The Way

So to get back to the Way, let's look at how this all fits with the Tao:

Establish the Current Status
We need to become silent and listen with our inner selves. The wise project manager stays in the present. The past is over and done with, there's no point in thinking about what might have been.Likewise there's no point in trying to second guess the future, it will be what it will be.

Grasp the strangeness which is Tao.  
Mindful of what exists now.  
Knowing the ancient beginning,  
Is the essence of wisdom.  

Establish the Objectives
All projects begin with a basic idea about something that could be changed or done differently. But at that time very little is known about the project, it is just the beginning. From this beginning many things will unfold and happen, these things will make up the project. At the beginning there will be darkness but, hopefully, out of that darkness we will begin to know how things happen for this is the way of the project manager. 

The Way that can be told is not the eternal Way.  
The name that can be named is not the eternal name.  
The nameless is the beginning of Heaven and Earth.  
With a name the mother of the ten thousand things.  

Develop the Plan 
As a project manager I always tried to keep things simple.  Yes I had a detailed project schedule for myself but I create a simplified high-level version for the project stakeholders.  Keeping things simple means they are easy to follow. The good project manager stays with the single principle and understands the team process.  He keeps away from chaos and conflicts.  

Hold the great image,  
All under heaven will come.  
They come without harm,  
In happiness and peace.  

Carry It Out
The wise project manager concentrates on making sure the project team have what they need to create the project deliverables and protects them from external interference.  The wise project manager is concerned that the team functions well and that what they do is effective.  This is simple wisdom, for this is the way of the project manager.  

The sage would lead by:
Emptying people’s minds,
And filling their stomachs.

So once again, good luck and enjoy the journey,
John (a.k.a. P M Blogger)

Implementation

Over the past four blogs I've set out what I believe we can do to make sure our projects don't fail. But, as I said last week, implementing it will be a major project or even program in its own right. So what are the steps in this process?

Establish the Current Status
Before you can start planning where you want to get to it is critical to understand where you are today. The easiest way of doing this is by establishing the project management capability maturity of the organisation using the CMMI capability maturity model, which is an excellent tool.

Establish the Objectives
Once you have a full understanding of where the organisation is currently you can begin to define where you want to get to. The SMART acronym comes in handy here, although I use my own version of it: 

Strategic: the objective must address a strategic business need, if it isn't important to the business, then it just won't happen.

Measurable: if the objective doesn't include some form of metrics, then you will never know when you have achieved it.

Agreed: if the objectives are not agreed by all the stakeholders (the business, the project managers, the implementation team,suppliers and customers) the project will fail.

Realistic: if the objectives are not realistic, the project will fail.

Timed: if it's not time-bounded, the project will never be completed.

Develop the Plan 
Once you have a set of realistic objectives, agreed by all concerned, then you can develop the plan of how you are going to achieve it. If you are using the capability maturity model, then the plan should be to move up one level at a time, this suggests a series of projects, hence a program may be the best route to take. The steps, if you are starting out at level 1 are:

Define and document sound project management processes (involving the organisation’s project managers) and establish a project office to coordinate and support the processes. That takes you to level 2.

If you are running programs as well as projects, then define and document sound program management processes (involving the organisation’s project and program managers) and establish a program office (or develop the project office into a project and program office) to coordinate and support the processes. That takes you to level 3.

Introduce a peer review (gateway) process for all projects and programs (involving the organisation’s project and program managers) and charge the project and program office with coordinating and supporting the process.That takes you to level 4, which is as high as many organisations want to go, but the greatest pay off comes from the final step.

Implement portfolio management at the highest level in the organisation and establish a portfolio office (or develop the project and program office into a project, program and portfolio office) to co-ordinate and support the process. That takes you to level 5.

This will take some time to achieve but it is achievable and I have done it in a number of organisations (it is also set out in detail in “Project Program and Portfolio Management in easy steps”. But I would like to leave you with two final tips to consider:

• Involve all your project and program managers in the process. They are key stakeholders and you want them all on-side.

• Without the full commitment of your organisation (and that means support from your very top management) it just won’t happen. 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 to your project managers and top management. 

