RIGHT, RITE & WRITE

After a certain project is approved for implementation, the commitments are finalised and all team members also know what they would be doing (Right) then arrange for a Rite (function/meeting) where all can re- commit (Write).

Before finalizing the date of the rite, ask everyone to send their version of understanding about tasks in writing and agree with them on the drafts sent by them. Once agreed, it is a good idea to prepare a presentation including roles and responsibilities of each member as a separate slide or on a single sheet of paper. Once all this is prepared, choose a date for the get together. At that occasion let everyone present her own slide and others to get known to it and to clarify their supporting roles.

When this activity is finished circulate a summary sheet where each member’s name appears with the explanation about their tasks, relationship to other team members and also deadlines for different submissions. Get that sheet signed by every one!

Post this summary sheet on project information board. This board should not be locked in the room of project manager but should be available to all team members preferably staying with knowledge manager for updating whenever required.

Reference: Project Management Anchor the Success

Project Management Systems

It has been a vital question for many which project management system is better. There is no exact answer to this. It can not be said if PRINCE is better or any PMI developed system. It generally depends upon the requirements.

Trying to use a complex system for a very simple and small project is of no use. It would just increase the complexities. On the other hand multi stake holders and multi layers project can not be handled using simple tools.

The most appropriate system for any project would be which is understandable and involves minimum steps to reach the target. Use of minimum steps involved approach is one of the most important issue for success. Deletion of unnecessary step(s) increase chances of success. It should not be forgotten that unnecessary steps are rarely visible in first or even second go. It needs to use the question what if this step is removed? Once you are good at asking and answering this question many steps can be avoided. Inclusion of less steps create less complexities, decreased requirement for resources and time. 

Keep It Simple Straight (KISS) rule is always valid.

How Technical Should a Project Manager be?

Project Management is highly popular in two fields, one is IT and other is Civil Engineering works.  In both cases Project Manager is expected to be a technical expert. The idea is that if someone is to manage a project he/she should be competent enough not to be cheated or at least able to control the project activities. In its essence the idea is not bad. However there are two great handicaps regarding this requirement for project manager post.

The first and far more important is that being too expert in technical field like IT or Civil Engineering would compel the project manager to do his/her best in project. To this end the best thing done could be his/her technical competency rather than management of the project. Such a competent project manager would concentrate on technical issues and would be intervening (able to intervene) at every stage and technical step of the project. This would result in less and less time left for project management acts.

Secondly the great technical competency restricts one from thinking in different ways. This is created through continuous work in the technical matters along with success gained. Both of these transforms brains in such a way that such people remain thinking in a certain way.

There is no problem if a project manager has technical skills. It could be an advantage but the sector must understand that by putting a highly technical expert as project manager although it might be saving one additional position, it is not benefiting. Project manager has to think in ways very different from technical experts in his/her team. Project manager must take care of team management, time management and goal management. Hope a time would come when project management discipline will get its real place.

Free Project Management

Using the large number of information portals at world wide web most people consider that information can be obtained free and be used free. This is true to some limited level only. Unfortunately most of the freely available information does not lead to creation of new information. In many cases too much information causes confusion.

Similar is the case with project management. Be it be project management information, education or training more and more people look for free project management. It is true that generalized information and lessons learnt are available free. However although world is full of lessons learnt, rarely these lessons are not re-learnt. 

Free project management does not provide any shortcut to success. Just like other disciplines it requires, in depth knowledge, practice and passion to learn project management. Most important issue in this regard is to disregard the information which is of no use. 

Project Management is neither rocket science nor something very easy to learn. (a quote from Project Management Anchor the Success.

Project Management Softwares! the myth

Most of the fresh experts in Project Management field look for Project Management Softwares for their success. Importance of such soft wares can not be denied but at the same time their proper use is essential. For new comers the soft wares might not be ladder to success but in fact a trap. As they may try to be efficient in any selected software they would be driven far and far from common sense. 

