Cheat Sheet for Managers: 101 Ways to Rise Above the Pack

InsideCRM has an excellent cheat sheet for managers, covering topics such as:

- Body Language
- Meeting Deadlines
- Getting Along with Employees
- Managing Yourself
- Boosting Productivity
- Managing Finances and Resources
- Communicating with Clients
- Keeping Up with Change
- Resolving Problems
- Going Above and Beyond

I've read through the list and there are some excellent reminders and insightful tips here. This is the kind of list that's good to print out and read on the train, keep on your desk, and read periodically to renew your focus.

It's billed as a "common sense" list of advice, but I find that much of it is quite uncommon (you know what they say about common sense). Kudos for the folks at InsideCRM for putting this together.

Check it out...


The Manager's Cheat Sheet: 101 Common-Sense Rules for Leaders - Inside CRM

Project Management Wisdom: PMThink Readers Speak

We recently asked PMThink readers to contribute the best project management advice they've even received. Here's the compiled list:

"Great organizations, especially those that do well over the long haul, are masters of the obvious and the mundane." - Bob Sutton, Harvard Business Online, May 4, 2007.
(contributed by PMThink blogger Garry Booker)

"Always remember, there is only us" - Alistair Cockburn, on collaboration instead of "us vs them", in Agile Software Development 2nd Ed.
(contributed by John Rusk)

It's about the people...not the processes or tasks. You treat your people right, they'll make sure the project is right.
(contributed by Eric Brown)

"When people don't care about a project they can find a 100 good ways to make it not work that aren't their fault"
(contributed by Jason Bates)

"Make sure you really need a collaboration/project management tool before you try to use one." Many times a PM or collab tool is overkill for something that you could have accomplished in a phone call, a single email or a single document.
(contributed by Isaac Garcia)

Although the PMBOK puts the statistic a little lower, experience shows that -- "100% of SUCCESSFUL project management is communication" (whether it is used for team building, coordination of activities, collection/ dissemination of data/metrics and status)
(contributed by Laurie)

I always try to balance the interest of the people. Always find out how you can make person "A" agree on an idea that contradicts his own idea.
(contributed by Randy, PMP)

"Your success is driven in large part by your ability to leverage the community you build around you."- Scott Allen and David Teten , authors, 'The Virtual Handshake'
(contributed by Jason Bates)

"Never take anything for granted, never assume that something is happening, check"
(contributed by Frederic Casagrande)

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it"
(contributed by Lucas Rodriguez Cervera)

I also noticed that Frederic Casagrande (who, incidentally, won our drawing) has a great list of additional tips for project managers on his website...

1. You can't manage a Project on your own.
2. Never take anything for granted, never assume that something is happening, check.
3. Seek to understand before you seek to be understood.
4. Delegate and remember there is more than one way to complete the same task.
5. Allow the team to take responsibility for the tasks assigned to them.
6. Manage the sponsor and don't let them manage you, you own the project.
7. Be realistic with the expectations.
8. Everything is resolvable, it just may take time to find that solution. If something goes wrong, don't take it personally, it's not about life and death.
9. Look at the whole picture and keep the end in mind.
10. Taking a decision and moving forward is always preferable to indecision and delays.

Frederic runs a nice blog site, Digital Addictions, with some additional great advice. Check it out at: http://casagrande.blogs.com/english/ - Or, if you prefer it in French, visit: http://casagrande.blogs.com/

With all this good advice from our readers and colleagues, project managers can't go wrong.

PMO Success Metrics: Proceed With Caution

Based on Benjamin Disraeli's well-known statement about the three types of lies, "lies, damned lies, and statistics," Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin wrote an interesting article in Developer.com about the many faulty assumptions people make based on so-called statistics about PMOs.

Cabanis-Brewin is editor-in-chief for PM Solutions' Center for Business Practices, so she's seen her share of statistics. Some key points:

- There are many interpretations on what constitutes a PMO, so many statistics on PMOs are skewed from the start.

- Some reports indicated high project failure rates in organizations with PMOs. That's likely due to the fact that organizations without PMOs don't tend to measure project success. Without measures, there are no failures.

- Many surveys are poorly designed and miss crucial clarifying questions.

Cabanis-Brewin recommends going to the source and digging into the supporting details to draw your own conclusions. She also reminds us that surveys usually do not contain the definitive answer, but rather serve as a starting point for more research. Finally, she cautions us to beware of the Hawthorne Effect, which states that the act of observing often changes the observed.

I would add that it's also important to be careful what you ask for. Many organizations want to begin using metrics, but are surprised to see success rates so low. They pressure project managers too soon and expect success rates to instantly soar to above 90%. It's vital to give the organization time to address problem areas and develop maturity.