Good luck and enjoy the journey,
John (a.k.a. P M Blogger)

Project Review

So step one was to consider if the project manager has the necessary skills to manage projects. Step two was to consider the needs of the organisation. Step three was 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 still failing in these last two areas. But step four is also critical to ensuring project success:

Project Review
The final step is to make sure that all projects are reviewed at set times in the project life-cycle. This way projects that are going wrong or getting into difficulties get fixed or stopped before they can have a serious impact on the business. Sometimes this is a hard bullet to bite for the project manager and business but struggling on with a disastrous project would be even worse for both the project manager and the business.

A peer review process is ideal for this as it spreads good practice across the organisation. It needs to use some sort of standard check-list so nothing gets overlooked. The optimum time to review a project is usually at the end of each project stage and this is sometimes referred to as a gateway review process. This is a typical series of end stage reviews:

Initiation Stage: confirm that there is a sound business case for the project and an agreed understanding of how the business objectives will be delivered. Confirm that the stakeholders have been identified, risk management is in place and the project is ready to move onto the next stage.

Strategy Stage: confirm that the business requirements have been specified and agreed together with the delivery approach. Confirm the business case is still valid, plans are in place for risk management and the project is ready to move onto the next stage.

Analysis Stage: confirm that the proposed solution meets the business needs and can be implemented. Confirm the business case is still valid, risk and issue management plans are up to date and the project is ready to move onto the next stage.

Design & Build Stage: confirm that solution to meet the business requirements has been developed and is ready for service. Confirm the business case is still valid, risk and issue management plans are up to date and the project is ready to move onto the next stage.

Implementation Stage: confirm if the business benefits have been realised and that the users are satisfied with the operational service. 

Summary
These are the four steps that every organisation can take to stop projects failing and start moving towards excellence in project management. However putting them all into practice will require a fairly major project (or a program) in its own right. So I will have a look at that next week.

Chose the Right Projects

Continuing the theme of what we can do to prevent projects failing: Step one was to consider if the project manager has the necessary skills to manage projects; Step two was to consider the needs of the organisation. Step three is to chose the right projects.

Picking the Right Projects
We need to make sure that only projects that are critical to the business take place. We also need to make sure 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. So what can we do about it? 

These decisions need to be made at the highest level in the organisation and portfolio management provides the ideal mechanism for this. 

Portfolio selection: by putting all projects (other than very small ones) through the portfolio selection process we ensure that only projects that are critical to the business are carried out. By regular review of the portfolio, we can ensure that only projects that remain critical to the business continue. 

Benefits Management: ensures that we recognise the actual business benefits delivered by every project.

Portfolio Management also addresses prioritisation, planning, risk management and stakeholder management, which also deliver benefits to the organisation. Organisations that have implemented portfolio management have a much higher rate of project success and far fewer project failures.

Next week I will look at the fourth vital step.

The Organisation

So having established that our project managers have the basic ability to manage projects, and planned any development they need, the next step is to consider the needs of the organisation itself.

Project Focus
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 and supports 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 project management role (not just anyone who is available). In a project-focused organisation the selection and development of project managers should be a key part of management development and planning. 

The next step is to make sure we select the right projects and I will be taking a look at that next week.

What We Can Do

Just to re-cap, I am taking a deeper look into what we can do to prevent projects going wrong. But let's start with the reason why projects fail.

Why Projects Fail
I covered this in a post in June 2015 but I need to add one bit of clarification on project failure. Stopping a project that is in danger of going badly wrong or failing is not a project failure, it is good project management. Allowing a project go wrong and fail is poor project management. I hope you can see the distinction.

Now projects may fail for a number of different reasons but all of these reasons can be addressed by a good project manager. If a project fails it is due to one thing alone: poor project management. So having addressed that, let's look at what we can do about it. I originally proposed four steps or areas we need to consider (I simplified it down to three steps in the white paper but will expand it back to four areas now) and these are: (1) the project managers, (2) the business, (3) the projects, and (4) project reviews. So this week let's look at our project managers.

Project Managers
In my experience an awful lot of project managers get thrown into it with little or no training, often because they are available and can be spared by the business. Now ask yourself if these people are likely to make good project managers. Surely if they were any good they would already be critical to the business and not available for running projects!

