Project Management Blog

£200billion Government Projects at Risk

Projects, like businesses, often fail because they are not properly managed, and concern is growing over the lack of experienced project managers with the skills and knowledge base needed to deliver the large projects and programmes being planned over the coming years.

A small number of recent headlines;

- ‘The strong consensus has been that the NHS and DH need commercial skills as never before’ – DH
- Out of Control: How the Government overspends on capital projects – taxpayersalliance.com
- We must attract, retail and develop talent’ – NHS Employers
- £200bn government projects ‘at risk’ – Computer world UK.com

The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently released a report titled ‘Commercial skills for complex government projects’.

The report is part of a series of NAO reports examining the current level of commercial skills and experiences in the Government. The gist of the report encompasses the above news headlines! There is a huge gap in what they term ‘commercial skills’ and expertise of the people running major projects like the colossal NHS National Programmes for IT. Originally expected to cost £2.3 billion over three years, in June 2006 the total cost was estimated by the National Audit Office to be £12.4bn over 10 years and it’s still going! Watch out for this week’s news headlines on NPfIT as Alistair Darling pledges to curb government spending. Will the National Programme for IT be cut?

The government are currently sitting on a value of major project portfolio worth around £200billion! The projects have been deemed at ‘risk’ by the Government themselves.

Key Findings

- 44% of Senior Responsible Owners (SRO) of major projects did not have any substantial commercial experience
- 14 out of 16 departmental commercial directors believe OCG has done little to address skills gap
- 8 out of 16 government departments had effective commercial leadership
- The NAO identifies ‘project management capability’ as a core skill in delivering change

What do they mean by Commercial Skills?

Many PM’s have fallen into the profession of Project Management. Project Management skills are only a very small fraction of what makes a good Project Manager. Other elements include technical abilities, communication skills and commercial awareness.

It is very common for project managers to have worked managing internal projects, therefore never having a formal contract, having only informal reporting procedures, no external communications or interaction with customers, suppliers and third party partners and so forth. Therefore, they have never had the change to actually develop these imperative commercial skills.

These commercial skills may incorporate;

1.Client focus
2.Market/industry awareness
3.Financial awareness
4.Business focus
5.Risk management

Commercial Awareness according to the University of Liverpool is, showing that you can;

- contribute to an organisation’s goals by recognising, utilising and creating opportunities
- demonstrate an understanding of what is happening in the sector understand how workplaces and organisations are structured
- understand the nature/requirements of a job display financial awareness
identify, implement/monitor idea development
- interpret data presented in a numerical or graphical format

Back in June 2009 Arras People were awarded Approved Supplier Status from NHS PASA (now merged with OCG Buying Solutions). The Commercial Resources Framework was developed, available to the DH and all NHS organisations seeking Commercial Resources. Arras People is a supplier on this framework. In theory this means a supplier on a list available to the NHS/DH recruitment staff supplying competent, qualified, commercial resources. A company on this list with 100% sole focus on Project and Programme Management. Perhaps if this framework was of more prominence and people were truly aware of it, if it was actually utilised and supplier were engaged maybe, just maybe there would be less skill shortage?

It seems bizarre that with such a skill gap in the public sector this framework is not helping people to solve the problems highlighted in the report and help overcome employee skill shortages. I hate to ask but do staff know this CRF framework exists and aims of why it came about, do NHS staff know it is available to them?

Let us know your thoughts.

If you are like me, it doesn't really matter how much you are making, you need a pay raise! Vicky Wrona of Global knowledge did a study of Project Manager salaries and discovered that certified PMPs recieve 15-30% more than their non-certified co-workers! Don't you think it would be worth passing that PMP exam for a 15 to 30% raise? Of course it would. There are some other things that, as a project manager, you have to understand. People count on you. They count on you, as the project manager, to control the scope of the project, control the budget of the project, and keep the project on a course for success. No one wants to be part of a failed project, and as the project manager, you are the responsible one. Standish Group International reported that up to 75% of all IT projects fail. They fail to come in at or under budget, fail to complete on time, or may fail altogether and be canceled. The core cause of the failure? According to Standish Group, it was plain and simple Project Management! Stop being part of the problem, and become part of the solution.

