Project Management and Startups: How Can PM Help?

I don’t know about you, but I come from the big corporate world of Project Management.  Starting with Project Management work I performed on very large $$ US Department of Education contracts in the early 1990’s, I’ve managed projects, programs and implementations in mostly large corporate settings for nearly 18 years.

Project Management practices in large organizations are usually fairly formal.  Either you’re helping put a Project Management Office (PMO) together or it’s already in place or there’s some other sort of formalized structure in place that you are a part of.  Policies are written – and always being re-written, templates are in place or being created.  It’s a never ending change process because no body seems to truly get it right.  But the structure is there and it’s somewhat formalized.

Do Startups Need Structure?

What about the small companies?  What about the startups?  Do they need the same structure?  Do they need formalized processes?  As they grow, do they need these processes in order to be successful and retain their new customers?  The answer is somewhere between “maybe”, “probably”, and “yes”.

Helping these organizations requires PMs to step outside the corporate world thought process.  These organizations are not likely in need of a full-time Project Manager.  What they often need is a change agent or a process engineer.  They need someone who knows how to do it in the large corporate world but also has the entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen to scale it for the new startup.  They don’t need the formal structure…yet.  They just need to know about it.  And they need you to rescue them from whatever it is that caused them to be interested in what you have to say in the first place.

Ways that PMs Can Help

Their problems come in all shapes and sizes.  Unless we’re Superman, as Project Managers we can only do so much.  But there definitely are things that the experienced Project Manager/Business Professional can bring to the table for these troubled organizations.  Some of the ways we can help – and that they definitely need help with are:

• Understanding how they got in trouble
• Setting up more formalized processes to track project status
• Creating templates for the projects they manage
• Mapping current business processes to identify change needs
• Resource management and oversight
• Budgeting, forecasting and estimating 

I’m sure there are more, but these are a few that jump out at me from experience.

Summary

PM is relevant for these smaller organizations.  We just have to think outside the box in order to help them.  And just like the PM-hating project sponsor in the big corporate world, the very talented CEO is not one to like to get help from the outside or give up $$ to do so.  Creativity is a must.  But these organizations need the process knowledge, strategic planning and big picture thinking that the experienced Project Manager can bring to the table. 

Next, I’ll run through a couple of ‘case studies.’  These will be examples of smaller, startup-type organizations that were in need and what I worked on with them to help them become more successful with their customers.

Project Management and Startups: Resource Allocation and Usage – Part 1

There are some very talented individuals out there who have successful started their own businesses and worked hard to grow those businesses into viable entities.  One thing that must be remembered – not all creative, entrepreneurial individuals translate well into good business men and women.

Bringing Talent to the Table

I’ve worked with small business owners who basically are the entire company.  They make sales based solely on their skills and what they bring to the table.  However, once that company has grown beyond the one creative individual, then you have a larger issue to deal with…how to manage and allocate the resources effectively across several projects and future engagements.

As Project Managers, we take for granted that we have a finite pool of resources and hours assigned to the projects we manage and we apply those resources to the detailed tasks for the projects.  Seems simply enough, right?  Now, put yourself in the shoes of the one very talented and creative individual (usually with limited business process sense) who has seen his or her business grow but has not really adapted to that new, larger business model.  What happens next?  I’ve witnessed it…and I’ve been called in to help fix the mess on more than one occasion.

The Mess

What happens next is that the talented CEO travels the globe successfully making sales on the company’s offerings while paying little to no attention to the company’s resource allocation and its capacity to meet both current project demands and future demands for newly acquired business.  Needless to say, this scenario can bring disastrous results.

For example, let’s say that the very talented CEO makes a sale in Tokyo and commits to a project starting in FY09 Q2 and completing in FY09 Q4 utilizing key equipment and personnel resources.  However, when that information is relayed to the US-based team everyone but the CEO quickly comes to the realization that two pieces of critical equipment and four key personnel resources will not be available until Q3.  What this means is that the Tokyo project will never complete in Q4.  Something has to give.  Either the current project has to slide or the new Tokyo project has to be pushed out and both scenarios will put a dent in the armor of the very talented CEO and his future selling ability and integrity.

This seems like something you and I would never do, but it’s possible.  It’s a very easy trap to fall into.  Think of the commercial where the head of a very small brewery is traveling around the country and making sales of his beer.  He keeps calling his partner back home and telling him of all the sales he’s making and rather than being overjoyed, his partner is stressed about their immediate need to expand.  It paints a picture of the leader of an organization not having a good handle on the current availability of resources to meet sales or demand.

The PM Role 

This is where the Project Manager can step in and help develop processes and implement tools that will ensure future success for this type of organization.  The PM can be the change agent that will retain those new customers instead of lose them.  I’ll discuss in my next post how we can make that happen.

