Your ultimate goal in rendering a project is to finish on time, below budget and with a happy client. But how do you perform it? Here are five tips to assist you.

Be Honest

As the saying goes “Honesty is the Best Policy”.You have to be honest all the time in dealing with your customers. Tell them if their project is not feasible or if you don’t acquire all of the resource, cash and time involved to carry it out successfully from the start. Set their anticipations by saying to them what you will carry and by when. And if it eventuates that you can’t render on your promises, then state to them about it directly. By having an “open book” policy, you’ll have your client’s confidence. And if you involve them early enough, they will be a lot supportive to your cause.

Hand it over
Managers oftentimes fall into the trap of believing that they can manage things much efficiently than staff. Of course in a lot of cases they may be right, but the problem is that they don’t have the time to perform everything themselves. So a bright manager always tries to delegate as much as possible to staff. It presents them the time needed to supervise the project and support their team. It’s a delicate task, but even if you recognize you can do a job more expeditiously than others, delegate it anyway.

Become a leader
When you economize time by delegating your jobs, you have   time for  leading and motivating your group. Make this by regularly communicating the project  to your team, honoring them for progress and accrediting their accomplishments. Have their respect by showing them you care. Build Up team liveliness by bringing them to lunch on a daily basisand uttering about what they accomplished unitedly. Remember, there is no “i” in “team”.

Expect the unexpected
Always expect matters to change and be ready for it when it comes. People have ideas, your client may require changes, and the industry and technology change over time as well. It’s not the change that’s significant, it’s how you react to the transformation that weighs. Always handle change, but be suspicious of it. Question it, double-question it and only when you’re positive it’s for the greatest, apply it.

Work smart, not hard
Attempt not to begin from scratch. Give yourself a head-start wheresoever feasible by using tools like project management guides. These templates encourage the quality of your deliverables, while keeping you time and effort.

Jason Westland has been in the project management industry for the past 15 years and is the author of the book “A Project Life cycle”  if you would like to find out more information about Jason or his project management software you can visit projectmanager.com.

Guest post by Erika Flora

Years ago, I heard this great quote that has really stuck with me and become somewhat of a mantra. It is as follows:

There is no limit to the good you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.

General of the Army George C. Marshall

Staff Sgt. Conrad Begaye recognized for bravery under fire in Afghanistan - by US Army Africa via Flickr

What a fabulous concept! Often, we are so worried about our own jobs and careers that we don’t take the time to think about those around us and make sure we help them get what they want. Ever since I started making a conscious effort to really “let go” of who gets the credit, my work attitude has completely changed. In addition, the way my team and others around me view my work has completely changed. They realize that I am their champion, and they work hard to perform to the best of their abilities. Rather than spending time worrying about whether executive management sees all the great things I am doing, and position myself accordingly for that next great promotion, I focus on mentoring others and helping those around me get recognized for their hard work. I actually spend part of my work week thinking about how I can bring visibility and kudos to the efforts of my teams.

Too often, when employees are surveyed in their companies, many of them say that they feel their work is not valued or that no one has told them in the last six months that they appreciate them. How terrible! The best thing we can do for our coworkers, direct reports, colleagues, and project teams is to find creative ways to show them our thanks and make sure everyone in our company knows that they are making a valuable contribution. We all love to get praised for our hard work. Make sure you are taking the time to proactively do that for others.

Many companies have put great examples of this concept in place. When I worked with Pfizer, they implemented something called a Pfish program where you could send a Pfish card to a colleague for a variety of reasons (being a team player, going the extra mile, or even just making your day). Every week, the people that had received a Pfish card were entered into a raffle for a gift card. However, the very best thing about the Pfish card program was that the recipient’s boss was copied on the email that they received. It was a really fun program and one that made employees feel special and appreciated.

However, you don’t need a company program to show your appreciation for others. Here are some really easy things you can do to make a big difference in the lives of those around you – Submit your project team for an internal company award, external “Project of the Year”, or other award. There are lots of professional organizations that look for a variety of award submissions and, many times, are excited to get new submissions from companies or people they have not heard from before. Log onto LinkedIn and write unsolicited recommendations for people you have enjoyed working with. Send a short email to a coworker’s boss thanking them for going the extra mile on a difficult project. Start a “Thanks a latte!” newsletter that thanks your team members by name and post it up at work, maybe even leave a small Starbucks gift card on their desk before they get into work. The more creative and silly, the better! You will be surprised by the results. It seems counter-intuitive, but we as project managers end up shining the brightest when our teams shine. What other examples have you seen or done to brighten the day for those you work with and help them get the kudos they richly deserve?