How will PMP certification help me as a project manager?

The PMP certification will give you the training you need to make the projects you manage successes. You are already being trusted to make the core decisions that will drive your projects--don't you think it is time to get the tools and the training that will give your projects the edge they need to be successful. You owe it to your team to get trained, pass the exam, and get those projects on schedule, to complete on time, within budget, and to successfully fulfill the project objectives. I have seen how project managers that have become PMP certified have really matured and have been able to bring down project costs, managed schedule over-runs, and learned to deal with stakeholders better than ever before. You owe it to your employer, to your co-workers, but especially to yourself. Your success as a project manager will earn you that 15-30% raise that you deserve, and people will know you deserve it with that PMP at the end of your name.

Want to improve your project success? In this article we’ll tell you in what way, by naming our Topmost 10 hints. So here they are...

10 Points To have a Successful Project

1. Beginning out: Make certain that when you start out your customer specifies their requirements in depth. You want to recognize exactly what it is that must be presented, to who and under what circumstances. Make it proper, write it up orderly and get them to sign it off. This document will turn the ground upon which to evaluate your success.

2. Customers: Include your customers throughout the total project life cycle. Get them active in the analysis and preparation, as well as implementation. You don’t have to look for their approval, just keep them knowledgeable. The more you involve them, the greater their level of buy-in and the lighter it is to deal with their anticipations.

3. Timeframes: Keep your delivery timeframes low and realistic. Never correspond to long timeframes. Separate the project into “mini-projects” if you need to. Keep all mini-project to less than 6 months. This keeps everybody motivated and concentrated.

4. Milestones: Separate your project timeframe into “Milestones” which are attainable parts of job. Put delivery deadlines to your milestones and try to deliver on each deadline, no matter what. If you’re late, utter to your customer about it as earlier as possible.

5. Communicating: Make sure you let everyone educated by offering the proper information at the proper period. Create Weekly Condition Reports and lead frequent team conferences. Use these Project Management Templates to spare you time.

6. Scope: Just authorize modifications to your project scope if there is no affect on the timeline. Make your customers commendation to essential scope converts 1st and then have their buy-in to expand the deliverance dates if you want to.

7. Quality: Continue the quality of your deliverables as higher as possible. Forever reexamine quality and never let it slip. Implement “peer surveys” so that team members can survey each others deliverables. Then put in place external surveys to ensure that the quality of the solution fills your customer’s wants.

8. Problems: Jump on risks and issues as soon as they are identified. Prioritize and resolve them before they impact on your project. Take pride in keeping hazards and issues to a minimal.

9. Deliverables: As each deliverable is through, deliver it formally over to your customer. Get them to sign an Acceptance Form to say that it meets their expectations. Only then can you check every deliverable off as 100% complete.

10. Your team: Special projects are work by good teams. Hire the finest people you can afford. Spend the period to find the proper individuals. It will keep you time down the track. Think, good people are easily to motivate. Present them the visual sense and how they can make it materialize. Trust and believe in them. Let them feel appreciated. They will work fantastic.

Usually a project is considered successful if groups of the project parameters like cost, time and scope are properly selected and match the expectations of project stakeholders. Some people devote much time and many efforts trying to initiate, plan, track and manage their projects, but they often don’t give a great deal of thoughts to actually the benefits of each project.

When initiating a new project, identifying benefits seems to be a quite obvious goal for the project. However, many projects are initiated with what seems to be a good idea but not an identified benefit. Along with such project parameters like cost, time and scope, the benefit is a particular and specific parameter that tends to be one of the most significant things that we should be focused on when planning and initiating our projects.

Your project becomes successful if the expected benefits are derived. This is the core of benefits management for projects. Benefits management is the way to put your focus in the most appropriate place by asking the questions like: 'Why am I doing this project?' and 'Why am I still doing this project?'

