Table of Contents
More Praise for Managing Projects
About This Book
Why is this book important?
What can you achieve with this book?
How is this book organized?
About Pfeiffer
Title Page
Copyright
List of Exhibits
Preface
Hard and Soft Skills in One Book
Let's Get Going
Advice at the Start
Chapter 1: Start Well to End Well
A Brief History of Project Management
What Is a Project?
What Is a Process?
The Checklist (Overview)
Project Management Is Different from a Development Process
The Roles of Project Management
Summary Checklist
Chapter 2: Define
Creating a Project Charter (Definition) in 45 Minutes
Establishing the Business Goals
Determining the Project Scope
Determining the Project Objectives
Determining Risk and Mitigation
Establishing the Starting Constraints
Creating a Communications Strategy
Creating a Governance Plan (Change Management)
Completing a Draft Project Charter
Summary Checklist
Chapter 3: Plan
Creating the Project Plan
Determining the Milestones and Their Due Dates
Identifying the Project Tasks
Determining the Task Dependencies
Determining the Resource (People) Dependencies
Finalizing Task Due Dates
Picking the Best Tool
Summary Checklist
Chapter 4: Manage
How to Get Projects Started
You Cannot Control a Project
Projects Today
Building a Status Report to Kick Off the Project
Building a Process to Communicate Early and Often
Managing Project Change
Ways to Create Stress
Conflict and Project Success
Creating Personal Resiliency
Summary Checklist
Chapter 5: Review
Reviewing a Completed Project
Emotion-Based Review
Standard Survey
Learning Histories
Causal Loop Diagrams (Systems Thinking)
Leveraging the Knowledge Gained
Summary Checklist
Chapter 6: Organizational Change
The Hero's Journey
Project Leadership Group Dynamics
A Process for Organizational Change
Summary Checklist
Chapter 7: Organizational Project Management
Differentiate Between Personal and Organizational Project Management
Define the Roles and Processes of a Project Management Office
Create a Project Plan to Migrate to a Project Management Office
Identify Options for an Organizational Project Dashboard
Identify Technology Options for Implementing a Strong Project Portfolio Process
Summary Checklist
Chapter 8: Insanity Is Just a Project Constraint
About the Author
Bibliography
Index
More Praise for Managing Projects
“Successfully managing projects takes more than good task- and time-management skills. In Managing Projects, Lou Russell discusses the all-important role that influencing plays in getting things done—on time, on spec, and on budget—and weaves this into a rock-solid walkthrough of the principal steps of a project. This is a must-read for anyone with project responsibility—in other words, everyone.”
— Martin Delahoussaye, vice president publishing, HRDQ
“The book converts the usually boring and intimidating world of project management into easy steps and practical approaches. The ideas are useful and immediately applicable.”
— Ray Jimenez, PhD, Vignettes Learning
“Lou Russell is the perfect expert on project management productivity and engagement to write this substantive book. Whether you are a fledgling project manager or a twenty-year veteran, this book will give you the tools to help you manage through constraints and communication. I highly recommend her work.”
— Teresa Conroy-Roth, senior vice president, Technology Partnership Group, Inc.
“Workload, complexity, and pressure have increased dramatically. For companies to achieve their strategic goals all staff must be competent in basic project management. Lou's book provides just enough to build a baseline but not so much that it overwhelms.”
— Jane Niederberger, former senior vice president and chief information officer, Anthem Inc.; former vice president operations, WellPoint; investor and consultant, Healthcare Technology and Operations, Neiderberger Ventures, Inc.
“Anyone who feels overloaded and distracted will benefit from Lou's new book, Managing Projects. Lou's book provides hands-on tools to sort through the complexity of a work world that is constantly changing and understaffed. Today's world requires different project-management skills than even five years ago. Thank you, Lou, for this easy-to-read update!”
— Karen Valencic, Spiral Impact
“In Managing Projects, Lou Russell takes you through a practical journey of immediate project management implementation. She structured the book in a unique fashion, in which I was able to learn, reflect, and implement the principles of project management then and there. Very useful and clever.”
— Maha Khatib, principal, Learnactive, Dubai
“If it suddenly seems like you are in charge of everything and even multitasking at the speed of light isn't cutting through the chaos, Lou's book helps you rein in the madness and complete more projects with less help, time, and money. You'll learn how to give up control and actually start managing things so you can finally end the day feeling like you've accomplished something.”
