What is Taoism?

Taoism
I was watching a program on China on the TV yesterday evening, which was very interesting. However the presented did say something that I took exception to, he referred to Taoism as a religion. Now to me Taoism (the Way as defined by Lao Tsu) is a philosophy not a religion, although some people may have tried to turn it into a religion after Lao Tsu's time.

Wikipedia defines Taoism as a philosophical, ethical or religious tradition of Chinese origin that emphasises living in harmony with the Tao. The term Tao means "way", "path", or "principle", and can also be found in other Chinese philosophies and religions. 

In Taoism, Tao denotes something that is both the source of, and the force behind, everything that exists. Taoism is practiced as a religion in various Asian communities. Its theology is not theist (even though some communities do worship Lao Tzu as the attributed founder of the 'religious' doctrine), and has more affinities with pantheistic traditions given its philosophical emphasis on the formlessness of the Tao.

So as I said earlier, to me Taoism is a philosophy. It is the way that I try to run my life. As I don't believe in religion I suppose that makes me an atheist Taoist. I'm happy with that, as it's as good as any other label.

Next week back to the project!

Life Goes On

Topsham Rugby Club

After all the games being cancelled last weekend due to the pitches being flooded by the torrential rain it's hopefully back on track this weekend. The 1st XV are away to Tamar Saracens and the 2nd XV are at home to Torquay (2:30 pm kick off).

Before that the Ladies have a memorial game in honour of Lily Partridge, one of the founder members of the Ladies team, who tragically died following a Devon RFU training session just before Christmas. Kick off at 12:30pm and the Under 9's will be playing a game between that and the 2nd XV game. We are expecting a large turnout and I will be manning the outside bar so let's hope the weather forecast (dry) is right for once!

What's this got to do with project management? Well all these one-off occasions are small projects in their own right so it's always interesting to see how they work out. Also I just thought you might like to know and it's more interesting than my day job as treasurer!

The Project

I've managed to get a project team of seven people representing the different sections of the club and have the project kick off meeting scheduled for 02-Feb. I'm working on a draft terms of reference (project brief) and agenda in the meantime.

Ah just like old times, into the great unknown, but as long as I follow the Way...

Happy New Year

Well here we are in 2016 and things are getting back to normal. Well apart from the fact that I am (as usual) going dry for January to try and recover from the excesses over Saturnalia!

On New Years Day I opened up our local outdoor swimming pool at 07:00 had a swim (water temperature 29C, air temperature 4C so great in the water, very cold running back to the changing rooms) then I opened up for the public at 08:00 and we had around 140 swimmers in for the early morning session. We are called the Nutters Club for reasons that shouldn't need explaining. So good deed for the year done.

The Project
As Honorary Treasurer of Topsham Rugby Football Club I have a 'day job' of balancing the books and not spending more than we can afford. Earlier this year we successfully paid off all outstanding loans on our new clubhouse. Now we have an excellent clubhouse our next priority is to improve our grounds and pitches. These were once among the best in Devon but recent heavy rain has shown that the playing surface quality needs to be improved. This is going to be another major project and I am currently working on getting some grants from the Rugby Football Union, Sport England and several local charities to fund the project.

One thing all the major sponsors ask for is a business plan, so the first step is to produce that. I need to get a project team together representing the three major sections of the club (Senior Men, Senior Women and Juniors) and other interested parties. We have a committee meeting on Monday so hopefully we will get the team identified there.

Then it's back to the Way. I'm looking forward to it.

I wish you all a happy New Year and may all your projects be successful.

Happy Christmas

So enough of disasters, let's look at the bright side of life. Christmas is a very old festival, originally pagan. The Romans called it Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17th and 25th, and during this period the law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring anyone. So that's one answer to the question: what did the Romans ever do for us? 

