Step 2: Improving Your Capability Maturity

Last week we looked at the Capability Maturity Model and the process of establishing where your organisation is on it. Once you have established that you can plan what you will need to do to move up the model. But remember that you can only move up one level of maturity at a time so plan on the basis of achievable short-term objectives. 

For example if you decide you are currently at project management level 2: repeatable (you will have documented project management methodologies and a standard project life cycle in place; and you will be involving your project managers in the definition and agreement of these standards). You will now plan to move to level 3: defined. In order to achieve this you will need to carry out the following steps:

1. Establish a project office to maintain the standards and documentation and provide an interface to the project mangers.
2. Obtain management support and authorisation to enforce compliance with the standards and monitor this through the project office.
3. Involve the organisation's project managers in reviewing and improving the standards.

Once you have that in place you are ready to plan for moving to the next level of organisational maturity. Next week we will look in more detail at the steps involved in deploying these project management best practices.

Step 1: Establish Your Capability Maturity

Last week I outlined my deployment road map and the first step was to establish the current level of project management capability maturity in your organization.

Capability Maturity Model
Most project managers will by now be familiar with the capability maturity model (CMM) and this is an example of the project management CMM (there are also program, portfolio and combined P3M versions):

If you want help with establishing your organization’s capability maturity the CMMI Institute have a self-assessment questionnaire you can adapt and use. You can find it at: 

http://cmmiinstitute.com/assess-your-organizations-capability

Next week I'll look at the second step of moving on up the maturity matrix.

The Project

At long last Agile Project Management in easy steps 2nd Edition is out in print. More pages and two more chapters (Feature-Driven Development and Agile at Scale) and now co-authored with David Morris, who was responsible for most of the additional content. And even better value for money as it is still only priced at £10.99 UK / $14.99 US.

Deployment Road Map

So the four things we can do to stop projects going wrong are to consider the needs of the project manager; consider the needs of the organisation; select the right projects; and to review them regularly. So what do we need to do to ensure this happens?

We need to start with the organisation. If an organisation is going to thrive in the current environment it will need to embrace project management as a crucial element of the business. The organisation will practice portfolio management and will have a project focus. They will value their project managers, support their development and see project management as a vital part of management development. Having implemented this in several organisations, I have developed a simple road map to that successful deployment

Deployment Road Map
Step 1: Establish the current level of project management capability maturity in the organisation;
Step 2: Plan how the capability maturity needs to be developed and improved;
Step 3: Define and document sound project management processes, with a project office to support and develop the processes;
Step 4: Define and document sound program management processes (if you are going to implement program management) again with a program office to support and develop the processes;
Step 5: Introduce a peer review (gateway) process for all projects and programs; and
Step 6: Implement portfolio management at the highest level in the organisation.

I will be looking at each of those six steps in detail over the next six posts. So until the next time: don't forget to enjoy your project management.

What We Can Do About It (4)

Step one was to consider the skills of the project manager, step two was to consider the needs of the organisation, and step three was to consider the projects and make sure they are business critical. But we can't just stop there, for even if a project is business critical it can still go wrong or cease to be business critical. The way we deal with these two potential problems is: 

Review the Projects
So step four is to put processes in place to ensure that all projects are reviewed at set times during the project life-cycle. 

What is needed is some form of peer review process, where a small team (external to the project) or just a single person for a small project, carries out a quick review against a standard check-list. Ideally this would be at the end of each project stage. The process is sometimes referred to as a gateway review process and uses a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) traffic signal against each point on the check list. Red is critical and urgent: the problem must be addressed or the project will fail. Amber is critical but not urgent: the problem should be addressed before any further key decisions are made. Green: the project is on track on this point. 

This process is nice and simple and I like ‘simple’ processes. Used properly the process works as it ensures that projects that are going wrong get fixed or stopped before they can have a serious impact on the business. It also checks that projects still are critical to the business.

So those are the four steps I believe we can take to stop projects going wrong. In the next post I will start to look at deploying them in an organisation.

What We Can Do About It (3)

Step one was to consider the skills of the project manager and step two was to consider the needs of the organisation. 

Consider the Projects
Step three is to make sure that only projects that are critical to the business take place and that the projects that do take place are measured on the actual benefits they deliver to the business at the end of the project. Most organisations are currently failing in both of these areas.

These decisions must be made at the highest level in the organisation and portfolio management provides the mechanism for this (although you don’t have to call it that, particularly in smaller organisations, where it might be considered overkill). 

