Project & Program Management Perspectives

“Dad, just so you know… I think I probably failed the test, may drop the class, ruin my GPA, loose the scholarship for the summer, and it’s the end of the world as we know it!”

Most every family has one, an over-achiever that makes the rest of us look like slackers. In my family this role is filled by one of my daughters, Nova. This young lady graduated high school with a 4.0 GPA and was not even in the running for valedictorian. Although she excels at many things her true forte has always been expectation setting.

All parents have had to face the struggle of letting children grow into independence while attempting to maintain enough oversight to insure their safety. Modern parents face the additional challenges of 24×7/multi/social/go anywhere/always on media and communications. We turn them loose with every possible tool and opportunity to maintain contact and one simple plea; “Just stay in touch and let us know what you are up to.” While we had to occasionally resort to draconian measures with the other two kids for not keeping us informed, this was never an issue with Nova. Every time our phone would ring my wife and I would exchange a knowing look denoting our standard prediction of who was on the other end. The majority of the time we were right.

TMI (too much information) vs. TLI (too little information) can be a continual struggle in both life and projects. The communications and stakeholder management plans are our primary tools to help us balance the information needs of individual stakeholders with our goal being JEI (just enough information). Running projects (including childrearing) has emphasized the importance of using every interaction with stakeholders as a chance to reset expectations and align perception with reality. Although this post title is somewhat tongue in cheek, real world projects will often necessitate adjusting those expectations downward.

In the South we call this “poor-mouthing”, and my daughter has raised it to an art form. Admittedly she initiated a challenging project when she decided to take in three weeks a summer calculus course that normally runs 15, but early and frequent updates helped us help her. We got her a tutor, convinced her to put the summer job on hold, and provided support by listening to her continual flow of concerns. She worked hard, tried her very best, and established a connection with the professor. By the end of the course she speculated that she probably got a C, maybe even B, but we would not know for two more weeks.

 “Daddy, I have some news. I got an A in calculus! Aren’t you proud of me?”

“Yes Sweetie I am very proud… but I really expected no less.”

“Folks, I have some good news and I have some bad news” the pilot announced. “We have landed in Atlanta way early, but there is a plane at our gate and it will be about 20 minutes before they move.” Throughout the plane you could hear the moans and comments about the airline’s inability to do anything right. These complaints normally come from what I call the “amateur traveler”, people who infrequently subject themselves to the vagaries of public transport. Their disappointment with the system stems from many of the same roots that plague our interactions with project stakeholders.

• Lack of subject matter expertise – If you don’t travel 30-40 weeks a year you can’t really understand how things average out over the long haul. Sometimes you land early and don’t get a gate. Sometimes you land late, but your connection is also late and you still make your flight. Many stakeholders have infrequent involvement with a small number of projects and think that only they suffer variances from plan. This leads to:
• Overlooking good performance – In fact, professional project managers recognize that all projects face challenges and for every one that seems “snakebit” there is another one proceeding quite smoothly. We tend to remember the exceptionally bad projects at the expense of the good. When trading travel stories I tell about the 42 hour/5 flight/2 redeye debacle of a return from Australia that my wife experienced. I don’t think to mention the times that an unexpected upgrade and attentive crew dropped into my lap and made an arduous journey bearable. This leads to:  
• Unrealistic expectations – Many organizations applaud those projects that are under budget and ahead of schedule without regard to how it was accomplished. That state might be achieved by sacrificing quality, sandbagging the estimate, or shading the status of a project. In effect they are incenting poor behavior for an undesirable goal. Finishing early with money left over just means that other opportunities may have been sacrificed and other efforts might have to be re-planned. Perfect performance is getting as close to the target as possible.

After finally arriving at our gate the jetway driver was having trouble, causing some people to try to shout directions through a soundproofed fuselage. Being on a small plane meant that we had to wait for our “pink tagged” bags at the elevator at the top of the incline. There was some delay in delivery and the griping about the airline, the unions, and our late arrival continued. I finally asked the crowd “what was our published arrival time?” Someone said 10:30. A ding signaled the arrival of our luggage.