— Leah Nelson, senior conference program manager, Training magazine Events
“Among those things you can count on are death, taxes, and Lou Russell's ability to transform complex ideas into interesting and immediately usable insights. Managing Projects is yet another example of Lou's gift of making even the most mundane and tedious aspects of project management a captivating and enlightening read. If you spend any of your time trying to run a project you'd be crazy not to invest the time in reading this book.”
— Dan Brandon, associate director, Financial Services Industry
“Lou Russell demystifies project management with simple yet incredibly effective steps and tools that any project manager can understand and use. Lou provides a good dose of team building to the process that gets everyone on board … and in most cases that has been the missing element.”
— Deb George, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis
“This book should be titled The Missing Links of Managing Projects. From her deep understanding and project management experience, Lou Russell shares unique insights on often overlooked yet highly critical issues that greatly impact the outcomes of our initiatives. An essential volume that will benefit project managers at every level.”
— Gary VanAntwerp, vice president, Implementation, Training magazine Network, SMMConnect, VFTNetworks
“In Chapter One of Managing Projects, Lou Russell contends that ‘project management is … a required competency for all business workers.’ I couldn't agree more, and there is no greater blessing to the full-time, professional project manager than leading a team made up of individuals with an understanding and competency in project management. Lou's accessible approach to project management makes that ideal closer to reality.”
— Kevin Weston, vice president, IT Planning, OneAmerica companies
“Managing Projects is a practical and relevant book for anyone engaged in today's crazy work world. Lou describes the situation facing us so accurately I felt like she must have been following me around! Finally, I now have a guide to help me manage the chaos and feel good about myself in the process.”
— Lori Miller, alumna, Lou's Project Management certificate program
About This Book
There are three forces combining to create an unmanageable workload and work life for people: staffing, technology, and fear. Reduced staff in the workplace means that most people are asked to juggle multiple jobs that were previously done by other people. People are universally juggling multiple projects while playing multiple roles, all while doing their real job. Technology helps us work more quickly, but it follows us 24/7, triggering constant interruption and driving inefficient multitasking. Fear is rampant because layoffs are continuing, and it is evident that each of us can only scale so far before we break. Fear drives stress, which drives poor-quality projects. This book helps clarify how these three factors drive unreasonable project expectations, poor quality, and constant rework, which in turn increases fear. It's a negative reinforcing loop. To escape this new triple constraint requires that we bite the bullet and change the way we do projects.
First, this book challenges the way you look at your workload. You will learn quick, simple ways to work on the most important projects while keeping your interruptions at bay. Next, this book helps you communicate with others more effectively through a 30-minute Project Charter, creating realistic expectations when a project starts and facilitating bad news early—when you can still do something about it. Then, as you plan and manage each of your projects, you'll learn how to influence others and manage yourself so that the stress doesn't destroy your ability to adapt. Finally, you'll learn how to take small bits of time to capture lessons learned and grow your own ability to manage a flexible structure on every project. Best of all, at least a couple of times a week, you will leave work feeling like you actually accomplished something.
You can approach this book in different ways. If you are on a project right now and you have a specific question about how to manage a particular issue, you can skip right to Chapters 2 (Define), 3 (Plan), 4 (Manage), or 5 (Review) and find tools and techniques that are immediately applicable. If you are new to project management, focus on Chapters 2–5 for a primer that gets you through the entire project management process. Do a project while reading these chapters for maximum value. If you are a more experienced project manager, consider skimming Chapters 2–5 and focusing on Chapters 6–7 to grow your ability to manage a portfolio of projects for your organization. Finally, Chapter 8 is designed to celebrate your success and review the whole book. You can start there if you'd like, wait until the end, or save it for a rainy day.
Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
Published by Pfeiffer
An Imprint of Wiley
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Pfeiffer publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.
Acquiring Editor: Matthew Davis
Production Editor: Robin Stephanie Lloyd
Editor: Jeffrey Wyneken
Editorial Assistant: Michael Zelenko
Manufacturing Supervisor: Becky Morgan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Russell, Lou, 1957-
Managing projects : a practical guide for learning professionals / Lou Russell. - 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-02203-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-1-118-28214-4 (ebk.)
ISBN 978-1-118-28298-4 (ebk.)
ISBN 978-1-118-28433-9 (ebk.)
