There are many different topics that we can discuss that fall under the general category of Project Management that stimulates thinking, good discussion and the ability to share and explore a variety of subjects and topics. At times, we find ourselves talking about topics that simply interest us greatly; are topical in nature; have a current meaning or problem to solve. This one (for myself) is very topical in nature. Operating in the ‘Consultants World’ will give you the opportunity to experience many different situations; organizations and certainly will give you the opportunity to deal with new assignments and responsibilities. For me, that is once again happening. Given the fact that I am about to start a new ‘assignment’, this seems like a good time to visit the area of Program vs Project Management. While many of us have worked successfully in a true Program Management capacity, many more of Project Management community will soon be taking on our first assignment in Program Management. The articles and information that we will explore over the next several weeks will center around making that transition from ‘Tactical Project Management Execution’ to a role whereby the responsibilities are much different and require a different outlook and toolkit from which to draw.

Of course, that brings us to the inevitable task of really trying to understand what Program Management is, and what it is expected to deliver. To start with, we will take a look at the definition(s) that Wikipedia offers up, since many are using this resource to find answers and definitions. Wikipedia indicates that ‘Program management or programme management is the process of managing several related projects, often with the  intention of improving an organization’s performance. In practice and in it’s aims it is often closely related to Systems Engineering’. While this is a decent start in defining Program Management, it lends itself directly to the view that Program Management is related to some type of IT/Systems endeavor that addresses the overall or Global need of the organization. While that can be the case, a more traditional view may well be defined as follows (also from Wikipedia). ‘Programs deliver outcomes but projects deliver outputs, program management is concerned with doing the right projects’.

We could look up and find all types of definitions for Program Management, that deal with and address specifics for Industry, Technology, Business, and other areas.  However, most of us can agree that the Practical Aspects of Program Management center around the view that a Program is a larger group of related Projects, that are generally dependent upon each other to successfully execute and deliver the outcomes desired by the business or organization. That will be the view that we will use and relate to while discussing Program Management.

What is the Role of the Program Manager

Depending upon the organization and the structure that it operates under, the role of the Program Manager can be varied. Let’s take a look at some of the traditional roles that we find within industry, and try to find at least one that meets the needs and goals of executing Practical Program Management. A traditional Program Management role that has been use and some organizations utilize today are ‘Programs’ that rely on the Program Manager to simply ensure that the Program delivers the outcomes needed; on time and within budget. I like to think of this as more a budgetary or ‘Financial Program Manager’. In this type of role, the deliverable(s) and/or outcome are generally set by someone else or quite possibly by a steering committee. The general role of the Program Manager tends to be administrative in nature and to ensure that team is marching to the music as written; stay within the guidelines and rules of operation; let the team deliver the final product or service as laid out.In short, the Program Manager is really tasked with tracking the progress against plan, and in many cases has little real ability to change direction or influence the the eventual outcome or direction. This type of Program Management is best utilized when you are undertaking a major program that the organization has performed in the past; the team has had success delivering similar results previously; and what is needed is a Program Manager that is there to track, control and report on progress. Typically, this type of Program Management position requires familiarity with organizational tools and processes and does not rely as much on the ‘soft tools’ to manage challenging situations.

The next type of Program Manager that we will look at is one whereby a very experienced and competent technologist is needed to formulate and lead a Program effort whereby a significant amount of innovation and ‘technology related change’ is needed. This could easily be defined as a ‘Technology Program Manager’; whereby ‘specialized technology  knowledge and experience’ is needed to solve next generation type of problems for the organization or client. This type of program management can also encompass the skills and needs of the ‘Financial Program Management’ – but traditionally one will not find both of those skill sets present in the same person. Those that are experienced and very successful in leading ‘technology change’ are not typically people that also adhere well to tight controls; processes and operating within known guidelines. Their primary objective is to grasp the challenge; find a solution and to implement the solution. The operate and succeed when they are able to ‘push the envelope’ and think outside of the box – routinely. In this type of scenario, the Program Manager is generally asked to develop and set the ‘Technology Direction’ and to solve the primary problem with less emphasis on ensuring that the financial goals and objectives are met. This is a key point that we will explore in coming weeks, for at some time it will be necessary to determine what the ‘Critical Success Factors’ are in the program that is to be managed.

The form or type of Program Management that is generally most desired, and the one that we will concentrate on is the ‘Practical Program Manager’. is one whereby someone is tasked with leading a large Program endeavor which requires both a good balance of the Administrative Program Management skills, along with the Technology Program Management skills and to a large degree brings considerable experience and knowledge on the effective use of ‘Soft Skills’ to accomplish the goals. While many of us aspire to arrive at and be successful at this level, it generally takes a considerable amount of time and experience to operate at this level. The Practical Program Manager will need to understand and utilize some of the key aspects of the Financial Program Manager, so that the program will not only deliver the changes that are needed, but will also adhere to the budget, schedule and quality aspects of the tasks at hand. Additionally, it is quite likely that the Practical Program Manager will need to have a good solid working knowledge of the ‘Technology Change’ that will be undertaken. This does not necessarily mean that the Program Manager will have to lead the technology area, but to be successful they will need to understand and follow the technology direction and often times help ‘guide and enable the technologists’ on the program to a beneficial, reliable and dependable solution.

While the ‘type’ of Program Manager you are going to be is driven by the organization, your abilities and the outcome needed – they all share the common goals and activities that are needed to move from Project Execution to dealing with Program Management Execution. We’ll tackle some of those challenges in the coming weeks.

Leadership skills that we identified in our last article, are by no means all of the skills and traits that are needed and will be used. The ‘traits’ that we talked about (confidence, honesty and inspiration) are just some of the ‘traits’ that successful leaders will exhibit. As was pointed out in a comment received from one of our readers, Integrity should also be put into the ‘base traits’ that should be present. I couldn’t agree more.

A Leader without Integrity, will find themselves leading a ‘Ghost Team’

Before moving back into Blending Leadership and Management together, let’s explore ‘Integrity’ a little further and how it will ultimately affect your the team or group that you are leading. For many, the definition of integrity can be elusive, yet it shouldn’t be at all. A part of the definition offered up on Wikipedia states that ‘Integrity as a concept has to do with perceived consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome.‘  That covers a large area, but it also covers what many believe are the items found within and being used by someone that has Integrity. Quite a bit of emphasis should be given to ‘perceived consistency’ – as it is the affected individual and/or group that will ultimately judge over a  period of time whether or not someone has integrity. For many, including myself, Integrity will only be proven over time. In addition, a more concise and straight forward definition can be used.

Integrity is doing the right thing – the first time and every time.

This is especially true when the task or situation is difficult or unpleasant – and this applies whether you are a co-worker, associate, manager or a leader. How many times have many of us been faced with a situation where the core values that are desired by someone else, we find lacking in that same person the first time it is convenient to take the easy road. Now, let’s get on to the subject at hand – blending together leadership and management skills into a dynamic package.

Blending together Leadership and Management

Although Leadership will put you into position to successfully manage a situation, there are definitely times where your leadership skills will blend in and intertwine significantly with a particular situation or effort that you are trying to manage to a successful conclusion. Leadership will allow you to setup and prepare the team for the eventual day to day management that is required. All of us (PM’s) have experienced this before, sometimes significantly, but most other times in little ways. Some examples from both within the Project Management world and outside of it, can be the best way to to get the point across.

Some years ago, I was brought into a very tough project scenario in late February on a corporate project whereby the team was expected to deliver a technology solution across the enterprise by the end of October. The task was daunting as it was presented, since the PM’s that had been assigned to this and worked on it prior to my turn in the harness (6 of them), left the program in full red status; lying at the bottom of the ravine and with little to no hope of making the deadline. However, this example is not about all of the things that happened between March and October, but rather what happened the last two and a half weeks of September. Suffice it to say, that the work and efforts of the full team earlier in the year put us into prime position to be able to implement our solution the last week in October. At least that is what we thought.