There are three prerequisites for effective use of any project management software. The first and most important is the knowledge about project, its activities and its required outputs. These three must then be making a sense also. Any one who knows what is purpose of his/her project, effective communication and understands the human side of a project would easily use the software. Anyone who does not know his/her project but knows the soft ware, its out puts, activity charts etc is bound to fail. So know your project.

Second issue is about scale of the project, small projects with limited duration and teams may not need any software. Use of softwares may even complicate the whole process. Larger projects with multi stakeholders require a software for better control.

Lastly be sure that any software used by you you is understandable by other concerned team members or project partners. Many times a simple file sent in MS Project is not only not understandable but even not openable by some project partners who are used with MS Excel. By the way, MS Excel still proves to be an efficient tool for small to medium size projects around the globe.

STOP Analysis an indispensable Tool!

In order to move ahead even the well prepared project proposal must not be submitted in hurry. Most of the donors and sponsors have deadlines and generally the work on any proposal by applicants is left till the last moments. In case where an applicant gets information about a certain deadline too late it is better not to go ahead with application rather than presenting a badly prepared project proposal.

Such a proposal poses much bigger threat of failure during implementation phase even if it gets the approval. The author has developed a tool that is simple to apply and remember. It can be known as STOP analysis.

STOP – Shared, Thought, Owned & Paid

Shared: It must be noted that a project prepared by experts might be good enough to get the financial sup- port or achieve its targets. However unless it is shared by the people affected by that project i.e. stakeholders, it won’t be sustainable. The project idea must be supported by majority if not all the stakeholders affected directly or indirectly by the proposed project. Earlier the proposal or project concept is shared, better it is, as modifications at later stages might be very difficult leading to preparation of a new proposal altogether.

Thought: There are two types of assessments required under this heading, first is to see if the proposal carries common sense and second if all necessary activities have been planned or not. All possible activities should be included and written in measurable form. Activities should be described well in the proposal leaving less room for guesses and ambiguities due to disagreements and discussions in the later stages. On the other hand there is no sense in implementing a project that has well planned activities but does not carry any common sense i.e. the benefits or losses should be understood by the affected.

Owned: Whether it is a state funded, foreign funded or privately funded project the ownership of the project must be defined clearly. Who will own the benefits or bear the damages of the project. Ownership issue becomes more important once the project is finished and there is no financial or technical support from external sources or experts is available. The owners must prepare themselves for takeover during the project implementation phase if required. In case where a project is expected to bring some financial gains it is much more important to have clearly defined owner of those gains. Therefore a project’s post closure phase must also be planned well in advance even during the proposal preparation stage for the successful implementation of the project.

Paid: No matter how beautifully a project is planned and how successfully it is implemented, it needs the finances for sustainability. One should get the answers to following questions in this regard. Who will pay for project preparation, project implementation and its continuity once the external funding is seized? Especially in community projects the sustainability of a project depends upon financial assistance of the community made available to maintain the project. A clear, agreed and acceptable format should be developed for this purpose. The common bottle neck in such cases is when a certain part of community which is required for project’s sustainability disagrees or fails to contribute for the project’s sustainability. This may create inter-community clashes as well as threats the sustainability of the project fruits. Any such issue should be resolved to maximum possible extent during project planning phase. 

Details about STOP Analysis and other tools is available at https://www.createspace.com/3492429

Soft and Hard sides of Project Management

For last two decades at least, there has been a detailed discussion about soft side of project management including cultural issues or simply the human side of project management. The idea has been to make research about various issues related to success or failure of any project. Soft side of projects is somewhat not measurable or hard enough to be felt. Team tussles or cultural differences along with communication and human resource management are four important issues related to soft side of projects. 

However in this discussion about soft side of projects, the hard side of projects i.e. the success was undermined. Instead the term lessons learned became a fashion. Now the world is full of lessons learned but is left with less number of solutions learned. 

It is difficult to manage soft side of a project, true - but using the hard side i.e. goals, procedures, deadlines and control can help projects to be successful. The bottom line should be that no hard side of any project should be bargained for the sake of soft side's survival. Yes the soft side is critical but achieving a well declared target could be more important. 