Erika Flora, PMP, ITIL Expert
erika.flora@GoBeyond20.com
www.GoBeyond20.com

Guest post from Craig Brown

Ethics In Project Management

View more presentations from Craig Brown. (tags: ethics business)

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Twitter lately.

I know what you’re thinking….”gee, I wish I had that much time to waste!”

Hear me out.

At first, Twitter seemed to be this scary, worthless time sink.  I signed up and then my account stood dormant for months before I got enough motivation to check it out out again.

Now, I’ve found out that it can really be a useful way to connect with people…if you know how to use it.

Here’s How I Use Twitter

• Connect with people I already know -
  

  by carrotcreative via Flickr

  I don’t use chat clients at all, so Twitter has served as a pseudo chat  platform for me to connect with other project managers I already know in little snippets.  Several Twitter conversations have led to “I’ll send you an email” or “Give me a call and let’s chat about this some more.”

• Connect with new people – There are many people  I never  would have met otherwise.  There is a “find people” feature on Twitter where you can find people who are interested in the same things as you are.  I found people this way, and they have found me.
• Sharing links  to helpful articles and resources – One of my favorite things do to on twitter is to share and get links to interesting things.  There are URL shortener services that are free and allow you to put really short hyperlinks in your tweets.  This allows you to add something interesting or give a good summary for your links.  I follow a few project management bloggers that I think are really great, and when these folks publish new posts, I tell my followers about them.  I use a site called TweetLater to automate this process, but I set it up to only post every so often, and again I only post links for reputable sources.  I’ve actually started using my own Twitter stream as a feed reader….since these blogs are the ones I want to read anyway, I just check what I’ve tweeted and use that as my daily reading list.
• Re-Tweet - When I see a tweet that is particularly good, I’ll re-tweet it.  It’s just adding a “RT” to the front of the tweet and copy/pasting it.  Then you re-send the tweet to your followers.  Sort of a way for things to go viral (if they are good).
• Follow Friday – this is a little ritual that someone started somewhere and it became viral.  Every Friday I take a look at the people who have made helpful contributions to the Twitterverse, or people I know outside of Twitter and who are good people with interesting things to say, and I just use the #followfriday tag with their usernames.  This tells everyone who follows me that I think these people are worth following.  It’s like an organic referral system.
• Clients – Sometimes I use twitter.com, but most of the time I use a desktop client called Seesmic Desktop.  TweetDeck is another popular desktop client.  The desktop clients make it easier to block people who are spamming you, filter and search, etc.
• Direct Messages and Replies – I read ALL of my direct messages and replies.  Sometimes that can take a little time, but I always reply to the ones that are asking a question or need a response.  Like I said before, I’ve met a lot of great people this way and been able to help a lot of people this way too.

Twitter No-No’s:

by jmilles via Flickr

Here are some things I’ve figured out myself to not do, or have seen other people do and it makes me upset.  I’ll give people a shot, but beware if you are doing these things, it’s likely that I will block you.  That means I’m marking you as spam and slamming the door in your face.  Sorry but you deserve it!

• Spam – if I see another “Make thousands of dollars automatically with Twitter!” message I’ll scream.  Oh, there’s one now.  AHHHHHHHHHHHH!
• Links without descriptions – if you are going to put a link out there, give an honest and useful description of what it is you want people to click on.  Just common sense.
• Posting too much – most of the time these are companies who are doing some kind of automated posting to Twitter for new jobs, etc.  If you post 10 tweets within a few seconds of each other, it’s really annoying.  If I see you so much in my twitter stream that it makes me look closer, usually I find you aren’t really saying anything of value.  (unfollow)
• Posting too little - I unfollow people who are not active on Twitter.  No offense, but I wouldn’t keep calling you if you never answer your phone either.  Maybe Twitter is not for you, that’s just fine.  I essentially only follow people who are somewhat active though…why  would I follow you if you haven’t said a word in over a month?

Use These Tools For Good, Not Evil

I think I do a decent job of using Twitter like one of the good guys, but of course I can’t please everyone.  If you like project management though, you may want to consider following me on Twitter.  To me, Twitter is for the things I described above, and for a deeper conversation, I have this blog.

I’m @pmstudent on Twitter.

See you in the Twitterverse!

In an effort to get better at this and share with everyone else, I’ve created a Google document template to help document, understand, validate, and act on lessons learned. Download it here.