1. Project management. I. Title.
HD69.P75R873 2012
658.4′04-dc23
2012003659
List of Exhibits
| Exhibit 1.1 | DPMR: “Dare to Properly Manage Resources” |
| Exhibit 1.2 | Overview of Project Flow |
| Exhibit 1.3 | Building a House |
| Exhibit 1.4 | Project Sponsor Checklist |
| Exhibit 2.1 | Dare to Properly Manage Resources: Define |
| Exhibit 2.2 | Business Objectives |
| Exhibit 2.3 | Business Objectives: Who Should Be Involved? |
| Exhibit 2.4 | Scope Brainstorming Table |
| Exhibit 2.5 | Scope Diagram |
| Exhibit 2.6 | ARCI* Scope Table |
| Exhibit 2.7 | Phases of New Development |
| Exhibit 2.8 | ARCI* Project Objectives |
| Exhibit 2.9 | Project Objectives |
| Exhibit 2.10 | Learning Objective: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 2.11 | ARCI* Risk Mitigation |
| Exhibit 2.12 | Quick and Dirty Risk Assessment: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 2.13 | Quick and Dirty Risk Mitigation: Decision Guidelines |
| Exhibit 2.14 | Risk Mitigation Table: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 2.15 | ARCI* Constraints |
| Exhibit 2.16 | Constraints: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 2.17 | ARCI* Communications Plan |
| Exhibit 2.18 | Communications Plan: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 2.19 | ARCI* Governance Plan |
| Exhibit 2.20 | Governance Plan: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 3.1 | Dare to Properly Manage Resources: Plan |
| Exhibit 3.2 | Milestones: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 3.3 | Milestones in Order |
| Exhibit 3.4 | ARCI* Roles: Planning Phase |
| Exhibit 3.5 | Training Class Development |
| Exhibit 3.6 | IT System Development |
| Exhibit 3.7 | New Product Development |
| Exhibit 3.8 | Agile Development |
| Exhibit 3.9 | Milestones by Date |
| Exhibit 3.10 | Room-Cleaning WBS |
| Exhibit 3.11 | Gardner's Multiple Intelligences |
| Exhibit 3.12 | Task Dependencies: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 3.13 | Redundant Dependency |
| Exhibit 3.14 | Task Dependencies with Dates: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 4.1 | Dare to Properly Manage Resources: Manage |
| Exhibit 4.2 | Status Report: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 4.3 | Email to Stakeholders: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 4.4 | Weekly Status Update: Day of Caring Project |
| Exhibit 4.5 | The Liars' Club |
| Exhibit 4.6 | Bridges's Change Model |
| Exhibit 4.7 | Emotional Intelligence Flow |
| Exhibit 4.8 | DISC |
| Exhibit 4.9 | Ladder of Inference |
| Exhibit 5.1 | Dare to Properly Manage Resources: Review |
| Exhibit 5.2 | Emotion-Based Survey Items |
| Exhibit 5.3 | Standard Survey Items |
| Exhibit 5.4 | Preparing a Learning History |
| Exhibit 5.5 | Causal Loop Diagram |
| Exhibit 6.1 | The Hero's Journey |
| Exhibit 6.2 | Addressing Group Issues |
| Exhibit 6.3 | The Catalyst Change Model |
| Exhibit 6.4 | Organizational Change Assessment |
| Exhibit 7.1 | Dare to Properly Manage Resources |
| Exhibit 7.2 | The Role of the Project Management Office |
| Exhibit 7.3 | Risks of a Project Management Office |
| Exhibit 7.4 | Traditional Project Dashboard |
| Exhibit 7.5 | More Strategic Project Dashboard |
Preface
I am a shiny object person. I really like working on new things, and I'm not very good at finishing things up, including this book (special thanks to Matt Holt, Pfeiffer acquisition editor extraordinaire, for his infinite patience). I consider myself a very creative person, and love discussing new ideas. It became evident to me as I started my own consulting business over 25 years ago that I was going to have to figure out a discipline that would help me successfully juggle and finish multiple projects.
As a beginning programmer at AT&T in the late 1970s, I had project management procedures (they were called BSPs, for Bell Systems Practices) that were so detailed they specified how many wastebaskets and ashtrays you would need for your project. Times have seriously changed. In those days, projects were done by dedicated teams with one dedicated project manager. Today, I am juggling multiple projects (not unlike you, I'm sure) with a highly matrixed group of stakeholders, most of whom do not report to me in any formal capacity.
That's not the only thing that has changed since my days at AT&T. For example, I once worked on a project where I was told to first research the requirements and then, when I was all finished, to tell the business area the project was done. In others words, I had all the time I needed, no matter what happened along the way. Today, I might get a call with a brief description of the project and a due date; I work backward, not forward.
