Striving for Communications Effectiveness

I know I’ve said that Requirements Definition is the lifeblood of the project – and I still think that is true. But many aspects of project management are extremely critical to project success so if I can’t call communications the lifeblood of the project, then I’ll call it the backbone. Without effective communication – especially communication that originates or passes through the PM (since he/she is the critical communication focal-point) – then the project is likely to fail miserably.

Testing Communication Effectiveness

Whether the communication is written or verbal, formal or informal, the question must be asked as to whether or not it was effective. Did the information transfer that had to occur happen? Communications effectiveness can only be tested through feedback—the receiver is the ultimate determinant as to whether or not the message was received. The obvious test of communications effectiveness is to ask the receiver in the communications model to reiterate what has been said or what commitments have been made. Although they may be able to recite chapter and verse of what was originally stated, such regurgitation may not truly reflect understanding. Better instead to ask the receiver how they will act on the information or what the next steps in the process are, to ensure the communication has gone from interpretation to action.

Communication is Key

Communication is the cornerstone of effective project management, and yet most of it is done ad hoc, driven by individuals, personalities, and preferences, rather than by needs, protocols, processes, and procedures. Communication breakdowns are continuously cited as one of the key reasons that projects fail, which is why communication needs to be addressed as a critical activity and skill for project managers.

It is critical that managers improve or enhance their communications whenever possible. But “improving communications” is a vague concept. No two people are going to have the same notion as to what that means, unless com- munications goals are identified on the project. Communication is basically nothing more than an effort to make the world “smaller.” It is an attempt to create a common understanding and a common informational basis among various parties. It is the pursuit of commonality. It is an effort to bring individuals closer together.

How close is appropriate in the project environment? How deep must the common understanding be? The goal of communication in the project environment needs to be to establish a common understanding to the requisite level of depth. That level of depth will vary from project stakeholder to stakeholder. A security guard who affords access into the building may need only a single memo or e-mail from time to time, and needs virtually no understanding of the project plan or its intricacies. The customer needs to know what is being delivered and when, but may have no need to know how the work is being performed. Internal managers may need information on resource usage and performance, but may not concern themselves with project performance from day to day.

Summary

As a general practice, the goal of communication should be to clarify information to the level of depth required by the receiver by minimizing barriers that might inhibit understanding. In implementation, that implies a broad understanding of audience, interest, and environment.

The bottom line is the project manager must be the skilled communicator on the project and very adept and maintaining both formal (status reports, status calls, project schedules) and informal (phone calls, emails, adhoc meetings to discuss issues) with the delivery team, the entire delivery organization, and the customer.

Twitter and Facebook as Project Management Tools?

My wife introduced me to Facebook a few months ago and I’ve enjoyed using it to reconnect with friends I haven’t communicated with in nearly 25 years. How cool is that?! I can share pictures, videos and thoughts with all 108 of my friends 24/7. My office is upstairs and my wife’s office is downstairs. I can quickly chat with her (she doesn’t like to use IM) through the chat feature at any time during the day, though instead I usually hear “Braaaaaad!” and have to go down and see what she or one of the kids needs. Ok, I still think it’s kind of lame, but that doesn’t stop me from using it. To me, it’s a “family and friends” tool, nothing more.

As for Twitter – I joined it about a month or so ago. I find it somewhat addictive to go out and check the latest updates from the 96 people and organizations I’m following for their latest thoughts and interests as well as to let the 93 followers that I have know what I’m doing or what article I’ve recently posted. For me Twitter is far more of a business tool than Facebook. It’s Facebook without the pictures and friend connections – it’s just blurb thoughts. But I really only use it for business purposes. I announce articles, conferences, etc. on it. I network with like-minded professionals on it. I realize that some people use it to tell the world what they’re doing every 5 minutes, but that’s certainly not for me.

Now that you know my basis for using Facebook and Twitter, let’s discuss whether either can be a valuable tool for Project Managers and team members on implementations.

The Usual Information Sharing Techniques for PMs

To me, the effective parts of project communication, as I’ve always said, are:

• Weekly formal status reports
• Up-to-date project plans/schedules
• Weekly formal delivery team/customer status meetings or conference calls
• Weekly delivery team calls to prepare for customer communications and ensure everyone is on the same page
• Adhoc calls with the customer on issues or progress
• Adhoc calls with the delivery team members on issues or progress
• Frequent information sharing, status check, and issue alert emails with delivery team members and the customer.