I looked at my watch… 10:30.

In Congress the stakeholders’ desire to put just one more ornament on a piece of legislation leads to “Christmas Tree Bills” which often collapse under their own weight. Trying to pack too much into a project (or our lives) can lead to a diffusion of priorities and efforts. Keeping in mind an instructive saying that has passed down from my mother-in-law into our family’s vernacular, “Choose your battles” can assist in either sphere.

Early in our marriage my wife and I faced a daunting list of interrelated projects:

• Raising three young daughters, including a set of twins
• Managing a daycare in a church basement to have affordable options for the above
• Housing a series of college interns in early childhood education to work at the above
• Renovating a 1920s era house to have room for the above
• Running an IT consultancy to pay for the above
• Invitation to the wedding of an old friend of my wife’s, the groom a potential new client for the above 

Fortunately the current intern was available to baby-sit and we gladly dragged our sleep deprived bodies to the noon wedding at the father’s mansion. They served champagne before the ceremony, unusual but welcome. Seating was limited so we found ourselves standing in the front to the side of the wedding party itself. After about 30 minutes, as the magic words were approaching, my vision started to tunnel and sparkle. I suddenly realized that I was going to pass out right at the climax of the event. Without a word to anyone I started down the center aisle to the exit. Just as I was congratulating myself on making it out I tripped over the photographer’s tripod, bringing him and his gear down in a huge crash. I managed to stagger on out to the front yard and sit on the curb to recover. 

The next thing I remember the bride’s father was asking me if I was OK. I told him yes and started to apologize profusely. He interrupted and said “Don’t worry about it; this is one wedding that no one will ever forget.” 

In a similar fashion, many programs that start with a limited number of objectives catch the “just one more thing” syndrome… and then the dominos (or guests) start to fall. Government programs in particular tend to accrete more and more goals. Failure to recognize the importance of opportunity cost and boundary setting can foil any individual or organization’s efforts. For every project, goal, or activity we put our limited resources into we must ask “what opportunity did I give up?” The “choose your battles” mindset mandates that any attempt to alter an endeavor’s boundaries must overcome the default decision to “just say no.”

As gas prices rocket upward I am reminded of a small personal project I undertook a few years ago that holds lessons for many larger troubled projects in both the public and private spheres. It all started innocently enough when my wife asked me if I could mow the lawn one Saturday afternoon. Since the bulk of our land is xeriscaped (a fancy word for native bushes and trees pretty much run wild) this is not a huge deal so I acquiesced.

After hauling the lawnmower out of the shed I of course found it needed gas. When I picked up the gas can it was (of course) empty. Now, I knew I had left it full just a couple of weeks before so there was only one way this could have happened, my brother-in-law (hereafter known as Bill).

Bill is a contractor and has free rein to borrow anything, anytime as long as he lets me know if he will have it for long. When I called him he confessed that he had taken my gas for his truck on Friday because all the neighborhood gas stations were out. He said he would be right over and we would go find someone who was selling the precious commodity. We ended up in a line that stretched out into the road while having flashbacks to the oil crisis of the 1970s. An hour later we gave up, bought a six pack and went back to my house. When our supervisors (wives) showed up a while later and found us viewing (instead of mowing) the lawn, they were less than pleased.

Scope drift is the lesser known, but just as insidious cousin of scope creep. Many projects are initiated with poor identification of their objectives, stakeholders, or constraints. The team is assembled and mandated to do something, even if that something is not clearly needed or possible. Without a clear path the team will drift into whatever takes their fancy and often leave the initiating stakeholders aghast at what they have started. Teams will be idling on the porch while the opportunity cost rolls along as inevitably as the numbers on a gas pump.

A project started badly will almost always end badly. Many large government projects in particular rush into execution, violating the rationale for effective definition and planning. Starting projects wthout a clear understanding of purpose and ignoring best practices in initiating is only buying trouble later.