Yes, it's important to capture metrics, but it's equally important to create a blameless reporting environment, by which people will report accurate data without fear of retribution. It's also critical to think about how you measure success. True success doesn't always correspond to on-time and on-budget. But that's another story.

Here's the article...

Lies, Statistics, and the PMO

Real World Project Management

There's a good interview on Projects@Work with Susan Snedaker, author of How to Cheat at IT Project Management.

Some key points (paraphrased):

• At status meetings, focus on outcomes instead of endless discussions on issues.
• To insure risks aren't overlooked, appoint a "risk management" person on your project team and/or specify checkpoint milestones on your project.
• To control scope, use past lessons to remind stakeholders of the potential impact of scope creep.
• If you don't like dealing with people ---- well, get out of project management (or at least take a more specialized role on projects).

All good points! Here's the interview...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/236152.cfm

Project Forecasting: More Lessons from Driving

A while ago, I entered a post about the importance of staying tuned in, drawing an analogy to driving. Well, another driving analogy had occured to me, this time about the need to focus on remaining time.

Let's put it this way. If you're driving from Philadelphia to New York City and you're at the entrance to the New Jersey Turnpike, what percent complete are you on your trip?

Some of you may guess certain percentages based on distance, but that's as foolish as basing project percent complete on the percent of budget or time that's been spent, without regard for work accomplished.

The quick answer is: Who cares what percent complete we are? What we really should be concerned with is how much time is left, assuming we care about what time we arrive to begin with.

But let's say that we DO care (i.e. schedule is a priority for us, as opposed to some other success factor). How can we measure whether we'll be there on time?

Simply using a percent complete tells us nothing. It's too subjective. What we need to know how much time is remaining. And that will depend on how fast you're going, how many miles are left, what barriers may arise (i.e. road closings, flat tires, etc.), how many stops you make, and a number of other variables. It's no different for projects.

For project schedule control, capturing percent complete is too theoretical, so that's not of much use to us. And capturing time spent tells us very little, except perhaps how long it took us to do prior work, which may not be an accurate indicator of future work. Besides, we can probably determine future work estimates more accurately through expert opinion and/or statistical sampling (combined with good planning).

Of course, there's no harm in entering time spent as long as people are disciplined to always include time remaining. Then a percent-complete can be calculated based on that. But the percent-complete itself is not a leading indicator, so is still of questionable value.

If we focus instead on time remaining at the task level, and combine that with barrier removal, risk planning, and regular reforecasts, we'd have much better control over whether we "arrive on time."

We can improve our ability to estimate in the future by capturing lessons learned, doing spot checks, and using the information to create project schedule templates and checklists, so future projects can avoid running over the same potholes.

Some may say, "Oh, we still need the percent-complete for Earned Value calculations."

Do we really? By putting a dollar amount to the time remaining, we can solve the same problem in a simpler fashion, answering the question: How much is it going to cost us to complete this project and what's our estimated time to arrival?

Just some food for thought. See my followup post on Project Forecasting and Uncertainty as well.

Project Management Delays Are Sometimes Good

There's an interesting article on Computerworld about the need to procrastinate more in project management.

Huh? No, really. In reality, it's about slowing down the early stages of a project in order to get the true client needs and requirements understood and prioritized. It also suggests procrastinating by moving some complex items later in the plan to accomplish some quick wins early.

Maybe good things really do come to those who wait.

How to Manage by Procrastination

Business Analyst Body of Knowledge: Help at Last

AllPM has a great theme going this month. It's all about the integration of business analysis and project management. As it points out, especially during the early phases of a project, the project manager often works very closely with business analysts.

Three years ago, an organization called the IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysts) was formed to do for business analysts what PMI has done for project managers. It has grown to 3,500 members in 62 countries. They now have a certification exam as well, plus their own "Body of Knowledge" (BABOK).

The article below from AllPM outlines the relationship to project management. Well worth reading...

Theme of the Month: From Project Management (PM) Certification to Business Analysis (BA) Certification By Greta Blash, PMP :: ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Ar

Getting Projects Off On the Right Foot: The Pre-Flight Checklist

Something you don't hear much about, but is a critical success factor for projects, is what I call the "pre-flight checklist." As projects are completed, not only is it important to review lessons learned, but it's vital to have a checklist that can be updated as a result. This checklist would be the first thing a project manager would look at upon undertaking a new project.

This is especially true for agile projects, where adjustments are constantly made based on user feedback. Of course, not everything would go on the checklist, but any item that could save time later on a future project is well worth adding. Why reinvent the wheel?

If warranted, there could even be a checklist for various types or categories of projects.

This checklist is different from a pre-project assessment (another underrated tool), where preset questions pertaining to objectives, risk, value, organizational alignment, and more, can be asked.