Our program had a ‘production pilot’ scheduled to be put into place during the first week of October. It had been on the schedule for months, and all the plans were coming together nicely. As is generally the case on larger programs such as this one, as we got closer to the implementation date, the frequency and level of involvement by our sponsors and Senior Leadership increased. The problem that we had handed to us was really fairly simple. Instead of implementing a ‘Production Pilot’ on 10/3 – we were told that we would need to implement the entire solution, across the enterprise on this date. While this certainly posed a very real ‘management problem’, it also provided the opportunity for a very real ‘Leadership Moment’.

The situation called for a calm and level approach to the problem. This included breaking the news to the day-to-day team leaders and Project Managers working on the team, along with a plan on how to manage to a successful conclusion. The second part (developing a plan and managing to it) was the easy part. Many of us have done that multiple times. The real job though was being a effective leader and bringing everyone to the consensus that this was a task that we not only would finish, but would finish it in the desired time frame with exceptional results. When the directive was rendered (after a meeting downtown with the sponsors), I notified all of my team leads and PM’s that we needed to meet first thing the next morning at 7:30AM in the company cafeteria to address Implementation Planning. I told them no more than this, but asked them to adjust their schedules accordingly as this was a Top Priority, and I would see them in the morning. I went off-site the remainder of the day to do my planning and get ready for the next day’s meeting.

The meeting started with thanking everyone for coming, and making sure that I remained very calm and ‘steady’ during the first 5-10 minutes of the meeting. I explained to everyone that we were being asked to implement our solution three weeks early, and that I had put together a preliminary plan to review with everyone so that we could determine our course of action. In addition, I told them that the plan was based upon maximizing the skills of each of our team leads and team members to the fullest, so that we could accomplish the goals. This part of the meeting was completely about leadership – and the follow on portion of the meeting centered around final adjustment and management of the plan. The meeting went on for approximately 2 1/2 hours where we went over the plan (making changes and improvements along the way), putting the final touches on it and allowing everyone to ask questions until we had agreement on our next steps and course of action. The one question that was not allowed, was the one concerning our inability to perform the task. I had set the stage at the beginning of the meeting by showing my trust in the team’s ability to successfully execute on the directive that we were given. This is a prime example of the need to blend both leadership and management skills together, to get the desired outcome.

There are many times during the course of a project where you will be called on to blend together both your leadership and management skills to achieve superior results. One of the most important things that you can do is acknowledge that the two skill sets are separate, and both are needed often. The leadership skills you have developed, will allow you to adjust and setup the management skills needed for a particular situation or problem. As stated in an earlier article, the single most important thing you can remember is this:

The greater the chaos, the calmer a leader needs to be.

While there is much, much more that we can talk about and discuss concerning leadership, next week we will get into some more traditional ‘Project Management’ skills and practices that will help you in the day-to-day situations that we as PM’s encounter.

]]> http://johnastrello.com/?feed=rss2&p=687 0 http://johnastrello.com/?p=654 http://johnastrello.com/?p=654#comments Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:40:06 +0000 John Astrello http://johnastrello.com/?p=654

Project Success Plans – Planning for Success

“A Project Success Plan can be a platform for ensuring all project stakeholders start off, and continue on, the right footing.”

by

Gareth Byatt PgMP®, MBA, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Jeff Hodgkinson PMP®, PgMP®, PMI-RMP® & Gary Hamilton PgMP®, PMP®, MBA, ITIL, Six Sigma Green Belt

Setting up projects to succeed in the view of the customer/stakeholder is a critical part of the Project Manager’s role. We suggest that, as part of project planning activities in the early stages of your project, you should hold a Project Success Plan (PSP) meeting with all key team members to agree on the project’s goals, and to discuss the emotional success factors that will ensure the team gels successfully to deliver the required outcomes.

A Project Success Plan (PSP) is different to a Project Management Plan (PMP), sometimes referred to as a Project Execution Plan (or PEP). A PMP is a typically produced by the Project Manager to describe how the project will be managed and controlled in its delivery/execution phase, whereas the PSP is a documented meeting convened by the Project Manager to discuss and agree “what success means” to all key stakeholders. The PSP (like a PMP/PEP) should draw from project artifacts such as the Project Charter and the Customer Brief.

Our Main Points

Point 1: Project Success Plans can help the team to “gel”

Have you ever managed or been involved in a project where, at one point or another, you felt that you were not on the “same page” as other team members? Ensuring everyone on a project team is continually pulling in the same direction can be a challenge. A Project Success Plan can help you to set a solid foundation for stakeholder interactions throughout the project, and to ensure you can detect and rectify any occurrences where stakeholder views and actions start to deviate off plan. In order to ensure everyone starts off “on the right foot”, it is important to kick off your project communications strategy properly. By this, we mean ensuring that everyone’s interpretation of success and their assumptions about the project are aired and discussed in an open group forum, which can be documented and evaluated in a Pareto-type chart format to indicate importance.  This is the essence of the Project Success Plan.

The Project Success Plan (PSP) is a communications planning tool in the Project Manager’s toolkit to get all key project stakeholders “on the same page”, and understanding each others prerogatives and drivers for success. This is not always an easy task, since there are likely to be a range of drivers and interpretations of project success amongst your stakeholders. For example, team members who are recipients of the end solution/product may have very different views and expectations of what project success means to those who are focused on delivering the product. It is also likely that some (or maybe all) team members in your project will be working together to achieve a specific objective for the first time. Indeed, the number of stakeholders who have worked together on projects before is an interesting statistic for the Project Manager to take note of at a project’s start. A Project Success Plan meeting should aim to achieve the following outcomes:

• serve as an “ice breaker” for team members to get to know a little about each other
• discuss and agree the basis for setting  the criteria for achieving success;
• team members agree and commit to their roles and responsibilities for the project;
• everyone should understand each others personality and modus operandi;
• everyone’s assumptions about the project and their drivers should be aired, discussed and documented;
• a win/win philosophy and a collaborative approach throughout the project needs to be fostered, and;
• the team should discuss their collective lessons learned from previous projects/experiences.

The points above are all about communications and common understanding. By understanding how to handle your key/extended teams’ communications with each other, stakeholders can avoid accidental and sometimes costly mistakes in communicating information and decisions during the project’s life. For example, ensuring that people discuss how meetings, reports and controls should be conducted will help set reporting expectations (e.g. if one person thinks project status reports are “a waste of time”, find out why and talk it through).

Because of the “emotional” focus of a Project Success Plan (PSP) meeting, it should be held face-to-face whenever possible, however this may not be possible for smaller projects – particularly those that involve geographically disperse stakeholders. In such situations, a virtual conference meeting may be the most practical option. This requires special emphasis from the Project Manager in facilitating the meeting to validate everyone’s opinions frequently, ensure good feedback, and level set expectations for the project, since the important signs of body language will be missing.

Point 2: The timing of a PSP

A Project Success Plan should be completed early in the project’s life, as soon as all key members of the project team are in place. “Key members” are those with a material interest and/or delivery focus in the project. The timing for holding a Project Success Plan meeting can typically be after initial set-up works are complete and the project reaches the start of its detailed planning phase. If stakeholders change during the course of the project, the Project Manager should include reviewing and updating the PSP with the new stakeholders as part of the Resource Planning.

A Project Success Plan can also be a tool the Project Manager uses to keep the team focused and engaged. When stakeholders are suffering from project fatigue, the Project Manager can refer back to the PSP and use it to motivate the team by reviewing the reasons for the project and what success means to each person.

Point 3: How should a Project Success Plan be structured, and do all projects need one?

All projects will benefit from a Project Success Plan meeting, because it is a mechanism to ensure the following aspects are agreed:

1. Do we all agree on the core reasons for the project’s existence?
2. Are we all on the same page? Can we agree how to work together (including our roles and responsibilities, team meeting and communications protocols, team member working styles, governance processes and expectations)?
3. Are our assumptions about the technical aspects of the project (such as the design, scope, build methodology, work breakdown structure, schedule, budget and method of managing change) clear?

