Project Management

Project managers can have it tough sometimes.  They are being asked to plan a project, complete with cost and resource estimates, sometimes in an area they are not too familiar with.  On top of the planning, they have to act like an orchestra conductor (Laureate, 2011) to ensure the project progresses forward and success is achieved.  But don't fret, there are some tools and websites that can help you with project estimation, which to me, can be one of the hardest parts of management.

PMI (http://www.pmi.org/), the site for Project Management Institute is where I go first to check for help, advice, and resources on project management.  PMI is the certifying body for PM, and their site contains the Body of Knowledge (BOK) for project managers, professional development section, and knowledge center.  The knowledge center features many articles on a variety of PM topics.  The only downside to this site is some of the articles and areas are restricted access to PMI members only.  But that doesn't mean you can't find great information and help on topics like budget estimation and resource planning.  One of the most helpful and free items to me is BOK.  The BOK often helps me research the proper term that I need help and assistance with.  Because terminology changes from company to company and discipline to discipline, the BOK triggers me with specific words I should include in my searches for help.  If you are lucky enough to have a membership, there are many articles written by SME on cost control, project estimation, and scheduling.  The articles include informative information, white papers, and case studies which have all been reviewed by a panel to ensure they further and advance project management thinking.

All About Project Management (http://managementhelp.org/plan_dec/project/project.htm) is a great resource to have in your back pocket.  The site contains many helpful links for the entire project life-cycle, including agile project management, and is overseen by Kevin Lonergan.  Agile project management is commonly found in IT projects, but more and more aspects of agile PM are making it into mainstream PM.  There are some great agile management concepts that the links talk about such as iterative or spiral development, scrum techniques, and visual controls.  The site not only contains links to other resourceful sites, but also to blogs where you can learn from other project managers.  This site is definitely one you should bookmark, as I find myself coming back to it time and time again because of the consolidation of information.

There are also free templates out there to help with project planning, cost and resource allocations.  Microsoft offers a few good project templates for Microsoft Excel products and you can find them by searching on project and/or planning for business.  For cost estimating, Social Signal (http://www.socialsignal.com/blog/alexandra-samuel/how-create-budget-estimates-proposals-and-project-management) has a great article and tools and templates available for download.  An Excel worksheet, with a pretty comprehensive checklist is also available at the following location:  http://www.exinfm.com/excel%20files/Estimating_Template.xls  I find the strength of this template is the checklists is offers at each stage of the project. 

Overall, there are a ton of resources available on the internet as well as your library to get you through any sticky point of a project.  It is difficult to recommend specific sites because each one is specialized to an area of a project and oftentimes an industry:  budgeting, resource allocation, agile management, getting teams to work together, etc.  Each site and template offers it's own strength - you just have to look for it.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Communicating with Stakeholders [DVD]. In EDUC 6145. Baltimore, MD.

Messages Delivered in Various Modalities

Communication and message interpretation changes with each modality it is delivered in.  For this week’s assignment, we were given the same message delivered three different ways:  email, voicemail, and face-to-face (via video).  The message is in regards to obtaining a missing report that is vital to the originator’s task.  Without the report, the originator is unable to perform their work and provide information by the assigned due date.

The first modality explored is email.  In my opinion, the email was wordy, indirect, and didn’t express the urgent need upfront.  The email opens with a statement that the person may be in a meeting or workshop all day and away from their computer.  This statement means email is not the best choice to communicate with them.  The communication continues asking for the report, but not providing a deadline of when the report is needed.  It is only asked if they could provide an ETA on when it will be complete.  If this was my message to someone I would have began with what was needed in the opening statement and provide a date when the information is due by.  Dr. Stolovitch (Laureate Education Inc, 2010) states that the purpose of a communication needs to be mentioned upfront, and in the first sentence or two if possible.  Because it is assumed the recipient has been away from their desk, the email may be more effective as a follow-up to a face-to-face interaction or a voicemail.  If it was a follow-up, I would have stated that the email was a follow-up to the previous communication. 

The second modality explored was a voice message left for the individual.  The message was the best out of the three explored, but could still be improved.  I felt the voice was lacking emotion and a sense of urgency.  While the voice was not monotone, it did lack inflection and came across as being required to call the individual.  The voice sounded bored and not really interested in obtaining the report.  This could be for several reasons, one of those being that the individual with the late report is always late and the voice is accustomed to having to follow-up on the individual.

The last modality presented was a video representing face-to-face communication.  This was my least favorite of all three communication types viewed in this exercise.  The person looked defeated, sounded uninterested, and had non-verbal gestures that could be viewed as inappropriate.  The individual only gestures when speaking about the late report, which could be interpreted as placing blame on the person they are speaking to.  She also looks away when asking for a ETA or if the report could be sent via email.  This tells me she is not comfortable speaking to this person and requesting information.