Realizing benefits concerns the start and end of any project. When we set the expected benefits, this means we set a 'background' for our project or an actual reason behind the initiation and execution of the project. And the benefits will surround each project's stage - all the time during the project life cycle. That's why project benefits management is about all the process groups of project management, including Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring&Controlling, and Closing.

As the expansion of social media websites accelerates, many project managers have asked themselves, “Is the time I spend with my marketing team building social networks worth it or am I wasting my time?” Well, the answer is yes. A recent study conducted by the Nielsen consulting group says that “36% of [an internet user’s] time is spent communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, and personal email and instant message.” So, it is obvious that the more time spent constructing your company’s social media website the better your company’s reputation will appear? This unfortunately is not true. Since the beginning of the social media frenzy, there have been companies that have thrived from the creation of their social network while some have suffered from the transparency created by extensive social networking. If there is one lesson to learn: quantity and relevance is more important than quantity.

Today’s globalized world has turned the traditional business thought process upside down and continues to create new venues and ideas which have helped many entrepreneurs and project managers accomplish their goals. With the airline industry seeing less activity and innovative communication platforms such as Skype it seems mandatory for a firm’s long-term success to be established in the construction of a large social network. As the article, “Social Media Success Stories” by Erik Qualman suggests, there are many firms, from Intuit to McDonalds, who see the importance of a strong social network and how it has produced substantial and measureable returns on investment. With small companies looking to expand and large companies looking to diversify their target audience, the expansion of social media gives the impression that it is now irreplaceable in the techno-savvy business world.

While there have been numerous success stories initiated by social media there are many stories that suggest that social networking may not be done properly or even successful networking may unveil problems with other departments in a firm. Gary Moneysmith, the President of Dynamlt Technologies a consulting company in Columbus, Ohio, believes that social media has its limitations and should be focused on what can help the network creator achieve their goals. With so many options to develop, the internet is a now a platform where a firm can lose its positioning and lose focus on its target audience and overall goals thus wasting time and money. Other firms have developed networks that have caused internal implosions due to the transparency created by social media. In the case of United Airlines, a passenger of theirs named David Carroll, a musician who often travels with his guitar caused lots of unwanted turbulence for the company. After receiving a broken guitar at the baggage claim and not getting the optimal customer service response from the airline that he expected, he recorded a song about his experience that traveled across the world via social media websites and thus destroying United’s ability to re-establish itself as a company that delivers premium customer service.

So, now it is clear that social media networking is vital to a company’s growth and sustainability, a proper balance between quality control and quantity of networking must be established in order for the network to produce results that simplify the path towards a firm’s long term goals. As more project managers struggle to walk this marketing tight rope, it is important to remember a quick quote from a man who needs no introduction: “Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” –Albert Einstein.

For reference information and more articles please visit www.projectguidinglight.com

Experts say that up to 90% of a project manager’s time is spent on communication either with stakeholders, project team, suppliers or upper management within the organization. That volume speaks about the importance of communication to any project. Experienced project managers can relate to this, when communications is done properly, the project is more likely to achieve its objectives.

Easy formula! Not really. Managing communication is one of the most challenging tasks for a project manager. Daily, you might receive and send hundreds or thousands of emails and IM messages. Some issues start on email but get concluded on IM or vice versa. Keeping track of communication, and most importantly the sequence and relation between messages is really a hectic process.

A proper tool should be available to help. Ironically, available project management applications overlook this fact. However, they significantly concentrate on scheduling and reporting, which make them not of great help in this matter. Relying on web 2.0 applications to enhance collaboration and communication was introduced as what is called Project Management 2.0. However, the down side is that you still have to rely on too many applications e.g. twitter, email, IM…..etc. There is no real integration between different applications especially email and IM.