The project management methods and techniques you will read about in this book reflect the “I need it now” nature of the world you and I live in. We don't have time for 100 pages of proper project management process. We need to be adaptable and agile. Every day we must be prepared to completely adapt to new or changing needs. This book represents what I believe to be an easier and more realistic way to approach project management.
I have arranged the book in two parts. The first part (Chapters 1–5) provides all the techniques you need to define, plan, manage, and review a project. The second part (Chapters 6–8) shows you how to manage the people side of a project, including how to deal with change and its impact on others in your organization; and how to influence unruly stakeholders and create organizational dashboards.
One of the most exciting aspects of this book is that it is really two books in one. For the first time, I am able to offer you two sets of skills: the “hard skills” of following a project management process in order to successfully manage your project; and at the same time, the “soft skills” (which are often “harder”!) of managing the people who participate in a project as well as those who are impacted by it.
I hope that you will use this book not only to manage your projects more efficiently so that you save both time and money, but also to improve the quality of your life. After all, you and likely everyone you know are working far too many hours under far too much stress. Many employees feel they are being held hostage to their job. Perhaps your being smarter about how you manage projects will help your organization see you as the valuable asset you really are. Use these techniques then to take care of yourself and your family. As I like to say to those who take my classes, “Insanity is just a project constraint.” You shouldn't take any of what goes on around you too personally; just learn to adapt, laugh, and move on.
Special thanks to my family for their support in everything I do. Thanks to my husband, Doug, for rushing to the store and buying me a new power cable for my laptop when I left one in New Jersey. I just left the new one in Minnesota as well … sigh. He tries very hard to take care of me, but the shiny objects can still attract me and are my undoing.
Special thanks to my beautiful and talented daughters, Kelly, Kristin, and Katherine. Kelly has graduated and has a real job, and is learning her own project management. It's fun to watch. Kristin and Katherine are juggling academics and sports like pros. I'm proud of them all.
Thanks also to Brittney Tiemann, my project manager, business development manager, and at the moment my whole staff. She was a miracle find after the recession rebooted my business, and I owe a lot to her.
Thanks to Mark Morrow, the “msfixer,” who helped me stay true to my voice. And thanks to all the students who have helped me evolve these ideas and taught me much more than I have taught them.
In this book, I share a simple, visual, and practical way to manage your projects. I also share some ideas with you at the end of the book for joining with others in your organization to adopt a project management approach together. In these tough times, a business cannot survive unless its limited resources (and you are one of these) are aligned with the most important work. The chapters ahead will help you do the following:
You can certainly use this book as a reference guide, jumping to a tool you need in a project emergency. I'd recommend a different approach if you are expecting to get lasting improvement from this book. This is a real hands-on book that gives you the opportunity to learn while you do. So, if you'd like to “jump right in,” then I'd suggest reading Chapters 2 and 3 and trying the techniques on a project you're currently working on. Then read Chapter 4 right before you kick off the project. Read Chapter 5 just as you are finishing up the project.
Chapter 6 will help you when your project stakeholders are driving you crazy—I mean to the point where you want to throw up your hands because you just “don't think you can stand it anymore.” Reading this chapter will help you put these stakeholders' behavior in perspective and see their behavior as admittedly irritating but actually very normal. This shift in attitude and mindset will help you react more effectively and reduce your stress level.
Chapter 7 is designed to help you create a common language and shared process/documentation strategy. I provide this information because once everyone in your organization notices that your projects are a lot more organized than everyone else's, you are likely to be very popular. So this chapter sets you up to become the project management guru of sorts.
Chapter 8 is my final shot at encouraging you to take your life back. Maybe put a Post-it at the start of this brief chapter so you can read it whenever you're feeling overwhelmed. It will give you a little laugh and get you back into the trenches. It's all about adapting.
Think about major changes you had to make in your life, such as choosing to have children, getting married, or changing jobs. Each transition made you nervous about the decision but excited about how it would improve your life. In most cases (I hope), your life was improved a great deal, transformed forever, in fact. However, making these changes was not easy and was likely full of bumps, dragons, surprises, insanity, and trials and tribulations. Still, the blessings and opportunities you received were almost always worth the bumpy and often frightening ride.
You will likely face the same dynamic as you take this step to improve your ability to manage projects.