Unfortunately it was then hijacked by the Christians when they came on the scene and turned into the fable we know today. But fear not some of us are keeping the old traditions alive and will eat and drink to excess and have a thoroughly good time. I am also blessed to have my birthday on the Winter Solstice so yet another excuse for merriment. 

There is a lot of sadness in the world these days and we should always spare a thought for those less fortunate than ourselves but that is no reason for not wishing everyone a very happy Christmas and every success in the New Year. 

A Seriously Challenged Project

Another one from the Why Do Projects Fail website:

Edinburgh City Council: Tram Network (Sep 2003 to May 2014)

When originally conceived the project was intended to reduce traffic congestion, reduce carbon emissions and help the city cope with the increased demand for public transport in the next decade. Today the project is regarded as a shambles and although Edinburgh does now have a tram, what they’ve ended up with falls far short of what was envisaged. Needless to say the public aren’t happy with what they got for their money.

Political influence and disputes between the contractors and consultants marred the project and the project came to a halt on several occasions. As early as 2005 the Scottish Parliament shelved the project when new cost estimates revealed an increase of 30% to the original £375m budget and although the project did get going again, those early cost increases were a warning sign of what was to come.

Soon after construction started in 2007, delays and cost overruns started to accumulate. Disputes between the various parties, quality issues and changes in design plagued the project and between 2008 and 2009 it became clear that the project had some deep seated issues. After 3 years of construction delays the City of Edinburgh Council stepped in. To limit ballooning costs and ongoing delays, the project’s scope was significantly reduced to one single 14km tramline from the airport to the City centre with 15 stops, about one third of the network initially envisaged.

Edinburgh residents had to endure the inconvenience of roads being dug up for the best part of seven years causing congestion and financial harm to businesses. The tram eventually took its first passengers in 2014.

The final cost of £1 billion, or £71.4m/km, compared to the average cost of about £22.7m/km for tramlines completed in 17 other cities in the northern hemisphere in the same period. A 314% cost increase for one third of the original scope.

Public opinion remains divided as to whether or not the project will eventually prove to be beneficial. An enquiry is currently underway to find the root causes and who was accountable for the fiasco. Contributing factors as reported in the press were: underestimating the complexity of the project; lack of contractor oversight; lack of quality controls; and failure to establish appropriate controls and management processes to ensure the project was properly organized.

Once again the real reason is plain to see: poor project management.

More Project Disasters

And another one from the Why Do Projects Fail blog...

Los Angeles Unified School District 
e-Enabled Learning Tools Project
Apr 2015  
Cost: $1.3B

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s efforts to provide every student, every teacher and every administrator with a iPad turned into a disaster. Launched in 2013, the initial plan called for more than 100,000 iPads to be purchased. Some were to be loaded with apps containing curriculum that would be used for instructional purposes while others were to be used for standardized testing.

From the initial roll out the problems were clear. Students were able to bypass the built in security to access non-authorized content while the authorized content that was provided suffered its own quality problems. Reports indicate that the authorized content was not written in accordance with applicable teaching standards and those problems were compounded by the fact that the system suffered reliability problems that frequently rendered the content inaccessible anyway.  

The project’s Director publicly criticized the system saying “Making the materials ‘usable’ has required extraordinary, unsustainable, and un-scalable resources.” Publishing an open correspondence the Director reports that only 2 of 69 schools in the initial pilot were still attempting to use the tool. The remaining schools had given up. Noting that less than 5% of the target student body had reliable access to the content, the letter also noted that even when used, the content failed to meet all appropriate requirements.

Contributing factors as reported in the press: failure to gain stakeholder support; missing requirements; quality related issues; and failure to fully recognize the transformational shift in learning that e-enabled learning represents.

What They Should Have Done

• appoint a good, experienced project manager
• buy a copy of 'Agile Project Management in easy steps'
• take an agile approach, with full user involvement 
• user experience design 
• try it out on a small pilot (1 school not 69)

The report also mentions that this is the second project from the Los Angeles Unified School District that has featured in the Catalog of Catastrophe, when will they ever learn?