I have honestly racked my brain to figure out a way to make either Facebook or Twitter a useful tool for Project Managers and project team members. I can’t figure it out though.

My Thoughts on Facebook & Twitter

Facebook, to me, is a complete no-go. I can’t find any useful business application for Facebook other than to kill time in long meetings or on long webex’s and conference calls. Nada…nothing.

As for Twitter, because I use it almost exclusively for business networking I’m trying to find some good PM use for it. I share info on my articles when they’re published. I connect with other PM, business and IT professionals that provide information I can use or have deemed my information useful. But as for sharing info with on-going team members…I just don’t see it. Oh, it can be done, but email and phone calls are better. A quick Twitter message could get overlooked. And email stays in your inbox and marked as unread until it is read.

Summary

Again…I’ve tried. I know there are those of you out there claiming that at least Twitter can be a viable way to share information across teams within an organization. If you’ve been successful with it, I’d like to hear your story. Comment here and let me know how you’re using it because information sharing is ALWAYS going to be a roadblock to some degree. Anything that aids information sharing without just providing another grey area path to communication is a welcomed addition. So tell me how you’re successfully using it. Likewise, if you’ve tried and failed, I’d like to hear that as well. Until someone convinces me otherwise, I can’t visualize a way to use either Facebook or Twitter as a viable Project Management communication tool.

How to Ensure Project Success Every Time

Catchy title but there is no such thing. We all know that. The recent discussions on Agile vs. Waterfall on here (see “Agile Software Development Project vs. Standard Software Development Project” and “Agile vs. Waterfall – More Thoughts”) might make you think differently based on comments by staunch Agile supporters. But we all know that not every project is successful.

What Success Isn’t

First, let’s ask the question….what is project success? How do we define what makes a project successful? Well, we can definitely look at some ways to know for sure that your project has not been successful:

• Customer satisfaction with the engagement is very low
• The project was canceled mid-stream
• The PM or key team members were replaced due to performance or customer issues
• The budget is way out of wack
• The timeline has shifted out of control
• Requirements are still changing frequently deep into the project

What Success Is

These are just 6…the list could be endless. Now let’s look at some signs the project has been successful:

• Customer is happily approving and paying for change orders
• Customer satisfaction is high
• Major project milestones and deliverables are being met and approved without delays
• The project budget is inline with expectations
• Delivery team resources are engaged and no dissention is apparent
• Executive management is getting positive feedback from the customer

Again, this is only 6 – there are many more…though I think it’s easier sometimes to see what’s going wrong then what’s going right….sadly.

What Can Be Done

So, we know we really can’t ensure that every project will be successful every time, as the title of this article seems to suggest. Sorry for the bait and switch. But what steps can the project manager take to ensure that we’re giving it the best chance to succeed? Here’s my take:

• Excellent communication of priorities and expectations to delivery team members
• Cohesive, co-management situation with the customer organization with fast dissemination of any alert or critical information – be honest with the customer
• Reusable and repeatable processes and templates in place in the organization for the PMO or PMs
• Strong PMO in place utilizing knowledge sharing and post-project lessons learned sessions
• Consistent delivery of expected material and information – status reports, updated project budget status, issues/risks lists
• Frequent formal and adhoc communications – delivery team calls, customer status calls, email alerts and updates
• Retention of skilled and necessary project resources – fight for them with executive management, if necessary
• Manage the schedule tightly and make sure it’s in every project member’s hands and up-to-date at all times
• Manage all change closely – scope, potential risks, change orders – don’t let these get out of hand because the project can go south quickly if you do

Summary

Nothing is going to ensure success every time. Picking the right technology, the right software development process, the right vendor, etc. will not ensure success every time. What is definitely in our control is good management of what we have and utilization of the tools we have at hand to ensure everyone is on the same page and working toward the same project goals.

Dollar Store Concept of Project Management

We’re all familiar with stores like the Dollar Store, 99 Cents Store, etc., right?  At least here in the US, they’re all over the place.  You can walk into any one of these stores, grab 12 items and know for sure you’re going to pay $12 + tax.  No surprises.  Power steering fluid…$1, socks…$1, wine glass…$1, pregnancy test…$1 (though I’m not sure I’d trust it).  Everything they carry costs exactly the same…one price fits all.  Everything is weighted the same and has equal importance to the store’s bottomline.

Equal Importance?