Think about how many times you leave work frustrated that you were unable to finish the things you'd planned to get done that day. Even worse, you discover that the day has added new things to your list, which was already too long. Each day may just seem impossible. Relax. You are not alone. Here are some recent frustrations shared by my workshop students:
This list may express the pain that prompted you to open this book. If not, make a note in the margin of what you'd like to change in your workload and life. Life is what good project management is all about. If we can prioritize and manage the important things while saying no to the less important things, we can have success, and so can the businesses we work for.
September 2011
Lou Russell
Chapter 1
Start Well to End Well
Bad News early is Good News.
– Steve McNamara
In this chapter:
In today's chaotic business climate, multitasking is the norm. Jobs have been trimmed, and companies are doing more with less. Roles and responsibilities cannot be defined clearly enough to adapt to the work responsibilities required to flex with the chaos. No one is accountable, except you of course. People are juggling multiple projects and often acting as the project manager for a team of one.
Lou's Project Management Diary
Think about a project that you are on right now. Use Sidebar 1.1 to think about your project experiences.
The negative emotion is an uncomfortable place in your mind, but I'd like you to stay there for a moment so you can learn more about your current project management competence. If you are like many of my learners, you have written down the word “frustration” or “stress,” or something like that. Overall, 80 percent of the learners in our classes list one of these two words when they do this exercise. As a mini-snapshot of current work, the thought that 80 percent of workers are stressed out is not a positive sign. When we are in an almost constant state of frustration, we don't make good decisions, and our projects struggle.
Let's look at some of the other potential triggers. Your list may include:
Then, many of our students share the impact of this emotional state on their personal life. These impacts include:
In this book, you will learn how to respond to these triggers with preemptive strikes. You will also learn how to recognize when you're lying to yourself, thus creating some of the very stress-inducing triggers you blame on others. Project success through good project management is all about communication with yourself and others. Projects break down during phase transitions and hand-offs—and in large measure due to self-deception.
Return to the positive emotion you wrote about in Sidebar 1.1. The positive emotions tend to be more diverse, which makes sense because what motivates individuals varies greatly. Notice what motivates you and keep it in mind for when your projects head to the negative side.
Work has changed and accelerated, contributing to our feelings of stress and frustration. How many times a week do you leave work overwhelmed? Or put another way, how many times a week do you never leave work—even if you physically leave the office? Today's technology allows work to follow us 24/7, wherever we go, nagging us about all we've left unfinished.
Gone are the days when you, along with a team of people, were dedicated to a single project. Sure, you may have had your day-to-day job responsibilities, but you were able to focus many hours a day on one single project. Handing off or transitioning between project phases was easier because the other people on your team were also dedicated to your single project. Today, most people are juggling multiple projects at a time. Whenever you need something from someone else, you might be interrupting them at work on another project or, in our digitally connected world, sorting through their email. A recent statistic claimed that workers on average spend half of their day processing emails. My theory is that 75 percent of that time is spent trying to frantically delete, save, or somehow get rid of emails, not actually processing something important.
Project management, which realistically has been around since the Egyptians built the pyramids (at least!), became an official practice in 1969 with the beginning of the Project Management Institute in the United States, known as PMI (www.pmi.org). This international not-for-profit association researches and establishes best practices in project management. The collection of best practices is called the Project Management Body of Knowledge, or PMBOK for short (pronounced as a word, pimbok). PMI also offers an increasing number of certification programs, including the Project Management Professional (PMP pronounced as letters, for obvious reasons) certification, which requires extensive project work, training, and a rigorous written test. PMPs must attend training and development programs to keep their certification as well. Your local PMI organization is a good resource for inexpensive, quality training and the place to go if you would like to be a certified project manager.
Many of the techniques and processes in the PMBOK assume that a project manager is a dedicated specialist. Due to the complexity of technology and work, I believe project management is no longer just for specialists but a required competency for all business workers. Learning project management as a competency is different from project management as a specialty, profession, and full-time job. This book will focus on the competency of project management as opposed to the career.
In addition, traditional project management starts with the project manager building the due date using a detailed project plan, a process I will refer to as “going forward.” In a sense, the professional project manager is calculating when this project will be done. I believe most of us are “working backwards”; in other words, we are working back from a fixed date and/or budget. You will learn more about this important difference when you get to Chapter 3, on planning the project.
If you are a PMP-certified project manager, this book will add value to your knowledge by providing you with simple techniques that may help you influence your stakeholders and sponsors more effectively. If you are not a PMP, you will acquire a process and simple techniques that will increase your work capacity, augment your project success, and perhaps more important, improve your state of mind. The ideas in this book are completely consistent with PMI's PMBOK, although some of the terminology has been simplified to appeal to this book's audience.