Project Disasters

I've decided to have a look at some project disasters to see if there is anything new to learn and just had to start with this one:

Volkswagen Group: Vehicle Emission System
Probably the most expensive scandal in recent history, where Volkswagen basically put in special software to cheat the emission testing protocols used by governments. It has shaken confidence in a once solid brand. It is both an embarrassment for the company and a financial disaster for the shareholders. In addition to fines of up to $18 billion at least $25 billion has been lost due to a dive in stock price.


And not to forget that Volkswagen also own and produce Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Ducati motorbikes and truck makers Scania and Man. In total more than 11 million vehicles are affected.

Full report available at: http://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=7666

So what went wrong?

They put profit before quality 
They flouted government regulations
They failed to disclose and actually withheld information 
They didn't test the diesel vehicles on real roads
They failed to live up to customer expectations 
They deliberately falsified advertising claims

This is not a project failure it is a corporate failure but somewhere in there was a project manager who went along with an illegal project instead of pushing back.

Bonfire Night

Well it all went very well in the end and we got a very good write up and photographs in the local paper. It rained pretty solidly up until about 5pm but stopped on cue. The only problem was the ground was so soft we had a few problems parking all the cars and ended up with people parking in the street. Also we had to cancel two of the three games we had scheduled on the Saturday to be on the safe side with the state of the pitches but could probably have got away with playing them.

We had a few other minor issues but the wash up meeting should capture those and hopefully next year can only be better still. Now back to the day job...

Something Completely Different

and now as they say for something completely different...

Bonfire Night

Topsham Rugby Football Club have one of the biggest and best firework displays in the county and that takes a lot of project management. So at the current moment everything else is getting put off until after the 5th of November.

Thereafter normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Making It All Happen

The six steps I have been illustrating over the past six weeks are all fairly straight forward and very achievable, but they will take some time. However help is at hand:

Resources
I have mentioned the resources provided by the Project Management Institute and the Office of Government Commerce (now Axelos) but there are also some of my books that provide a more straight forward alternative:
 

If you want detailed guidelines for the implementation of all the things I’ve been talking about, they are all set out in Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps.

If you want guidelines for developing project management excellence, they are set out in Effective Project Management in easy steps.

If you are running agile project, then guidelines for developing agile project management excellence are set out in Agile Project Management in easy steps.

And last but not least if you are wondering where you will find the time to do it all then Effective Time Management in easy steps will provide you the answers.

So draw up a list of what you want to achieve and plan and manage the project like any other major business change. I say project but it could require a program (unless your organisation is already a good way up the capability maturity matrix) as it is likely to take several years to implement fully (and that by definition that should be a program not just a project).

Your Mission

I would like to leave you with one final point to consider: without the full commitment of your organisation (and that really does mean support from your very top management) none of this will happen, so I would suggest that’s your starting point. 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to produce a high-level plan for what you want to achieve, then sell the benefits of these best practices to your organisation. If you need any help I am always pleased to offer help or advice to fellow professionals and this is the URL of my web site should you wish to contact me: johncarroll.org.uk

Step 6: Portfolio Management Deployment

The final step in the deployment of best practices is the big one, portfolio management. Not many organisations have yet achieved this, so this is the area that can deliver real competitive advantage to any business.

Yet again it is absolutely essential to involve all the project and program managers in the process and yet again the steps are similar to those involved in deploying project or program best practices, with one main exception at step 2:

Step 1: Define and document a standard portfolio life cycle. This is my own particular take on a portfolio life cycle diagram:

Step 2: Set up a central project database, which is essential to the process.

Step 3: Define the portfolio management processes to support the portfolio life cycle. These can be based on off-the-shelf standards such as the PMI's Standard for Portfolio Management, OGC's Management of Portfolios or a good book on the subject (such as my own Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps). This will put you on level 2 of the CMM matrix for portfolio management.