Large, complex projects have many different stakeholders, often spread across many geographic locations. A Project Success Plan for a large project may benefit from being led by a skilled facilitator, and it may need to last several days. Small projects with less complexity will typically not require the same level of detail.

The structure of a PSP meeting should ensure the emotional success factors are fully aired. It needs to bear relevance to the core Deliverables of the project regarding scope, budget, schedule and quality. An example of a PSP meeting agenda is shown below (the nature of your project’s PSP agenda will be tailored to the project):

Our Conclusions

A (PSP) Project Success Plan is a mechanism to achieve the following positive outcomes for your project:

1. Ensure all assumptions about the project, and the meaning of success, are aired and discussed, and any misunderstandings and/or disagreements are resolved early in the project’s lifecycle.
2. Ensure project team members get to know how to work with each other so that communications throughout the project are efficient and productive
3. Assist the Project Manager in keeping the team focused and engaged, especially on projects of long durations.

Done well, a Project Success Plan meeting can help Project Managers and the entire team understand how to work together successfully, communicate well with each other, and be a tool to keep the team focused and engaged for the duration of the project.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

Summary Extract:

Planning for success increases your likelihood of a successful project outcome. It is always important to ensure the “facts” of project scope, schedule, design, quality and budget are given due consideration. It is equally important to ensure the emotional aspects of project teamwork – team member expectations, their way of working, their personal aspirations for the project and their assumptions on how the project will unfold – are managed. A PSP (Project Success Plan) is a method to bring out these emotional aspects. Done well, it can be a good platform to ensure the whole team continually pulls in the same direction to make your project a success.

Bios:

	Gareth Byatt is Head of the IT Global Program Management Office for Lend Lease Corporation. He’s a PgMP® and PRINCE2 practitioner, and holds an MBA and first-class undergraduate management degree. Gareth has worked in several countries, and is currently located in Sydney, Australia. Gareth has 13 years of project and program management experience in IT and construction. Gareth can be contacted through LinkedIn.
	Jeff Hodgkinson is the IT Cloud Program Manager for Intel Corporation. He is a 30-year veteran of Intel Corporation with a progressive career as a Program/Project Manager.  Jeff holds numerous certifications and credentials in project and program management including PMI’s PgMP® (Program Management Professional) and PMI-RMP® (Risk Management Professional) credentials. He obtained his PMP® credential (#713) in 1991. He is located in Chandler, Arizona and also volunteers in various support positions for the Phoenix PMI Chapter.  Jeff was also the 2nd place finalist for the 2009 Kerzner International Project Manager of the Year AwardTM.   Due to helping people achieve their goals, ‘Hodge’ as referred to by his many friends is one of the most well networked and recommended people on LinkedIn.
	Gary Hamilton is the Manager of the PMO and Governance within Bank of America’s Learning and Leadership Development Products organization. Gary has 14 years of project and program management experience in the IT, Finance and HR. Gary holds an advanced MBA degree in Finance and several certifications and credentials in project and program management including PMI’s PgMP® (Program Management Professional) and PMP®. He has won several internal awards for results achieved from projects and programs he managed. Gary can be contacted through LinkedIn.

The  skills necessary to be an effective leader are many, and just as importantly will not all be used in the same circumstances and at all times. Leadership is just as much about listening and observing others, as it is about doing something. In many cases, Effective Leaders will do much more observation of their ‘team’ before leading, than they will do in actually leading.

Understanding the core leadership skills, is the first step that you must take to be successful.

The listing and definition of what are the core leadership skills, can be debated time and time again. I am certain, that there will be many people that think the ones listed herein are incomplete, wrong or some may even believe that there is only one or two key skills that really come into play. In last weeks article regarding finding and developing leadership skills, we stated that some of the core skills and traits that are needed include Honesty, Confidence, Inspiration and the ability to Communicate Ideas clearly and effectively. While there are many more skills and traits that come into play, we find that these four Core areas are ‘key’, in one becoming a good leader. We use the terms ‘skills and traits’ both in describing these core areas. Skills being those items whereby a person can work, learn, improve upon and look to others for guidance and assistance. Traits, on the other hand are those items that I believe go to the central makeup of your character and beliefs. Honesty, confidence and Inspiration are traits that you must posses in order to be an Effective Leader. Communication is a skill that you be able to master, to be able to deliver leadership. There is a significant difference. Let’s take a look at each of them, and how they will play into your leadership skills.

Confidence – if you don’t have it, you better get it quickly!

A Leader ‘or’ Manager without confidence – is quite simply not going to be able to get much of anything done. How many times have you watched someone perform with little or no confidence in their ability and ultimately come up short or simply fail. Over the last several weeks, many of us have watched top athletes from around the world performing in the Winter Olympics. For many, their goal is to represent their country and compete in the Olympics. They do not need a significant amount of confidence, for their expectations have already been achieved by simply being there and a member of their Country’s team. They will almost always be great team members and able to execute their particular sport effectively. While in others, their Confidence is a very large part of their success.

The same can be said for Leadership. Without confidence, an Effective Leader will always be a something that is a work in process. The ‘Leader’ of the Short Track Speed Skating team is Apolo Ono. It is not, and was not the many coaches of the team. During the last competition that the US Team was in this past week, Apolo Ono was being interviewed just after being dis-qualified and losing the Silver Medal in the 500m final. Instead of being down and discouraged, the thing that he wanted to talk about was that he ‘wanted to lead the team to victory in the last competition – the Team Relay’. He was brimming with confidence, that absolutely carried over to the entire team. In short, it was this. ‘We will be competitive throughout the race, and be in position to win when the anchor leg comes around’. During the interview, he talked ‘confidently’ about the goal of winning a team relay medal. The US Team trailed badly and out of position for a medal until the last 6-8 laps. You could see Ono encouraging the team as they each prepared for their next turn on the ice. His confidence was as much or more the reason why the team closed the gap; got Ono into position for the anchor leg where he successfully made the final surge to secure the Bronze Medal for the US Team. His Confidence and Leadership of the team was the difference.

Developing your own confidence comes down to putting yourself into ever increasing areas of responsibility so that you can be successful. While some people are born with what it seems like unlimited confidence, others of us have to develop and nurture our confidence over a period of time – even over a period of years. Confidence is all about building one success after another and removing doubt.

Without Honesty, a person’s ability to lead over a period of time will fall apart like a house of cards in a gentle breeze.

Unfortunately, most of us have experienced this too many times in both our personal and professional lifetimes. We find and align ourselves with individuals that have what we believe are good leadership skills, to only find out down the road that they basically lack any real honesty. They are not true to any ‘core values or beliefs’. They change directions depending upon the circumstance and ‘which way the wind is blowing’ today. While these are all things that we shouldn’t be doing, they directly point out the very things that we should be doing.

Honesty is one of those traits that you either have or do not have. While I am sure that somewhere someone has a course that they have developed likely titled – ‘How to Become an Honest Person’; it is also likely not going to be found on the best sellers list either. For many of us, honesty centers around doing the right thing and doing it for the right reason. It is not about ‘acting honestly’ – it is about being honest with your actions and intents. I believe that Honesty ties in directly with Sincerity. You cannot be Honest and also be at the same time In-Sincere. It simply does not work. Examples abound of people that ‘aspire to be leaders’ who basically lack honesty, and fail miserably. I’ll use a political example of someone that wanted to be a leader, however their actions proved to be something different than the image that was portrayed.

