Setting Goals for Project Management Success
Posted by Brad Egeland
For new project managers, as you gain skill in managing projects, your career prospects will improve as well. In general, management recognizes success and rewards it, and projects are an excellent forum for demonstrating your leadership abilities especially in organizations focused on project management with proper reporting of project progress and successes.
In addition to developing the skills required for project management, continually set career goals for yourself as a project manager. Recognize that management is watching with high expectations and will likely be reviewing your performance based on how well you achieve these goals, which may include:
Acquiring the reputation as a skilled, effective project manager
Be aware that your reputation within the company will affect your career. A positive reputation includes the element of reliability. To become a skilled project manager, practice the ideas and techniques that make the process work. To become an effective project manager, keep your goals and deadlines in mind at all times, support your team, and work well with all resources, internal and external.
Meeting deadlines, without fail
Some people accept the fact that deadlines in their companies are not taken very seriously. Don’t allow yourself to think in this way. View the deadline as an absolute. It you never miss a deadline (except in the most extreme circumstances), management will think of you as a dependable, valuable resource.
Staying within budget
The budget, like the deadline, is often seen as an outmoded practice, as an idea with little validity. This is because so few people use budgets as they are intended – as control tools for measuring the effectiveness of management’s effort. The budget defines risk and potential reward for the organization, and should be carefully monitored and controlled while the project is underway.
The Responsibility vs. Authority Dilemma
Posted by Brad Egeland
If you work as a project manager in a matrix organization, chances are you’re going to run up against this issue on one of your project eventually – if you haven’t already. You’ve been given responsibility for a project and you’ve been assigned a team. You’re the project manager so you have ultimate responsibility for your resources on your team, the work they do, how your team performs for the customer, and – ultimately – the overall success of the project. Are you with me so far? Sounds like typical project management, right?
Now comes the hard part. Each one of your team members has 3-4 other project managers that they are working for on other engagements AND they have a resource manager who is their ultimate authority, who is responsible for their performance reviews and raises, and who also is assigning them work from time to time that has nothing to do with your project. You have the work you need them to do. You have the assignments that you’re making. Beyond that, you have to hope they are understanding the meaning of the project and their role in its success to perform the work you need them to perform and to do it well. But you truly lack the authority to ‘make’ them do it.
Firmly embedded in project management folklore is this one: the responsibility you’ve been given is not in line with the authority you believe you need to accomplish the mission. The size of the gap between responsibility and authority will partially depend upon the structure of your organization. If you’re in a purely functional organization – and in many cases, a matrix organization – you should not expect to be granted very much formal authority. The gap between responsibility and authority will be quite wide. To compensate for your perceived lack of formal authority, you’ll have to rely upon expert power (respect you can garner through superior knowledge or capability) or referent power (often accessed by practicing an excellent leadership style). You’ll also need to rely heavily upon your ability to influence and persuade.
If you sense that you may have problems with any of your team members and lack the authority to do much about it, then you’ll need to act proactively early in the project to help ensure the success of the team and the overall working relationship. Easier said than done? Probably, but by taking a couple of early actions you should find yourself more productive and less frustrated.
So You’re a New Project Manager
Posted by Brad Egeland
In his book “Project Management,” Gary Heerkens does a nice job laying out some of the pros and cons to the employee who basically is tossed into the role of project manager whether they like it or not. And, the truth is, that’s how many experienced project managers got to where they are today. Some sought it out, but others were handed projects to manage and either reluctantly accepted or maybe they had no choice but to accept.
Either way, I enjoyed Mr. Heerkens’ basic overview of what to expect and wanted to share it here…
New to the role
However we may feel about taking on that first project, the truth is that life as a project manager can be extremely rewarding. You’ll find it to be different from most any other thing you’ve ever done. It’s complex, varied, and interesting. If done well, it can lead to a very strong sense of accomplishment. These are among the aspects that project managers identify as the main draws to the job.
At the same time, however, being a project manager will test you in ways you may not be able to imagine now. You will become a focal point in the organization. Everyone will look to you for the answers, but you must be careful not to try to provide all the answers; after all, that’s why you have a team.
