Day 1: Powered by People
As the weekend came to an end, Rhett could barely sleep. Sunday night he kept wondering about who he would meet and what he would learn. Monday morning Rhett arrived early, but apparently someone had arrived earlier. He found his white board divided into thirds. One the left, he saw:
On the right side he found:
And in the middle was an acrostic that spelled PROJECT:
As he was pondering the source of the writing, a cheerful voice emerged behind him and interrupted his thoughts: “Projects,” Mr. Sero, “are powered by people.”
He turned around to notice that a slight, gray haired woman with a sparkle in her eye was standing in his doorway. She was dressed in a sharp and conservative business suit that almost looked like a military uniform. The generational difference was obvious, and he immediately wondered how this woman could teach him anything about project management for modern software development.
Without giving Rhett a chance to say anything, she continued, “Without the right people involved, your project will be delayed at best, fail at worst. A project I recently reviewed was delayed because someone impacted by the project wasn’t consulted. They found a way to keep it from moving forward for six months. Do you know who the right people are for your project, Mr. Sero?”
Sheepishly he shook his head no, still wondering who this was and how she appeared in his doorway so quickly. “Maybe I really should pay attention,” he thought to himself. He knew that Rick trusted this woman, so maybe he should as well.
“Good. Think first and always ask questions. I’m Miss Heldenmacher, young man, but you can call me Heda. I’ve been assigned to work with you and give you some project management tips and techniques. We’re going to spend the next seven working days together and I’m going to make sure you succeed with the Clark Inc. project. I’m going to outline what I call the PROJECT method, one letter per day. We’ll discuss the steps to take both before the project starts and when it is underway. I’ll equip you with the basic tools to succeed. After that it’s up to you. Are you willing to work with me?”
Rhett relaxed and held out his hand, “Nice to meet you, Heda. I look forward to learning from you.”
“The PROJECT method is where we begin. It represents the basic steps you need to take as a project manager,” Heda explained. “Before we do that, let’s look at the four critical success tips.”
Heda’s success tips included four points:
Clarify expectations
For this concept, Heda explained that Rhett really needed to know what was committed to for the project and what were the expectations of Rick (who was Rhett’s manager and also the project sponsor), the client, and others. Through the “Requirements” step in the PROJECT methodology, he would be able to develop that understanding and make sure his team did as well – everyone needs to be on the same page.
The importance of just enough planning
“What does it mean to plan like Albert Einstein?” Rhett inquired after a brief pause.
“Einstein said that if he had sixty minutes to solve a problem, he would spend fifty-five minutes defining and understanding the problem and five minutes solving it, replied Heda. “You need a similar approach with project planning – be sure you understand what needs to be done and plan the steps to get there before you start doing anything. While you won’t necessarily have fifty-five out of every sixty project minutes to plan, the top project managers spend 91% more time planning than average project managers, and this is important to practice from the start.” (Crowe 2006)
“It’s equally important to be able to decide when you have enough planning,” Heda continued. “Don’t get stuck in what’s known as ‘analysis paralysis’ – plans are useless unless they are put into action.
Ask a lot of questions
The third concept, Heda continued, “is to ask a lot of questions. Think first and use the facts at hand. There may be what are thought of as ‘obvious’ requirements, but do not make unfounded assumptions. Asking the right clarifying questions can save a project from failure. As they say, seek first to understand, then be understood.”
Give trust to get trust
Heda explained that another important concept was that Rhett should give trust first to get trust. “Don’t assume anyone has any ill intent – this will allow you to build trust faster,” Heda counseled. “Team work is smoother if everyone trusts everyone else to do their part. We’ll examine this concept more on the fourth day when we focus on team work.”
Heda then moved to the right third of the white board, explaining that there are two main types of people involved in projects – those impacted by the project and those on the project team. She challenged Rhett to brainstorm a list – Clark Inc. management, Clark Inc. customers, Rick (his manager), WashCo management, and his peers not on the project team. Next, they started to identify who had the most interest and power. Sally, the Clark Inc. IT manager had both as this was her project – the rest of the Clark Inc. management team was somewhat divided, so had to be named individually, along with their roles. Very quickly the list was expanded to include more than a dozen groups and individual people.
Heda provided Rhett with a Stakeholder Register Template to document their findings, explaining that “stakeholder” was the term used to describe all the people impacted by or involved in a project. She asked him to think more about it overnight and then share with his project team later – together they would check to see if anyone was missing.
“It is always better to over identify, rather than under identify stakeholders,” continued Heda. “One can always pare it down later. You will need to share the stakeholders with Rick, your manager. And for Rick and everyone you share it with, ask two questions: ‘Who else should I speak to about this project?’ and ‘Have I missed any important stakeholders?’”
Once satisfied they had identified most of the people impacted by the project, Heda turned Rhett’s attention to the project team. She explained that the best people to work on the team are those who:
wanted to be there
had the skills to contribute to the project
knew of others who could help.