John Edwards was a very successful Personal Trial Lawyer for many years. While it is true that he won many, many judgments for individuals that had been wronged by someone else (whether an individual, group or business) – some of his statements once he got into the political arena sounded ‘hollow’ to many. To paraphrase comments he has made over the years – ‘the reason I represent all of these individuals is to get them the justice they deserve’. Many (including myself) found the statements to be hollow and lacked honesty. Why is that? If that is truly why he represented those individuals, someone should explain to all of us why he received the lion’s share of the settlements won and in turn became a multi-millionaire many times over. Additionally, we have now found out that he was dishonest to his family and his wife. Why there are many reasons why someone running for political office may not get where they want to go (in this case, it would becoming President of the US), honesty truly is the best policy.

Inspiration as it relates to Leadership, is that ability to ‘unlock’ the drive and determination in others to achieve a goal or objective.

There are many, many forms of inspiration that we will encounter and experience during our lifetimes. A team that is inspired, can and will overcome sometimes almost insurmountable odds in the achievement of a goal or objective. Recently, the New Orleans Saints professional football team won the Super Bowl and NFL Championship. There were many, many examples of both leadership and inspiration found within their organization. Many, including myself said that we were ‘pulling for the Saints, but betting the Colts’. Almost every analysis came to the same conclusion regarding the predictions on how the game would unfold. Experience of both the Colt’s team, and in large part Peyton Manning’s ability would prevail in the end. However, there are several examples that show where the ability to inspire someone (individual or a team) along with ‘inspirational decisions’ changed the course of not only a game, but how the team will now be portrayed.

Many on the Saints team mark a significant turning point in their success, to a time last year whereby the Saints QB and leader on the field also took on the role of ‘Inspirational Leader’. Most professional football teams gather somewhere on the field just prior to the start of the game for an ‘inspirational moment’. Last year, Drew Brees took over that duty. He didn’t ask anyone, he just did it. From that point on, the New Orleans Saints became a different team. While they did not achieve last year, the goal that they had set out to do – they did it achieve it this year. This is a primary example of a ‘leader’ inspiring others to greater levels of achievement than had ever been experienced by this team previously.

We also mentioned ‘inspirational decisions’. During the Super Bowl this year, the Colts were to receive the ball to start the second half. The coach of the Saints (Sean Payton) made the decision to try an ‘on-side kick’ at the start of the second half. For those that are not football fans, you’ll need to do some research to understand an on-side kick and why it would be used – but suffice it to say that most all of the time it is never used accept when teams are desperate, and face the distinct prospect of losing no matter what the results. It is almost ‘unheard of’ for a team to try and execute this play at the start of the second half of the game. Needless to say, the New Orleans Saints not only tried it, but executed it successfully. It was a decision that could best be described as an ‘inspirational decision’, for it changed the entire course of the remainder of the game and in large part inspired the team to overcome and achieve their goals.

Communication is the key to success!

No matter who you talk with, this is one of those areas where there is almost universal agreement. Communication is the heart and soul of leadership and is the key foundation of the core values needed to be an Effective Leader. You can have all of the other leadership skills needed sharpened to a fine edge and executing brilliantly – but if you cannot communicate effectively; your ability to lead will be hampered. Most of the time, people believe that communication in the realm of leadership is simply the spoken word. In the day and age of computers, the internet, social media, visual media and the like – all forms of communication are critically important. You cannot simply be a ‘good or great speaker’, you must be a great Communicator. However, there is a failure by many to understand what communication means.

Communication is the transfereance of idea’s and/or information from one person to another – and have them understand or act upon the communication correctly. If I gave you $5,000.00 and told you to paint my house, I have communicated the basic need. If I had told you that I needed all of the outside painted surfaces of my house re-painted, with two coats of exterior quality weather resistant paint of a particular brand following the recommendations of the manufacturer – that would certainly be ‘improved communication’. If I had also included that the job needed to be finished within two weeks . . . . .

Whether or not the communication is verbal, written or accomplished by ‘drawing someone a picture’ – it must be clear and complete to be effective. It also must be tailored to the person or person(s) that are receiving the communication. This is a major area of mis-understanding by many who believe they are great communicators. Communication has to be formulated and delivered so that the recipients of the information understand it and in turn can act on it. One of the sure fire signs that you are not communicating properly, is if you get a lot of questions and/or follow ups to your original communication. Regardless of how clear that you thought you were. How many have seen email’s that contain, four, five or six replies and/or communications when only one was expected. During the past year, the US Congress (along with the President) have been trying to pass legislation regarding Health Care Reform. Regardless of whether or not you support it (or would simply like for it to go away) – the fact of the matter is the President and Congress have completely bungled the ‘communication’ surrounding this effort. What has that resulted in – very poor Leadership!

Next Week we will end this series with a look again at how Leadership and Project Management ‘blend together’.

During last weeks article on Blending together Leadership and Management, we concentrated on the need to have both sets of skills work together to achieve maximum results. In this week’s article, we are going to concentrate further on how to Identify, Find and Develop some of those Leadership skills – especially as it relates to Project Management. In addition, we will try at all times to make it ‘Practical’, so that the items discussed can be readily used and applied by many people. The primary question that is most asked by many seeking more information and training on Leadership is this:

How do I Develop my own Leadership skills?

I would love to take a page from David Letterman and the Late Show and present a ‘Top Ten’ list that everyone can use and follow, but it’s simply not that easy to accomplish. Leadership skills are those soft skills that you need, that will help you to inspire and lead your team to achieve goals and objectives that they do not always understand; and more importantly may not agree with at all. While managing projects and programs, we have all faced this from time to time – and not always from the leadership perspective. Many times on teams that I have worked on, I was asked to participate on a team whereby I felt that the approach and/or the goal was not the correct one. Many of these teams performance were not up to expectations. However, those teams that did not perform up to expectations were generally because of a lack of leadership and not a lack of management ability or execution.

During the mid-to-late 90′s, I was really into the day to day execution of Project Management skills, techniques and processes. I had been working on a team asked to develop ‘project management best practices and standards’ within the company that I worked for. I became frustrated with my inability to make the type of progress that our team thought that we should be making, and ultimately left the company to join yet another company attempting to do the same thing. That ‘thing’ that both were attempting to do was put Management Tools in place so that they would be more successful. Both companies (in hindsight) had the wrong goals. There were certainly areas of Management Techniques and Processes that could be improved, but what both lacked was significant ‘Leadership’ to take the programs to the correct plateau. It’s not that every one of the Managers involved lacked leadership skills, but in general they did not understand the difference between Leadership and Management or when to apply them. That, and they wrongfully assumed that since they were in Management, the people working on their teams would simply follow them.

There is the core problem that those that want to develop their Leadership Skills need to understand. Leadership is about getting an individual and/or team to ‘willingly follow a direction’ without the need or ability to have them execute their tasks simply because it is what they are supposed to be doing. Leadership is all about ‘influence’ – rather than ‘power’. The President of the United States on one hand has a tremendous amount of ‘power’. There are many things that the President can get done simply by Executive Order. That is not Leadership – that is simply executing ‘Management Prerogative and Privilege’. On the other hand, the President will need a considerable amount of Leadership, to influence Congress and the Nation to perform and address items on the President’s Agenda with no direct ability to use power and authority to get something done.

If you want to judge your leadership skills – lead a non-profit or community effort.

If you truly want to understand how effective you are in the areas of leadership, I suggest that you get involved in your Church, Community, School or other type of ‘Volunteer Organization’. Different organizations throughout the world offer many significant opportunities to make a difference and develop your Leadership Skills. When getting involved initially, you will likely be looked at as someone that is another team member to achieve a specific goal or objective. As you work within that group, you will likely find that 20% of the participants perform 80%of the work. Be in that 20% Group, and you will likely find that when the next ‘election cycle’ comes along, you will get to take on more of a leadership role. About 20 years ago I joined a National Civic Organization as a member. Went to a meeting, had breakfast, heard a speaker and was invited back and asked to join. Over the next 6-8 years, I progressed from simply being a ‘member’; to holding many different leadership positions both within my local chapter and Regionally. I learned more about ‘Leadership’ during that time, than at any other time in my professional career.