Step 4: Establish a portfolio office to maintain and develop the processes, or develop the program or project office into the role. This will put you on level 3.

Step 5: Define portfolio reporting standards and metrics and transfer them to the portfolio office to implement, support and maintain. This puts you on level 4.

Step 6: Task the portfolio office with optimising the processes and standards, which takes you to level 5.

Next week I will look at making it all happen, some resources you can use and how to go about it.

Step 5: Peer Review Deployment

As with the earlier steps, I believe once again that it is essential to involve all project and program managers in the process.

Start by defining, documenting and agreeing a high-level peer review process based on fixed points in a project and program life cycle.

Develop the necessary standards and guidelines to support the process or base them on something like the gateway review process (see below).

Transfer everything to the project and/or program office to maintain, support and develop.

Identify potential peer reviewers and provide them with any necessary training in the process.

Select a pilot project, run peer reviews on it, review the outcome of the pilot, refine and roll out the process and standards.

Then repeat the same steps for a program.

Gateway Review Process
This is an example of the Gateway peer review process as it is applied to programs and projects:

A project (on the left) has a review at the completion of each stage, with a focus on: 1) Business Justification, 2) Delivery Strategy, 3) Investment Decision, 4) Readiness for Service, and one or more on 5) Benefits Realisation.

A program (on the right) has a review during the Definition Phase, one for each Delivery Phase, and a final one during the Closure Phase. But please don’t ask me why they decided to call them all gateway 0!

Next week we will look at the final step in the process, portfolio management.

Step 4: Program Management Best Practices

Last week we looked at deploying project management best practices, this week we look at a very similar process for deploying program management best practices:

Deploying Program Management Best Practices 
Once again it is essential to fully involve all the organization’s project and program managers in the process. 

Once again the process starts with defining, documenting, agreeing and implementing a standard program life cycle.

Then define, document and agree program management processes to support the project life cycle. These can be based on standards such as Managing Successful Programs (MSP) or Standard for Program Management (SPM), or a good program management handbook such as my own Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps. This takes you from level 1 to level two on the program management capability matrix.

Then establish a program office (or develop the project office into the role) to maintain, support and develop the agreed processes. This takes you from level 2 to level 3.

Define program reporting standards and metrics and task the program office with maintaining, supporting and developing and them. Which takes you from level 3 to level 4.

Once again you could stop here but why not take the next step and task the program office with optimising the processes and standards. This takes you from level 4 to level 5 and completes the deployment of program management best practices.

Next week I'll look at deploying a peer review best practice process.

Step 3: Project Management Best Practices

Deploying Project Management Best Practices
Having established where the organisation currently is on the capability maturity model and planned how to get to the next level in steps 1 and 2 we can now start to roll out the best practices. I am going to assume that you are starting from level 1 (if not you will already have some of the earlier items in place).

Before starting any of this I believe it is absolutely essential to involve all the organization’s project managers in the process (after all they are all key stakeholders). So these are the steps involved:

Define, document and agree a standard project life cycle (if you don’t already have one), then define, document and agree project management processes to support the project life cycle. To speed up the development, these can be based on existing standards (such as PRINCE or PM-BOK) or on a good project management handbook (such as Effective Project Management in easy steps). This takes you from level 1 to level 2.

Next establish a project office to maintain, support and develop the processes. This takes you from level 2 to level 3.

Then define project reporting standards and metrics and task the project office with supporting and enforcing these, together with collecting and processing the data and reporting it to management. This takes you from level 3 to level 4.

You could stop here but why not take the next step and task the project office with optimising the processes and standards. This takes you from level 4 to level 5 and completes the deployment of project management best practices.

Next week I'll set out the process for deploying program management best practices.

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.

The Real Cause

Why Projects Really Fail
Over the past ten weeks I've listed the top ten ‘causes’ often cited for project failure. But as we have seen they all turn out to be just symptoms of poor project management. 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. At the risk of offending my friends in the PMI, the answer is not to send them all on training courses. What I believe we need to do is to develop (not train) 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 over the next few weeks.

