Several Blog posts this week speak to the softer side of project management, leadership of projects, and guiding the staff of a project. Eugion's PM Workshop Blog has several good posts around this topic. His blog has been improving with every post since I discovered it earlier this year.
I'd like to speak a bit about the flip side of the "softer side." First the principles of project management in our domain. This domain - at least the domain I'm accountable for in our form - includes aerospace and defense program planning and controls and civil and commercial government projects. Commercial government projects are executed by recipients of government money - usually federal and state funds.
In this domain we apply our Deliverables Based Planningsm method in its full glory. This means:
- A Plan of the Week for the physical deliverables
- Measures of physical percent complete for these deliverables
- Risk adjusted cost and schedule baselines
In simple terms - tell me what you're going to do, do it, and tell me what you did on a weekly basis. This weekly Plan of the Week (PoW), is guided by the Plan of the Month (PoM). This Plan is of course guided by the Statement of Work (SOW). The result of all this "planning" is that everyone - the client, the stakeholders, the participants, and especially the project manager and the subject matter experts from our firm know what DONE looks like at the end of every week. On some projects or programs we also have a Plan of the Day. Just like eXtreme Programming - what a concept.
So now comes the "softer side" of managing projects. There is a minimal set of human behaviors on our projects. Professionalism of course. Recognition of subject matter expertise. We don't have any junior position. We're too small to hire people who need training. 10 to 15 years PM, PMP, core business skills.
But what drives all this is a critical success factor for all the project and programs we work.
Define what done looks like, then deliver to that description
What happens when that doesn't happen?
What happens when the deliverables don't show up on time? The first thing is that "not showing up on time" is crystal clear on the Monday after the Close of Business (COB) of Friday. The status for those deliverables is now YELLOW at least and possibly RED.
You didn't do what you said you were going to do. Hal Macomber's Securing Reliable Promises is a good example of how to apply Deliverables Based Planningsm.
When the deliverables for the week don't show there are several steps that must be taken:
- Determine the root cause. There can be good reasons or bad reasons. Good reasons need a Plan B to get back to GREEN. Bad reasons need intervention to get back to GREEN.
- In all cases a plan to "get to GREEN" must be the next step. "You missed your deliverable for Friday, how will you provide that deliverable this week, without impacting the deliverable also due this week?" Otherwise your LATE.
- The major root cause of being late is starting late. This is a fundamental law of "the physics of project" - LATE START = LATE FINISH
Now what happens if the "late" behavior repeats? Is it the person, the process, the environment, the client, the technology. This is now where Eugino's conversations start. But in a way possibly different than he intended.
The Project Manager or the Site Manager must rapidly determine what the root cause of "lateness" is. And make a change to "keep the project GREEN." If not the project will head for the ditch. The softer side of project manager has limited benefit in the presence of a Late project. Especially when the project staff is senior. Junior members need more "softer side" management. Senior members are on the job because they are senior - they know better. Or at least they should know better.
In The End Its the Deliverables That Matter
All the softer side process are needed for success - less so for senior members. But in the end the client did not buy self actualization and staff development for external projects. They bough a solution. This is a critical different between internal and external projects.
This BTW is why construction project managers are continually cranky. They're usually late and over budget all the time. And if not, they've spent huge amounts of time and energy keeping the project on schedule and on budget - and they're tired and cranky from just doing their job.
I've never met a Aerospace or Defense program manager that had a smile.
Progress can be made by
- Defining what done looks like on a monthly, weekly, and possibly daily basis
- Defining the work to get to done
- Measuring progress as physical percent complete - 0% /100% is a good indicator of progress
- Start on time, and you'll have a chance of finishing on time
- Don't let anyone get away with being YELLOW for more than 2 reporting periods
- Replace anyone who can't figure this out