Resource Forecasting

From a project perspective, initial resource forecasting for an engagement is usually done upfront by the Account Manager during the sales process.  This initial forecast is what goes into the project hours and budget estimation and ultimately the price that is offered to the customer.  Once the customer accepts the price and the delivery team is assembled, the real effort of resource forecasting then falls to the Project Manager.

It’s imperative that budget management be one of the key responsibilities of the Project Manager.  Since the time charged to the project by each individual resource is part of that budget and the actual expenses on the project, resource forecasting therefore becomes a critical responsibility of the Project Manager as well.  The effort put forth by Sales to price the engagement actually provides excellent input for the Project Manager to use when building both the resource forecast going forward on the engagement as well as the resource loading for the detailed project schedule.

Weekly Forecasting

As discussed in the Project Budget Management article, the Project Manager must be on top of the project budget throughout the engagement.  This means that actual hours charged to the project by the delivery team must be reviewed weekly by the Project Manager.  If the PM is responsible on a weekly basis for approving the time charge to his or her project, then obtaining the hours actually charged to the project will be easy.  If not, then this is where the well-connected Project Manager can use connections in Accounting to quickly get the needed time accounting information for input into the budget and forecasting process.

We know that the project schedule is a living, breathing document.  Along with the weekly status report it is what drives the project forward and gives all participants very frequent feedback on where the project status is at any given time.  Changes to the project schedule (timeline, additions of tasks, etc.) ultimately will affect the use of your project resource and therefore also affect your resource forecast.

Staying on top of the project schedule on a daily and weekly basis also means staying on top of the resource forecast on at least a weekly basis.  Your customer may only want to see actual $$ expended on a weekly basis, but as the Project Manager you’ll want to have the resource and budget forecast worked out for the entire project and review it weekly as new actuals come in and you revise your financial information.

The Changing of the Guard

One thing I haven’t touched on yet is the possibility of losing (or acquiring) personnel.  This can have a dramatic affect on your project as well as your resource forecast.  It’s not likely that a customer will pay more for a replacement resource, though if they are getting a more ‘junior’ resource than before, they may want to pay less so downplay this fact as much as possible.  But the addition and deletion of personnel on the team can drive a Project Manager crazy when trying to keep a good handle on the resource forecast both from a budget and hours perspective as well as in the project schedule. 

It’s unfortunate that IT organizations are strapped for solid talent and that resources can come and go from projects based on the need for their expertise on other engagements within the organization, but it’s just a fact.  And older projects can come back to life in the form of change orders and newly purchased software – and you know that those customers will request particular resources they’ve worked with in the past if they liked them and were successful with them.

Conclusion

The key as a Project Manager is to get detailed reports from your team and from Accounting on a weekly basis and to be adjusting and reforecasting the budget and the resources on a weekly basis.  If you let it go to monthly, you’ll often be sorry and may realize that you don’t have enough committed time for a resource as a critical task is looming ahead.  Stay on top of it.

As the PM, be sure to distribute it regularly to your team members and make it a discussion point on a weekly team call so they understand that you are watching the budget and are aware of what time is being charge to the project by each individual.  They will feel more accountable for their hours and I guarantee you that budget management as a whole will be easier.

Characteristics of a Project Manager – Part 3

In my two previous articles on this topic, I’ve touched on what I consider to be 6 key characteristics of good Project Managers.

• Good organizer
• Excellent communicator
• Experienced negotiator
• Confident leader
• Good listener
• Well connected in the organization

In what will likely be my final article on this topic (at least for awhile), I’d like to cover three key characteristics:

• Problem solver
• Doing what you say and saying what you do
• Passionate about the task

Problem Solver

In an ideal world, there would be no problems.  Even if that were the case in the real world, I believe there would STILL be problems in the IT world.  Every project faces issues.  If you’re a lucky Project Manager, you may only have one or two sizeable issues to resolve on a given project.  If you’re unlucky, you may go through stretches where it seems like it’s a daily occurrence.

One project I was asked to jump on was going south fast.  A critical processing performance benchmark could not be met and we needed to resolve why and how to fix it, because moving on past this issues was not an option…it was a show-stopper.  With management and customer approval, I gathered key resources from both sides into a war-room type setting at the delivery organization site so that we were physically close to key development, tech support, and infrastructure support resources during this critical effort.  We spent two solid weeks together working on performance tuning, development re-work, break/fix testing, and customer testing and we finally got through it.  We may have been able to eventually solve it remotely, but we had been trying that and it certainly wasn’t working fast enough.  This way the customer saw the dedication and issue resolution up close and regained confidence in the delivery organization while also participating heavily in the solution.

The problem-solving characteristic in a good Project Manager forces them to change their way of thinking based on a given situation – forces them to get creative.  Go to management to get what you need.  If it’s important to the project, then it’s important to your executive management and to the customer and you’ll be surprised what they’re willing to do and help you with in order to resolve issues.

Do What You Say and Say What You Do

This one probably applies to any profession and just about any role a person plays, but it’s often overlooked.  “Do what you say, and say what you do.”  Let’s dissect the first part of that phrase first.

