The ABC's and Actionable Outcomes

At PM Hut there is a post about the ABC's of project management. This article has useful suggestions, but does not state the actions needed to produce the benefits. The ABC's are

• Anticipate
• Build a Good Team
• Communicate

So here's some mechanics for fulfilling the promise of these activities:

Anticipate
    You can't anticipate the future if you can't see to options that the future brings. This means you need a Plan for the future and the identified alternatives that result from that Plan. The Plan for the future must state what "done" looks like, what accomplishments must be delivered to get to "done" and what measurement criteria are to be used for these accomplishments.
    Then the Plan needs to assess four levels of uncertainty:

1. The naturally occurring uncertainty of project work - the day to day variances in the progress efforts. Trying to control these is a waste of time
2. The identifiable uncertainties - "what will get in our way to getting to 'done'?" What is our plan to deal with this impediments? Do we have a planned alternative for these impediments? Can we remove these impediments before they get in out way?
3. The unidentifiable uncertainties - what is the real Plan-B when Plan-A fails?
4. The Unknown / Unknowns - this is usually a re-planning process. So for now it's not an issue.

The Plan needs to be publicly published. This is part of the communication piece below. One of the best ways to communicate the Plan is to construct a Big Visible Chart (BVC) and hang it on the wall in a public location. This is a picture of the project's programmatic architecture. It tells a story of how the project is planned to be completed.
    So in the end anticipation requires:

• A credible plan to getting to "done"
• A credible plan to deal with the emerging impediments to getting to "done"
• A pubic review and periodic update of these plans. The periodicity needs to answer the question "how long are we willing to wait before we find out we're late." Visit and confirm the plan is still working at 1/2 that interval.

Build a Good Team
    No member of the Team should be accepted on the Team without the concurrence of the current team members. each team member needs to "earn" their position on team. This means the project team must understand what roles are needed for success.
    For "good" team members to be identified, they need to interview for their job by demonstrating they can add value to the project.
    The definition of a "team" is commonly stated as:

A group of individuals who hold each other accountable for a share outcome

Start with this vision for building the team. Get this right, then get the technical skills and you've got the beginnings of a real team

Communicate
    Starting with the Big Visible Chart, provide credible measures of progress in units meaningful to the project participants. This means the stakeholder and the contributors.
    Meaningful units means meaningful in terms of progress to plan. It means measuring deliverable not cost and schedule. The customer bought "deliverables." Measure progress in terms of deliverables.
    Speak to the participants in terms of "what have we done for you lately in terms of deliverables."
    Connect these deliverables to the business case or the mission description. That way the customer can recognize that there is a return on the invested money that can recognized in her language.