Establishing Objects and Gaining Conceptual Agreement with the Client

I’m taking a little turn from purely project management concepts and thinking more in terms of the IT Consultant in general. Afterall, many of us working as project managers are at any given time part of a professional services organization that thinks of us basically as consultants to THEIR clients.

Establishing objectives is the starting point of any consulting project. It’s impossible to do anything else until and unless you know the desired ending point. Below are some specific questions to discuss with the client in order to elicit some outcome-based business objectives. Take them with you whenever you sit down with a client or potential client as you work through that initial meeting both selling your services and diving deeper into their need and expected results.

• How would conditions ideally improve as a result of this project?
• Ideally, what would you (the client) like to accomplish?
• What would be the difference in the organization if the project is successful?
• How would your customer (the client’s customer) be better served by this project?
• What is the impact you seek on return on investment/equity/sales/assets?
• What is the impact you seek on shareholder value?
• What is the market share/profitability/productivity improvement expected?
• How will you (the client) be evaluated in terms of the results of the project?
• How would your (the client’s) boss recognize the improvement?
• How would employees notice the difference?
• What precise aspects are most troubling to you – what keeps you up at night?
• What are the top three priorities to be accomplished?

In establishing conceptual agreement about the objectives of the project you are about to undertake together, you – as the consultant – are trying to ensure the following:

• The client is not expecting anything that you cannot deliver to them.
• The client is not expecting anything that is unreasonable under the circumstances and is not within the culture and environment that the project will be performed in.
• There will be no misunderstanding later about why additional work wasn’t performed. The limits and goals of the project will be understood and agreed upon.
• The client is maximizing your contribution and talents on the project so that the project is as effective as possible for the client and as lucrative as possible for you.

If you begin with carefully constructed objectives, you can then create a framework within which the project can be launched. From that, the project can progress toward the agreed upon goals and final solution and draw to a close. Boundaries can be derived from clear objectives. While it seems that a never-ending project is lucrative for you, it actually is not. If the end is never reached, then success is possibly never really understood and realized. Setting clear goals and reaching them is what leads to future work with the same client, not a seemingly ongoing project that drains their financial resources.

Detailing the Project Management Audit Process

Diving a little deeper PM audit process as described in the book “Information Technology Control and Audit”, we will look at the audit planning, the actual PM process review, the act of working with the PM and team to identify risk, and the communications necessary to ensure that the audit process is as successful as possible.

Audit Plan

The audit plan will detail the objectives and the steps to fulfill the audit objectives. As in any audit, a project management audit will begin with a preliminary analysis of the control environment by reviewing existing standards and procedures. During the audit, these standards and procedures should be assessed for completeness and operational efficiency. The preliminary survey should identify the organization’s strategy and the responsibilities for managing and controlling development.

Project Management Process Review

A project management process review would assess the adequacy of the control environment for managing projects. The review points listed represent checkpoints in the project management process. Auditors can use these checkpoints to determine both the status of the project’s internal control system and the status of the development project itself. These reviews eliminate the necessity of devoting large amounts of audit resources to the development effort. As long as the development process is well controlled, the need for audit involvement is minimized.

Project Management

Auditors may assist the project manager in identifying project risks and evaluating plans to mitigate and manage risks (e.g., training, devoted resources, management support, and end-user commitment). Auditing can provide management with an independent review of project deliverables (e.g., project charter, task list, schedule, budget). Auditing may also review the project task list and budget to verify that all project tasks are defined and all milestones have a deliverable.

During the planning phase the auditor can facilitate communication between functions and raise issues that may impact the quality or timeliness of the project. In a development project, resources from various departments need to come together to implement an automated process that may affect multiple user functions. Because of various audit projects, auditors develop an overall knowledge of the organization and establish relationships in multiple departments. These relationships are helpful in a development project for making sure information is flowing between the development team and other functionaries. Consider the following groups:

• Primary users
• Secondary users
• Vendors and consultants
• Programmers and analysts
• Database administrators
• Testing teams
• Computer operations
• Interfacing systems
• Implementation team
• Production support (i.e., maintenance programmers)

Verify that adequate resources are assigned responsibility for tasks and have the time to complete assignments. This includes development, computer operations, user, and support functions (e.g., help desk).

