
“It is often the small kindnesses – the smiles, gestures, compliments, favors – that make our day and can even change our lives….the power of nice will help you break through the misconceptions that keep you from achieving your goals. The power of nice will help you to open doors, improve your relationship at work and at home, and let you sleep a whole lot better. Nice not only finishes first: those who use its nurturing power wind up happier to boot!”
Advantage to Owning this Book:
This book is a useful reminder of ways to be nice in the workplace. If you’re feeling jaded, reading this book will remind you of the influence that you can gain by simply being nice.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Most PMs have no power in the organization and rely on the kindness of others to get work done. This is a good investment to learn how to influence others.
Three Seconds: The Power of Thinking Twice
I’ll finish up with a Les Parrott book on the benefit gained by waiting another three seconds to make a decision. In three seconds, or what is commonly known as ‘thinking twice,’ we can improve our attitude, get up from a failure and try again or embrace a challenge.
Key Quote:
“Three seconds separate those who “give it their all” from those who “don’t give it a second thought” – literally. Three seconds. This brief buffer is all that stands between those who settle for “whatever” and those who settle for nothing less than “whatever it takes.”
Advantage to Owning this Book:
The simple ideas outlined in this slim book are powerful. It is a very good book to reread to keep them fresh in your thoughts.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Three Seconds is a book about continuing to reach for excellence.
Do you have any recommendations of books I should read in 2010? Leave a comment, send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
“I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.” - Harold Kushner
In 2009, I made a commitment to read 100 books and keep track of them in LibraryThing.* As my last post of 2009 and my first post in 2010, I’d like to share 10 books that I think were worth the time and money.
While not all of the books are project management specific, their ideas will help you be a better project manager. I’ve grouped the books into two categories. Books that can help:
- Improve your Personal Effectiveness
- Shift your attitude
This week I’ll share the books that can help Improve your Personal Effectiveness. Next week, the books on Attitude. Up first…
Facilitator’s Guide to Participatory Decision-making
Over the course of a year, a project manager is dropped into hundreds of situations where they are expected to facilitate. If you’re like me, no one ever explained what a good facilitator does or how they get groups to respond positively. The following book is an excellent place to learn how and why a project manager needs to be a good facilitator.
Key Quote:
“The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
Great reference to use to refresh your memory or prepare for meetings and workshops. It leans hard on the “how-to” steps and building blocks to hold meetings and facilitate teams of all sizes.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because PM’s live in meetings where we need people to do their best thinking and develop solutions.
Good in a Room
I checked this book out of the library based on a recommendation and within 17 pages knew that I needed to buy the book. The advice on how to put together a pitch and sell yourself before and during an interview were very helpful.
Key Quote:
“It happens all the time. The ideas, products and services that are pitched more effectively win. That’s jut how the game is played. No sense getting upset over it. Instead, let’s accept the challenge and learn the strategies and tactics that will allow us and our ideas to succeed.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
Owning the book makes it easier to walk through the steps of developing a pitch whenever you have to prepare for an interview or a presentation.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because PM’s need to be able to pitch their ideas to others and get their buy-in.
Making Sense of Leadership
This book opened my eyes to see potential areas of growth and gave tips on how to improve. This book explains that leaders can have very different styles and still be effective.
Key Quote:
“Leaders don’t all have to be highly dominant people; they don’t all have to be interpersonal wizards. It’s not essential for all leaders to be electrifying speakers and leading-edge thinkers. Neither is it essential for every single leader to be superbly organized…but it does help to be at least some of these things. And leaders have to learn to develop the right mix of role to match their personality, the organizational situation and the people around them.”
Advantages to Owning this Book:
The authors provide detailed descriptions of each leadership style and advice on how to incorporate aspects of each style into your daily behavior. A good book to reference.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because PMs should understand their primary leadership style and how to use aspects of other styles to be effective.
The Randori Principles
I love books that claim to align eastern philosophy with leadership principles. At a minimum, I’ll pick them up and look at the first few pages. The Randori Principles takes the principles of aikido and provides solid advice on how to be a better leader.
Key Quote:
“A leader must also develop an ability to choose the right approach, with the right timing, and the appropriate use of power. Leadership should not rely on using a cookie-cutter approach to this fast-changing global business situation. Good judgment, part of which we call randori, is as valuable as core leadership skills.”
Advantage to Owning this Book:
This is not a book to be read once and put down. This has made it to my list of books that need to be reread, to learn what I missed before and to refresh my memory. It’s like having a mentor on a shelf.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because learning how to be a better leader should be a constant aspect of your growth plan.
Th!nkTweet!
My biggest surprise when reading this book was how many of the tweets within it could provoke serious thought and change to move you out of your comfort zone.
Key Quote:
There are so many good quotes. Here’s #36:
“Who is ONE person that can change who you are for the
better? How can you be an OPPORTUNITY for him/her?
Advantage to Owning this Book:
As you might have noticed, I like to have books around that I can reread to refresh my memory or provoke new thinking. This book is another resource to keep you motivated toward change.
Why is this a good buy for a PM?
Because the brief tweets are short and quick to read, but are useful in reminding you to add value to your team and your network.
Next week I’ll recommend books from 2009 that helped me stay positive throughout the year. Leave a comment, send me a tweet, my id is jgodfrey.
* P.S. As of this post, I have two books left to read, which shouldn’t be a problem with vacation days next week.
It’s the third week of the month again.
If you’re new here, the third week of every month, I pull together all the links that I’ve run into since last month that made me think or laugh.
This week’s Bug on Windshield links are related to: Personal Effectiveness, Project Management, and Fun
Personal Effectiveness
- Want to be Real: Start Subtracting
- Success in Five Words. Success in Nineteen Words
- The Asshole Test and How to Get on the Most Liked List
- How to be a Continuous Learner
- How to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed
Project Management
- Cool Tool: Checkvist
- Technical Debt
- Top 10 Tips for Keeping PMO Passion Alive
- To India, an apology
- Top 10 Reasons to Love Agile Testing
- Agile Leadership: Methodology Ain’t Enough
- Scrum: A Framework for (Finding) Failure
- A Quality Professional’s Holiday Wish List
- Root Cause Analysis: Addressing Some Limitations of the 5 Whys
- The Next New Thing is Here
Fun
- Romance Flowchart: When Not to Use Your IPhone
- Octopus Robot
- Toyota’s New Winglet
- Top 5 Japanese Gadgets from Thanko
- Neil Diamond Sings the Chanukah Song by Adam Sandler
That’s all I have for this week. As this is the last Bug on the Windshield post for this year, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah or Kwanzaa. Peace.
If you have a question or comment, post one here or send me a tweet. My id is jgodfrey.