It is sometimes said that the three most important things in project management rhyme with the old saying about real estate and location, but in our case they are “documentation, documentation, documentation.” When I shared this in 2002 with a colleague, Merleen Hilley, PMP, she asserted that a certain kind of documentation was far more critical than any other. “The most important thing in project management is getting the project manager to write down their unvoiced thoughts and assumptions.”

When I talk about assumptions we start with a deceptively simple exercise. I hold up the blank side of a piece of paper and say “I have written a number between 1 and 1,000 on this sheet of paper, what is that number?” People will inevitably start out by guessing random numbers, “Is it 324, is it 578, is it 982?” After a while someone will figure out a better way to approach the problem, “Is the number over 500, is it odd or even?” Finally they will close in and get the right answer, but assumptions, unspoken and unvalidated still drive this process.

We then use the lasso technique to isolate words in my statement to identify the assumptions. Looking at “what” reveals their initial assumption that only yes/no questions can be used instead of a more efficient method. Does “between” include or exclude 1 and 1,000? They will even make an assumption about the “I” in the statement, to wit that I am honest in answering their questions. At this point I pull several other pieces of paper out of my pockets with different numbers written on them. Even after all of this they will still hold potentially faulty assumptions such as the answer must be a whole number or that if they ask me what the number is, I won’t tell them.

All project documents rest upon a foundation of assumptions and a savvy project manager will use this ability to “write the rules of the game” to increase their likelihood of success. No single identification technique can compete with documenting assumptions made at each step of the planning process. Many project charters have an assumptions list, but virtually every project management document is built on unstated assumptions. Whether creating a WBS (work breakdown structure), schedule, cost estimate, or human resource plan, the team should always document the relevant assumptions. Making assumptions identification a standard, expected part of project management will yield more benefit than any other possible change an organization can implement.

To see more on this topic visit: http://www.managementconcepts.com/portal/server.pt/community/white_papers/374 and download “AMP It Up – Using an Assumptions Management Process in Projects.”

In our next post we will examine troubled projects and the reasons (including assumptions) that projects fail.

I hold a belief in my mind. You hold a belief in yours. We both proceed with a communication, decision, or course of action with the thought that this belief is shared. This is how assuming something can trip us up in both life and projects.  I experienced this when the doctor told me I would be 6 weeks in a cast followed by 6 weeks in a walking cast/boot. 

Obviously a walking cast meant I would be walking and I arranged my schedule so that I could begin to travel after the holidays. But just as a former president noted that “Is” could mean different things to different people, it turns out that walking has different meanings as well. On a visit to the doctor I noticed several people in a boot were still using crutches and it suddenly dawned on me that I had made an invalid assumption. When I finally had the hated cast cut off the doctor told me that the first week he wanted me to put 25% of my weight on that leg, the next week 50%, the third week 75%, and by the fourth week 100%. I was so relieved to be free of the fiberglass trap that I blithely crutched my way out of the office before I thought “what the heck does that mean?” 

I had been caught in the claws of another assumption, this time involving the interpretation of requirements. The doctor had probably issued those directions hundreds of times, but I suspect that all my fellow patients had also forgotten to get him to elaborate. Rather than call his office I decided I could figure it out for myself. After using only one crutch the next day and paying the price I figured out that 25% meant to use two crutches and let the foot touch with every step. Likewise I found that 50% was one crutch, 75% a cane, and 100% walking in the boot alone. 

At one time or another, every project manager has experienced the sinking feeling that occurs when a conviction they thought was held in common is proven untrue. Often the effect on the project is far out of proportion to the seeming size of the unstated belief.  Assumptions are manifold in every project, forming part of the foundation for all project management deliverables. The proper use of assumptions is an essential skill for improving planning and communications in projects. 

In the next few posts we will continue looking at the role assumptions play in projects and how project managers can put them to more effective use.