Communication

The first area to communicate is the auditor’s role in the systems development project. It is very important to make sure that the management and development teams’ expectations of the auditor’s role are understood and communicated to all participants. In order to influence the systems development effort, the auditor must develop an open line of communication with both management and users. If a good relationship between these groups does not exist, information might be withheld from the auditor. This type of situation could prevent the auditor from doing the best job possible. In addition, the auditor must develop a good working relationship with the manager, the analysts, and the programmers. Although the auditor should cultivate good working relationships with all groups that have design responsibilities, he or she must remain independent.

Recommendations

Throughout the development project, the auditor will be making control recommendations. Depending on the organization’s culture, these recommendations may need to be handled informally by reviewing designs with the project team or formally by presenting recommendations to the steering committee. In either case, the auditor must always consider the value of the control recommendation versus the cost of implementing the control. Also, recommendations should be speci?c, identifying the problem and not the symptom. This allows the proper controls to be implemented and tested.

Recommendations are often rejected because of a time and cost factor. Managers may sometimes feel that implementing an auditor’s recommendations will put them behind schedule. The auditor must convince management that if the recommendations are not implemented, more time and money will be spent in the long run. Informing management of the cost of implementing a control now rather than shutting down the system later to repair it or leaving possible exposures open will help convince management of the need to spend time and money now.

Five Things to Consider When Hiring a New Project Manager

Anytime an organization chooses to expand, it’s important to carefully consider the interview process, the hiring criteria, the skill set needed, and – of course – how much money you’re willing to spend. I’m sure there are a lot of variables for many other positions, but my concern here is project managers and hiring one is not necessarily a straightforward task.

You can’t just come up with a list of questions, hold an interview, and find the right candidate. It’s deeper than that. Why? Because the project manager ends up wearing a lot of hats in his/her role and over the course of their tenure with your company, they’ll represent your organization in many different ways to many different people. It’s critical that you make the right choice.

That said, here’s my list – for today anyway – of five critical things to consider when onboarding a new project manager to your organization:

Does the candidate fit your organization’s culture?

This is a hard one to come to grips with…a hard one to define. I think you just know it. It’s especially critical when you’re bringing a new PM into a small, close-knit organization or a small, newly formed PMO within a larger organization. Anytime that PM is going to be a big fish in a small pond, then there needs to be cohesion with the rest of the staff.

It’s important in larger organizations, but because of the type of ownership felt by staff members in smaller and startup organizations it’s critical that they bond well and work well together. A loose cannon can severely damage the forward progress of a small business.

Does the candidate have the industry experience you need?

This one is obvious, of course. But consider your customers. For example, if you’re a professional services-type organization and you’re looking to expand your offerings and implementations to a new industry, look for a strong candidate who has worked within that industry. It may be more important that the candidate have knowledge of that industry than to have knowledge of your product offering. You may find that it gives you an ‘in’ in the new market you are entering and can help you grow more quickly.

All I’m saying is don’t be bogged down by the present…consider where you’re going, not just where you are.

Is this a stable long-term candidate to invest in?

I have nothing against the job-hopper. I’ve moved around a lot myself so I find that to be a very negative stereotype. Analyze the candidate’s moves closely and discuss it with them. A good hiring manager can listen to an experienced candidate and tell when they really know what they’re talking about. If the moves seem like good moves or entrepreneurial moves, don’t penalize them for those choices. You may want that aggressiveness and innovation on your team. If they seem random, be careful.

Can this candidate control a remote team?

This is critical in today’s economy and in today’s business world. Remote management of projects is a green practice and makes good economic sense. And often companies have skilled resources strewn across the country. But hiring a project manager without remote management experience or who seemingly lacks the aggressiveness and confidence to pull off remote management of a project is a recipe for disaster.

If you’re hiring a touchy-feely project manager, it’s likely not going to work. They’re going to need too much face time to make remote management a viable, successful option. Know their limitations and then make an informed decision.

Will this candidate represent your company appropriately to your customers?

And finally, the biggest one. You send the project manager out to lead engagements in your company’s name. That’s huge. For three, six, twelve or more months they are THE face of your organization. As far as your customer is concerned, they are the ones who either can or can’t get things done. And if they can’t get things done, then your company can’t get things done. Likewise, if they are unprofessional, your company is unprofessional. The customer-facing project manager IS your company.

