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.