Iain Maclean On Project Management

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Here are what I believe to be the top ten activities affecting project management. The principles are presented in reverse order.

#10 Control This is a difficult skill to teach in our politically correct environment, but it must be learned nonetheless. A good rule of thumb is that if the person you are employing has a unique and greater knowledge of the relevant subject compared to you, then you are handing control to that person. Clearly you cannot be the expert in every field, so to ensure you retain control I recommend that the expert resource should be duplicated if the budget will allow (this should also be done to reduce risk to the project); if not, then the project manager should start reading.

#9 Benchmarking If I were trying to get there, I wouldn't start from here. Often on arrival at a new project, I am confronted by people working flat out to reach a pre-determined goal without any means of measuring when they have achieved that point. My old physics teacher used to say that work done was the product of energy multiplied by distance; you could use the entire output of a power station, but if the subject does not move one millimeter then you have done nothing. At the very start of a project, the manager should lay down a set of agreed benchmarks by which progress can be measured. Not only should measured progress give confidence that the plan is working, but it is also an inspiration to the project team.

#8 Political awareness Probably best explained by an example:

In 1995, a global software house had been contracted to develop a new crew scheduling system for one of the world's largest airlines. The project was due to take 18 months with 300 full-time resources. I was asked to review the project in 1998 (the project was by then 18 months late); they were then on their fourth project manager, and each side was blaming the other.

It became clear during the review that key figures from both sides had a vested interested in letting the project fail: The supplier had realized that their software design was fundamentally flawed, and wanted to hide this by blaming the failure on the customer's frequent design changes; the customer had identified a better solution and wanted the ability to sue the existing supplier as incompetent, in an effort to claw back costs.

In other words, a project can encounter problems because someone deliberately created them, in addition to poor planning, incompetence, coincidence, or a host of other reasons. The good project manager has to be constantly on the alert for this possibility, particularly if trouble is already brewing elsewhere.

#7 Detachment The biggest reason for project failure is being overdue. The good project manager must retain sufficient detachment from deliverables to ensure that the eighty-twenty rule can be applied; because 20% of a project's efforts produce 80% of its results, decisions need to be taken, and constantly reviewed, about how much of the 100% target should be attained.

#6 Focus If you fall asleep at the wheel of your car, you will probably crash -- projects are no different. It is very easy to become distracted during a project; then the dreaded feature creep gets hold, key resources become diverted, and suddenly your budget has gone through the roof. Put blinders on, carry thick red felt-tip pens, do whatever is necessary to remain on track, and even more importantly, keep your team on track.

#5 Business knowledge The top three reasons for project failure must include moving from analysis to design too early. A project team's combined knowledge of the business they are supporting should be modeled to its greatest possible extent by the end of the analysis phase. This living body of knowledge must then be available throughout the rest of the project: plastered across the project room walls, available through the project web site, presented regularly in staff briefings and training sessions; reinforcing facts, dispelling myths, highlighting assumptions.

#4 Traceability As a young RAF officer I was always told (by a very cold-hearted squadron leader) that I was only any good if I could be shot dead without compromising the mission. What he was getting at was that a mission or project should be set up in such a way that the leader can be easily replaced (or maybe he just wanted someone to shoot me).

Most project managers I come into contact with, seem to regard traceability as a bad idea. They feel that if they can be replaced, then they will be; that by keeping as many secrets as possible, their employers will be unable to exist without them. As a result, uncovering the reasons behind key decisions, or the names of those responsible, can be excessively difficult. What these people fail to realize is that they become the problem: no decision can be made without them, and so they remain continually on the critical path of a project. Even a bad head cold can then put a multi-million-dollar project at risk.

#3 Empathy The art of putting oneself in another's shoes. Listening is a key part of this, but then the project manager must take what has been said and understand why it is important. Failure to achieve this last step has been at the root of many project failures; too many times I have reviewed projects where the final result is not fit for the original purpose.

#2 Leadership Okay, hands up: who can tell me the difference between management and leadership? We all know the answer, but somehow it doesn't seem to matter. All too often, project managers (and the management beyond) simply forget to lead. If the boxes are ticked, the budgets are balanced, the reports are filed, and everyone is at their stations, then everything is as it should be, right? Wrong.

Plans change, and when they do, people need to be flexible. The preparedness of team members to go the extra mile is a good measure of how effective a project manager is as a leader. Now, some bad project managers know the measure without knowing the skill; poor situations are made infinitely worse by forcing staff to work their weekends, or late into the night, in the vain hope of catching up. The good project manager inspires staff, and then has to prevent them from burning themselves out.

#1 Communication Over the past 10 years, I have been called in to resuscitate around 25 major projects. No two profiles were the same: some had issues around design, some were being undermined by prevailing political climates, some were losing key staff faster than they could be replaced, and some were being torn apart by power struggles within the project teams. But all of them suffered from poor communication. In every case, the concept of daily briefing was alien, and where frequent meetings were taking place, the content tended to be formulaic and one-directional. Good communication between team members, team leaders and team sponsors is, in my view, the single most important factor in a project's success.

Many people write to me asking why we include the teaching of presentation skills in our company profile -- this should not be a mystery. Yes, of course listening is vitally important; it encourages faults to be reported, motivates staff who suddenly realize that you are interested in them, and ensures that the project management hear what is actually being said. But at least as important is the way that the project manager conveys significant information to his or her team.

Iain Maclean http://www.icifm.com/

RelationshipManagement is probably very closely matched with "Political Awareness" above.

CategoryProjectManagement