 Reforming Project Management |
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Friday, January 16, 2004
State of the Art of Project Management
PM Forum published the The first of Russell D. Archibald's a three part evaluation of the State of the Art of Project Management (2003). There's too much for me to digest on a first read. My impression is Archibald has done a good job covering the topics, exploring the issues, and calling attention to others' contributions. One of the encouraging trends is the evolvement of the project management maturity models. Now some of you may be asking, "Has Hal done a 180° on this?" I have not been impressed with how companies are using SEI's CMMI approach. It reminds me of the ISO 9000 craze in manufacturing back in the early '90s. It had the effect of producing middling performance and bureaucracy. My view on projects is different. I think we need some common standards for assessing how well you are learning. I don't endorse assessing against company-prescribed methods and procedures. As Archibald so aptly states in the title project management is an art. Projects are about the creative acts of many. Let's focus our attention on making us much more effective at that. At the very end of this first part Archibald seems to endorse assigning Chief Projects Officers (CPO) to manage the Project Management Office (PMO) and the portfolio(s) of projects. He may only be reporting the proposal by Bigelow; I can't tell. I somewhat skeptical about this even in large project organizations like defense contractors. We've seen companies create one CxO position after another over the last 20 years. (I know an executive with the title of Chief Inspiration Officer (CIO) Anyone else confused?) I will read Archibald's assessment again and write again about it. In the meantime, have a look for yourself. Thursday, January 15, 2004
Just One Week to Go
'til the first of our teleconferences. If you haven't already registered for the series, do so now. First up is David Schmaltz author of The Blind Men and the Elephant, Mastering Project Work. Remember, there's no charge for these teleconferences. Once you sign-up we will be sending you the details of the each conference and asking you to confirm just before each session. Join Greg Howell and me in our discussions. Toolbox Safety Training
Sessions are known as toolbox talks. Here's a representative sample from the Associated Builders and Contractors. These talks last about 15 minutes. They tend not to be very interactive. They are usually delivered by a foreman or superintendent who often is uncomfortable delivering the speech. On larger construction sites the GC may have a safety coordinator deliver the talk. There seems to be some question of how to deliver these toolbox sessions effectively. In December 2001, NIOSH proposed a project to evaluate effectiveness. [Federal Register: December 5, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 234)] The same project was proposed again in January 2003 [see here]. I haven't traced what has happened with this. If anyone knows please leave a comment at the end of this posting. While I've witnessed numerous toolbox talks conducted by different contractors and trades I can't say that I understand what good practices are for those meetings. While we can always learn from what we find in the books, I'd like to hear from people who have attended and who conduct the sessions. Let's see if we can have a discussion on this that leads to some minimum conditions for effectiveness. Have you visited the Safety Everyday page? I'm using the page to collect construction safety stories in the news and for projects that we take up together over this year. Have a visit and leave a comment hear or send me an email. Wednesday, January 14, 2004
Why Are So Many Projects Tragedies?
Laurent Bossavit answers that question in his posting The Trouble with Projects. Laurent starts with the question, "Why organize your initiative as a project?" It's a great question. What other ways might we organize? People trained as project managers see their work as projects. Projects are what they do. That there might be an alternative has slid into the background. It get's worse. The training puts a focus on the artifacts of projects rather than the nature. "Project managers who have trained as such may be familiar with the definitions given in the literature on project management, but these focus on a limited set of operational characteristics (projects are aimed at one-time outcomes, involve a defined start date and expected duration, multiple people from several disciplines, etc.). This is a bit like describing laughter as "rhythmic, vocalized, expiratory and involuntary actions" – somewhat accurate but entirely unenlightening." Our failure to act based on the nature of a project -- the human-ness and the uncertainty of the future -- gets us into trouble. Laurent says it better, "This is what projects are: the power of human invention harnessed to circumvent our tragically limited ability to predict the future." Projects are the perfect setting for producing human invention. Invention and innovation are social phenomena. Two people are smarter than one, and three are smarter than two. Yet we don't see collaborative behavior calling on the talents and expertise of those available. Instead, we see people acting in narrowly defined roles all by themselves as if they are the only ones on the project. "What is surprising, then, is not that so many projects fail; what is surprising is that some projects succeed, in the face of so much uncertainty about the future." We don't have to be surprised at success. It can be our everyday project experience. But first we must embrace the uncertainty of our situations and engage deeply with the people on our projects. Add Incipient Thoughts to your reading list. Laurent Bossavit was the source for Project e-Tip 19: Creating the Envronment for "Jumpling In". He is an IT guy who reads books by (building) architects. There's gotta be wisdom in that! Tuesday, January 13, 2004
