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.