When I’ve run project portfolios I usually work on a three year focus, with a quarterly review of the portfolio and a strict rule that nothing is bullet-proof. The most business-critical projects are always prioritised and anything else (including projects that are already under way) can be deferred or delayed. This way all projects are business critical and will get full top management support.

Up to now, not many organisations have implemented portfolio management and of the few that have, many still suffer from what I call ‘project amnesia’. Some people call it the ‘approve and forget’ approach as once they have approved a project they seem to forget all about it. So there is one final important fourth step, which we will look at next week.

What We Can Do About It (2)

As we saw last week, step one was to consider whether the project manager actually has the necessary skills to manage projects and if not, to move them somewhere else where they can do less damage to the organisation. And speaking of the organization:

Consider the Organisation
Step two is to consider the needs of the organisation itself. Business today needs to be agile and able to change and adapt quickly, if not it will fail. Because of this the business environment today is becoming more and more project driven, which means the business must have a project focus. That means embedding project management into the business strategy and making sure the organization understands it.

Then if we are going to do projects we need to do them right and that begins with putting our best people into the role (not just anyone who is available). Maybe as part of a career development process for a couple of years. Good managers will be stretched and will blossom in the role and be capable of taking on greater things in the future. But the organisation must support this and be fully committed to it, not just put anyone who is available into a project management role.

Agile Project Management in easy steps
And speaking of agile, the second edition of the book (now co-authored with David Morris) is due for publication in the next couple of weeks.

What We Can Do About It

Consider the Project Manager

First of all we need to consider if a project manager actually has the necessary skills to manage projects. A lot of people get thrown into project management because they are available, with no thought about what skills they need to carry out the role. I get a lot of feedback on this point so I know it is still happening today.

So a good honest appraisal should clearly identify any areas of skills shortage and development needs. But we need to be honest, not everyone can become a good project manager. Not everyone will have the right temperament or basic management skills. However, if they show promise then give them any necessary training but more importantly I think we should provide mentoring for them from an experienced (and therefore hopefully a wise) project manager.

But if they are not cut out for it, move them to somewhere else, where they can do less damage to the organisation.

Why Projects Really Fail

To recap:

The Real Cause
Earlier in this blog I listed the top ten ‘causes’ often cited for project failure and then examined them one by one. They all turn out to be just symptoms of poor project management or selecting the wrong project. But a wise project manager would also deal with the wrong project, so let's bite the bullet, the real reason projects fail is just poor project management.

Wise project managers are aware of these symptoms as they will have learned about them the hard way from their own early projects. They take the necessary steps to ensure they don’t have these problems in future on their projects. 

But that still leaves us with the problem of what to do about the unwise project managers whose project run into problems or fail altogether. The answer is not to send them all on training courses. What I believe we need to do is develop the project managers, develop the organisation, select the right projects in the first place and then regularly review them. I'll be expanding on these topics again over the next few weeks.

PMI Netherlands Summit

The summit was a great success with some fine inspirational speakers and it was good to meet so many PMI members. What was interesting was the number of common topics that were covered by the different presentations. Lots of food for thought for the future. Now I've delivered the talk I will post the remaining bits on this blog.

More about Guide Dogs

Guide Dogs
Spent an interesting day in Winnersh, working through their Corporate Project Office plans and drawing up a route map for the implementation. It was very topical for me as that's what I will be talking about in the Netherlands the week after next. 

Agile Project Management
Still not heard anything back from the publishers, so fingers crossed.

Project 2016
Also just seen that Microsoft will be releasing a new version of Project with Office 2016 later this year. So I'll have to see if the publishers want me to update it, the 2013 version didn't sell very well so they may decide to drop it, we shall see.

I'm taking a week off next week to visit family and spend a few days cycling in Kent. So no post next week but I'll post an update on how the Netherlands conference went the week after.

Guide Dogs for the Blind

I had a contact from a young lady from the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association a short while back and have arranged to go and spend a day with them next Tuesday. We will be looking at their re-launch of their Corporate Program Office, which should be very interesting and very much in line with what I will be speaking on at the PMI Netherlands Conference in three weeks time.

Meanwhile In Easy Steps (my publishers) have started reviewing the revised Agile Project Management book co-authored with David Morris this time. So we wait with bated breath for any feedback and hope they don't find too many typos!

PMI Netherlands Summit

I've been working on my slides for the talk to the PMI Netherlands Summit on 11th June and decided to go with lots of visual images and no bullet points. Quite good fun but I thought I had better put the text of what I will be saying on the slide notes as it will be the only handout the delegates get. I thought the title slide looked nice...