Inadequate Risk Management

Why Projects Really Fail
This is the extra cause of project failure I added to my original nine to make a nice, solid ten causes, based on more recent study. Right from the outset poor project managers seem to plan their projects on the assumption that nothing will go wrong. Unfortunately for them Murphy's Law never fails to deliver.

On the other hand a wise project manager knows that things will go wrong and allows for that in the initial planning exercise. They then spend time, with the project team, looking for potential risks that could impact the project. Having identified the risks, they then take steps to mitigate those risks. Despite that they still know that some things will go wrong and, when they do, they actively manage the resultant activities to minimise the impact and recover from it as quickly as possible. So yet again inadequate risk management is just another symptom of poor project management.

Next week we will begin to examine the real cause of project failure and what we can do about it. Until then enjoy your projects.

Lack of Resources

Why Projects Really Fail
Lack of the right resources at the right time can derail a project. OK I hear you say, this one can’t be a symptom of poor project management, can it? Well consider how a wise project manager deals with the problem. Firstly they don’t wait for it to happen, they assume it will happen and take steps to get the resources they need, when they need them through top management support. If the business can’t provide the resources then the project can’t be critical to the business and should be stopped. Failure to deal with this is yet another symptom of poor project management.

The Project
David has finished the new chapter 13 (Agile Projects at Scale) and it looks good. Now he has three weeks to review and revise chapters 1 to 12 so we can finalise everything when I get back the following week. I know it's pushing him but we can't afford to put the date back again.

Poorly Defined Responsibilities

Why Projects Really Fail
Poorly defined responsibilities can again be linked to poor communications. If team members don’t have well defined responsibilities and understand what those responsibilities are, they will do the things they think are important, or even worse, the things they enjoy doing and the project will turn into a nightmare. 

The wise project manager makes sure everyone in the team knows what is expected of them, what they need to do, and when they need to do it by. I always liked to produce a Deliverables Checklist for each stage of a project, listing all of the project deliverables, with who is responsible for delivering each, when they are scheduled to start and when they are scheduled to be delivered by. Then review and update it weekly with the project team.to ensure everyone knows what is expected of them. Poorly defined responsibilities is just another symptom of poor project management.

The Project
David's work on the new chapters has slipped a bit, I think he underestimated the amount of work involved. I've told the publishers and put back the completion date but the danger is now that they will run out of stock of the old version before they can get the new one into print. They'll either have to print more of the old version and delay the new or it will be 'out of stock' and we will loose sales. Project life is never easy.

Lack of Stakeholder Ownership

Why Projects Really Fail
Project stakeholders are defined as anyone with a vested interest in a project. They can have a positive interest (they will benefit from the project) or a negative interest (they see some disadvantage from the project) but they are still stakeholders. They can help or hinder a project and as project managers we neglect them at our peril.

But if the stakeholders don’t actually care about the project or take any responsibility or interest in it, then why is the project being carried out? This 'cause of failure' is closely linked with poor communication and top management support. A wise project manager communicates with all the project stakeholders (including the negative ones) and makes sure they understand the reason for and are committed to the project. It would seem that a lack of stakeholder ownership is a sign of an unnecessary project and just another symptom of poor project management.

The Project
David has now got his own copy of InDesign and is taking over editing the material directly, rather than giving me the changes to edit. I can see the advantage to him in this and will do my best to give him any support he needs, but the timescale was already quite tight so I hope he can cope with a steep learning curve.

Poor Leadership

Why Projects Really Fail
Poor Leadership was the sixth most common cause of project failure reported in the original study I am basing this series of blogs on and it is another absolute project killer. If the project manager is not providing good leadership then the project will fail, no question. No one on the team will be motivated and they won’t care if the project fails. In fact those with any sense will get themselves off the project as fast as they can. 