You cannot be effective leading a group of ‘volunteers’ for very long – unless you have or develop solid Leadership Skills. You have little to no authority to accomplish anything, unless you get the group that you are working with to ‘follow you’. This still brings us back to the question on ‘how’ to both identify and Develop the needed Leadership Skills to improve and be more successful. The next piece of advice, is the same advice that someone gave me during my stay at one of the companies that I have worked at previously and talked about.

Find someone that is in a Leadership Position, and study them closely.

While the advice above, to join into a volunteer organization is very solid and useful advice, modeling yourself after someone that you believe has significant leadership skills is a very positive step in the right direction. While it will always help to be able to enlist them as a mentor, many times your ability to be around them and watch how they work and perform as a leader will be a tremendous learning experience. Some years ago while working in the Banking Industry, I attended a traditional Executive Briefing and Leadership meeting for our rather large IT group. One of the announcements that came out just prior to the meeting was the appointment of a new CIO/VP in charge of Information Technology. At the appropriate time, he was introduced and spoke to us for about 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, he ‘had’ almost everyone in the room. My personal comment to colleagues as we left after the meeting were fairly straight forward. ‘I want to work in his organization, and directly for him if at all possible’. He showed more leadership and the ability to ‘connect’ to his audience in that 15 minutes, than most of the leaders had shown over many years.

What we haven’t really talked about at all, is what are some of the traits that we look for in a leader – and how one understands which are the most important. However, I will finish up this weeks article at least metioning a few of the key traits of leadership, that you should look for when trying to identify your own mentor. Some of the key traits that I look for are:

Honesty; Confidence; Inspiration and the ability to Communicate Ideas clearly and effectively. While these are by no means all of the traits needed, they are some of the core skills that are needed.

Next week, we will explore more of the Leadership Skills and how they apply with the ability to lead.

There are many, many instances where discussions are oriented towards the differences between leadership and management. Rather than concentrating once again on the differences, we would much rather like to focus on how to blend the two together – in a Project Management realm so that we understand how to practically apply the two for a successful result. Having said that, it is also important to understand what we believe are the definitions of each; and in particular how they relate to the world and work of Project Management.

Right about now, many are going to be reading the opening paragraph and thinking – why do we need another article, book, lecture, comment (fill in your own words here)? There are thousands out there today. On amazon.com, when you do a search on leadership you get 2,060 ‘hits’. Just scanning the top 20 you get John Maxwell (who is listed a number of times – twice for the same book!); Rudy Giuliani and John Wooden. One from the political arena; one from the sports world and one from Business/Education. I categorize John Maxwell in the Business/Education because that seems to primarily be his business. His work is ‘sound’, and admired by many (I’ve taken courses based upon his writings and have certainly read his 21 Laws book). However, most all of these writings don’t address what I and others in our field really need to know.

How do I blend together both Leadership and Management Successfully?

Since it is called the ‘Project Management Discipline’, we naturally assume that the primary trait that you must have is good solid ‘management skills’. After all, when you review the PMBOK, you won’t find a Chapter or a topic listed for leadership until you get to the appendix. However, the term leadership is found in many places within the PMBOK, as a requirement to be a good Project Manager. Truth be told, all Project Managers must have both the ability and skills to manage, along with a certain amount of leadership. It is how you blend these two areas and skill sets together, that will ultimately determine whether you are a good, better than average or great Project Manager. Simply getting the ‘project’ completed successfully is not the goal. Getting the project completed; accepted by the customer for use (whatever the situation may be – including schedule, cost and quality) along with not leaving a trail of bodies along the path is a far better goal and measurement stick to use. If you get to the end, and your team is not with you, you only have partial success.

Wikipedia defines management as ‘getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives’. They go on to say that it comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing a group of people or entities to accomplish a goal. Most all of that I would agree with, but I’ll have to think about the ‘entities’ part. For most of us – management (as it relates to Project Management) is bringing together people in a team environment to successfully deliver a product or service to an end user or customer. Further, I believe that you can also break this down into two distinct categories. Tactical and Strategic Project Management. More on that later.

Doing the same type of search on Wikipedia for the term leadership, does not result in a firm and clear definition – but rather different views and explanations on what Leadership is. Interestingly, Wikipedia lists that the information contained within the search results needs cleanup, copy-editing and general improvement to meet their own standards. Herein lies the rub. For many, Leadership is that set of ‘soft skills’ that someone poses that enables them to overcome obstacles and roadblocks while ‘leading’ others. How many times have you heard someone say – ‘I don’t know what leadership is, but I know it when I see it!’. From a Project Management perspective, there will be many times when you need good solid leadership skills, for you may not have the authority (ie: ‘The Hammer’) to accomplish tasks by directive or mandate. You will need to ‘influence others’ in a positive fashion so that they willingly will take on and accomplish tasks that might otherwise not accomplished.

Using an example from the Civil War, I will offer up one of the single most inspiring leadership examples that I know, admire and try to draw from. During the battle of Gettysburg, which many believe was the turning point for the North, both armies readied themselves for a tremendous battle. The North was lead by General George Gordon Meade and the South was led by the brilliant tactician and leaders – General Robert E. Lee. But this story is not about either – but rather a little known (at the time) Colonel Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine. During the battle for Little Round Top, the 20th Maine was faced with the task of defending a strategic position against the Alabama 15th who had come over the top of Big Round Top, and were poised to overrun and take Chamberlain’s position. During the ensuing battle, the Alabama 15th outflanked Chamberlain’s men and were coming up the hill with men falling on all sides. While facing seemingly insurmountable odds; men near exhaustion and running out of ammunition – Col. Chamberlain did what to this day still stands as one of the single most successful acts of leadership that we can learn from. He gathered his Officers together, explained his plan and led an attack (rather than continuing to defend) that overwhelmed the Alabama 15th and won the battle.He blended together his leaderships skills (instilling confidence in both his officers and men) and his management skills (the tactical aspects of his charge at Little Round Top) to achieve the goals and objectives. Being simply a great tactician would not have been enough.

While we will very seldom (in the business world) face these types of challenges and obstacles, it sometimes seems that way. We have all been faced with  situations (or will be) that at the time seem to be as dire or as difficult. There are times when we must be able to blend together both the tactical aspects of Managing a project with the Leadership skills necessary to set a direction or overcome an obstacle. I will end this article, with advice that I have experienced, admired and used myself in those types of situations.

The Greater the Chaos, the more a leader must show calm and confidence.

Next week: Finding and Developing Project Management Leadership Skills

As the year comes to a close, we want to be sure and take the time to thank all of our regular subscribers to our Weekly Newsletter, and to also thank all those that have bookmarked or visit the site regularly. I’ve really enjoyed writing the articles, and especially have enjoyed the feedback posted both here and on the LinkedIn Discussion boards. In that light, we have put together a survey. While it is oriented towards the actual newsletter, much of it is applicable to the articles that are posted here. We encourage all of our readers to take the 5 minutes or so it requires to take the survey, to ‘click away’ and let us know how we are doing.

Take the survey . . . .

Our Weekly Newsletter (and articles) on Project Management will return in Mid-January, where we will start off the year with some new topics, techniques and some significant news on other services that we will be offering.

We at Pinnacle Project Management Consulting would like to extend a Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season to all of our valued friends and associates. May you enjoy all of the many other Holidays and Traditions that abound this time of year. We hope that you and your family/friends will have the chance to get together during this special time of the year and enjoy each others fellowship.

Over the past seven weeks, we have talked about many different topics. Today, we end this series with a short summary and review of the key points that we have covered, and also we will talk about how to measure your progress and success. While we have talked about many items here, it is important to note that there are many other items that will go into both your toolkit and management bag, when setting up and running a Value Added PMO. My suggestion is to find and locate someone that can help you work through the details and problems that you will encounter. If nothing else, find someone that is a good sounding board, and will listen and suggest alternate solutions to situations that you will encounter. Now, on to our review.