Instead of using the soft side issues to figure out hurdles in reaching target, the soft side should be modified in a way which paves the path to reach the target. The hard side should provide the outer boundaries in which all soft sides can be managed and not the vice versa. The only exception could be some social projects where purpose is not to achieve a certain target but just to stir up the beneficiaries. 

Project Managers' Biggest Fear

Many of us may say that a Project Manager's biggest fear is failure of a project. Others may come up with ideas of delay or team tussles. However the biggest fear of a project management is the fear to delegate. Delegate is a key to success of many project managers and also a path towards failure.

Project managers fear delegating considering, only they can do the said job in perfect manner, the other will not be able to do with perfection and may be other won't do the way it should be done. These three simple fears have three simple solutions. Find team members who are better than you. This fact is highlighted by Guy Kawasaki (#SVBCEO) in his speech about, '12 Lessons I learned from Steve Jobs'. Secondly train your team members, invest in them prepare them to perform better and lastly tell them clearly how a certain activity is to be done.

Analyse yourself before choosing a Career

It is quite well said since centuries that 'do what you do best'. However the main question for people of this age is to know what they can do best? Under highly competitive conditions and availability of knowledge every one is almost expert in every thing. Still one can notice that people who were able to pinpoint their 'best skills' became highly successfull through utilizing those skills.

Unfortunately most of us either cannot locate the skill we do best or we have to ignore this discovery in order to stick to what we have been doing or what we need to do for everyday life. As a result we end up being utilized below our potential or simply doing something we never intended to do.

There are many behaviour tests or aptitude tests one can use to understand himself/herself. One of them is 'compass' test as described by Paul H Brisk in his book, 'Creating Your CV as a self marketing tool'. 

The book is wonderful guide for all those who are either embarking on their career or intend to search new waters. Knowing your traits right is first step but equally important is going in right direction with patience.

Simplify the Documents

It is expected that all team members might have gone through the project documents before the commitment meeting was held. However the project document approved by the sponsor is generally not very understandable by the individual team members.

Therefore it is highly recommended to have implementation procedures simplified and made usable by the team members. The most important issue in most of the cases is the lack of information about different procedures towards acquisition of necessary resources to perform certain activities.

Not many people will go for reading the thick procurement manuals but would instead leave it to time when they’ll need any such activity. In order to overcome the delays caused by misunderstandings or lack of knowledge about different procedures a simplified document could be prepared and circulated.

A very feasible option could be to have one person hired exclusively for knowledge management who keep the updated records of different project activities at any time and also find and provide solutions to those who ask for them. This needs someone committed and trained, and it cannot be delegated to just anyone from the team busy in other activities.

https://www.createspace.com/3492429

Where is Common Sense??

Common sense is the most important gift given to creatures by their creator. Even among wild animals one can find this skill while they make their rest places or perform their daily courses. Common sense is the only sense which keeps one cool minded during most complex situations. However unfortunately this sense is no more common, especially among Project Managers.

The reason behind extinction of this gifted skill is in fact availability of too much knowledge in the world. Now people give a damn to their common sense and look for some thing 'sophisticated'. Similarly in the projects whole team including their manager develops complex tools to implement and monitor the project activities. Due to these complexities they forget the real purposes of the project most of the time.  Being lost in these complex details they never find enough time to stop and think, 'if this makes sense also or not?'

Download the table of contents from: http://cmc30.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/contents.pdf

What a Project is NOT!

Project is not a routine work, neither it is repeated each and every day. Even if same set of activities are repeated either time frame, place of implementation, or team members would be different. Therefore no two projects are same.

Project is not the path leading to problem from solution. It is never the implementation of a solution and thus designing activities accordingly to find a problem at some place. Many times a solution is promised through some project proposal and people involved try to find/create a problem in order to execute the planned project.