The wise project manager knows how important it is to provide a lead for the team and rally them when they need rallying. The wise project manager encourages the team and is supportive, without seeking to take the credit for the team's achievements.  Poor leadership is simply poor project management.  

The Project
David and I have decided to add two new chapters to the second edition of the book (Feature Driven Development and Managing Large Agile Projects) along with updating the existing content.  It will increase the size of the book and the price slightly but I think it will be a significant improvement in coverage of the subject.  Two weeks to our deadline, should be getting interesting.

Lack of Top Management Support

Why Projects Really Fail (continued)
Lack of top management support was always one of my big bug bears and it’s just poor stakeholder management. I've been there and had to deal with it. If there is no top management support for a project then why does it exist? How can it be critical to the business if top management aren’t supporting it? 

The answer was usually that it was someones' 'vanity project'. A wise project manager will recognise this very early in a project (if not right at the start) and insist on a senior management project sponsor (who really will champion the project), then work with them to obtain organisational support. If they can't get this they must recommend cancelling the project due to the high probability/high impact risk of project disaster. This is not as easy as it sounds if the person asking you to manage the project is your boss, but hey, the reason we love project management is the challenge. If we wanted an easy life we would be line managers!  Failure to do this is just poor project management, the lack of top management support is a screaming symptom of an unwanted or unneeded project.

The Project(s)
For reasons outside of my control I have had to cancel the on-line course development project for Cassel. This is really disappointing as not only was I enjoying the experience, but I have now had to let a customer down. They have been kind enough to leave the door open for me if the circumstances change in future.

The only positive I can take from this is that I can now concentrate on my other project: working with David Morris on a revised version of Agile Project Management in easy steps, which he will be taking over after this release. We are due to complete the work on this by the end of January so it's quite tight, but hey, didn't I just say that's why we love being project managers.

Take care and enjoy your projects.

Scope Creep

Why Projects Really Fail
Unless it is an agile project (where the objectives are expected to change), scope creep or slow death by a thousand change requests will grind any project into the dust. Wise project managers recognise when this is starting to happen and blow a very loud whistle. 

It comes down to a simple binary choice. Freeze the scope and implement the project as is and see if there is sufficient business justification for a follow on project to implement the additional requirements; or cancel the project and consider starting it again once the objectives can be agreed. Failure to do this is poor project management, the changing objectives merely a symptom of this.

The Projects
Effective Project Management on-line training course (for Classle): I'm starting to get the hang of things now (particularly Audacity for recording the audio) and I am now onto Module 4 (Planning). Great fun.

Agile Project Management in easy steps: I'm doing this revised version jointly with David Morris and I'm currently waiting for David let me have the next batch of updates now he is back in New Zealand.

Meanwhile have a happy and successful New Year.

Poor Communications Skills

Why Projects Really Fail (continued)
Poor communications skills is an absolute killer. If the project manager does not have good communication skills the project will probably turn into a disaster. Wise project managers work on their communication skills and get themselves sent on courses if they need help. 

Failure to do so is just poor project management. By now you should have started to see where this is going.

The Project
Meantime I am cracking on with the course development for Classle and getting the hang of Audacity (a really useful free audio tool). I managed to get module two completed on Christmas eve and hopefully module three next week.

Fuzzy Objectives

Why Projects Really Fail
To continue the story: most of the projects I have run over the years have started out with fairly fuzzy objectives, as at the start of the project it is only an idea for a business change or improvement. During the early stages of a project the key aim is to refine these objectives by talking to all the stakeholders and gradually developing them into a detailed set of business requirements, which can be agreed and signed off by all parties. 

Wise project managers get this thrashed out and nailed down before any serious work on the project begins. Failure to do this is just poor project management and the fuzzy objectives leading to misunderstandings and the development of the wrong things are just a symptom of this.

