We'd like to challenge your thinking and today the topic is project management. Often we meet delegates and come to the conclusion that the major issue they are facing is misunderstanding the concept of what a project is, or can be, and the skills that come with successfully managing projects (of any size).
As individuals we are inclined to see a project as a rather
large development involving multiple role players and various stages of development all within the constraints of a budget, the expected quality of delivery and the time agreed to.
Well this is
not incorrect, but neither is it entirely correct.
A project does not have to be large...It can be the simple revamping of a small filing system, or the take on of changes to a website, it can be the organising of the lunch for the directors meeting or the building of an office complex that hosts said boardroom. The only time a project is not a project is if it has
no triple constraint of quality, cost and time. Think about it... just about everything in business has that triple constraint!
When we approach the data migration of an existing company to a new programme, this is a project, a rather large one as such, depending of course on how long the company has been in progress, how many clients, products and suppliers it has and how much data is stored and in which formats.
Company A, a startup, may have 10 clients with address and contact details stored, whilst Company B, established circa 2005 has 2000 clients with address, contact details, history of purchasing and client contact stored. Both of these require data migration to new platforms, both of these are projects. To imagine thus that Company A would
not need the required project management skills to ensure the success of their tiny project is simply wishful thinking...and yet, we so often hear:
"Our guys do not need project management as such"
It is also almost without fail that when we hear about the challenges some delegates face, we are able to
relate each of the challenges back to an aspect of project management that was not addressed correctly.
Just recently in fact there was a delegate who was faced with a situation he did not know how to handle. His team was
demotivated and conflict was escalating. They were making more and more errors on a daily basis and the results were starting to show in their
ability to deliver new product on time.
We established that there were new employees in the team and that
no change management had taken place. In other words there had been
no briefing to the other team members as to what the new guys would be doing, there had been
no proper introduction of the new team members and there had been
no vision provided as to what they organisational leadership had expected from this larger team.
We unpacked a strategy against a basic project approach for the delegate. In other words he has to look at
creating an inclusive, cohesive and highly functional team as a mini project. The recommendation was as follows:
1.
Define the scope of what it is that you wish to achieve, involve your seniors and colleagues and gain a clear understanding of where you want to go as a team.
Also understand what your scope is not - in this instance it did involve upskilling some new as well as old team members, but not cross skilling of specialist functions. The latter was in fact one of the issues that was contributing to the problem in the team as the overworked specialists were not aware that the aim of bringing in the new team members was primarily to free up some time for them, ensuring more cost effective use of time
2. Ensure that have your
measurables in place with reference to quality, cost and time.
3. Understand that as a junior manager you are
contracted to deliver with a productive team.
4.
Understand and mitigate the risks involved during the change and storming phase and ensure that everyone is aware of their changing responsibilities
5. Make sure that you
understand exactly who your clients are in this project and if there are any hidden clients (in this case the company clients are indeed the hidden clients)
6. Ensure that your
communication platforms are set, agreed to and functional - hold regular stand up meetings focussing only on team health
7.
Plot visual timelines and work break-down schedules allowing for improved accountability and authority levels
Three weeks later we met the same delegate at a different workshop. He reported that
he was delighted, his challenges had just about disappeared completely. Everyone was on board and the storming phase was over, they were into norming and strongly headed to performing.
Essentially thus this delegate had used
goal setting, change management techniques and team formation techniques to affect his outcome. But
without the cohesive mini project management approach, no matter how many theories we string together, most of them simply
miss a critical element. That of process control. The visual timelines in project management help us to drive process control.
At Staff Training we are of the opinion that the
bare basics of what a project is and the main criteria associated with a project are
essential for the completion of all goals. We thus believe that this systematic approach to creating solutions and outcomes is a basic skill that should be
incorporated at all levels of the organisation.
Email us at
info@StaffTraining.co.za for more info on our Basic Project Management workshops and our Leading Change workshop, or give us a call at 0861 996 660. We look forward to hearing from you!