Often in my classes, or in projects, one will come up against a jaded mindset that people can acquire over time. “If we try to fix or change that nothing will happen anyway, so why bother?” When that occurs I point out that there are two choices available and one of them has a preordained outcome. We can do nothing and have no chance of improvement, or we can at least try to change things. In the end that drove the choice to have surgery on my tendon since the alternative is stasis. 

Once committed to a project, planning tries to anticipate our future state and pick the single best path to get there given all the constraints and variables. Before I lost some mobility I tried to make my house friendlier to the handicapped. Using an old pair of crutches from one of my daughters’ ankle mishaps (ah, genetics) I moved around and outside the house to identify risks and try to implement some responses. I added an intermediate step to the front entry, two grab bars inside, and moved some rugs and furniture. I tested getting in and out of my truck and found (to my surprise) that it was not too tall to use during recovery. I got the doctor’s order for a temporary handicapped parking permit early and went to the DMV before surgery. Once I got home from the procedure I started developing a new set of behaviors to accommodate my condition. Soon I realized that one of the main purposes of a cast was to remind you to defy old habits, like standing up on two feet. 

Habits are essential in life and projects because they allow us to do some things on autopilot and diminish the need for rigorous discipline. By doing some things repetitively and consistently we can free up our time to deal with the more unique challenges. Habits must be subject to examination and continuous improvement however, or they can lead us astray. The very first time I tackled a shopping trip on crutches things started off swimmingly. Since I had planned ahead I had my permit, a messenger bag to carry stuff, and knew that my favorite backpacking store had no electric carts. I pushed too hard, but made it successfully back to the truck 45 minutes later… and for the first time in 20 years discovered my keys were locked inside. My normal habit is to hold the keys in my hand while getting out and locking the vehicle, something you can’t do while getting on crutches. Fortunately one of my daughters had a key and after another half an hour (of sitting in the store) I was on my way. 

Changing conditions had rendered my old behavior a bad habit; I had to switch to putting the keys in a pocket before getting out. Likewise, we must constantly review our processes and habits in projects to maintain efficiency. 

In the next post we will look at the importance of clear expectation setting by the project manager (doctor) with the customer (me).

If you really want to experience the true nature of constraints, try being on crutches for a while. Keeping in mind Kinser’s Law of conversational boredom, “There is nothing, absolutely nothing of more interest to the speaker and less to the listener than the subject of one’s health” we will examine project management in the light of initiating, planning for, and managing the recovery from ankle surgery. 

You know how it goes – you have an inkling of a health problem, but you figure it will not get worse. Whether it is a little congestion, some unexpected pain, or general malaise you practice magical thinking, “If I ignore it, it will go away.”  In my case it was tendon pain in the left ankle that started on ordinary two mile run. After weeks of ignoring it, some doctor visits, months of living with it, orthotics, some physical therapy, and no improvement I pushed for an MRI and appointment with a surgeon. At the clinic he laid out my choices clearly, “You can live with it the rest of your life, or you can have surgery that has an 85% chance of helping.” 

One of the most critical aspects of all project management is project selection, deciding which efforts should consume your limited time and resources. Probably the most important (and often overlooked) factor in this decision is opportunity cost, the fact that for every project you initiate you give up the opportunity to do an essentially infinite number of other projects. The doctor then did some expectation setting (more about that in a later post) and told me it was outpatient surgery followed by six weeks in a cast on crutches, six weeks in a walking cast, and then six months of physical therapy and recovery. As you might imagine, the opportunity cost of this project seemed enormous and the payback uncertain. 

Being born and raised a project manager, visions of net present value, pro/con lists, and even decision trees started dancing in my brain, but in the end a basic principle that I like to encourage students to use played the biggest part in my decision.

Tune into the next post to see what that is.

Like most of us I learned my most important lessons from my parents. My Dad was the smartest man I ever knew and imparted his wisdom in a deceptively simple manner.

10. Kinser’s Law: About the time you finish doing something, you know enough to start. 

James C. Kinser was an engineer, efficiency expert, and jack of all trades. Raised in the Southern Appalachian storytelling tradition, he knew that the best way to teach something was to tell a tale. As a corollary he used to say: “If you don’t write that down, you won’t remember it for when you need it.” 