APMies v2

The publishers have downloaded the new version of the book from Dropbox so now it's fingers crossed time. As it is the second edition and is now co-authored by David Morris, they have given us a new cover:

Let's hope they don't find any problems or mistakes!

Agile Project Management in easy steps

David Morris and I have just finished updating the second edition of Agile Project Management in easy steps. We have expanded the book from 192 to 216 pages, with new chapters covering Feature-Driven Development and Agile at Scale. Most of the hard work has been done by David, who is an expert in the field and who will be taking over the book entirely from the next edition. It has been interesting collaborating with someone on the other side of the world (Auckland, NZ) and 12 hours time difference. And even more pleasurable is the fact that he is my son, so I'm going to be leaving the book in good hands.

Now waiting with baited breath for the publisher's feedback, hope they like it!

PMI Netherlands Summit

I mentioned last week that I had been invited to speak at the PMI Netherlands Summit and the program has now been finalized at: http://www.pmi-netherlands-summit.com/

The central theme is The secret of Project Management; next practices demystified and the presentations will elaborate on Project Management circa 2025. What is the secret of successful project management, what are those next practices we need to adopt? 

During the Summit they will demystify next practices from both a scientific and real-life perspective and will consider:

• Next practices of excellent organizations
• Next practices of excellent (virtual) teams
• Next practices of excellent project managers
• Next practices deployed

My talk will form part of the deployment thread and I look forward to hearing some of the other presentations and meeting some of the delegates. If you are planning to go do let me know.

PMI Netherlands Summit

I have been invited to give a presentation on Why Projects Really Fail (and what we can do about it) at the PMI Netherlands Summit on June 11th 2015. The Summit is the platform for Project, Program and Portfolio Management professionals to inspire and to be inspired by national and international thought leaders and experts. The central theme this year is The secret of Project Management; next practices demystified.so I hope I will be doing some of that for them.

Review the Projects

Why Projects Really Fail
Step four is to put processes in place to review all projects at set times in the project life-cycle. What is needed is some form of peer review process (where a small team external to the project, or just a single person for a small project, carries out a quick review against a standard check-list). Typically this would be at the end of each project stage. This is sometimes referred to as a gateway review process and uses a Red, Amber, Green traffic light against each point on the check list. Red is critical and urgent: the problem must be addressed or the project will fail. Amber is critical but not urgent: the problem should be addressed before any further key decisions are made. Green: the project is on track on this point. 

This process is nice and simple and I like ‘simple’ processes. And used properly it works as it ensures that projects that are going wrong get fixed or stopped before they can have a serious impact on the business. 

So that covers the four things I believe we can do to stop projects going wrong. Thanks to those of you who have given me feedback on these topics, it is much appreciated.

Chose the Right Projects

Why Projects Really Fail
Step three is to make sure that only projects that are critical to the business take place and that the projects that do take place are measured on the actual benefits they deliver to the business at the end of the project. Most organizations are currently failing in both of these areas.

These decisions must be made at the highest level in the organisation and portfolio management provides the mechanism for this (although you don’t have to call it that). The most business-critical projects are always prioritized and anything else (including projects that are already under way) can be deferred or delayed. This way all projects are business critical and will get full top management support.

Develop the Organisation

Why Projects Really Fail
Step two is to consider the needs of the organisation. A business today need to be agile and able to change and adapt quickly, if not it will fail. Because of this the business environment today is becoming more and more project driven and I don’t see that changing over the next few years, which means the business must have a project focus. That means embedding project management into the business strategy.

If we are going to do projects we need to do them right and that begins with putting our best people into the role (not just anyone who is available). Maybe as part of a career development process for a couple of years. Good managers will blossom in the role and be capable of taking on greater things in the future. But the organisation must support this and be fully committed to it.

Develop the People

Why Projects Really Fail
In my previous post (the real reason projects fail) I identified a number of steps that need to be taken and the first one is fairly obvious. Is the project manager up to the job? In other words do they have the necessary skills to manage projects? 

A lot of people get thrown into project management because they are available, with no thought about what skills they need to carry out the role. A good honest appraisal should clearly identify any areas of skills shortage and development needs. But we need to be honest, not everyone can become a good project manager. Not everyone will have the temperament or basic management skills necessary. If they show promise then we should provide mentoring for them. If they are not cut out for it, then we should move them to somewhere else in the business where they can do less damage.

But this won't happen spontaneously, we have to do something about it and that is what I will be discussing in the next topic: developing the organisation.

Thank You
Many thanks to those of you who have commented on the topics in this series. Most of which have been excellent. I will be turning this series of posts into a presentation to the PMI Netherlands Summit in June and will incorporate several of your points. So keep them coming.