And speaking of the team, one of the biggest shifts in behavior (and thinking) you’ll encounter will be the need to rely upon others to get things done. In most cases, that’s your team. You’ll quickly discover that there’s far too much for you to do alone, yet delegation will prove to be a challenge for you. Empowering others, and then trusting them to follow through, may be a bit unsettling. You’ll find yourself uncomfortable with the idea that others are doing things for which you will be held responsible.
Responsibility without full authority
You’ll have lots of responsibility, but you’ll be missing the authority often perceived as being required to discharge that responsibility. You’ll have to get things done through the people on your team without having any direct control over them. Among your most valued tools will be the ability to persuade and influence, as you seek to form a group of diverse personalities into a unified team with commonalty of purpose.
Getting Your Organization Started in Project Management
Posted by Brad Egeland
This concept came to mind when I saw a recent discussion post in a LinkedIn project management group. The post was titled “How should small companies start implementing project management practices?”
Some people were responding “why just look at small companies – why not all organizations?” But I get it. Most larger organizations have PM practices in place – albeit often ineffective ones. Or they are large enough it’s very difficult for one person to jump in and make a difference quickly. You know … bureaucracy.
But with smaller organizations, an experience project manager or consultant could step in and make recommendations and – given the proper amount of authority – start hiring people, creating a practice, and truly implement a practice of managing projects and customers and teams productively. In other words, they could get some action going quickly – they could get the job done without too much red tape slowing everything down.
So, what would it take? For me, it took a start-up CIO with a need to find me out on the Allpm.com website, pay me a high enough hourly rate to make me say, “um, ok … I’m onboard with that” and then give me open access to everyone and everything that was going on with their troubled projects so that I could figure out why their customers were unhappy and what we all needed to do to make them happy. That won’t always be the case in every organization – some will lack the confidence to give such access or take such a bold step. And some won’t even be looking to bring in a hired gun to whip everything in to shape – they’ll be asking people from within to work together to make it happen. In other words, they’ll work with what they have and try to wrap PM practices around that.
However they do it, there are few things that need to happen to make it really work – to make it “make a difference” going forward:
Make sure the CEO is onboard with it
A good project management practice begins and ends with the CEO giving it his blessing … or not. If the top of the organization isn’t onboard – you might as well not proceed because they won’t value it, they won’t explain it’s value to the customers, and it will die a painful death.
But if the CEO IS onboard, anything is possible. It will be the next big thing in the company. The CEO will tout it to their customers – expectations will be high and enthusiasm will be, too. And that will only serve to help the project managers or consultant or whoever is trying to get this off the ground gain confidence and compliance from those in the organization that they need it most from – mainly those who will become part of their project teams.
Getting to the Actual Project
Posted by Brad Egeland
The real need? Does the customer know it? Do you know it from the initial information given to you? Let’s look at the following project scenario….
Dave walked briskly over to Bill’s cubicle. “Bill, I just got a call from Amy. She’s got a problem and needs our help. I’d like you to go over there right away and get the details. Figure out what she needs and take care of her.”
Bill was pleased to be assigned to one of his organization’s most valued clients. By the next afternoon, he was sitting in Amy’s office, carefully reviewing the documents she’d prepared.
“Bill, we need the capability of screening all of our incoming components before they come into the assembly line,” said Amy. “You’re free to do this any way you’d like; just make sure that they fall within these guidelines.” She handed Bill some design documents and a list entitled Incoming Material Screening Requirements.
Bill was happy that Amy had given him free rein in determining the solution to her problem. He studied the project requirements and formed a project team. Then, he and his team developed and installed the hardware and software necessary to check all incoming components for compliance with the screening requirements. It was truly a thing of beauty. Bill was proud of the job he and his team had done.
Less than a week later, Dave called Bill into his office. “Bill, Amy just called me,” he said. “They’re still having the same problem as before— too many rejects coming off the end of their assembly line. What happened?”
Suddenly Bill realized what had happened. He had just discovered Amy’s true need—the hard way.
(The above project scenario comes from Gary Heerkens’ book entitled, “Project Management.”)
I really like the example above. It’s simple, straightforward, gives you the impression that the problem has been solved through the project work and then BAM! … you realize that nothing has changed and you’re smacked upside the head with management questioning you wondering what you actually did on the project.