The Project Manager should have good follow-through.  The Project Manager should do what they say they are going to do.  If I’m the PM and I say I’ll have something ready for team distribution by COB today, then I need to meet that deadline.  If I’m going to help with system testing and I’ll run through some test cases by Friday and have feedback ready then I need to do that and meet the critical deadlines. 

When the Project Manager – the leader of the team and ultimately the entire project – can’t meet deadlines and doesn’t meet their commitments, then why should the rest of the team?  PMs, if you set up smoke screens and miss deadlines because you’re too busy, then the rest of the team will see that and sense that deadlines are merely suggestions.  Respect will be lost and the project timelines may ultimately be affected. 

Since you are in the most visible position on the project, it’s absolutely critical that both your delivery team and the customer see you doing what you say you are going to do.  And if you can’t meet a deadline that you imposed on yourself, that’s usually ok as long as you own up to it and acknowledge to the team and to the customer why you missed the target.  At least then you show that it’s still important by not blowing it off and turn your work in late without an explanation.

The second part of that phrase really has an entirely different meaning.  “Say what you do.”  Some of us have a hard time touting our own work.  I’m not saying you should stand on a street corner and shout it to the world, but it’s ok to acknowledge when you’re responsible for a success and certainly don’t let anyone else take the credit for your work.  Be sure to give proper due to project team member efforts, but if you’re primarily responsible for a particular success, then acknowledge it – in some sort of humble way, of course. 

As the PM, it’s rare that we get to take credit for anything – it’s usually team efforts or developer’s efforts, etc.  So if you accomplish something notable on the project that is helping the overall effort…go ahead and take the credit.  You’ll be more sought-after in the future because of it (if you consider that a good thing!).

Passionate

Passion may not be one of those things that we think of when sorting out what a good Project Manager should have, but now that I mention it, it sort of fits doesn’t it?  A PM with passion on a project means that PM is concerned for the effort, the budget, the timeline, the customer, the individual team members, and of course the final outcome.

I can’t think of a time on a project when having passion for the project and its success and the success and growth of the team members would be a bad thing.  Passion for success and reaching goals tends to rub off on others…imagine a whole project team with a decent amount of passion toward succeeding for the company and the customer.  Show me a Project Manager with passion and I’ll show you a successful and sought-after Project Manager.

Finally 

For now, I think this concludes my look at the characteristics of a Project Manager.  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and feedback.  I think the list is truly a long one – I may even write about more at another time.  Let me know what you think and what your list looks like.

Blogging within your Organization

Now that you’ve understood how you can use blogs as part of your knowledge management strategy there is a need to educate your project team on how best they can develop a good blog. Though from experience i can say that there is a good chance a number of them already do blog outside of the office.

For those of them who haven’t been blogging or don’t know the benefits of it you might get the following questions.

Why Blog?

Blogging has become the cornerstone of information distribution for most people around the world. It allows you to get your ideas and views out to the entire world, and in some cases lay the seed for very interesting debates.

How do i Build a successful Blog?

Well, the fundamentals are simple Content, Content, Content. Unless you have decent content on your Blog you can be sure you’ll fail even before you get started.

Visibility for the Blog

As I mentioned earlier one of the biggest drivers of getting your employees to start blogging is the idea that there exists a platform from which they can promote themselves. Which means for them to be recognized their blog needs to.  The steps mentioned below hold good for any blog and can be replicated within the context of an organization as well.

Leave Comments :

Leaving comments is part of the foundation for starting a blog community. Most bloggers would be happy to respond to your questions, only if you are sincere. Do not use comments as a way of increasing the traffic on your site, that will happen gradually. Meaningful discourse is the target here.

Trackbacks :

A trackback is a mechanism that allows bloggers to keep track of which blogs have commented on their articles and if those articles have influenced other blogs. It’s a great way to start a community and get bloggers to read each others blogs. The plus point about this is that it helps in increasing the traffic flowing to your blog, which lets face it isnt altogether a bad thing.

Tags :

Tags make it easy to navigate a blog and find what you’re looking for. Tags are category names and people can select keywords for their posts. Usually you will see keyword names on the side navigation of a blog. It is also helps the you, the blogger as it helps to organize your blog and eventually your thoughts. Creating a structured layout is very useful to your visitors as it gives them a lot more information to go through, information they might have missed if not for the tags.

The single biggest blunder bloggers can make?? Not updating your content regularly enough. This is a sure way to lose readers on your site as most users ( if they’ve decided your blog is interesting ) expect new content on a “reasonably” regular basis. So keep this in mind, losing readers are a lot easier than gaining new ones.

Now what?

Once you’ve put together your blogging strategy and educated your employees / project team on how best to develop their blog you need to start figuring out how you can start extracting content that is relevant to your business.  I have some thoughts around this and will put them down in another posts soon.