You need a confident leader to put in front of the customer. Uncertainty will doom a PM and doom a project. And then you’ve lost a potential long-term revenue stream from that customer. Lose enough of those and you lose your business.

Summary

These are just five examples of things to closely consider when bringing on a new project manager. There are many others I could list – and may in a follow-up article. I also welcome your thoughts on this subject – I’m sure there are a lot of hiring managers reading this…I’d appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Florida Tech Univ to offer Online MBA Degrees in Project Management

Applications Are Now Being Accepted for 100% Online MBA Degrees in Project Management and Information Technology Management

TAMPA, Fla., June 18 /PRNewswire/ — As organizations continue to downsize in the face of a continuing recession, employees are discovering that seniority and solid performance no longer guarantee job security. To survive and thrive in today’s economy, they must demonstrate mastery of core business strategies and possess technical expertise in a functional area deemed essential to operations. Florida Tech University Online (Florida Institute of Technology) helps professionals gain the edge they need with two new 100% online MBA programs in Project Management and Information Technology Management.

“When faced with important workforce decisions — from layoffs to promotions — companies will make a special effort to retain employees who add the greatest value to the organization,” said Adrian Marrullier, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of University Alliance Online, which provides enrollment and support services to Florida Tech University Online. “Professionals can position themselves as an indispensable asset to any employer by developing broad-based business knowledge and targeted skills that translate directly into profits. And there’s simply no better way for them to accomplish that than by earning an online MBA degree from Florida Tech.”

With many qualified MBA holders competing for management-level positions, Marrullier noted that Florida Tech grads can distinguish themselves by specializing in a high-demand field such as project management or information technology management. “Students will gain proficiency in business tools and techniques that can dramatically impact a company’s efficiency, productivity and profitability. And thanks to the flexibility and convenience of online learning, they can earn their degree in two years or less while maintaining a full-time job — so the return on investment is almost immediate.”

Read more..

Knowledge Management News & Articles

How Encouraging a Knowledge Culture Can Affect Your Bottom Line

For engineering-focused organizations, recent economic uncertainty is complicated by an emerging “engineering gap,” as the current population of experienced baby boomer engineers will soon retire. This begs the question, how will the next generation of engineers be prepared to fill this knowledge gap if organizations don’t take some type of action?

Which is where “knowledge cultures” come in.

We all know that organizations have corporate cultures, representing the norms, assumptions, shared values, and artifacts within a company. But, whether it’s acknowledged or not, part of that culture relates to how an organization values knowledge. Some organizations place a high value on the provision and sharing of information, especially as it related to applied to learning and innovation, thus exhibiting a knowledge culture.

And, while some companies demonstrate that they highly value knowledge and invest time and resources into creating and maintaining it, others don’t – often at their peril.

Read the entire article here.

Website Content Management For Hotels…Boon or Boondoggle?

Imagine having the ability to change and update the content of your hotel’s website on your own; change text, add information, that would be great. At the onset, it sounds terrific. No more waiting for your site developer to make the changes and additions you requested.

You can maintain information on your site, right at the property level. Simply choose someone to type in the changes. No more calls or emails to your site developer to make additions and changes; that would be a boon to your website’s production as well as save time and money, right?

Wrong. For most hotels, it’s actually chock-full of potential problems and pitfalls; a real boondoggle.

Content management usually features a template website design, which allows the site owner to change selected sections of the site itself. The concept has been used for retail sites which require constant, even daily, inventory and price changes to keep them current.

Read the entire article here.

Kofax Named to KMWorld Magazine’s “100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management” for 2009

Kofax plc (LSE:KFX), the leading provider of Intelligent Capture & Exchange solutions, today announced that the company was named by KMWorld magazine, a leading content, knowledge and document management publication, to its annual “100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management” for 2009.

“Each of the companies on the 2009 ‘100 Companies’ list was thoroughly evaluated, and each has clearly contributed value to the industry,” said Hugh McKellar, Editor-in-Chief at KMWorld. “Innovation is a key element that sets these companies apart from others and we believe they are the very best at delivering solutions that help organizations to streamline processes and highlight the positive gains in the efficiency of knowledge workers. Kofax is well deserving of this recognition.”

Read the entire article here.