So we need to take a good look at all our project managers and identify whether or not they have the necessary skill set and basic ability to run projects. This means carrying out a thorough appraisal by someone who knows and understands what project management is all about, a good project manager, and that might not be the project manager's current line manager (we will address this when we look at the business next week). 

If we can establish that the project manager does probably have the basic ability to run a project, then we can identify any development needs and provide them with the required training. But more importantly we can assign them a mentor, who of necessity must be a wise (and therefore successful) project manager themselves. 

If on the other hand the project manager doesn’t have the basic ability to manage projects, then we need to move them to somewhere else in the organisation where they can do less harm. Sounds brutal but they should never have been moved into a project management position in the first place if they didn't have the basic ability. 

In a nutshell a successful project manager needs to have good planning, organisational, leadership and communication skills. These can be developed through training but they need to have the basic ability in the first place.

Next week we will look at the business and what it can do to make all this happen.

Effective Communication

I am indebted to Tom Hussey, who suggested I expand on the 'what we can do' section of my white paper on Why Projects Really Fail. So that's what I will be doing over the next few weeks. He also mentioned that poor communication has been a problem on many projects he has worked on so that's where I'll start.

Poor Communication
Communication is a basic leadership skill. If you can't communicate then you can't be an effective leader. Poor communication skills (in the project manager) was the third most frequent cause cited for project failure in my early research and I still believe it is relevant today. So that has to be the starting point. If a project manager has poor communication skills it is imperative that they get some skills development training. If you are that project manager then ask for it. If you are not, then tell that project manager (tactfully of course) that they would benefit from it. So what does good communications look like?

Good Communication
It starts with a communication plan and if you don't know what one looks like it's covered on page 136 of 'Effective Project Management in easy steps'. If you can't afford the £10.99 (or usually a bit less on Amazon), let me know and I'll send you a PDF of the chapter as a taster! But of course it's not just a question of producing a communications plan and then forgetting it. Good communications looks like regular and effective communication to each of the stakeholder groups, giving them just what they need to keep them informed, but with links provided to more in depth information (on DropBox or similar) if they need it. Most of all it looks like the project manager 'walking the floor', talking to team members and finding out how their work is going. Good communication is making time for talking to people and not burying yourself in an office or endless meetings. If you don't have time to communicate then you need 'Effective Time Management in easy steps' (sorry that's the second plug for one of my books in the same blog, but it's all in there).

Making time for people always pays dividends as not only will you learn about issues, problems and good news sooner, but it is actually fun. So get out there and do it, everything else can wait. It's one of the best bits of project management.

Quick Update

A lot of water has passed under the proverbial bridge since my last post so here is a quick update on things:

Jamaica
Spent a great two weeks in Jamaica, saw a good bit of the island and met some great people. My personal high spots were the jerk pork at the Pork Pit, the Bob Marley Museum, Treasure Beach, the Blue Mountains, climbing up Dunn's River Falls, Jamaica Rum, brilliant sunsets, and discovering that Red Stripe also came in very large bottles!

Topsham RFC 
The First XV have secured promotion from Devon 1 to Cornwall and Devon, well done lads, a good win at South Molton did the trick. Sad news that our player/coach Ross Bovingdon, who has been hugely influential over the past few years, has decided to step down due to other commitments. The Colts have also done well this season, narrowly loosing to Exmouth in the plate final at Sandy Park.

Why Projects Really Fail
There has been a steady demand for copies of the white paper so I hope it is having an impact on people and organisations out there.

What Next
Topsham outdoor swimming pool opened while I was away and I'm now opening it up at 06:00 (for the appropriately named Nutters Club) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

It being Friday today I will be adjourning to the Bridge Inn at 18:00 for a couple of pints after work. Nice to get back to real ale after all that Red Stripe!

Why Projects Really Fail

White Paper
Those of you who have been following this blog for some time will know that I often return to the subject of why projects fail. I even gave a presentation on it to the PMI Netherlands Summit in 2015. A few people have asked me if I had considered turning it into an article for publication, so as a first step I have turned it into a white paper. If anyone would like a copy just hop over to my web site at johncarroll.org.uk click on Contact and put your name and email address into the form and I'll get it off to you be return.Any comments or feedback on the white paper gratefully received.

