50 Days of Silence

50 Days of Silence – that’s what it might have looked like to those who read my blog. Why no posts for 50 days?

Was it writer’s block? No

Was it that there was nothing to comment about? No

Have we exhausted every topic for business improvement, quality management, project management or related topics? Of course not. (You’ll have seen articles from me in other publications.)

In all portfolios of projects there are times when you must simply concentrate on the work and decisions in hand.  Thinking takes effort and time. Getting a decision right takes research, so of the key questions for me are: What do we really want the outcome to be and does that fit with our strategy? Is that possible given the state of the art? Do we have the resources? Can we really start from here and if not how do we get to the next step?

How often do you set aside time to truly review the balance of your portfolio and properly think about where to go next?

And don’t forget, you may need to look at your personal portfolios too: your business, your projects, your career development, your personal “life” portfolio.

Giving yourself space and time to do that may mean scheduling some time away from the daily cycle of tasks and making space to consider your options.

So, that wasn’t silence, that was me getting inspiration and using those insights to spring clean my portfolios. Others might call it a comprehensive management review.  Either way, it is much easier to see a path forward you can take with confidence once that is done.

Danger:too many projects!

It’s still February and rugby is still the preferred sport for a few more weeks. The big debate seems to be, simply, why doesn’t England win the Six Nations tournament more? England has a relatively big population, the biggest sports economy, the national rugby organisation with the biggest turnover, most players, more registered professional players, etc.  The press question if those resources are being wasted. The answer cannot be about numbers and statistical ratios but about what is done with those resources.

At the end of the game, the important thing is the result created by the 15 guys on the pitch. If they have good enough facilities, high quality coaches and plenty of practice, a player can leave the locker room at the start of the game with confidence of a good start and a potential win. If the 15 are focused on doing the small things right, take the opportunities that present themselves and play for each other as a team, then they could be running back to their lockers as winners. That is true no matter how big your resource pool is. If you have a squad of 50 instead of 22 (15 plus the 7 allowed substitutes) the dynamics of communication between players becomes problematic and building a coherent team is harder. If you have just enough players the team will  probably work well. If you have too few in the team, guys start to play more than one position and risk loosing focus on the important things.

So in reality, it does not matter how many players England have: it’s the quality of the team that is selected to play the big game and the support they get to win. For England, the number of players available may be a distraction because the selection process has to cope with more possibilities. The temptation will be to spend the same effort on all players for consistency of process (and fairness). But that robs people of the attention they need (if they need more than average) or wastes the coach’s time (if things can be done quickly.) The team’s key players need the best coaches. Those at the start of their career need coaches who can help them grow. Every player needs an appropriate time with the right coach to get them ready for the game they need to play.

Like every international team needs a selection process, every portfolio of projects needs a governance process. And like every player needs a coach, every project needs the right attention in the governance process. Each project team needs good preparation before the game begins. The processes around a project portfolio also need to increase the opportunities for success.  In really large portfolios, the time and energy to do this can seem inefficient but not doing it can be really costly. This is where some organisations start to go wrong: they have lots of projects and management start to feel there is too much time and cost devoted to the governance process – they want to spend the resources on the projects. The real measure should be about how well the governance process works: how many projects slip through and fail or how many real opportunities are missed? The right level of governance for each project must make sure that the right projects are run and the right resources are available for the best chance of success.

Quite simply, if you don’t have time and resources for an effective governance process, you have too many projects running in your portfolio. Time to consider either rescheduling the portfolio or looking at changing the resources applied to governance.

Portfolio Ambition

It’s February and six weeks into the year I’ve listened to project portfolio managers wrestling with their organisations’ daydream-like expectations of the project portfolio. When the board signed off the portfolio with a list of change initiatives and project objectives in January, they had not made a proper evaluation of the resources available to complete the work or the risks involved.

What are we trying to achieve?

Setting the objective for a programme or project is something that some managers and organisations give too little analysis. The instinct is to say “make me widget X” or “make this new organisation structure happen”.  That simply defines the solution that seems obvious at the time. For some projects that is enough but for many that is like saying “go to Plymouth” without say why or what you need to be ready to do when you get there.

For a project team to be successful, it helps to know what the end state needs to be and why you need that end.

The PMO role in risk management

The links between project risk management and the organisation’s risk management mean that some project risks could be dealt with at organisation level more easily.  It is in both the project manager’s interests and the boards to get these processes to join up effectively.  A good PMO (Project Management Office) who really understand risk management and organisational context can help by spotting themes to talk to corporate risk managers about.

Short-term delay can have long term impact

In the mad rush of ideas that some managers get over the holiday season , some will have decided to cut costs in their operations. In doing so, they will have chosen short-term delays for projects that don’t bring a quick return.

I’ve even seen blogs and advice from management consultants specifically saying things like, “Defer discretionary projects which are not able to make acceptable cash returns in the short-term”.

That is the wrong message because it looks at projects in isolation from each other and the organisation.

PMO Confused?

Senior Managers seem to be confused: every consultant they talk to describes a different model for a PMO or PPSO (programme and project support office) from the last consultant they thought they understood. 

This is not new for larger organisations. The confusion for the PMO staff can be quite difficult and transition to new roles can be tough if you have staffed the PMO with completer/finisher admin or project managers in waiting.

Non-participation in project meetings

You have gathered your whole team for a meeting. It is important to get them all in a room from time to time but that is a lot of people. You’ve had to hire a cinema or conference hall.

You want it to be engaging but you don’t seem to have all their attention. You know your presentation skills are OK and that they are interested to hear what you have to say because they asked you to explain this bit.

Prioritising Projects : a project manager’s dilemma

In an ideal organisation, project managers have an understanding of the organisation’s project portfolio and don’t have to prioritize one project over another: it is very clearly led by senior management.

Some methods assume that project teams should only work on one project at once.

There is sometimes an unfortunate reality: the project manager has to make an interim decision on which to project to prioritize.

Business Case: Benefits and Costs

A business case is the statement of benefits and costs that is used to measure just how viable a programme or project is for the organisation.

In the early steps of a project, there will be a need to do some work to look at the options for the project’s approach and ball park costs. Sometimes, this will  be a considerable amount of effort and it will be assumed that the project has entered its planning phase. The project will come to the attention of an auditor, quality manager or PMO professional who will say that work should not continue as there is no business case for the project. They are right but about the wrong thing.