Week 1 – PMO Setup

A PMO Organization can provide very effective way to enhance and contribute to your overall Project Management Methodology, Practices and Execution – when done properly. It can also simply be a way for the organization to have an Iron Fisted reporting and control group, that sits back and simply tells many people what is wrong without any assistance or real help to make those corrections. Additionally, it is far too common of an occurrence, to find a PMO setup and running, that does nothing at all but collect information and pass it on to someone else. In short, to have a PMO be effective, it must be setup and organized to provide practical knowledge, experience and leadership to achieve greater results.

An Effective PMO must deliver Value Added Service to the entire organization.

Week 2 – Establishing the Foundation for your PMO

Establishing the foundation for your Value Added PMO, is one of the key activities that is needed. Much thought and planning should go into this step, for without it, you are forever going to be going down the wrong road. However, planning the foundation is going to be based in large part, on the particular scenario that you are facing. What we will attempt to do here is cover several of the scenario’s, and make some recommendations both how and where you need to start. Common to virtually any scenario, is the first step that must be undertaken and agreed to.

Laying the Foundation – Step 1 – Goals and Objectives

Week 3 – Specific Goals and Objectives for your Value Added PMO

We have talked about some of the general Foundations that need to be established in order for you to have a Value Added PMO. During setup and initial planning, you need to establish the ‘footprint’ of your organization; determine the size and capability of what you will support; and most importantly, what it will achieve. In addition, we talked about the need to start from where the output is needed, and work backward towards the foundation. This week, we will work on some specific suggestions for your Goals and Objectives.

While goals and objectives in many organizations and areas are generally nice to have and make great posters for the wall, here we are going to talk about Goals and Objectives that will help make your PMO Organization effective. Far too many times, goals and objectives are constructed and put together so that look very good, but really do not meet the test of the three main criteria that you must meet.

Goals and Objectives must be tangible, measurable and most importantly -  achievable.

Week 4 – Weekly Status and Reporting

During the build out of the foundation for a Value Added PMO, one of the frequently and most consistent uses of information exchange is with the development, maintenance and ongoing reporting of the dreaded ‘Weekly Status Report’. Done correctly, with the proper foundations put into place, it can and will serve as a critical communication vehicle between the Project Manager, Project Team and of course Management and the Business Sponsors. On the other hand, if it is put together and managed like most weekly reporting is – it will simply become another one of those reports that is a nuisance and also serves no real purpose. The weekly Status Report should serve as the single document that is used to reflect what has been ‘accomplished’; what will be ‘accomplished’; and areas that may need attention including the key Issues and Risks that are being tracked.

It is important not to throw up your hands at this point, with the overall thought that reporting in your organization is ‘dictated’, and management will not be receptive to change. Bull! Let’s talk about a real world scenario that happened several years ago. Our PM group filled out and filed somewhere between 3-5 project status reports each week. There was the one for the Functional Manager; one for the Program Manager; another for the PMO and of course the one that was needed by the Business. That, and whatever other ’status’ reporting that might come down at any given time. Each of the 8-10 PM’s that we had in our group, were spending 1-2 hours per week on each of the status reports. Multiply that out and we were allocating 60-80 Man Hours per week on a task that did nothing to advance the actual deliverables to the project towards successful completion.

Weekly Reporting – Developing the Content

Week 5 – Scheduling

is probably the single most difficult area for the PMO and the PM’s that are in the performing organization to address. How do you effectively setup, control and report on overall project schedule progress, without seeming like a Motorcycle Officer that has just pulled someone over on the freeway and already has the ticket book out. Before we talk about the things that should be done to provide Value Added Service in regards to scheduling, lets talk a little about what not to do. I’m absolutely certain, that we all have our horror stories, but this is more about attitude and teamwork, than it is about process and control in the performing organization.

If you setup rigid formats and rules associated with the development and eventual maintenance of a group of project schedules, and expect that everyone will perform to the same standard, you will have started out on the wrong foot. Having standards and guidelines are certainly important, but the PMO must work with each of the performing PM’s and teams to make sure that the finished product satisfies the needs of management, the PMO and be such that the project team can work with it and recognize that their plan is truly theirs. Having clear guidelines on the deliverables that are expected, along with the proper reviews and approvals necessary, are certainly warranted. In addition, how the general flow of the project will be detailed out is also appropriate. If there is not ’some commonality and purpose’ to your organizations schedules and plans, it will make it very difficult for both the PMO and Management to properly review and analyze progress across many different project types.

Some areas that you also need to have commonality in is the approach and methods that will be used to ‘progress’ your schedule. This is an area whereby many tools (such as MS Project and others) have the ability to automatically schedule and progress your schedule based upon manual updates that you have made and the amount of work left to be done. While this functionality does exist, it brings us to one of the key points that must be considered, when making decisions on how and when updates and complexity in your schedules will be used.

Advanced methodology and tool usage is directly proportional to the PM Maturity Level of your organization.

Week 6 – Selecting the Proper Staff

we have talked about a variety of subjects along the way to building our ‘Value Added PMO’, no subject or topic can be of more importance than Selecting the Proper Staff for Value Added Performance. It’s not just about selecting and staffing your PMO, but it is also about continuing the work and effort that has already  been put in setting the correct tone and mindset for the day to day work that the PMO organization will turn out. While you are going to need different skills for your PMO, you are also going to need different levels of leadership and independent thinking within your PMO. All must share this same trait.

Staff within the PMO Organization must be able to both Mentor and Assist the performing organization.

Week 7 – Managing your Extended Team

We have talked about the style, setup and formation of your Value Added PMO. During this time, we have discussed many of the principles that will be established and guide you along the way in setting the proper tone; selecting your team that will facilitate and deliver the ‘value’ that your PMO has chosen and the service oriented approach that should be taken. This weeks discussion will center upon how to best manage that team, identify problem areas, and really bring the PMO into ‘Effective Execution’. When discussing the day to day management of the team, it does not mean simply managing your direct reports, it also means that you need to manage the entire team, from top to bottom.

As the PMO Manager – you must deliver the leadership and management to the entire extended team.

How to Measure your Progress and Success

While there are many different ways to measure both Progress and Success, we will not take a metric based view of these goals, but rather look at both goals from a ‘Practical Method’ that allow you to get a far better read on where you are at. Progress can be measured by comparing the deliverables (tools, techniques, processes and reporting) that have been rolled out and are being used against the plan(s) that you have had in getting them to the customer base that you serve. In addition, Progress can also be measured by how much of your intended organization is utilizing these tools and processes that have been rolled out.

Measuring success, reminds me of a conversation that I had some years ago with an IT Manager – concerning a major Deliverable that we were working on to be delivered to a Key Customer. I asked this manager, what she would consider success. The reply I got was a standard Project Management answer: ‘Success will be measured by whether or not we deliver a quality project within the timeframe of the schedule and the contract’. The part of the answer that this manager missed should have also included: ‘and accepted by the Customer’. It is always important to keep the end user in mind. However, this answer does not actually give the true way to measure success. The customer should both accept and use effectively, the product and/or service – to be judged successful.

While with the ‘airlines’ many years ago, we analyzed and purchased an ‘Enterprise Level Project Scheduling Tool’ from a respected supplier. We worked with that package for over 6 months, trying to get it to do what was promised. At long last, as we were nearing the end of our Initial Trial Period whereby we could return it for a full refund and decided that it would not do what we needed it to do. We returned the product to the significant disatisfication of our team, and of course the supplier. Neither were ‘successful’.

So we now ask ourself , how do we really measure success within our extended team and organization? How many of the PM’s and/or projects are using the tools and following the prescribed standards that have been rolled out? Has upper Management come looking for ‘additional reports or metrics’ , to help evaluate progress and solve problems? How many questions do you commonly field from the PM’s on a weekly basis? In summary, the more calls and requests that you get for help in SOLVING PROBLEMS, the more that you will know you are on the right track. The PMO within your organization should be the FIRST THOUGHT when tough problems come up within the Project Management Discipline, and not the stop of last resort.

