 Reforming Project Management |
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Earned Value Management for Project Management
Good article on Earned Value Management titled Do the Math in the current issue of Projects@Work. Unfortunately, the website lags the publication of the journal. The article was written by Ray Statton coauthor of the future PMI Earned Value Practice Standard. He describes the EVM approach in two pages.
Elsewhere in the journal are two other articles that hail the merits of EVM. Let me be perfectly clear... I am not a proponent of EVM. In fact, if I had to come down on one side or the other, then I'd choose to be an opponent. The problem I see in organizations is EVM adds a level of administration (and bureaucracy) to essentially provide a highly detailed rear-view mirror. It ends up being a tool for tracking rather than steering. There is rarely time available for replanning the EV, let alone to use other tools for planning and steering. The major problem is fixing the EV in the system having the effect of making it real. While the world continues to be uncertain, there is often significant resistance to making any changes to what has already been committed in the accounting system.
Embrace Uncertainty
A few of my colleagues and friends were given a book coauthored by Robert J. De Koch, COO of The Boldt Company and Phillip G. Clampitt, Ph. D., Professor, University of Wisconsin. The book is titled Embracing Uncertainty: The Essence of Leadership. It might as well have been titled Succeeding on Projects. One friend and colleague mentioned the book in a comment on an earlier posting about uncertainty. Get the book. This book is a winner. I will write about the authors' views and the relevance to projects for the next few days. I am also adding the book to a new listing of Books (look for a new blogroll on the weblog).
The authors claim "it is better to embrace uncertainty than to eliminate it." They go on to say there are issues for which leaders don't have answers AND there is a sledgehammer-like requirement for knowing even in the face of no one can know. They offer six propositions for managing in our uncertain world:
Monday, November 18, 2002
How to Identify a Failing Project
Article titles on project management don't get catchier than How to Identify a Failing Project, by Jason P. Charvat. The article appeared last Friday on Builder.com, a website/ezine aimed at the information technology crowd. Builder.com frequently publishes articles on project management. The site is worth bookmarking. Unfortunately, the article doesn't offer much insight.
Claiming "almost two-thirds of all IT projects fail" Charvat identifies six problems you might encounter on projects and possible actions. Do yourself a favor. Take a good look at the chart. The author goes on to identify 12 sources of projects going out of control. Charvat starts with a point that all in the agile community will disagree with:
I can agree with two of his points:
"The executive team of the company couldn't understand why the project was doing so poorly because previous updates from the project manager indicated otherwise."To my dismay he never addressed the issue leaving us to wonder what if anything can be done. All in all, Charvat is himself a good example of what is wrong with project management...he proposes actions for a world of no uncertainty. Maybe he could learn something by turning his attention to the project teams that are succeeding. Builder.com invites readers to rate their articles from 1-5 (5 being most useful/valuable). While you're reading the article take the time to leave your rating. (As of this moment 5 people had rated the article.) I gave it a "1". Let's see what the rating is at the end of the week. Commenting has been flaky
Sorry everyone for the problem with the commenting function. From what I can tell it is not the Haloscan commenting system. It appears random edits are being made to my template. I've informed the folks at blogger. In the meantime, if you have comments to make and the system is down, please send them along to me. I will post them for you.
Sunday, November 17, 2002
Project Managers' Role is the One Constant for Different Profiles of Project Uncertainty
Each month I take out two days for training others in leading lean projects. Among other topics this past week, we discussed the paper Managing Project Uncertainty: From Variability to Chaos. The participants appreciated the novelty of modifying the project management style to the various degrees of project uncertainty. The usual approach we see and they experience is a one size fits all approach that is often prescribed by company policy and investment in project management tools. The authors make a further claim. They say the project manager's role must also change for different uncertainty profiles. I beg to differ.
The role of a project manager is to always have the project in a condition for the team members to do what they set out to do. Further, the project manager's role is to keep the team in a condition that they can perform tending to their concerns, their mood, and their learning. Far too little attention today is given to the mood of the team members. So little, I am not surprised that the authors suggest other issues need the project manager's attention. We don't have the experience to conclude attending to the mood of the team makes a difference. As project uncertainty increases so does the need for project manager care. Team members can become anxious, doubtful, and may distrust one another and the leader. So what does the project manager do? Listen. Anticipate. Attend. Care. Provide. The project manager role is the one constant at all levels of uncertainty...servant to the team. Visit the Archives for more postings |
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