Why are these three attributes important? Those that want to be there will show up every day ready to do their best work. And of course, it is important that they have the skills to do that work. Sometimes, the team may get “stuck” on difficult issues and that’s where who the team knows can help. The team can reach out for solutions.
“Rhett, project managers, especially on their first project, don’t always get to pick their project team. However, I’d like you to think carefully about who would be best for your team. I’m going to talk to Rick – while neither of us can make any promises, we want to hear your input.”
“Communications is key,” continued Heda, after they returned from lunch. “Project managers spend anywhere between 75-90% of their time communicating either formally or informally.” (Haus 2016). She explained how Rhett and his team would need to figure out what needed to be communicated. There are four “must have” elements for facilitating project communications:
Elevator pitch – a brief thirty-to-sixty second summary that describes the project objectives and its benefits. Use it to quickly relay information about the project to interested executives and others.
Project deck – a compilation of all slides from previous presentations given on the project. Having the slide deck enables new presentations to be quickly assembled when needed and increases consistency in communications and instills confidence in the project.
Status report – this is one or more simple reports containing project status information, tailored to the stakeholder audience. Heda suggested that to start with, an overall status report would be delivered every Monday morning to Rick and the Clark Inc. IT manager to brief them on the project progress. Heda indicated they would look at this in more detail later.
Communications plan – an often overlooked, yet valuable document that outlines what project information would be shared, with whom, by when, in what format, and at what frequency.
Heda provided Rhett with a second template: a project Communications Plan Template. She asked him to add the status reports and then work with the team and client later to determine what other key communications would be required.
“During World War II,” Heda explained, “I worked with Captain Hopper. While she was excellent at getting what her team needed at the Pentagon, she angered some top brass. She didn’t keep them well informed about the work of the team, she failed to report to some of them, and got others to work with her team without clearing it with anyone. There was no communications plan and as a result, people felt left out.”
“As payback for the perceived exclusion, they purposely gave her team a computer without the capacity to run the software they knew her team had to write. It really impacted team morale and slowed them down at a critical time. Her team and colleagues confronted her and begged her to change and find better ways to communicate.”
“While she developed her communications skills, her team invented virtual memory to solve the problem of the limited computer. It delayed their project work by months, but their virtual memory solution became the basis for most modern computers. By doing a little more planning and communicating, Captain Hopper and her team completely turned the situation around to everyone’s delight. Xanadu and Clark Inc. are counting on you, Rhett, to have equal success.”
As the day came ended, Heda summarized what they had covered that day:
The PROJECT Method – P is for people
The first step is to identify those impacted by the project
Over identify, rather than under identify impacted stakeholders
Consider the power and influence they will have on the project
Ask who else will be impacted and who else should I speak with
Pick the right project team
May not always be possible
Not just what they know, but who they know
Project communications takes planning and people involved in the project need frequent communication
Who needs information on the project
The level of detail they need
How frequently they need the information
How the information should be delivered
Before he knew it, the day had come to an end. Rhett enjoyed the day with Heda. He realized how much he had learned about project management and felt better prepared to work with the people on his project. He looked forward to the second day with Heda.
Knowledge Nuggets
| Chapter Pro Tip: Over identify impacted people. |
|---|
As Heda relates through her story at the beginning of the chapter, leaving a key stakeholder out of the plan may have consequences for your project. Stakeholders that are impacted may have an interest in, or power over your project. If left out, they may not care, but some may have hurt feelings, or worse yet, want to hurt your project. Project professionals often use what’s called a Power-Interest Grid to determine how to best manage stakeholders. The Power-Interest Grid divides stakeholders into four quadrants, based on what you and the team believe to be their power and interest levels. The quadrant the stakeholder belongs to informs the team how to best manage the stakeholder: Low power-low interest: Monitor these stakeholders to make sure you correctly identified their level of power-interest and that their level does not change during the project. Low power-high interest: Keep these stakeholders “in the loop”. Make sure they receive the right messages, in the right format, at the right times for their group. High power-low interest: Keep these stakeholders satisfied. Conduct periodic reviews or surveys, or other lower engagement means to determine satisfaction levels. Ignoring a high power, low interest individual may lead to sudden project issues as they use their power and influence to attempt to address their dissatisfaction. High power-high interest: Keep these stakeholders actively engaged. They need to be consulted, given tasks, and periodically involved in some way in the project. They will be influencers in how work is done and can have large positive or negative impact on projects. |
Figure 1: Power-Interest Grid
PMBOK® Guide reading: Part I, Chapter 13 to learn more about stakeholder management.
Article: Got stake? (Holder) management in your project (Forman & Discenza 2012)
Blog Article: Communicate, Communicate, Communicate (Frohnhoefer 2007)
Chapter Templates: Stakeholder Register, Communications Plan