Welcome!

Welcome to "The Practical Project Manager"
Everything you need to run a successful project!

If you are an aspiring project manager, especially in the technology area, this is a digest of information accumulated over the last 30 years or so...a concise, direct, and practical approach to project management.

Before getting started, you may want just a bit of background on what project management is all about. Take a peek at the wikipedia definitions before moving forward. Additionally, you may want to review the wealth of information provided by the Project Management Institute, specifically the "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)" guide.  Please note: PMBOK® is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute and is referenced here in the spirit of education and open content.

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Introduction

What does The Practical Project Manager focus on every day? 

Tips that stand the test of time.  Focus on these five areas every day...now that's practical!

#1 Earn the Trust of Others
Relationships, spirit, people, communication, and creating value

#2 Balance the Three-Legged Stool
Time, cost, quality - the delicate balance

#3 Know the Difference
Risks, Issues, Actions

#4 Get the Right Stuff
Requirements & Decisions,
Equipment and staffing acquisition,
Procurement

#5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum
Integration, dependencies, scope and when to stop

#1 Earn the Trust of Others

1. 
   Relationships and communication are key
2. 
   Mean project managers breed mean projects
3. 
   No matter what stated objectives are, remember to deal with people … and people are not machines
4. 
   Manage the project, not the project plan

That means spending communicating 90% of time with people who are involved (or should be involved) and 10% on ‘paperwork’

• Are you creating value?
• Are you fostering spirit, teamwork, and a zeal for delighting the stakeholders?

#2 Balance the Three-Legged Stool

1. 
   The three legs are time, cost, and quality/scope
2. 
   They are never quite evenly balanced
3. 
   The project manager is usually dealt too little time and too little budget
4. 
   Try balancing by ensuring the best quality work product is being produced
5. 
   The best way to balance is to maintain great relationships and keeping communications flowing

• Are you checking project balance every day?
• What is your process for course correction?

#3 Know the Difference

What is a Risk?  "Could my project fail?"

Something that will impact overall success of the project.

• Risks need to be weighted for their impact and probability, managed at the steering committee level, and have a clear escalation plan for resolution.

What is an Issue?  "Do I need a course correction?"

Something that could slip a critical path in the project, but not yet likely to impact its overall success.

• Issues are managed by the project manager at the team level and are prioritized with accountability and due dates.

What is an Action?  "Are actions prioritized and assigned?"

Tasks that need to be worked. Actions have resources, due dates, durations, and dependencies.

• Resources assigned are accountable for them. The project manager keeps on-going tabs on their completion.

#4 Get the Right Stuff

Requirements and Decisions

• 
  No different than purchasing equipment, make sure the objectives, requirements and decisions are acquired. 
• 
  Ensure the right people are engaged. The people defining requirements and approving them may be two different teams. 
• 
  Ensure requirements and decisions tie to overall project objectives, funding, and timeline 
• 
  Prioritize requirements: A) must have B) meets objectives C) rounds out delivery
• Determine urgency: 1) must do now 2) can wait
• Requirements and decisions have a priority/urgency rating: e.g. "A1" is a must have/urgent rating.

Equipment and staffing acquisition

• 
  Get the best money can buy 
• 
  Don’t assume people and equipment will work into the job 
• 
  You don’t have time to deal with incompetence or substandard equipment 
• 
  One very talented person can usually do three times the work a less competent or inexperienced person can. So it’s ok to pay double for that resource! 

Procurement

• 
  Don’t just throw this job over to the purchasing department 
• 
  The procurement process takes 2-3 times longer than you’ve planned for and has an enormous number of dependencies 
• 
  Always triple the planned duration for the procurement process and start it as soon as possible

#5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum

Integration, dependencies, scope and when to stop

• External forces are also moving and changing and are as important as internal project activity
• The longer the project duration, the more likely you will need to monitor activities outside your scope and make adjustments accordingly
• A project is over when it is finished, canceled, you run out of time or money, or it has failed
• A project is rarely over when it is ‘finished’. So always work on the core, critical items first

A Simple Plan

How to run a great project

Implementation = Stated Objectives
Your job is to determine how best to implement deliverables to meet stated objectives:

• If technology or objectives are not yet known, then ensure definition, funding, and alignment with key stakeholders 
• Perform the full life-cycle execution work 
• Along the way, coach and train employees in preparation for project closure and transition to production support 

Recipe for Success

• INITIATE by defining objectives, funding, and stakeholder alignment 
• Agree on how to CONTROL the project  
• EXECUTE against the plan and allow for course corrections 
• DELIVER and delight the client!

Initiate

• Establish the methodology to be used
• Memorize the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)" guide. Please note: PMBOK® is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute and is referenced here in the spirit of education and open content.
• Integrate with company’s methodology
• Define roles & responsibilities
• Define the communication plan

Control

• Assess project health and constraints
• Are desired timeline, cost/resource plan, and quality/scope in balance?
• Ask this question daily and course correct
• Review with project leads weekly
• Escalate to senior management at least monthly

Execute

• Establish key work streams and control points
• Establish Integration points
• Create processes for:

1. on-going scope control
2. plan and budget updates
3. decision models
4. issues/risk management
5. test and quality management
6. team staffing
7. procurement
8. hand off points
9. standards

Deliver

• Prepare for production release
• What are the go-live criteria?
• Who is responsible for measurement and approval?
• Plan for:

1. post production stabilization
2. project closure
3. transition to long-term maintenance
4. Conduct lessons learned

Project Lines to Live By

• Communication is 95% of the picture
• Lead with a carrot, not a stick
• Lead by example
• Sit on the three-legged stool every day (are time, cost, and quality in balance?)
• Manage by walking around
• Start and end the day with this question: Are we doing the right thing?
• You always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take
• Have fun, make fun

Managing Change

What is Change Management?
Change Management is the practice of ensuring business discipline, communication, and training / education are initiated, executed, and delivered as part of a project.


The Practical Project Manager ensures changes that will impact the organization are managed. These are the changes during the life of the project as well as the long-term organizational changes once the product is delivered.  Projects often fail due to lack of focus on change management. Depending on the project, change management may represent 30-50% of the overall project budget.


A point of clarification: this article about the change a project will bring to an organization. Not "change control" or "ITSM Change Management" , meaning controlling the technical changes to a computer system.

Business Discipline
Buy-in at all levels and phases

• Executive Sponsorship
• Steering Team
• Resource Managers
• Project Team Spirit: "we are doing the right thing"
• Engagement, awareness and sensitivity for stakeholders and people impacted by change

1. During project initiation, identify who will be responsible for change management and the groups of people responsible for business discipline.
2. During project execution, engage groups at appropriate intervals using appropriate methods depending on roles.
3. Upon delivery and at project closure, ensure the long-term plan is in place for on-going governance.

Communication
Project Status and Product Adoption

• Daily, weekly, and periodic project status
• Generating excitement
• Project team environment, physical space, tools
• Working face-to-face, working virtually
• Handling bad news
• "Going Live"
• Project closure
• Post-production support

Training and Education
New People, Process, Technology


Often projects focus on product/technology development, for example a new website. In order for the new product to be effective, processes need to be developed and people need to be trained.

• Project team on-boarding and training
• Business process management ("BPM")
• Training plan, logistics, materials, coordination, delivery
• Production operations (in-house, outsource, administration)
• Impacts on individuals, job functions, results objectives
• Measurements of expected vs. actual change, change readiness, long term adoption

See the Change Management Life Cycle Blog for more information on how to actually execute the change.