Making Good Project Decisions – Part 1
Posted by Brad Egeland
Everything you do every day is a kind of decision: what time to wake up, what to eat for breakfast, and who to talk to first at work. We don’t often think of these as decisions because the consequences are so small, but we are always making choices. We all have our own natural judgments for which decisions in our lives demand more consideration, and the same kind of logic applies to project management decisions. Some choices, like hiring/firing employees or defining goals, will have ramifications that last for months or years. Because these decisions will have a longer and deeper impact, it makes sense to spend more time considering the choices and thinking through their different tradeoffs. Logically, smaller or less-important decisions deserve less energy.
So, the first part of decision-making is to determine the significance of the decision at hand. Much of the time, we do this instinctively; we respond to the issue and use our personal judgment. Am I confident that I can make a good decision on the spot, or do I need more time for this? It often takes only a few moments to sort this out. However, this is precisely where many of us run into trouble. Those instincts might be guided by the right or wrong factors. Without taking the time, at least now and then, to break it down and evaluate the pieces that lead to that judgment, we don’t really know what biases and assumptions might be driving our thinking (e.g., desiring a promotion or protecting a preferred feature).
With that in mind, here are some core questions to consider when evaluating a decision. This list can be used in the moment to help size up a specific decision, or as a way to re-evaluate your high-level criteria for sizing up decisions.
Is Project Cancellation Always Bad?
Posted by Brad Egeland
Having your project canceled sounds like such a horrible thing. A career killer. But, as strange as it may sound, this is a situation that should actually happen more often than it does. There’s a good reason why this is true. Projects are investments that your organization makes, from which they expect a return. In real life, investments can sometimes go bad.
The same thing can certainly apply to a project. Conditions can change in such a way that the project ceases to become the winner it seemed to be at the outset. Simply stated, management no longer expect the project to have the business impact required to make it wise to keep spending money on it. In many cases, a project such as should be terminated, though in far too many cases, it isn’t.
There are at least three reasons why early project termination usually doesn’t occur, even though it should:
Plodding ahead
You should be testing project viability—or financial justification—on a continuous basis throughout the life of the project. Some organizations don’t do this very well. Others don’t do it at all. Once management approves a project, it simply moves ahead until it’s completed. In today’s fast-paced and constantly changing world, it’s always possible that there will be changes that undermine the original business case for the project. That means that you need to reconsider the economic viability of every project periodically. And the organization should terminate projects that have lost their business case underpinnings.
Project Communication Series: PM Communication Skills
Posted by Brad Egeland
I’ve long talked about the need for the project manager to be an effective communicator. I’ve professed that I believe it is the single most important characteristic of the project manager – their #1 skill. If a person is not an effective communicator, I simply don’t see how they could possibly hope to make it as a project manager.
As I read further in Mr. Heerkens’ book “Project Management,” I came across his list of the communication skills of the project manager. It’s an all-encompassing list. It’s his list for of the abilities – in terms of communication – that all of the successful project managers have possessed that he’s come across in his career.
As Mr. Heerkens states, developing the skills needed to effectively communicate takes time, practice, and feedback. Here is his list for those abilities he’s witnessed in successful project managers:
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with organizational management
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with peers and team members
- Ability to express themselves effectively in conversations with subordinates and support personnel
- Ability to speak naturally in front of a large group
- Ability to prepare and deliver formal presentations
- Ability to speak “off the cuff” effectively
- Ability to negotiate Read more »
Do You Trust Your Organization’s Leadership?
Posted by Brad Egeland
This may seem like a simple question, but the answer is bigger than we think it is. We’ve all grown somewhat immune to the mocking of those in charge – you see the President of the United States mocked on Saturday Night Live all the time. But really, what about the leadership of your company? Do you have confidence in them? Do you think they have your back? Do you feel like they’re leading you, your co-workers … even your customers in the right direction?
I think the answer for many of us is often ‘no.’ And that’s sad. Why is that … why do we feel this way?
Let me look – generically – at situations I’ve both encountered personally at organizations I’ve worked with and for, as well as situations I’ve seen at customers and clients I’ve worked with. I’ll try to not be too specific so you can’t tie a situation back to one of my past employers – but you know who you are!
Examples of leadership failure
One Fortune 500 organization did very little support their PMO. I was around long enough to see it created, witness it flounder and fail, see it disassembled, and then see it re-assembled. And through all of this, there were other organizations within the company who were acting in renegade mode leading projects – and getting support from executive leadership to do so (crazy!) – while the actual PMO struggled and disintegrated. Rarely have I personally witnessed such an extreme waste of time, effort, good people and good money.
CEOs and the Changing Technology Around Them
Posted by Brad Egeland
Today’s CEO is challenged in a way that no CEOs were challenged before. Technology is changing and too fast for even the CIO of an organization to keep up with, let alone the CEO. Yet those critical decisions of company direction, how and where to grow the business, and what new technology to incorporate ultimately falls in the lap of the CEO.
How does one person do it? The right answer is, they don’t. It’s critical for the CEO to be surrounded by the right people to help him make good decisions for the company. Just like an employee has to answer to their manager or management team, likewise the CEO is subject to the guidance, oversight, and decision-making of his board of directors. Everyone is accountable to someone.
Making tough decisions
The CEO must make sound decisions on what new market niches to attack. He’ll look to his marketing team and expect the right decisions will be made based on their analysis of the industry, but ultimately he’s responsible.
The CEO must make sound technology decisions. He’ll look to the CIO or IT Director for their input on what direction to take, what technology to acquire, who to partner with, etc., but ultimately it’s his decision and the target is on his head.