As the adage goes, projects fail at the beginning, not the end.

The Nervous Project Manager

"I just wanted to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you."

They say it's always good to hire a rich lawyer and buy from a poor salesperson. We might add to that to hire a nervous project manager. I'm of course half joking. Still, it's important to be vigilant about the things that can go wrong, and to confirm that issues are being addressed as required, especially in hot areas such as communication, testing, contingency plans, etc. The devil is often in the details.

This does not mean micromanagement. On the contrary, it's best to delegate work packages to the experts. But it's also important to be aware of what's going on in your project, and circulate regularly among your team. If details are being overloooked, often a gentle reminder is all that's needed.

At any rate, I'd rather have a nervous project manager than one who's running on autopilot.

The Five-Minute Project Manager

Sometimes the best project management tips come from other fields, such as this free "Five Minute Guide to Project Management" from a creative arts website.

Simple, to-the-point, and yet quite effective, this brief guide reminds us of the basics that so often get forgotten in the midst of earned value, critical path, and other favorite topics of PM nerds.

As the article discusses creating a project plan and formally managing subsequent revisions as part of a "contract" between you and the sponsor, let's not forget the importance of defending the right plan.

I was having lunch with a group of CIOs the other day (following a presentation I had done), and all agreed that the number one killer of projects was an unrealistic plan, often agreed to under duress by an intimidated project manager.

Several CIOs present shared success stories of making a case to other senior executives by way of a high level project schedule, outlining the steps needed to achieve results. Often, that's all it takes. Some people I've spoken with have had some luck backwards-scheduling as needed from a given target, either to demonstrate the futility of the desired target, or to raise discussion as to which items can be eliminated.

Anyway, I digress. Here's the article about the PM basics ...

creativepro.com - The Art of Business: Project Management for Creative Professionals

Project Management and Driving: Staying Tuned In

It had occured to me the other day that project planning is a lot like driving a car. If you constantly look down at the road in front of you, you won't be prepared if traffic suddenly stops or changes pattern. It's better to look out at the near horizon.

And if you listen to the radio for the traffic reports, you'll be able to avoid problems before you even see them.

It's the same with project management. We need to focus on the current planning horizon as far as we can reasonably see (usually we can only see three-to-six months out with any degree of accuracy). And it's equally important to stay "tuned in" through networking, reading what's happening in your organization and the world, visiting your customers and stakeholders, and practicing MBWA (Management By Wandering Around).

The more we're tuned in to internal and external activities that could impact the success of our projects, the better position we'll be in to address problems proactively and head off a traffic jam or a change in pattern.

Project Operations: Lost in the Shuffle

Yesterday, I posted a review of the book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half Truths, & Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management, by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton.

As I pointed out in the review, the authors caution that too much focus on strategy often happens at the expense of effective operational execution. The same is true in project management, especially with PMOs.

While it's rewarding to implement portfolio management and strategic alignment of initiatives, it's equally important to tidy up the operational aspects of project management, such as better estimating, effective work breakdown structures, up-front problem analysis, better scope management, and so on.

If these fundamentals aren't correct, you can end up doing all the right work the wrong way.
Also, getting these fundamentals right doesn't happen overnight. It's an evolution. Often, senior management doesn't recognize this and they expect too much too soon from PMOs. The PMO graveyards are full of PMOs that weren't given an opportunity to grow.

Project Controller: The Project Manager's Best Friend

Halleluyah! Finally, there's an article saying what I've been saying for years. With projects becoming more and more complex, and leadership and stakeholder management requiring more attention than project managers have time for, there's a need for another role to manage the "control" aspects of the project.

This article by Robert Wourms on Projects@Work details how organizations such as State Farm have had success doing just that. Bring on the Project Controller. As a member of the leadership team for PMI's new standards for program management and portfolio management, I witnessed first hand how valuable this role was, as it freed the program manager up to actually lead the program.

The article shows how the project controller's role can include tasks such as:

1) Educating the team on processes
2) Facilitating Planning and Control sessions
3) Developing the project schedule
4) Controlling progress
5) Tracking and analyzing costs
6) Managing Issues, Risks, and Changes
7) Documenting and delivering status information

So what's left for the project manager to do? Plenty. Supporting this, the article offers a valuable table outlining the role of the project manager vs. the program controller. Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/221443.cfm

Project Management: Definition of Success

Is cost performance or estimate accuracy the measure of success for your project? What about usage, adoption, or percent of target value achieved? ...

... "when we talk about a project failing when it cost more than somebody said it would cost, or takes twice as long, how can we be sure those estimates were anywhere near the right ball park in the first place? " ...

Via CIO Austalia: Define Success