Overall, while the message in all three scenarios was the same, I felt the voicemail was the most effective in this scenario.  Major improvements could have taken place in all three examples.  In general, the message was not clear, concise, and focused as Dr. Stolovitch (Laureate Education Inc, 2010) suggested it should be.  Each communication should have started with the purpose and intent of the communication, and included specifics as to what was being requested and by when.  Email and voicemail may have been the wrong choices to communicate with if the person has been gone all day.  Depending on the circumstances, voicemail and/or face-to-face would be my primary choice for communication with email as my last choice.  The choice of words is also important in portraying a message.  The choices used in the examples make the requester come across as unsure, defeated, and uninterested in all examples presented.

Research has been performed on effective communication forms as well as leadership and communication styles.  Gluckler & Schrott (2007) have found that face-to-face communication  is the most effective type of communication form among teams when compared to email and mobile email (smartphone).  Voicemail was not included in the study.  Traditional email (sent via desktop computer versus mobile device) was effective in summarizing meetings, decisions, and communicating to a broader audience that included people who were kept up to date on the team's progress.  Mobile email was by far found to be the least effective for communication in a team setting.  Based on this study, as work published by Allen (1977), effectiveness of communication decreases over distance.  After about 30 feet of separation, the message being communicated becomes distorted and loses impact.  F2F communication is recognized as being the strongest, best, and most effective form of communication.  But as an effective communicator, verbal and non-verbal cues still remain an important part of the message.  As previously mentioned, I preferred voicemail over the F2F message provided in this week's case study.  The non-verbal message the person communicated overshadowed what she was trying to accomplish.  In summary, careful thought must be applied to the message, choice of words, non-verbal message, and mode of communication.  Attention should be paid to the background and personality of the person you are communicating with to ensure it will be an effective fit.

References 

Allen, TJ. (1977). Managing the Flow of Technology: Technology Transfer and the Dissemination of Technological Information Within the R&D Organization.  Boston, MA: The MIT Press.

Gluckler, J. and Schrott, G. (2007). Leadership and Performance in Virtual Teams: Exploring Brokerage in Electronic Communication.  International Journal of e-Collaboration, 3(3), 31.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Communicating with Stakeholders [DVD]. In EDUC 6145. Baltimore, MD.

Change Fail!

One of the most important and overlooked project phases is the after-action review or project post-mortem .  If the project was successful, team members are often do not see the value in reviewing the actions and countermeasures taken throughout the project duration.  A project post-mortem will help identify what to keep doing and what strategies, tactics, and processes were beneficial.   If the project wasn’t successful or had many challenges throughout its duration, an analysis provides an opportunity to review what happened, identify warning signs which were missed, and discuss strategies for future use if the problem is encountered again (Greer, 2010).

When projects don’t go as planned, it can be difficult for a team member, sponsor, champion, or project lead to admit there was room for improvement in the approach.  One particular example is a project on developing a waste management system that still has not completed in over 10 months.  As I left the project to pursue other career interests, I had a post-mortem review with several key team members.  Unfortunately, there were no positives discussed that pertained to the project steps or phases.  Several areas of the project were identified as contributing to the problems seen on the project:

• Lack of definition
• Scope creep
• Lack of resources
• No support

Many of these issues could have been prevented in the beginning stages of the project.  Project management tools were not used, mainly due to the sponsor ’s direction.  The sponsor had his own particular way of running a project, which does not follow traditional project management (PM) principles, which affected the project lead since she was the sponsor's direct report.  There was no project charter, scope, or documentation other than a milestone list.  The only documentation created pertained to waste definitions and measurement systems.  Unfortunately, the project lead was not given responsibility, authority, or accountability and the sponsor dictated what they should do.

The project was severely constrained in terms of potential solutions.  The sponsor, yet again, told the project lead the exact solution he wanted to see, regardless of time, cost, headcount, and employee acceptance.  The primary stakeholders, managers of the area who were to adopt the solution, were highly resistive, but the sponsor ignored their concerns and directed the project lead to "tell them what they will be doing; don't hold their hand; and if they knew what was best for them they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with".

Scope creep was allowed to placate the stakeholders.  Even though the project lead pushed back on many of the changes made, stating that the project can be refined after the initial deliverables were met and providing information on why the changes were not feasible at the current time.  The sponsor, again telling the project lead what to do, allowed the changes because it kept the stakeholders engaged and semi-interested in the project.

Overall, the project should have not been started.  The timing was not right and communication, project planning, and personal/team dynamics harmed the project.  These areas are commonly identified as pitfalls and items to pay attention to to ensure a successful project in literature on change management (Beach, 2006; Portny et al, 2008, Allen & Hardin, 2008).  The project was not ran with a team approach, which caused many issues along the way (Scholtes, Joiner & Streibel, 2001).  Not having a clear, well articulated charter and deliverable that the group agreed upon was also an area that impacted the project (George, 2002).  Most importantly, the project sponsor threatened the project lead to do it his way becasue of the direct reporting relationship.  This made it extremely hard to use any project management tools, offer opinions and advice, and hold people accountable to their decisions.

 

Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.  

Beach, L.R. (2006).  Leadership and the Art of Change.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications, Inc.

George, M. (2002).  Lean Six Sigma. New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill.

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

 

Sholtes, P., Joiner, B., & Streibel, B.  (2001).  The TEAM Handbook (2^nd ed.). Madison, WI: Oriel

 
Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.