What if that same concept could be applied to IT shops and to Project Management?  Would tech support be just as important and application development.  What about operations, system architecture, performance tuning.  From a project management standpoint, should requirements definition be just as important as design?  Should design be just as important as development?  Should development be just as important as testing?  If you placed a dollar value on each, would they be the same?  Do they take the same amount of effort?

Usually, on an IT project, development takes longer than design….however there is often a higher dollar resource or amount associated with design.  Requirements analysis and definition is an upfront task that requires specific focus and, I think we can all agree, if not done properly can result in many problems later on in the engagement included significant re-design and significant development re-work.

Likewise, testing is an extremely critical portion of any engagement.  You can spend thousands of hours developing a solution, but if it is not tested properly by the delivery team and then by the customer, the likelihood of a successful deployment is almost non-existent. 

Assigning Value

I guess what I’m trying to say here, in terms of a successfully run project, development – while it is actually the act of creating the solution – probably needs less oversight than other phases.  If the others are done properly, then development should be straight forward.  A couple of dev shops I work with often give a rough estimate on a project at 30% design and 70% development and testing, but the per hour estimate for design is higher.  Likewise, requirements analysis – possibly the most important part of any project – must have the appropriate hours and effort and skill level applied to it or problems will occur repeatedly throughout the engagement.  If a project is started and it is later realized that not enough effort was put into requirements definition, it is far better to shelve the project for a period of time and spend additional effort on requirements definition.  I wish I had done that on the project I wrote about in The Worst Project I Ever Managed.

Moving away from project phases and onto project management tasks…is everything weighted the same?  All items are important – all tasks that are regularly performed by the PM are ingredients for a successful project.  But are they all equally important?  As a PM, if you were stretched so thin that you could only perform a few key tasks for a project, what would you do?  For me, I’d delegate as much as possible and focus on one formal status meeting or conference call per week, one project status report (including issues/risks) delivery per week, one delivery team call per week, and one budget/forecast update per week.  Other things like adhoc communication, delivery of documents, etc. would have to be left to project team members and reviewed during status review calls.

Summary

In my opinion, not all IT and PM tasks and functions are equal.  They aren’t all really assigned the same dollar value.  When push comes to shove, there are certain tasks that need more emphasis, greater focus and – when done right – provide a higher likelihood of project success.

Keeping it Fresh: How to Keep Project Teams Focused on the End Goal

You know how things are when you begin a new relationship?  Remember how it was when you and your wife or husband first met?  Everything is exciting and new.  Ok, that’s not exactly how a new project is, but you get the picture.  When we start a new project, everything is fresh and new.  No budget issues, no project timeline issues, no issues whatsoever!  No one has complained…as far as you know requirements are in place and ready for work to start.

Is it Possible?

How do we keep that new car smell going longer?  It always seems to dissipate so quickly.  Everyone starts gung ho on the project.  No issues or roadblocks, no customer complaints, and the relationship with the customer is never strained at this point.  How can we keep everything cohesive and everyone fresh and focused intensely on project success?

The reality is we really can’t.  We’re all getting our project resources from a matrix organization and therefore everyone has not only your project priorities, but priorities of their own from other projects and from their management.  Customer issues will arise because requirements are never perfect and nearly every project has change orders (all should, but not all are caught or enforced….lots of ‘free’ work gets done or promised to the customer).

Keep Everyone Focused

As the Project Manager, it is our goal – and actually one of our key responsibilities – to keep the project team members focused on the prize.  That prize, of course, is the end goal of a successful on time and on budget solution for the customer.  How do we do that?  To really be successful, we need to keep our focus on the following:

• Aligning our tasks with the goals and mission of the project
• Assigning resources with relevant and meaningful tasks
• Keeping resources interested and challenged (this is often a tough one)
• Keeping everyone well informed with status information (weekly status reports, status meetings, adhoc communications, etc.)
• Keep track of the budget
• Keep the project schedule revised, accurate and in front of everyone

The well-informed team will retain more focus on your project and the tasks you’ve assigned to them.  Allow them no room for excuses – avoid the grey areas of who is responsible for what.  Keep the customer on their toes and aware of what is expected of them.  And keep them well informed of status so that they have no surprises.  Fewer customer surprises mean fewer customer complaints and less chance of having a dissatisfied customer.

Summary

You can’t keep it fresh throughout the project.  But knowing what causes things to stray like lack of focus, out of date information, unassigned tasks and lack of ownership and accountability will help you to steer clear of those issues by spending your efforts on performing the right PM tasks.  Strong and confident leadership will help you get to the end goal.