So what exactly we are looking for as project managers? What are the characteristics of the tool that will help manage communications at ease? I think we want the option to communicate in real-time, but also the ability to communicate at our leisure at times. We want a “passive-aggressive” method of communication. Passive communication is when you are just listening, not waiting for nor expecting a prompt response i.e. email, while aggressive communication is about getting a response promptly i.e. IM. We want both approaches in a unified tool.
Wave! Yes Google Wave is the answer. Google Wave is both a platform and a new communication standard. A wave is:

* Equal parts; conversation and document. People can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps and more. A wave can be embedded in a web page as well
* Shared; any participant can reply anywhere in the message, edit the content and add participants at any point in the process. Then playback; anyone rewind the wave to see who said what and when. You can send to everyone in the wave or select a subset of users.
* Live; with live transmission as you type, participants on a wave can have faster conversations, see edits and interact with extensions in real-time.

From project management perspective, you can keep track of all communication and documents related to the project. You can track and follow up on issues till conclusion, you can coordinate with your team members and you can communicate with stakeholders using the same wave, awesome!
It is worth mentioning that Google Wave is still not finalized yet, it has been recently released to a limited group of developers for feedback and bugs reporting. However initial indications promise great potential and a mindset shift in our understanding of communication.
So will Project Management 3.0 be based on Google Wave? Most probably.

My conviction, from the past learnings, especially in managing people is, we need more than just skills and experience to deliver.

I will start with 3 major buckets when looking for resources in a project team. For that matter, into the organization.

Skills are the knowledge elements required for the job. You advertize them prominently. Experience is obvious which is also advertized prominently. The last, but most important one, which is often not even realized and recognized is, the Quality.

I will define Quality as the personal characteristics of the individual. Definitely, there are many of them to make a large list. And they differ from role to role.

For example, a project manager is expected to display maturity, patience, commitment, trust, integrity etc., Whereas, for a developer, focus may not be on these kind of characteristics but on generic ones like commitment and attitude. As you can see, Qualities are distinctly different from Skills. They can't be taught in school (or, probably can be!!)

The point I am trying to emphasize is that, every job requires some of these qualities, varying in number and degree from role to role. The organization must list, define and assign them to each role. AND, don't just stop here. When bringing in someone into the system, check their qualities which are expected for that role, just as you would check the guy's skills and experience. If someone doesn't have it, don't take them in.

I think you'll have a wonderful system in place. You certainly don't want people who lack commitment, even if they are having the best skill and tons of experience.

However, the challenge will be to try and evaluate these qualities when interviewing people. Some food for thought for the HR function?

Stakeholder identification entails conducting a comprehensive stakeholder analysis (rarely, it’s called Stakeholder identification method or Stakeholder identification technique). A group of people responsible for stakeholder identification creates a stakeholder table where stakeholder groups, project goals and ways to achieve these goals are included. Being a tool to conduct a complete stakeholder analysis within the stakeholder identification process, the stakeholder table allows answering the following questions:

• Who are the stakeholders?
• What are the interests and involvement of the stakeholders linked to current project?
• How can each stakeholder group impact on the project?
• What potential contribution can each stakeholder group deliver to the project?
• What are the willingness and capacity of each stakeholder group to participate in the project?

The stakeholder table lets organize all project stakeholders into groups, and each of the stakeholder groups has a detailed description of goals to be set before current stakeholder group. The stakeholder table is also used to comprehend the differences between stakeholders who affect a situation or the course of current project (active stakeholders) and stakeholders who may be affected by it (passive stakeholders).

Stakeholder mapping
Stakeholder mapping is a pragmatic system within the stakeholder management theory that helps project participants to get a big-picture view of the stakeholder groups and focus on specific elements of the complex network of stakeholders. The stakeholder mapping system should be based on the principles of accountability and transparency to create an environment which depends on the stakes each of the stakeholders holds and on how each stakeholder is related to other stakeholders.

As an independent process, stakeholder mapping allows defining stakeholders of a project and areas of interest and engagement. The stakeholder mapping process is aimed at ensuring all stakeholders are committed and advised throughout the change management process. The process helps keep stakeholders motivated and concerned. It also delivers wide buy-in and engagement and ensures all decisions are made in coordination with all parties involved. The stakeholder mapping process results in development of a stakeholder map.