(Re)Tell the Project Story
I am advising some university students on their senior project. They've decided to create some project tools for managing projects. I'll tell you more as their project develops. I was asked today to offer some initial comments. So here it is: Start telling the story of the project. I've found most project managers don't know where to begin. I've offered pointers for this before. Here it is again [Story-Telling Reforms the Project], What is there to tell? Tell the stories of ambition, achievement, satisfaction, worthwhileness, and determination. Tell the stories of cooperation, collaboration, learning, and resilience. Tell the stories that unite, bond, and build trust. Tell the stories that dispel, focus, invite, and encourage. Tell the up-coming story of accomplishment. Just tell stories. It is the one avenue available everyday for reshaping the collection of individual realities into a collective reality. But the real issue is not including all the 'right' elements. The issue is giving yourself the permission to tell the story without knowing how it will come out. That's right. Start telling before you know how it will all work. Stories are made up. They are not true. They'll never be true, especially the stories we tell before the fact. The power in telling the story is in setting a context for others to carry out their roles, learn, improvise, and innovate. Further power comes from inviting others to contribute to the story and its unfolding. I'll leave you with this, [Declare the 'Game' of the Project] The project leader's role is to keep the game of the project from sliding into the background by restating the promise to the customer, reminding people of the role they are playing, and re-telling the story of the project. So, get in the habit of telling and re-telling your story. The success of your project depends on it. Monday, January 12, 2004
Project Management: Art and Science
This is an important step. Boston University is a leading provider of PMP certification preparation training. That training typically focuses on the 9 technical areas of the PMBok®. For BU to call this one third of what is needed to be successful will redirect the way companies are investing in their project management skill development. Let's hear it for BU! Sunday, January 11, 2004
Lean Case Study Available
Back on January 7th, I promised to look into getting that Fortune article to you that I referenced in my posting Struggle to Get Lean at ArvinMeritor. Well, it was a little more complicated than I thought (of course). While Fortune allows me to email you the article from their website, I can't be taking your requests and sending them one at a time. So I investigated using an autoresponder. Not wanting to spend money, I checked out the no-pay versions. The first one didn't send attachments. The second one got hung up on PDF files. Finally, with some help from the tech support folks at sendfree.com I was able to tack on the delivery of a file to the paid version of the autoresponder we're using for the Project Authors Teleconference Series. This is what you do. Send an email to leanstruggle@leanproject.sendfree.com. Leave the body of the email blank. You should get a PDF of the article in less than 20 minutes. If that doesn't work for you, then send me an email. Enjoy!
CPM: What Do You Prefer?
Over a year ago I published a series of postings on the critical path method that produced all kinds of comments and emails from readers. I collected those postings into a two-page article that I published on this site as CPM: Fool Me Once, Fool Me Twice. Shortly thereafter, Greg Howell caught some article in ENR on CPM. It was the usual stuff about project managers just need to learn how to use the CPM tools. In an unpublished letter to the editor (with a copy to me) he replied this way: "CPM is the tool for you if you believe what you know is more important than what you can learn, and if you prefer being "In Charge" to getting the project done, and if out-of-date plans are more useful than a team prepared for action." While I see what he is saying, and I think the phrasing is clever, many people might not get why he says it. Greg is indirectly pointing to the stasis of the use of the CPM tools. People don't have the habits or the inclination to keep the CPM schedules up-to-date. Little variations and missing task status can throw a CPM schedule out of whack. Soon people lose confidence and ignore the schedule. Another key issue has to do with the authorization of work. The PMBoK® says something like, "Work is authorized by the schedule." Authorization is not the issue. Coordination among the team is the issue. Team members depend on the completion of work (prerequisites) so they can begin their work. But beginning work is the easy part. Other team members want to know when you will finish your work. They, just like you, want a promise. Without promising the project is full of delay. That is waste. And it leads to more waste. Team members can make promises on the work they will perform informed by a CPM schedule. That would be wonderful. But we don't see that behavior. In fact, we see, as Greg so aptly puts it, "The usual project meeting is a commitment-free zone." The CPM schedule is just one of the excuses for not doing what needs to be done." What do you prefer? I don't know anyone who would identify with Greg's characterization. And teams need some guidance of overall sequence of work. Bob Huber, Scheduling Manager, The Boldt Company, suggests The Marriage of CPM and Lean Construction in his paper co-authored with Paul Reiser presented at last year's International Group for Lean Construction's 11th Conference. He urges people to use CPM at a high level rather than a detailed task level. Further detail is left to the people performing the work. The result is a CPM schedule that is easy to keep up-to-date and doesn't have swings in it from week to week. People will use that schedule. Visit the Archives for more postings |
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