The Project
I have now signed a memorandum of understanding with Classle and produced the first course module. I'm aiming to have the whole course ready by the end of February for release in March and I'm really enjoying it (although January is likely to be a bit hectic as I'm also working with my son David on an update to Agile Project Management in easy steps, which is due by the end of January). Ah well a bit of pressure always makes things exciting!

Unrealistic Estimates

Why Projects Really Fail
To continue the story: when I originally carried out my research into failed projects, the number one reason given (on around 80% of failed projects) was unrealistic estimates. But why would so many estimates  be wrong? 

Well arguably all estimates are wrong as they are just that, estimates, but somehow that seems to get forgotten in the heat of the project. Typically people forecast work and costs based on past experience but they forget two important things: 1) at the start of a project there are a lot of unknowns that will only be discovered later on in the project; and 2) things will go wrong during the course of the project. Failure to allow for these two factors will hamstring the project estimates and of course the schedules that are based on them from the outset. 

Wise project managers load their early estimates with lots of contingency (although we cunningly disguise it) to cover for this. They then re-estimate the remaining work on the project at regular intervals and gradually reduce the level of contingency as it is used up. Failure to do this is just poor project management and the unrealistic estimates are merely a symptom of this.

The last time I was responsible for managing a team of project managers I used to take their first time and cost estimates for a project, write my estimate on it and seal it in an envelope and give it to the financial director to put in their safe until the project was completed. We would then open the envelope and see who was closest to the actual time and cost. I’m unhappy to say it was always me but that wasn’t down to my estimating skill, I simply doubled their estimates.

More on this subject next week, meanwhile...

The Project
I mentioned last week that I had received an approach from an on-line training company called Classel and things are progressing in that direction. So it looks like I have found myself another project.

Reasons for Project Failure

Let’s start with why we traditionally think projects go wrong. In 2009 I first published my top nine reasons for project failure in “Project Management in easy steps”. These were based on my own experience and other published research, they were:

• Unrealistic estimates
• Fuzzy objectives
• Poor communications skills
• Changing objectives (scope creep)
• Lack of top management support
• Poor leadership
• Lack of stakeholder ownership
• Poorly defined responsibilities
• Lack of resources

Recent studies might suggest the addition of inadequate risk management to the list.
Clearly a case can be made for most of these problems leading to an increased risk of project failure. But I find myself wondering if we are just looking at symptoms of problems rather than causes. Are there any problems on that list that an effective project manager cannot deal with? And if these are not the causes of failure, then what is?

More next week...

Meantime I had an interesting contact this week from Shivram at Classle regarding putting a project management course on-line, sounds interesting, so I am pursuing it.

Why Projects Really Fail

I decided I would submit a paper for the PMI Netherlands Summit and I've also sent them the outline of the proposed talk, titled: Why Projects Really Fail (and what we need to do about it). I've decided that if they don't want to include it I will publish it as an article anyhow. If they do decide to include it I will wait until after the event to publish it.

In the meantime I will introduce the topic on this blog and see what sort of feedback I get. So here are my starting thoughts:

Why Projects Really Fail (and what we need to do about it)
I believe that everyone in the project management community agrees that far too many projects go wrong. There have been many surveys into the reasons for project failure over the years and their findings are usually consistent so it would seem that we also think we know why projects fail and have done for some time. But despite this projects still keep going wrong, so why do we keep on making the same mistakes? 

Bonfire Night

Topsham Rugby Club have one of, if not the finest bonfire nights and firework displays in the South West of England and this year I volunteered to help. It was all fairly hectic on the night and we held a wash up meeting on Wednesday to review it. Just like a post project review and there were a lot of interesting learnings from it but I want to pick just one:

In previous years I understand it was run on a fairly dictatorial manner with one person pulling all the strings. This year we just trusted the team to get on with things and lo and behold it worked! So the way is once again vindicated!

I'm really looking forward to next year as I'll be able to get more actively involved in the planning. All the best for now.