It's Not a Matter of Life or Death
No rugby is far more important than that! I jest of course but the six nations is approaching a sort of climax with England v Wales tomorrow (Ireland, with yet another injury to Seán O'Brien are out of it), Exeter need to bounce back from their loss to Leicester and a terrible referee, and Topsham need to keep up the pressure on Wessex for a play-off spot. So no pressure then lads!

PMI Netherlands Summit

I was lucky enough to be invited to attend and speak at the successful PMI Netherlands Summit in 2015. It was an excellent event and now the PMI Netherlands Chapter with CKC Seminars are preparing for the fifth edition on September 15th 2016 in Conference Center Spant! in Bussum, the Netherlands. 

Themes 
The central theme of the 2016 edition is: Disruption! The Summit will elaborate on the interrelation between Disruption and Project Management. 

• What is the key role of project management, what are the capabilities we need to develop?
• How to incorporate a severe disruption into your project, leadership, team adaptability;
• Shifting from delivering results to delivering capabilities;
• Beyond waterfall and agile?
• What if your project is disrupted, escalation and derailment;
• Disruption initiating projects or projects initiating a disruption. What are the key characteristics, how does this impact a project and the project manager;
• Managing projects in networks as companies will evolve into co-creating organism’s;
• Managing project risks as an early warning indicator, failure is no longer an option, not when means spending severe time and money.

Call for Papers
You’re invited to become a part of this leading conference on Project Management by submitting an innovative best practice or workshop corresponding with the themes. If you would like to submit a suggestion, take a look at the conditions and submit your paper before March 31st 2016.

The program board will criticize the papers and focus on content and connections with the Conference themes. Submitter’s will receive a notification of acceptance no later than April 22nd. Duration of the sessions will be 40 minutes (including questions).

Just Visiting
If you're not submitting a paper, but interested in attending the PMI Netherlands Summit, then early bird bookings will receive a €50 discount! Register now and visit this unique Conference for only € 345 (plus PMI members will get an additional discount).

More Details
To read more about the Summit, the call for papers or to get a registration form just visit their website at: www.pmi-netherlands-summit.com

Let me know if you're going and I hope I may see you there and chat over a beer.

Why Projects Fail

I read an interesting article the other day on project failure and its relationship to complexity. It defined complexity as three factors: Structural (how big the project is/how many bits it has); Dynamic (how fast things are changing during the project); and Socio-Political (how much people and politics interfere). It is fairly obvious to see that the higher these three factors are the more likely the project is to run into difficulties. 

As a project manager I always followed one simple rule: get a good project or program sponsor and make the socio-political aspects their responsibility. Then you as project or program manager can concentrate on the structural and dynamic aspects. If a project is too big, decompose it into manageable chunks (sub-projects or projects within a program). If the requirements are changing too fast, then switch to an agile approach. I rest my case.

Topsham RFC

On the rugby front the storm held off enough last week so we could play three games (1st XV, 2nd XV and Colts XV) on Saturday and all the Juniors games went ahead on Sunday. The Ladies were playing in a 10's competition somewhere else and I don't know how they got on. The ground looks a lot better this week and the 1st XV and Ladies are playing at home. What with that, the six nations and Exeter playing Saracens, it's going to be a pretty full weekend!

More on the projects next week.

Topsham RFC

Meanwhile at Topsham Rugby Football Club we had the second meeting of the Finance Sub-Committee and managed to get through quite a lot without wasting too much time. There is a fine line to be observed in chairing a meeting, between giving everyone their chance to have their say and getting through the business in a reasonable time. I always try to get through a meeting in an hour or less but over-ran on this one. Next week we have the initial (project kick off) meeting for the business planning project. So things are starting to move apace.

On the playing front, we are looking anxiously at the weather, particularly Storm Gertrude (at least she is no longer a hurricane!) and keeping our fingers crossed the pitches will be firm enough to play on Saturday and Sunday. But of course the weather is all part of the Way, so we go with it, whichever way it goes.

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...