Update: Linda from Renton, Washington is the lucky winner! Congratulations Linda!! O’Reilly will be shipping the book directly to you shortly.

Dux Raymond Sy contacted me recently to let me know about his new book, “SharePoint for Project Management“. I follow Dux on Twitter and read his blog and like what he has to say.

I’m giving away a copy to the lucky winner of a new contest.  I will get in touch with you and we’ll get it arranged after the contest is over.

So here is the contest.  On May 10th, I will pick a random community member who is signed up for one of the email lists on pmStudent.com.  We have 3 options available:

• Blog updates via email – available at the bottom of every post (including this one) or on the About page.
• The New to Project Management? (tab just below the site logo) informational email list
• The PMP and CAPM Tips (tab just below the site logo) informational email list

If you already get updates from pmStudent.com via one of these lists or via Feedburner, you will also be automatically entered into the contest.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Best of luck!

flickr photo by loop_oh

Effective project managers communicate about 90% of their time. There are no misunderstandings; there are only failures to communicate. Project managers communicate by using different mediums to convey a message. The message might be to an individual, a selective meeting with team leads, project sponsors, or the whole team collectively. It is truly critical for project managers to get the message across right the first time to avoid failures in the communication process.

There are three key components in projects known as the triple constraints, scope, schedule, and budget. During the planning process, it is the project manager’s primary responsibility to define the project scope using the work breakdown structure (WBS) to do so. The WBS consists of a hierarchical numbering system that accompanies a brief node description. The WBS is an aid to facilitate stakeholder communication. The WBS dictionary communicates the full details (inputs, outputs, assumptions) of each WBS work package at the level of which technical scope is controlled and delivered. Project managers and their teams decompose or subdividing the major project deliverables and project work into smaller, more manageable components. The technical scope baseline is fully communicated and configuration managed after completing the Project Plan, WBS, and WBS dictionary.

The detailed schedule proceeds semi-concurrently with the WBS dictionary activity. A detailed schedule reflects the technical scope and is created through a series of iterative processes that progressively elaborates the WBS into lower level sub-activities. Control accounts are established at the reporting level 3 of the WBS. Cost accounts are established at WBS level 4 of which technical scope is controlled and delivered as defined in the WBS dictionary. The schedule development processes are 1) activity definition, 2) activity duration estimation, 3) activity dependencies, 4) activity resource assignments, 5) critical path review, 6) resource loaded network (RLN) acceptance. These processes are conducted by the project technical experts in conjunction with project controls to ensure a bought into, agreeable, realistic, and formal plan. The project manager must accept the RLN before establishing the schedule baseline.

The RLN is fed into the earned value budget application such as, Deltek Cobra, to achieve costing and performance metrics. Up to this point, scope has been defined, communicated, progressively elaborated, and logically assigned resources to achieve results. During this process is when the WBS level 4 basis of estimating (BOE) rationale is captured of which technical scope is controlled and delivered. The primary function of a BOE is to capture the rationale behind the development of the WBS level 4 estimates e.g. specific tools and techniques used during the development of the time and cost estimates to produce the deliverables defined in the WBS dictionary. Cost metrics are collected by project controls and then applied to the time estimates provided by the technical experts in the RLN. Earned value performance measurement techniques encompass the RLN using 1) 0/100 for 160hrs or less sub-activities, 2) 50/50 for 160+hrs to max 320hrs sub-activities, 3) interim milestones for 320+hrs using “steps” and corresponding finish dates to compute weighted % complete of sub-activities, 4) % complete for agile sprints that are substantiated by the overall deliverable requirements complete, and 5) LOE for level of effort sub-activates. Concluding these activities produces the initial project costs. Contingency reserve is then applied by technical experts and the project manager to critical path activities therefore producing the project budget and the cost baseline. Management reserve encompasses the cost baseline for high probability – high impact risk events.

The project manager combines the technical baseline, schedule baseline, and cost baseline into one performance measurement baseline (PMB). The project manager uses the PMB to communicate project performance and acceptable baseline variance to all stakeholders. The PMB may demonstrate the way to project completion, but it is the project manager’s ability to understand that there are no misunderstandings; there are only failures to communicate that keep the project on track.

I wanted to share an email question I received through a Twitter contact of mine and my response.  Feel free to chip in with your own insights!

photo by Tracy O

Question:

I hope you don’t mind me coming to you for advise and help with Project Management. I have this one question which I keep pondering on. In what way would you say that monitoring, planning and controlling project cost with a budget and organizing and planning a project using the WBS help or support one another?