I sincerely hope that my outlook and experiences have been a benefit to all those that have read this series. There can be no greater thanks, than the many, many people that have taken their time to follow along and spend part of their busy lives to read and comment on this subject. That’s how I measure how ‘successful’ I have been with my articles – actual readership and time spent on our site.

Over the past six weeks, we have talked about the style, setup and formation of your Value Added PMO. During this time, we have discussed many of the principles that will be established and guide you along the way in setting the proper tone; selecting your team that will facilitate and deliver the ‘value’ that your PMO has chosen and the service oriented approach that should be taken. This weeks discussion will center upon how to best manage that team, identify problem areas, and really bring the PMO into ‘Effective Execution’. When discussing the day to day management of the team, it does not mean simply managing your direct reports, it also means that you need to manage the entire team, from top to bottom.

As the PMO Manager – you must deliver the leadership and management to the entire extended team.

The team that you will be charged to manage and lead includes Executive Management, Peers, Program Managers, PM’s, BA’s, technical and individual contributors along with anyone else that benefits from the PMO functionality. It is not simply the management of your direct reports and the people directly assigned to the PMO. Far too many people get the call to lead/manage a Project Management Office, and mistakenly think that it only involves the team members that directly report to the PMO manager. This concept, should be thoroughly understood and accepted by the person charged with managing the PMO, or the Value Added PMO that is put into place will quickly become just another ‘cookie cutter’ implementation of a group that sits apart from the performing organization and is not providing the value that was desired.

This will be somewhat of a struggle, because many times you are being asked to help manage and lead Sr. Personnel towards decisions and processes, that they may well be either uncomfortable with or simply do not agree with at all. So let’s take a look at some of the different levels of ‘Team Members’, and some of the traits and ‘management’ that will be required.

Senior Management – While many might think that this is the toughest area to manage and influence, it generally is not. Much of the time, the thing that you will ‘manage’ here – is expectations. For the most part, the PMO is tasked with assisting the Performing Organization to perform at a high level, and provide the necessary information to the Executive Staff so that key decisions can be made. Your chief job from a Sr. Management standpoint is to provide the following:

Senior Management needs timely and credible information to make decisions.

The time where most of your ‘management’ of this part of the team will be spent, is during the early stages of the PMO where you are setting up your standards, practices and reporting.  The most effective thing that you can do here is be a good sounding board and offer different suggestions and alternatives on how to get the information or results that management is looking for. Some of that can be accomplished in the beginning, but most of this will be accomplished after you have proven results and your leadership and effectiveness is understood and accepted.

On a recent assignment that I was on several years ago, the first 2-3 months were spent with little ability on my part to influence both what and how we were doing our jobs. When ‘crunch time’ arrived far earlier than anyone expected, I found myself with two alternatives. The first was to continue on as the organization and team had been going which meant continued poor results. The second, was to step up and make definitive suggestions on how to tackle and correct the problems that we were encountering. After choosing to step up and bring some much needed order to a chaotic organization, I was then in a place whereby I could make suggestions on improvements that was generally considered and implemented – based largely in part on the success we enjoyed in moving from chaos to effective execution. Management will recognize, acknowledge and embrace solid leadership and management skills once positive results are the norm.

Program Managers, PM’s and your Peers – This is the group that is needed the most, for if you do not gain acceptance from this group that you are leading and managing the PMO effort, you will not be successful. This is the part of the team that absolutely wants to know the answer to one simple question:

What are you doing that will benefit me and make my job easier to accomplish?

If you are not able to put together an organization that can do this, then you might as well have an estate sale and move on. Any top performing Program/Project Manager will have definite desires on how the day to day tools, processes and techniques that are used should be defined and managed. If there are six (6) PM’s or Program Managers that report into the PMO, there will be at least 6 different ways they all want to operate. You must ensure that this area is the primary area where you deliver ‘Value Added Service’. If you are able to help provide solutions to everyday problems that will in turn make the PM’s task(s) easier to perform, you will be well on your way to success. A key point to make here, and one that should be part of the overall  plan, is that your organization must be much more of a Quality Assurance Team, rather than a Quality Control Organization. Here are the basics.

Quality Control exists for one and only one result: To make certain that no defects get out the door. It’s either re-make/re-work to acceptable standards or reject it completely.

Quality Assurance exists to help ensure that a quality product is produced ‘along the way’ so that the resulting product or service is acceptable when it get’s to the Quality Control step.

If you put the plans into place, that assists the PM’s and Program Managers with ‘building a quality product or service’, you will be adding value added service to what they do, and answer that age old question of ‘What’s in it for me?’. This is the group of people, that you deliver to the most. Setup and execute well to this group, and you will find the day to day management of your PMO, running much more on track with fewer disruptions and ‘derailments’.

PMO Team Members – This is the group that you will lead and manage on a day to day basis, and will hopefully support and deliver the Quality Service that is needed by all. While we talked about the key traits and skills that are needed by these team members, the trait that is needed the most, and will substantially either foster the success or failure of the PMO is this:

Your Primary PMO team must have a ‘service oriented and mentoring mindset’ – to be effective.

Once your team has been selected and on board for a time, you will be in a much better position to judge whether or not you have chosen well. While you may even personally know the work habits and capabilities of some (or all) of your team from previous projects and programs, if this is their first time to work in a PMO Environment – it may well turn out not to suit them. This is the area where guidance, mentoring and leadership will benefit you and your team. It also may be the area whereby duties and responsibilities are realigned so that they best match the skills and abilities of your primary team. Cross training is critically important, for many, many reasons. You are certainly going to have times whereby key members are out for personal reasons or simply taking that long awaited three week vacation with their family to Europe. During that time, the balance of the team will have to pick up the slack. While it would be great to have everyone on the team completely familiar with all of the processes and tasks that your team performs, practically speaking that is not generally achievable. It  is much more practical that everyone on the Primary Team should have both a primary and a secondary set of duties that they are responsible for.

You must have the ability to identify and facilitate when change is needed in your team. Personally, I have found it most effective when faced with tough decisions of this type to tackle it head on. When you start getting questions from Sr. Management, your direct management and certainly from the PM’s that your are assisting about the quality of service being delivered by one or more of your primary team members, you need to act. The single easiest way to accomplish this is to meet privately with the team member to review overall duties and responsibilities; effectiveness and concerns that they might have. In short, a chance to let the team member and the PMO Manager/leader bring items to the table. While everyone has their own style, I generally like to ask a question along these lines:

‘Tell me how you think you are integrating into the PMO team, and are we best utilizing your background and experience?’

A question (or series of questions) that is oriented towards the Team Member assessing their own performance, will open many doors for you. If you are truly interested in improving their performance, this type of dialogue will provide the opportunity to agree and encourage the successful areas of performance; and to also give you the opportunity to present a ‘different picture’ when performance is sub-standard and needs to improve. Most of all, it is imperative that you come to a combined agreement on steps that need to be taken, so that they can elevate their ‘game’ and be successful. If they are neither willing to admit nor willing to take the steps necessary to improve – the next steps should be obvious. A change will need to be made. While not everyone on your Primary Team will be an ‘A’ player, no one on your team should be a ‘D’ player. The phrase – ‘One bad apple will spoil the barrel’ can and will affect your overall team.

Next week, we will wind up this series with a short review and also will address how you can identify whether or not you are truly, providing ‘Value Added Service’ from your PMO.

While we have talked about a variety of subjects along the way to building our ‘Value Added PMO’, no subject or topic can be of more importance than Selecting the Proper Staff for Value Added Performance. It’s not just about selecting and staffing your PMO, but it is also about continuing the work and effort that has already  been put in setting the correct tone and mindset for the day to day work that the PMO organization will turn out. While you are going to need different skills for your PMO, you are also going to need different levels of leadership and independent thinking within your PMO. All must share this same trait.