The Tale of the Three Bookcases 

When I was about 12, my Dad initiated a project to build three bookcases, one for us, and one for each of my grandmas. He’d scared up a good bit of cherry-wood and made a detailed pencil drawing on graph paper. Graph paper was used for everything in my house; until I went to elementary school I didn’t know they even made paper with lines that only went in one direction[IM1] . We fired up the table saw and I got to hand him wood and act as “catcher” on the backside. After we’d cut the wood for one bookcase he turned the saw off, surprising me to no end. You see, for me, things like the economy of scale, process improvement, and always being on the hunt for a better way to do things had been bred in the bone. This led me to ask “Aren’t we going to cut all the wood, build all the bookcases, and then finish them all at once?” “No” he said, “I reckon we’ll build one, figure out what we did wrong, and then build the other two. It’ll end up taking less time, and we’ll wind up with better quality bookcases.” He paused thoughtfully, “About the time you finish doing something, you know enough to start.” 

Transitioning the Lessons Learned 

Everyone has heard the truism:  Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it. You cannot consider a project finished unless you learn from it. The steps are simple, but the enforcement can be difficult until it becomes an accepted practice. Gather lessons the learned at a meeting that will be held at closing or post-project so it doesn’t get canceled. The project manager must then create a separate report on these; a project closing form/checklist can help make certain this is finished and published. Put the lessons in a database (here the KISS principle applies); a three ring binder can suffice if necessary. Use an initiating/planning checklist form to ensure that project managers of similar endeavors review these prior to baseline approvals. Repeat these steps until the rewards become so obvious that the need for onerous discipline is diminished. 

Next Post (ETA 11/12/10)

Recap of our Top 10 Laws                           

Questions to Consider/Fodder for Comments

Have you found that you know enough to start after you are finished?

Attending the PMI Global Congress will really open your eyes to the state of the art in PM, but even the most advanced practitioner will agree that consistent execution on the ground is how we succeed in our projects. 

O’Brochta’s Law: Project management is about applying common sense with uncommon discipline.

Michael O’Brochta is an author, lecturer, trainer, and consultant. As senior project manager at the CIA, he led the project management and systems engineering training and certification program. 

Project Management is Not Rocket Science 

Many people outside, and new to the field of project management believe it to be a highly technical, mathematically laden enterprise. No wonder the two most feared aspects of the PMP^® Exam are the critical path method and earned value. CPM requires that we are able to follow an arrow and perform the challenging operations of addition and subtraction. EVM is even more worrisome, since it introduces the advanced concepts of multiplication and division. Although the knowledge domain does of course encompass much more, the most involved technique even mentioned in the entire PMBOK^® Guide is Monte Carlo simulation. Clearly, there is something more (or maybe less) to good project management than math and engineering, and that thing is common sense. 

Defining and Utilizing Discipline 

“Return to the basics” and “practice the fundamentals” are concepts that every coach espouses. They apply not just in physical sports, but in all fields of endeavor. The basics of project management are not complex, they are mostly common sense, what is usually lacking is discipline. Few people actually like writing status reports, reviewing old lessons learned files, or negotiating with the customer, but it is essential to success. Discipline is doing something even though you don’t want to do it. 

The trick to instilling the necessary discipline is to reduce the pain involved in the doing. When starting an exercise program, the discipline required is enormous. “It’s too; hot, cold, humid, or I’m too; tired, sore, busy, to run today.” There is always a reason to not exercise anything, including self-discipline. By doing an activity regularly and seeing the benefits, eventually the need for discipline decreases and we actually start looking forward to exercising, “mentoring” the customer, or running a meeting per a carefully crafted agenda. 

Next Post (ETA 10/22/10)

How building bookcases led to our final law                           

Questions to Consider/Fodder for Comments

Is project management largely a matter of common sense?

When do we really know how best to perform a project?