Thanks!

My response:

Glad we connected on Twitter!  In my projects, the WBS is one of the key things that helps me with planning and monitoring costs.  The WBS is a prerequisite.  When I have a WBS, I can look at it and see where I should have charge codes set up for project staff, and where I should be reporting project costs.  Usually there is a specific level of detail that is relevant to various people.  The sponsor may want to see costs at level 3 of the WBS, and I may be interested in a little more detail at level 4, and the other project managers who work with me may be looking at level 5.  You may have specific stakeholders who only care about level 3 cost reporting for a particular element of the project, etc.

When putting estimates together, it’s important to first have a clear idea of what your scope is, and much of that comes from the WBS.  Bucket your basis of estimates this way, schedule, etc.  The iron triangle means that scope, cost, and schedule are integrated.

Monitoring and controlling your projects through status reports, EVM, etc.   can really only done effectively by keeping in lock-step with your WBS structure.

Add your thoughts by leaving a comment for our reader below!

Published in the March issue of the Journal of Product Innovation Management:

photo by Sorosh

“One new study shows that project managers can get much better performance from their team when they treat team members with honesty, kindness and respect. A second study shows that product development teams can reap significant quality and cost benefits from socializing with people who work for their suppliers.”

“Bohlmann says the results of the study show that if a team’s leader was perceived as “basically being a nice guy,” then “team members showed a significant increase in commitment to the team’s success and to the project they were working on.” This increase in commitment is important, Bohlmann explains, because it leads to enhanced performance in meeting team goals.”

People respond positively when treated with honesty, kindness and respect?  Who knew! 

Read the full story

As can be expected, much of the feedback pointed towards a cutback in new investment and thus projects.  Another significant portion of the comments discussed another inevitable trend in hard times…increased scrutiny of current projects and focus on the dollars.

Cutbacks

• North America – Although layoffs have occurred in the Canadian oil patch in recent weeks, the majority have been in the areas of field services and engineering as drilling rig counts have declined and major oil sands projects have been shelved or deferred. I have not yet heard of layoffs or contract cancellations affecting project managers or PM consultants. Granted, it’s still early in January and the price of oil continues to decline.However, it would appear that opportunities for PM positions, full time and contract, might be shrinking in number in the short term as companies rein in their spending projects and defend their budget resources. Government organizations are still hiring within their PMOs during this lull as they attempt to catch up with the industry after the past several years of rapid growth.
• Europe - due to insecure times, no new projects are started, so the pipeline may dry up, which will cause problems in Q2/Q3
• North America – Current projects uneffected, but projects in the planning stage(Customers planning stage) are slowing down while they sort our their corporate lifespan issues (auto industry).
• India - Due to the slow down in the economic scene, it is expected that quite a few projects could be slowed down by the customer and further investments could be delayed/ shelved in certain cases.
• North America – Working for an oil/gas company, the effects have been fairly stark. When projects were budgeted, it was assumed that oil would be at $60/barrel (this is when oil was $100+/barrel). Since now oil is well below that $60 mark, it has certainly impacted flexibility as far as resources are concerned. So where before we could bring together project members from across the world, we are now either using other means (video or tele conference) or in some instances decreasing the scope of the project and/or delaying the project.
• Asia - Multiple projects put on hold.
• North America – With capital funding cut back to virtually nothing in my industry (forest products), many projects have been stopped or start dates pushed out indefinitely, so PM’s here are lucky to have jobs.
• India - From my perspective, the biggest impact has not been the financial sector problems, but the dramatic drop in commodity prices. The majority of our clients are oil, gas mining and petrochemical, and they have shelved or at least put on hold about half their budgeted projects.I suspect there will be longer term problems, as the US stops outsourcing so much work and tries to put the people back home to work.

Financial Scrutiny

• India - focus on forecasting
• North America – Many companies reacted quickly and placed all projects on hold.  Since the first of the year, some have reviewed their finances, needs, and project lists and have started reviving needed projects.
• Latin America - More prioritization on which projects are executed, more scrutiny on costs, training, travel, resource cutbacks make it difficult to appropriately staff projects, more focus on support projects as opposed to innovation projects
• Europe - much more tight budget control, better prioritization between must-haves, nice to haves
• North America – More controls.
• Europe – The ‘return of the Business Case‘. All too often the returns of a project have been neglected or became less important during the project. Now a project has to ‘prove’ its viability. Furthermore new projects need a ROI within 6 to 9 months.

Photo attribution: skycaptaintwo