In the hope to solve one problem sometimes a new project simply replaces the whole system which was not required at all which leads to wastage of resources. Although the new system may work well in the initial phase, it may bring its own problems with passage of time thus raising a need for some new project to solve the new issues.

It must be noted if the solution provided by the proposed project is not related to the original problem or it creates its own problem or addresses some other problem and then proposes a solution.

https://www.createspace.com/3492429

HEY! Culture in Project Management

Hey culture as defined by author is present in almost all countries but is dominant especially in the eastern culture. The culture of Hey means ‘in principal ok but we’ll see later’.

The person who is not familiar with this Hey culture takes it as a sign of acceptance and readiness to move ahead but this ok is accompanied with many hidden ‘buts’.

During a project meeting or even informal communication with any project team member the project manager asks her for a certain job. The answer would be generally Hey. It is taken as commitment and sign of agreement by project manager alien to Hey culture. Project manager becomes happy that the problem would be solved or activity would be done.

But after a long time if she finds out that problem is still there or activity is not started even yet, the concerned team member is consulted. Team member’s answers may include, Oh I forgot it completely; Can you tell me details again; I am going to do it now.

In addition to these common excuses another two most important answers of the team member could be; I agreed but thought that we will discuss and finalise details later but you never came for that, and second answer as, you did not ask me to do it right then- you just asked if I could do it or not.

Please click following link for your gift whole chapter

http://cmc30.net/?page_id=387

REACH THE BLOGGERS

http://www.chillibreeze.com/indian-writers-and-editors/promote-yourself.asp

Progress Meetings

Many project managers and team members like to have progress meetings as often as possible. The reasons behind these meetings include sharing the progress/problems, seeking solutions from team members and also to have more networking. Most project managers consider it as a toll for better control. No matter how sincere each participant might be, the progress meetings do not come out to be as fruitful as expected. Following are few issues which must be addressed to make these meetings better.

i. Meetings frequency: Progress meetings for whole team should never be done on weekly basis as this leaves the concerned people involved in meeting preparation and meeting report writing phases only. A progress meeting once a month seems a better idea to get the results.

ii. Progress or problems: These progress meetings should not become problems-reporting meetings. People should be asked to communicate problems before meeting and come up with the solutions to the meetings and concentrate on reporting the progress and not problems during the meetings.

iii. Meetings’ attendees: All meetings should not include all members of team(s). The attendees should be selected based upon purpose of the meeting.

For many other important issues related to progress meetings, please visit https://www.createspace.com/3492429

PLEASE CLICK ON FIGURE BELOW FOR BETTER VIEW

Project Manager's Tool

Being a Project Manager (PM) is sometimes taken as being Prime Minister (PM). Unfortunately regardless of team it is generally Project Manager blamed for any failure of a project. This makes him or her to stay on toes!

While worrying about success of a certain project the PM becomes jackal of all. He/she tries to do each and every activity and take role of every team member. Any project manager who finishes any project with this approach successfully is indeed not a project manager or simply not a manager even!

There could be many tools a PM can use to make situation better and D3* is one of them. It implies- Decide, Delegate, Do.

A PM must Decide what is to be done in project as clearly as possible, then he/she must Delegate the work to team members (most rare skill among PMs) and finally Do what he/she has to do i.e. Manage!

* https://www.createspace.com/3492429

The Cc Game!

Project team with its manager is working hard to meet the deadlines. Being humans a natural clash takes place between the manager and one member of a team. Nothing unusual happens in next 7 days except that Cc game was started by the said team member.

Cc game is one of the worst nightmares of any project manager. It can create a mess of confusion which even Bcc can not clear. In this age of 'digital communication' and 'empathy' Cc game makes people apart from each other.

So what exactly is Cc game? It is sharing your information with more than one person or one group. For our team member mentioned above it was meant more. The said member while reporting to the manager started sending all reports with Cc to donor! So in medium to short run if project is screwed he would be the 'honest', 'hard working', and 'loyal' team member in the eyes of donor!

So can we ask if communication is key to a lock or a way to deadlock? (https://www.createspace.com/3492429)