Staff within the PMO Organization must be able to both Mentor and Assist the performing organization.

When putting your staff together, you need team members who are looked up to by others; share the qualities and respect a great teacher receives; and has the technical ability to help solve problems. While one of the primary jobs that the PMO has, is to ensure that the PM’s and other team members that report into the PMO follow methodology and practices – it is also their job to lend a helping hand to not only understand and adhere to those practices, but to help foster a better understanding on what those standards are there for. Let’s go back to the example set out earlier in this series of something that is not wanted, for sometimes it is more important to uncover poor traits and practices, rather than simply looking for the good ones. You do not want or need someone on your team that is looking forward to finding all of the mistakes that they can, in the work that someone else is doing. The example used previously is the motorcycle officer in the boots, helmet, sunglasses and such that is walking towards you with the ticket book in hand recording your license plate number – before he ever talks to you. You are going to get a ticket. If you find yourself with PMO team members with that type of attitude, then you need to think about either helping them to change it – or finding someone else to fill the position. That type of attitude, will have the same effect as a torpedo does slamming into a full oil tanker. There is going to be a resulting explosion, followed by a tremendous amount of debris that will need to be cleaned up.

So, let’s talk about the traits that some of your PMO staff will need to have and how you might go about finding them in your candidate pool. These traits may be mixed and matched within different people. It is not likely that they will all be found within one ‘perfect candidate’. It’s going to be about building a team that you know and understand how to mix and match their skills with the duties performed. Here are the traits that I look for, and try to find when building a team.

• Leadership – there has to be at least one or more additional team members that have definite leadership skills that can be used.
• Process Oriented – virtually everyone on the team needs to embrace and understand the importance of process.
• Steady as a Rock – you are going to need at least one team member who is capable of assisting on almost anything, and is reliable.
• Scheduling Expert – you need to have at least someone on the team that is considered an expert in your scheduling tool of choice.
• Task Oriented – one or more of the staff should be BA’s or PM’s in develoment, and are able to execute repetitive tasks while learning.
• Credentials – while I am not one that automatically thinks that everyone must have certification, it does help with credibility.

Leadership Team Member – Since you are building a Project Management Office ‘Organization’, it is assumed that you will be working on either a program sized effort with many projects under it’s authority and responsibility – or simply a larger department or organization that wants the guidance and leadership that a PMO can bring. No matter they size, you need to find someone that can perform as your ‘right hand person’, step in and make decisions and provide leadership when needed. This person should have good solid Project Management skills and experience and aspire to be a PMO Manager or Program Manager as their next level of responsibility. They should have credible experience in leading projects to successful conclusion. It is also important, that they know and understand the difference between a ‘Value Added PMO’ and one that simply exists to gather and report statistics. If you find someone that is or has been totally frustrated with other PMO organizations and the lack of leadership, mentoring and assistance that they have found – you are on the right road to a good match.

Process Oriented Team Member(s) – This is the item that must be found in all of your candidates and future PMO team members at some level. They must understand and embrace the importance of defining solid process models; ongoing process improvements; and how to work together both within the PMO team and the larger organization. In addition, if your PMO is going to be responsible for authoring and gaining formal approval of your overall methodology and process definitions, then finding someone with both Project Management experience along with Training/Communication experience is a great find. This is one of those areas that at least one person is needed that has had some specific experience in helping define and/or maintain Process Definition/Process Improvement initiatives.

Steady as a Rock – Although we mentioned above the necissity of having a team member (besides the PMO Manager) that has Leadership qualities, this trait is the one that you won’t be able to truly uncover during an interview process – but it is absolutely part of your ‘Critical Success Factors’. You are going to need someone that you can hand off almost anything to, and they are going to take it and run with it to successful completion. They will always be there to assist, no matter whether it is a team member of the PMO, the PMO Manager or one of the performing organization PM’s that need assistance. These are team members that have great experience, offer sound advice, perform at or above expectations flawlessly and for the most part simply make your overall job easier to do. They are ready and willing to help, no matter the situation. The best that I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, was someone that when I interviewed was a good solid candidate, that I though would make a very good team member. He turned out to be the person that I could not have done without, even though others may have had better credentials or more experience in some areas. It is the person that you would hire again, at any time.

Scheduling Expert – This is a major necessity, no matter the scheduling tool(s) that you may use. There needs to be someone on the team that has more than just an ‘in depth’ amount of knowledge and experience with your scheduling tool of choice. While MS Project is accepted by many as the defacto project management scheduling tool, it is not by any means the ‘gold standard’ or the one used in most places. The point being, no matter what the tool used, someone in the PMO has to have the ability to get the most out of the tool, and more importantly – is the one that will dig in a fix the scheduling problems that occur and are presented to the PMO for a cure, by the PM’s and Project Coordinators in the organization. If you can find someone that can ‘think outside of the box’ regarding scheduling tools, and how to make the tool work better for you and the extended team, even better.

Task Oriented – While many may think that this is easy to fill, it is also something that you can generally overlook incorrectly. There is going to be an ongoing need in your Value Added PMO for one or more team members to collect and produce reporting, metrics, and do what many would consider to be ‘menial’ tasks. In short, someone that is learning about Project Management or someone that has skills that are generally attributed to a Business Analyst (the most overused and misunderstood job title today) or lower level employee. Nothing could be further from the truth. At different times during the standard work week, there are going to be standard reports and information that need to be gathered, analyzed, corrected and reported on. People that have significant Project Management experience are not going to be the best for that. People that are familiar with and expereinced dealing with large amounts of data, compiling that data and presenting it for reporting are the best. They need to be very task oriented, so that the outputs will be repeatable from week to week.

Credentials – Many people believe that the proper credentials are needed no matter what. Credentials simply let you know that the holder of those credentials have completed some type of formal training; exhibited skills and experience to achieve licensing standards or meet minimum levels of work experience. If your audience of Project Managers that are in the performing organization and look to the PMO for guidance and assistance have a majority of PM’s that have professional credentials (PMO, Prince, Agile or other accepted Certifications), then it is a good idea that some members of the PMO have recognized Professional Certification also. However, be certain of one thing. If you are working in a shop that adheres to Prince Certification standards, having someone in the PMO with PMO credentials isn’t going to help that much. This is true no matter the prevailing certification standards.

Now that we’ve defined the types of staff skills that are needed, how do we go about knowing the number of staff positions to fill, and choosing the best person to fill each of them. The most important thing to understand is that there will likely not be a perfect match of skills to positions. In most cases, you will need to ‘blend the activities’ of each team member so that you achieve maximum results. The person that you find that will be your ‘right hand person’ and has the best leadership skills, may also be responsible for providing scheduling expertise. The same goes for the other traits that we’ve defined. You are going to need to understand how to blend and build your team so that all of the traits defined, are covered throughout your new Value Added PMO Organization. Other than the traits that you will look for and the ability to form a cohesive team, the number of team members will need to be assessed and approved.

This is an area, that when you start out you are most likely to come up short in. You can put together a needs analysis and make all of the presentations and forecasts that you want, but it is quite likely that you are going to find yourself with less positions to fill than you actually need, as you first start out. On a assignment several years ago, we started with two people. We had to fill all of the ‘jobs’ and skills needed. As we grew and the demands increased, we settled in at a total of 4 team members, including the PMO manager. This team supported a PM team of approximately 12-14 PM’s and their functional team.  If you are supporting a program or department with 2-3 PM’s, your organization is going to be small. My recommendation is that you need to attempt to achieve a mix of 1 PMO Team member for every 4-5 PM’s in the performing organization. On the other hand, if you have PM’s that are managing multiple projects within the organization, your analysis may be more project oriented. Simply put, the more projects and PM’s that you support effectively, will require additional staff at some point in time. You are likely going to have to slowly ‘build upon your team’, as they gain credibility and also as the demands for additional reporting and metrics rise.

Next week: Putting it all together and Managing your PMO Team.